You understand that taste of web dialog the place one acquainted merchandise is recognized as one other, wholly totally different merchandise in a approach that shouldn’t make sense however weirdly does? Like how a scorching canine could possibly be categorized as a sandwich, or as a result of it has a filling enclosed by dough, a Pop-Tart is ravioli. Regardless of Infinity Nikki’s appears to be like of a high-quality dress-up gacha recreation, it’s really Breath of the Wild reborn in some fancy-ass garments.
Within the recreation, you play as Nikki, an bizarre woman who will get whisked away to the fantasy world of Miraland alongside together with her speaking, bipedal, pantsless cat Momo. In Miraland, style is magic and a guild of stylists use it to fight the world’s evils and each other.
I had points with its clunky, unintuitive, and at occasions unresponsive management scheme.
Infinity Nikki having a lot in widespread with Breath of the Wild was not instantly apparent. I began out disliking the sport immensely. I had points with its clunky, unintuitive, and at occasions unresponsive management scheme. The menu icon is within the top-right nook of the display however is opened by holding the left shoulder button. However while you open the radial menu, you’ll be able to solely spotlight icons with the fitting thumbstick. The course pad is straight-up not purposeful, and when you use the X button to verify alternatives, circle is used to click on by means of dialogue. It’s a multitude and a platform swap between cellular and PS5 didn’t tackle this in any respect.
Management points apart, Nikki then rubbed up in opposition to my antipathy for gacha video games. I don’t hate them outright regardless of their repute for having the identical type of predatory design parts that led to crackdowns on lootboxes. Reasonably, I’ve discovered them to be both fully impenetrable with their thousand million development methods and currencies layered over totally banal gameplay, or so bare of their core objective to extract my money and time that they flip me off. At first blush, Infinity Nikki felt like that.
Along with exploration and style battles, Infinity Nikki is full of all types of mini-games that present an entertaining break from gameplay like this tackle Flappy Chicken.
However as I used to be working by means of a pastoral countryside, light piano music taking part in at a default quantity a couple of notches beneath a whisper, I spied a golden twinkle within the distance. I discovered a plant I might accumulate. Then one other. Then Momo, who’s principally the cellular recreation model of Persona 5’s Morgana, advised me one thing referred to as a “whimstar” was close by. I discovered it on the prime of a rocky cliff, requiring some mild platforming to achieve. From the elevation, I noticed a treasure chest, so I used my bubble outfit to softly glide towards it earlier than becoming my purification outfit to dispatch the monsters guarding it. As soon as they had been gone, I noticed a bug I might accumulate with the brand new bug catcher’s outfit I had simply made. Then I…
It’s simple to learn this and suppose that each one Infinity Nikki has finished is take BOTW and stuff it with microtransactions (which I’ll get to later). However by the point I had my, “Oh shit. That is Zelda,” revelation, it didn’t really feel like an inexpensive clone. The identical pleasing jolt I received fixing a Korok puzzle, I felt from getting a whimstar. And the dress-up mechanics added a layer of novelty that additional enhanced the sport and my enjoyment.
Every little thing in Nikki is powered by style. There are particular outfits, like my monster purification gown or bug catcher uniform, that impart skills that allow you to traverse the map, accumulate supplies, and struggle monsters. You then use supplies you’ve gathered from these actions to improve your skill outfits or acquire the clothes you need to customise your avatar. There are such a lot of items of clothes and accessories, each rendered in intricately lovely element, that you just use to exude your personal fashion and win style battles in opposition to different stylists.
After exploration, I had essentially the most enjoyable crafting outfits in style duels in opposition to NPC stylists. Every bit of clothes is assigned factors in 5 classes: candy, contemporary, elegant, horny, or cool. Whoever has the best factors within the designated classes wins. Since these battles are primarily based on rating, you’ll be able to simply win sporting an unpleasant mishmash of high-value garments – kinda like how I gained my first battle. The expertise was so rewarding that it made me need to strive successful future battles with appears to be like which are each high-scoring and high-fashion.
To borrow a phrase from Remaining Fantasy XIV, “Glamour is the endgame.” It implies that you’re not taking part in to turn into highly effective or beat the sport, you’re taking part in solely to fund your style behavior. And it’s surprisingly not costly.
Regardless of Nikki being a gacha recreation that’s, at its core, designed to get you to spend cash, its monetization methods really feel extra vestigial than important. Most gacha video games by no means require gamers to spend cash, however are often designed such you could’t assist it. Core recreation actions are arbitrarily restricted and if you wish to preserve taking part in, it’s a must to pay up. From what I’ve seen after 15 hours, Nikki doesn’t have that.
Dressing up is the core characteristic and there’s a money store the place you’ll be able to spend cash on consumables that provide the probability (often called “pulling” within the gacha group) of successful high-value, tantalizingly fairly garments. However there are such a lot of different, cash-free methods to get outfits which are simply as pleasing as something on the market.
You can also make a glance out of blending and matching items out of your skill outfits, earn clothes or the blueprints to make them from quest rewards, or just purchase stuff from in-game distributors with in-game money. I used to be not a fan of all of the lace, sparkles, and pastels I made for my first outfit that I thought-about tossing a couple of dollars into the style slot machine. However as I continued my magpie-like adventures I made a punk rock look I’d really put on in actual life with out spending a dime. It felt just like the store is just there for the parents who simply must have the exclusives it gives.
I loved how Infinity Nikki subverted my expectations. A gacha recreation managed to recreate Breath of the Wild in perform and spirit whereas the depth and element of the fashions spoke on to my love of particular person expression in video games. It wasn’t merely an Unreal Engine 5 model of the dress-up video games of the early web however a non secular, sartorial successor of among the best video games of the final decade.
Infinity Nikki is obtainable now on Android, iOS, PlayStation, and PC.