Infinity Nikki Review

Infinity Nikki, a 3D dress-up game from the Chinese game studio PaperGames, is the follow-up of the Shining Nikki and Nikki Series, which are available on mobile devices. Although the previous games were not available on other platforms, PaperGames decided to push Infinity Nikki onto major platforms, releasing it on PlayStation 5 and PC along with mobile devices. The success of another Chinese studio, Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong, must have inspired them to make such a bold move to release this game on such popular platforms.

PaperGames has been around since 2013, and the studio is well-known for developing female-oriented games, including the popular Nikki series. Some of the most famous titles include Up2U, World Traveler, Miracle Nikki, Love Nikki-Dress UP Queen, and Shining Nikki. Another interesting fact is that the former The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild director, Kentaro Tominaga, is the executive producer of Infinity Nikki, and their upcoming action-adventure game, Project: The Perceiver, looks very promising indeed.

My first impression of Infinity Nikki made me feel like it would be one of those typical dress-up games where you gather ingredients and craft new dresses. I wasn't entirely wrong, but surprisingly, it's much better once you actually start playing it. The game greeted me with amazing graphics and great gameplay mechanics. As someone familiar with open-world games, I could see a lot of inspiration taken from titles like Tears of the Kingdom and Genshin Impact. I was immediately engrossed when I stepped into Nikki's magical world. 

Infinity Nikki's story starts when Nikki and her best friend, Momo, are thrown into another world when they discover a dress called Miracle Outfits. The beginning of the story also introduces the tutorial session, which is quite simple. By completing it, the story unfolds rather quickly. Shortly after, a mysterious character called Ena the Curator thrusts a light orb into Nikki's heart, sending her into the Miraland, where she will gain immense power but will also lose something important in return.

While Nikki finds herself in Miraland, she is determined to revive the Miracle Outfits that brought her to this world from her reality. Along with Momo, Nikki embarks on a new adventure, traveling across Miraland, where each region showcases its own unique culture and environment. As Nikki meets new characters and gets enlisted as a Stylist, everything that's happening across Miraland immediately gets her engrossed in the world.

As a dress-up game, the core gameplay of Infinity Nikki revolves around crafting dresses for specific situations to help you progress through your journey in Miraland. Whether you're exploring the open world or completing side quests, there are plenty of dresses to discover as you go.

During your search for dresses, the game introduces a tutorial where Nikki switches from dress to dress to complete tasks and overcome objectives. I found it interesting that you can change dresses by pressing specific buttons, depending on the device you're playing on.

One of the key Features of this game is crafting dresses using materials found while exploring Miraland, collecting flowers, bugs, and minerals, and fishing by the riverside or catching insects.

Once you have collected enough materials, you can craft the dresses anytime, anywhere. There are two types of outfits that you can craft: Ability Outfits and Stylish Outfits. Among them, there are five main types of outfits that give you different abilities as you unlock them by progressing the main questline.

Among the eight ability outfits, the two main ones are The Wind of Purity Outfits and Bubbly Voyage.  The Wind of Purity Outfits helps her purify the Dark Essence and Esselings. Bubbly Voyage is the floating outfit that helps Nikki jump higher and glide to cross gaps or reach certain heights.

There are also different types of ability outfits for collecting ingredients, like Rippling Serenity, Afternoon Shine, and Bye-Bye Dust, which help Nikki catch fish, bees, or fur from the cats and other animals. There's a large skill tree called the Heart of Infinity where you can unlock these abilities and craft the dress once you've collected the required materials. 

As the story progresses, crafting mechanics are introduced. You can craft dresses using various materials found in the world. What I love about this game is the freedom it provides. It creates a comforting atmosphere while you explore, allowing you to take your time.

Another fantastic feature of Infinity Nikki is the ability to customize dresses, unlocking abilities as you mix and match different pieces of clothing. The animation for Nikki's slam-down attack and the gliding mechanics, which allow you to perform slam-downs to find treasures underground, were impressive. Although combat isn't the main focus, being able to defeat enemies with long-range spell attacks is quite enjoyable.

Speaking of combat in Infinity Nikki, there isn't much emphasis on combat since enemies can be defeated easily, which didn't surprise me. The Dark Essence and Esselings are placed in areas where you explore caves or forests, and it's really easy to defeat them. Even though the combat was very easy, I had fun dashing and dodging the enemies and shooting them.

It helped break the monotony from the continuous exploration and collecting of items. One standout feature is the mini-games. After unlocking waypoints for fast travel, you might encounter mini-games like staying on top of a moving cloud to collect materials.

The controls have been smooth and responsive so far, enhancing the overall experience significantly. While solving puzzles, I felt like I was playing a Roblox Obby since it involved jumping and floating to reach the other side. Even though I encountered a minor issue with the floating dress mechanics, sometimes you just have to adjust your angles to jump appropriately or to land on the right spot.

One puzzle required me to jump through circles, and another puzzle allowed me to jump higher using certain mechanics. These aspects reminded me of Genshin Impact, as the puzzles were somewhat similar. Upon completing puzzles, you receive rewards, which makes the effort worth it.

