Okay think about this. A 26-year-old huge, bearded man walks by Gamescom – having drunk three Purple Bulls and smoked 5 cigarettes – and stumbles in the direction of the Infinity Nikki sales space. It is this huge, lovable set-up with rows of PCs alongside cutesy white cubicles. I hop proper in, discovering myself answerable for a younger woman, in addition to her smug cat companion sitting within the basket of a rainbow-coloured bicycle. The continuing hour has me create new clothes to put on, catch bugs, and clear numerous cats on the road. This is likely to be essentially the most misplaced I’ve ever felt previewing a online game.
And but, despite myself and my fairly firmly established tastes, Infinity Nikki appears to be an actual sleeper hit at Gamescom. It is an odd bundle, a mix of Genshin Impression’s open world exploration and Barbie’s generation-spanning enchantment to children who like dressing up dolls. You play as a mystical stylist referred to as Nikki, in a world that appears to unashamedly revolve round creating cute outfits.
One of many largest playing cards in Nikki’s tailored sleeves is the way it appears. Infinity Nikki is a beautiful recreation, with huge open landscapes, wealthy forests, and glistening water. On a macro scale it is a looker, however what’s particularly rad is the finer particulars are lusciously extravagant too. Zooming in on Nikki’s numerous outfits exhibits the stitching within the material, with obvious visible variations between materials used. It is nuts.
The entire recreation appears to revolve round these outfits. There’s a predominant narrative thread current, one wherein Nikki ventures out to assist people out together with her magical clothier powers, however the overwhelming majority of time I spent with the sport was devoted to exploring the world and monitoring down crafting supplies. There are additionally stars hidden across the map, behind puzzles or tantalisingly twirling in high-up locations, which you need to accumulate to progress within the story.
In my notes, I attempted writing ‘hey, that is kinda like Tremendous Mario Sunshine’, however then I heard the cries of one million indignant voices and scribbled that out. All I am going to say is the loop of looking down stars, selecting up numerous junk, and crafting clothes is pleasant even to my jaded coronary heart. Additionally, Nikki does a bit dance and holds the star as much as the digicam when she grabs one, which counts for lots in my e book.
If there is a weak spot to Infinity Nikki it is gotta be the fight. Nikki can shoot out an vitality projectile which appeared to immediately kill most enemies out within the open world, and never in an particularly participating or fascinating vogue. I do not consider it is too harsh to state that fight wasn’t a high-priority for the crew right here, and hey, why wouldn’t it be in a elaborate dress-up recreation? However in the event you cowl the map in cute little monsters you have gotta make preventing them enjoyable. Sadly, it is not.
You recognize what’s dope? Catching bugs and cleansing cats on the road. These are two of the devoted ‘lessons’ Nikki has, every coming with its personal cute outfit clearly. Be it fishing or electronics restore (you learn that proper) every position has distinctive skills that allow you to exit and accumulate numerous sources. These aren’t significantly advanced, however Infinity Nikki clearly would not need complexity to get in the best way of a youthful, extra informal viewers experiencing the fun of carrying cute clothes and electrical engineering.
I imply look, Infinity Nikki is the kinda recreation the place you possibly can take a fast look at it and know instantly if it is for you. I’m clearly not the audience for Infinity Nikki, even when I did dig the workplace go well with she had. However I can put my very own preferences apart and see clear as day that the standard of the sport is excessive and it is made with plenty of ardour. I do not suppose there’s one other recreation playable proper now that weaves its love for clothes and cuteness so totally all through all the recreation.
The one actual query left hanging over the sport is the way it’s monetized. As I used to be enjoying Infinity Nikki at Gamescom I used to be informed that each one the outfits I had accessible had been both unlockable in-game (by quests, opening chests, and so forth) or earnable by challenges current within the recreation. There was no phrase on microtransactions, even when their presence felt seemingly. Following the preview I reached out to a PR rep, who acknowledged: “Concerning the sport’s monetization system, we’ve not finalized it but.” They added that extra info on it’s set to be launched with the following closed beta take a look at. Nikki video games up to now have all been gacha video games – primarily slot machines – so one would anticipate the identical factor right here.
How precisely it’d work stays a thriller for now, but it surely’s protected to say this may very well be a dealbreaker for a lot of. One notice I am going to add is it is clear that Infinity Nikki will enchantment to a youthful, informal viewers. I hope that, if there may be an intensive gacha aspect to the sport, it is a minimum of carried out in a good and player-friendly method, with readability on the percentages and whatnot. This has been achieved by different video games – see HoYoverse’s newest releases – however admittedly there’s solely a lot you are able to do. Gacha is gacha – however one can hope.
I walked away from Infinity Nikki genuinely shocked, and fairly impressed. I am going to take a look at it from afar, in my very own shabby garments, and salute it from a distance. However mate, in one other life this may completely be my jam. In the event you like a beautiful dress-up recreation you can sit again and chill out with, or have a child or important different who’d love that type of recreation, it is price maintaining a tally of. A healthful dress-up recreation that proves fashion would not at all times have to come back over substance – with some arduous work and gacha money you possibly can have each.
