Evangelion fans who have spent years staring at NERV from the other side of a TV should look at this one. Pixelity Inc. is running a free hands-on preview of Evangelion: Cross Reflections in San Francisco on September 25, and the invite is not a trailer screening. You put on a headset, walk a virtual NERV Headquarters, stand next to a major Evangelion character in AR, and play the 2027 XR game while it is still in development.
About 80 people will get in by lottery. Applications are open September 1 through September 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT. You have to be 18 by the event date. The site is near Union Square. The exact address and session times go only to people who win a slot. CEO Raeseung Jung’s studio is the one who will be hosting it.
The game is an immersive action-adventure set for 2027 on various VR devices. You are a NERV officer cadet in Tokyo-3, not Shinji, not a silent camera. The pitch is a new story that crosses the Neon Genesis Evangelion world: original characters, the main cast, and a plot that follows your choices while you are still green. Story Mode is the conversations and character work for fans. Battle Mode is where players will experience the combat inside a NERV simulation. Both builds will be on the floor at the preview.
That cadet framing is why this is not just another Eva statue in a convention hall. Rebuild and the original series keep you in the cage with kids who never asked for the job. Cross Reflections puts you on the staff side of the Geofront and asks what you do with that. Fans who wanted to walk the corridors they have drawn from memory get a literal version of that on an HMD. Fans who wanted a fight that is not a YouTube clip of Unit-01 get Battle Mode in the same building.
The AR piece is one of the major selling points for fans according to Pixelity. A major Evangelion character walks up and stands beside you and you get to experience that and take a picture of it. Pixelity is holding the name of the character until the event. Whatever the reveal is, the studio is selling the idea that you share physical space with that person for a second, then take the picture home. For a franchise that lives on specific faces in a specific city, that is the hook people will apply for even if they never finish a VR campaign.
The VR walkthrough covers in-game spaces including a recreation of NERV Headquarters. That is the part Eva fans should be the most impatient about. The HQ is half the show’s personality: the pyramids, the cages, the cramped command pit, the sense that the end of the world has fluorescent lighting.
Additional surprises are listed with no detail. Treat those as booth extras. The confirmed menu for attendees is already an AR character photo, NERV walk, Story Mode, Battle Mode.
Platforms at launch are various VR devices, so this will be one for the VR players and fans. Planned release of the game is 2027. The genre it's labeled under is immersive action-adventure. This preview is a development build, not the finished campaign as well.
If you can get to San Francisco on September 25 and you are 18, the application window is this week. If you cannot, the next public look is whenever Pixelity decides the 2027 build is ready to show without a lottery. If you are wanting to apply, here is the link to the form to fill out for it.
Would you apply for the NERV walkthrough, or do you need a named Eva character in that AR slot before you care? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.