Infinity Nikki evaluation: a fashion-forward Zelda with out violence

that taste of web dialog the place one acquainted merchandise is recognized as one other, wholly totally different merchandise in a method that shouldn’t make sense however weirdly does? Like how a scorching canine might be categorised 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 seems to be of a high-quality dress-up gacha sport, it’s really Breath of the Wild reborn in some fancy-ass garments.

Within the sport, you play as Nikki, an strange woman who will get whisked away to the fantasy world of Miraland alongside together with her speaking, bipedal, pantsless cat Momo. In Miraland, vogue is magic and a guild of stylists use it to fight the world’s evils and each other.

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 correct thumbstick. The path pad is straight-up not practical, and whilst you use the X button to substantiate alternatives, circle is used to click on by dialogue. It’s a multitude and a platform change between cell 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 popularity for having the identical form of predatory design components that led to crackdowns on lootboxes. Reasonably, I’ve discovered them to be both utterly impenetrable with their thousand million development techniques and currencies layered over completely banal gameplay, or so bare of their core function to extract my money and time that they flip me off. At first blush, Infinity Nikki felt like that.

Along with exploration and vogue battles, Infinity Nikki is full of every kind of mini-games that present an entertaining break from gameplay like this tackle Flappy Chook.

However as I used to be operating by a pastoral countryside, light piano music enjoying at a default quantity a couple of notches under a whisper, I spied a golden twinkle within the distance. I discovered a plant I might acquire. Then one other. Then Momo, who’s principally the cell sport model of Persona 5’s Morgana, advised me one thing referred to as a “whimstar” was close by. I discovered it on the high of a rocky cliff, requiring some gentle 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 have been gone, I noticed a bug I might acquire with the brand new bug catcher’s outfit I had simply made. Then I… 

It’s simple to learn this and suppose that every one Infinity Nikki has carried out 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 affordable clone. The identical pleasing jolt I bought 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 vogue. There are particular outfits, like my monster purification gown or bug catcher uniform, that impart talents that allow you to traverse the map, acquire supplies, and struggle monsters. You then use supplies you’ve gathered from these actions to improve your potential outfits or receive the clothes you wish to customise your avatar. There are such a lot of items of clothes and accessories, each rendered in intricately lovely element, that you simply use to exude your individual model and win vogue battles in opposition to different stylists.

After exploration, I had probably the most enjoyable crafting outfits in vogue duels in opposition to NPC stylists. Every bit of clothes is assigned factors in 5 classes: candy, recent, elegant, horny, or cool. Whoever has the very best factors within the designated classes wins. Since these battles are primarily based on rating, you’ll be able to simply win sporting an unsightly mishmash of high-value garments – kinda like how I received my first battle. The expertise was so rewarding that it made me wish to attempt successful future battles with seems to be which are each high-scoring and high-fashion. 

To borrow a phrase from Ultimate Fantasy XIV, “Glamour is the endgame.” It implies that you’re not enjoying to grow to be highly effective or beat the sport, you’re enjoying solely to fund your vogue behavior. And it’s surprisingly not costly.

Regardless of Nikki being a gacha sport that’s, at its core, designed to get you to spend cash, its monetization techniques really feel extra vestigial than vital. Most gacha video games by no means require gamers to spend cash, however are often designed such you could’t assist it. Core sport actions are arbitrarily restricted and if you wish to maintain enjoying, 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 function 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 may make a glance out of blending and matching items out of your potential 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 of 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 barely there for the oldsters who simply must have the exclusives it presents.

I loved how Infinity Nikki subverted my expectations. A gacha sport 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 probably the greatest video games of the final decade.

Infinity Nikki is on the market now on Android, iOS, PlayStation, and PC.