NTE Ver.1.3 Adds a Map Nearly the Size of All Prior Ones Combined
The update treats the map itself as the content, with the column arguing that driving and jet ski movement, not quests, are the real point of Ver.1.3.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
Ver.1.3 of the free-to-play NTE: Neverness to Everness adds the Hoshigure Protected Area, a mountainous region with a lake, paved roads, beaches, and a port district. The new map is nearly the same size as all previous maps combined. Its scenery mixes tourist spots across seasons, and it adds jet skis and a convenience store with an unusually wide parking lot.
The column's author avoided fast travel entirely and drove the new area by car and jet ski. The scenery reads as a suburban patchwork of Japanese tourist spots, with cherry blossoms, autumn leaves, and a sunflower field appearing side by side, and the article compares the effect to visiting Chichibu, Karuizawa, and Atami at once. The convenience store's wide parking lot is called out as the kind of unnecessary detail NTE is known for. On the PC version, first-person driving with path tracing enabled shows off the soft light through trees and the fog effects.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.