Occasionally, you question whether a game is for you. Infinity Nikki, a cosy free-to-play open-world experience about wearing the most beautiful dresses, is on first impressions outside of my realms of expertise. However, whether it’s the stunning visuals, the beautiful and evocative fantasy world, or its joyful sense of fun and playfulness, Infinity Nikki dispenses with your preconceptions in moments.
Yes, Infinity Nikki is a game about dressing up, but it plays a more integral part than you might think. While some are purely visual choices, other dresses provide special abilities, whether helping you to leap further with a double jump, or providing the ability to purify darkness-tainted monsters known as Esselings. Heck, there’s one for grooming animals where you sneak up on them, Assassin’s Creed style, and then lovingly give them a thorough brushing down. You learn everything you need to know about the game in the outrageously cute reactions that each of these animals will respond with, including the sassiest squirrel in the world.
Fundamentally, dresses and their accessories function as your skill tree and you’ll need to craft each element of an outfit to unlock its ability. You do this by collecting the necessary components and acquiring a sketch of said outfit to work from, with each also giving Nikki access to a new look, some of which will automatically appear when performing that action, while others you have to select manually when you’re ready for a spot of animal grooming.
Infinity Nikki immediately beds you into its fantasy world with a hefty dose of storytelling, and your first experience of the game sees you transported from your dusty old attic to the broken and evocative ruins of a long-forgotten realm. Ena the Curator has been imprisoned here for thousands of years, but with Nikki’s arrival, and indeed the arrival of her spectacular dress, fashioned from the Threads of Reunion, she’s set free.
It’s a short-lived escape though, and in her last act she grants you the Heart of Infinity, setting you on a path to save Miraland, while undoing all of the wonderful fashion-based powers you’ve only just discovered. Cue a quest – more accurately a series of quests, tasks and asides – to gain back your powers and refill your wardrobe while you attempt to save the realm.
You’re not alone in your adventure, accompanied by the incredibly cute, and actually amusing Momo. This little guy immediately sold the game to my 8-year-old son, and frankly, to me as well, his antics causing us to actually laugh out loud. Very few games manage that. He’s a helpful chap to have along for the ride too, pointing you towards items of interest, and even letting you take direct control for a spot of platforming.
Dada from the Stylists Guild is also along to help with your journey, and she gives you a Pear-Pal tablet to keep you organised, setting you on course to become a Stylist. From here you can check out your wardrobe, Sketches and quests, as well as take Courses, which are milestones or achievements which in turn unlock further rewards.
Your sense of fashion isn’t all about those special abilities, and sometimes you just have to look your absolute best. Styling Challenges see you face off against other Stylists, battling them for fashion supremacy by choosing the most visually powerful outfit. Each challenge is given a theme such as Sweet, Elegant or Cool, and it’s up to you to pick the right look to win the day. Mixing and matching doesn’t always make you an immediate fasionista, but it remains consistently satisfying to win the day.
What might surprise you the most about Inifinty Nikki, is how much of a fully-fledged RPG it is. I know we’re past the point where mobile and free-to-play titles can match or even better their full-price rivals, but Infinity Nikki manages to reel you in from the very start. There’s a keen sense of style to everything here, from the beautiful vistas to the stunningly detailed clothing, and its open world is simply enjoyable to explore. I haven’t meandered quite so readily since playing Breath of the Wild and, if anything, Infinity Nikki offers you more to do.
Platforming plays a major part in your adventure, and thanks to Nikki’s dress-given abilities, you can climb incredibly high in a short space of time, While you do, you’re looking for Whimstars, essential for making progress, as well as the different crafting materials that abound in the overworld. Alongside that, you come across side quests and minigames, each of which will reward you with experience and money to fund your soon-to-be-problematic shopping sprees.
There’s all the hallmarks of the Gacha genre, of course, and if you’ve played Genshin Impact or any of its peers you’ll know what to expect. Different rewards for a huge spectrum of achievements will constantly pop, and each section of your Pear Pal will regularly sport a red notification, drawing you in for a little spot of euphoric back-patting.
These are the precursor to the monetisation for Infinity Nikki, where the team at Infold Games will be hoping you need that particularly spectacular skirt so much that you’re willing to put down real money for it, rather than embarking on an entirely free, but incredibly time-consuming grind. You can play quite happily without spending money, and I haven’t felt the need to put anything in thus far, but there’s the clawing idea that I will at some point. The most impressive, or stylistically powerful, additions to Nikki’s wardrobe look so much easier to get with real-world money.
You could argue that that’s only fair for a game that I’ve already plunged several hours into and which is genuinely good, easily eclipsing some of Square Enix’ most recent action-RPGs, but there’s still that feeling that you should be spending your money on something with more substance. I’d forget that for now. Overall, it’s not surprising to see Infinity Nikki take a similar route to MiHoYo’s offerings, but you can decide to ignore it, up to a point, and I genuinely don’t think you’ll regret your time spent here.
There have been a few technical hiccups in the pre-launch build we played, particularly through the tutorials, with occasional messages about an unstable network which we’re hoping will be ironed out at launch. Given the number of people waiting for that launch, you’ve got to hope that Infold Games have got as many servers dialled up as humanly possible. It’s also worth noting that your progress is saved to one specific server, so make sure you select the right one when booting the game, unless you want to start again from the beginning.