The puzzles are fairly easy and not particularly challenging. If you prefer games that test your skills, this might not be for you. However, it's worth trying as a relaxing getaway. Another great feature is the game's photo mode, allowing you to capture in-game moments and memories.

From my experience, obtaining a 4-star outfit requires many pulls. Fortunately, it's relatively easy to earn currency for additional pulls, making it quite F2P-friendly. But one thing is for sure: if you can't generate enough currency, you can't do many pulls, and you won't end up getting a lot of 4-star clothing items, which can be a bit frustrating.

However, what you need to remember is that both the gameplay and the story are mainly focused on crafting new clothes and styling outfits. As you progress through the game, you collect outfits to save the world. I found the story to be really engaging, and I was looking forward to what might happen next.

Most of the animations in Infinity Nikki were pleasant, and I was very surprised by how funny some of the scenes were.  As I played along, I realized how enjoyable styling is. There are numerous ways to obtain clothes, and I was amazed by the variety of outfits I could get or create. Yes, this is a gacha game, but the gacha is primarily centered around cosmetics. As I mentioned earlier, I think it's going to be F2P-friendly for most players.

The graphics are stunning, and the day-night cycle adds to the immersion. I witnessed a beautiful sunset in the game, which was mesmerizing to watch. Even the cutscenes were impressive, accompanied by voice acting that kept me engaged throughout.

The character design in Infinity Nikki is vibrant and detailed, which complements her aesthetics as the game progresses. Both Nikki and Momo look adorable, and most of the major characters are nicely drawn. The dresses come more into play, stealing the limelight as they are whimsical, dreamy, and inspired by many fantasy games. The dresses found in the game represent various cultures and regions across the game world, providing a richly layered and engaging experience.

The music in the game is also very relaxing. Most of the characters are nicely voiced, except for the side quests characters, where you only get to read the conversation texts. I did experience occasional sound issues, where the audio would cut off for a few seconds, but it still felt like I was part of an adventure movie. Overall, the sound effects of collecting items and clothes left a really good impression on me.

I did come across a major bug in the game, which forced me to quit. It happened randomly when I tried to access the quest menu. The game froze after the menu opened, and none of the options worked. It didn't let me select anything or quit the menu. I was forced to close the game by pressing Ctrl+F4. It was quite annoying because I was recording the gameplay and had no choice but to stop it.

If you see the gameplay below, you'll notice that I stopped the recording when this happened before restarting the game. And the same thing happened again in the part of this recording. I'm sure this will get patched immediately after the launch.

Another little issue I faced while playing was that, as I played with a mouse and a keyboard, the movements felt a bit too quick, which is vital while playing an open-world game. The game was struggling to keep up with my movements as it had some crashes and would freeze at times. I had to pull up a Windows menu and get the game to work again, which was inconvenient.

I recommend playing this game with a controller since I did the same. Regardless, the game does a pretty good job of auto-saving, so you don't have to worry about losing progress. When I first loaded up the game, it was pretty slow. The trees and buildings were popping out of nowhere, which was kind of a deal breaker for me. I felt like the optimization wasn't the best.

However, my biggest concern was the optimization. Infinity Nikki was developed in Unreal Engine 5, which means the rendering is gorgeous, but even my gaming PC struggled to keep up. Yet, the gameplay of roaming around, collecting dresses, and gathering objects enhances the experience. Additionally, getting to know more about Nikki and her relationship with Momo and trying to understand why she ended up in this world was definitely a fun and captivating experience.

As a newcomer to the Nikki series, it took me a bit of time to understand the game's crafting mechanism, especially how I had to collect Whimstars and unlock abilities and other crafting-related mechanisms. The challenge section of the game was also confusing since I didn't know what to use, how to score higher, or which dress or ornaments to put on to score perfectly. Even though there are tutorials for each of these activities, I found they are best when figured out with tests and trials.

The game features an online store that supports microtransactions for buying items and dresses. Since I'm not a fan of spending money on buying in-game items with real money, I didn't pay much attention to it. It's nothing mandatory, though, since you can pretty much find every item that you need to craft a dress across the maps.

Infinity Nikki includes online activities where you can chat with your friends. Since I've played the early review copy, I couldn't test this feature yet with anyone, but I'm sure this will come in handy when seeking help with certain quests or finding certain items.

Apart from these, there are still several portions of the game that are not fully unlocked yet, such as all the abilities at the Shard: Wishfield tree. I'm sure this will be intriguing when all of these skills can be unlocked.

Overall, Infinity Nikki, as an open-world dress-up game, is absolutely enchanting and very dreamy. The mini-games I mentioned previously, as well as the puzzles, were challenging and very fun to play. Also, as you make clothes, the gathering of items from various places was super relaxing to watch. It's a game that truly caught me off guard and secured its place among open-world games by borrowing elements from other titles but adding a unique twist that makes it more enjoyable.

Unlike some open-world games, Infinity Nikki grants you the freedom to explore the world while simultaneously presenting challenges and puzzles. The graphics and animation are top-notch, and despite the optimization issues—which can be overlooked—the game has so much to offer. If the dress-up genre is your favorite genre, then Infinity Nikki will surely win your heart, and you’ll be in the game for countless hours.