A player practiced Akane Rin’s guitar in NTE for eight hours and ended up crossing their hands over the keyboard
Version 1.4 character Akane Rin can play notes and chords across NTE’s open world, giving players room to attempt covers rather than trigger a preset song. One attempt at the ‘God knows…’ intro took eight hours of practice, simplified parts and video editing; another ambitious cover used automated inputs.
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NTE: Neverness to Everness has given its newest guitarist something more demanding than a performance animation. Akane Rin, introduced in Version 1.4, can take out an electric guitar in the open world and play notes chosen by the player. The feature has already inspired covers ranging from an automated rendition of DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and Flames” to an eight-hour attempt to recreate the opening of “God knows…” from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Those examples involve very different kinds of effort. The DragonForce video’s poster said they used a script to convert MIDI data into key inputs; it should not be mistaken for a live, manually played performance. The “God knows…” intro was practiced by hand, but its finished recording combines separately captured accompaniment and melody, simplifies difficult passages and adjusts footage played at a slower speed to match the song. Neither is evidence that Rin automatically plays either track in-game.
Two ways to play Rin’s guitar
Rin’s instrument has two principal control schemes. Guitar mode provides selectable chords, with upstrokes and downstrokes, individual notes from a selected chord and a fret-selection option. Players can switch between clean and distorted tones. Piano mode instead maps named notes to keys: pressing one produces a note, while pressing several together builds a chord. Despite the mode’s name, the resulting sound is still guitar.
| Mode | How it works | What it offers |
|---|---|---|
| Guitar | Select a prepared chord and strum it, or play its notes individually. | A straightforward way to start playing, with stroke and fret options. |
| Piano | Press keys assigned to individual notes, including several at once. | More freedom to assemble melodies and chords beyond the prepared selections. |
That flexibility explains both the covers and the complications. In a sponsored hands-on feature that included some early-access content, AUTOMATON Japan found that the chords needed for its “God knows…” accompaniment were not all available as prepared selections. Its player switched to piano mode and pressed the notes of each chord together instead. Changing chords while strumming in guitar mode had also proved awkward with mouse controls.
The test encountered an input limitation, too: with certain combinations of four or more simultaneous keys, not every intended note sounded. Its cause was unclear—the keyboard or the game could have been responsible—so this is not a confirmed, universal restriction on Rin’s instrument. The player reduced the accompaniment’s note count to preserve its recognizable rhythm and harmony.
Why the ‘God knows…’ intro took eight hours
The intro’s fast melody posed a separate problem. After translating its notes into the game’s key layout, the player practiced at a reduced speed and omitted some notes when rapid inputs did not produce the intended result in their setup. One repeating three-note phrase required reaching keys far enough apart that they eventually crossed their hands, moving their ring, middle and index fingers in sequence to connect it.
After eight hours of practice, the result was an approximation of the intro, not a full-speed, one-take cover of the entire song. Accompaniment and melody were recorded separately and layered in editing, with the slower performance brought up to the original tempo. The distinction matters because the finished clip demonstrates what players can make with the instrument and video editing, not what one person necessarily performed simultaneously in-game.
Rin’s guitar is not confined to a concert stage. It can be used around the city, including the Appare Tower observation deck, the coast and Pukaland. Nearby NPCs gather when she plays; the audience can differ by location, and people will also assemble inside a live house. For players less interested in transcribing a difficult solo, that leaves a simpler attraction: choose a spot, strum a few chords and turn a corner of Hethereau into an impromptu gig.
As reported on November 1, Rin was featured on the limited “First Star” board through November 11. The hands-on account included some early-access material, so its observations about particular locations or behavior should not be assumed to apply identically to every player’s current build.
