Playing Infinity Nikki has convinced me that dress up games are about to go mainstream

GamesAdventureInfinity NikkiPlaying Infinity Nikki has convinced me that dress up games are about to go mainstreamWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Infold Games)

Infinity Nikki - Nikki looks in awe at a technicolor whimstar

Four years ago Genshin Impact successfully beat the ‘Breath of the Wild clone’ allegations and with its viral popularity made gacha games mainstream for western PC gamers where they’d never been popularized before. Now, Infinity Nikki has a similar opportunity at success: beating the ‘Genshin clone’ allegations and popularizing dress up games on PC where they’ve never previously hit mainstream.

Infinity Nikki is set up to strike a very hot iron while everyone is completely primed to get into another dress up game.

Infinity Nikki is the newest game in a series of dress up fashion gacha games that were previously mobile only. My colleague and Nikki series fan Mollie Taylor jokingly boiled it down to “dress up Genshin Impact” when she got to play it at Gamescom this summer. After playing at least 15 hours of it in the past week—it might be more like 20 but I lost count—I can concur. Except I lost interest in Genshin Impact about 10 hours in and I’m still playing Infinity Nikki until Infold Games rips this test account out of my fashion-obsessed fingers.

A passion for fashion

(Image credit: Infold Games)

Infinity Nikki - Nikki wears yellow overalls with bee embroidery for a style contest

(Image credit: Infold Games)

Infinity Nikki - Nikki wears her animal grooming outfit and brushes a stallion in a field

In Florawish, fashion is life. You know how in Pokémon the entire world seems to revolve around Pokémon trainers and that’s somehow the basis for an entire economy and like half the workforce? Yeah, that’s what being a stylist is like in Florawish, where the only building bigger than the mayor’s house is the Stylist’s Guild.

Nikki quickly gets embroiled in battles between stylist factions like the Ebony Scissors or Golden Daisies. Battles between stylists also have a nostalgic Pokémon tone with enjoyably corny lines like “Snip! Snip! You’re going to lose. Prepare to cry!”

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The actual fashion contests are a little bit dry, though. A challenger will give a theme like “summer” and a style like “cute” and I need to scroll through all my many outfit slots for hair, hats, tops, socks, shoes, several kinds of accessories, hovering over each item to check its rating in each category. I get points based on items matching the challenge style and their rating. It’s a bit of a guessing game where I just try to assemble a cohesive outfit on theme while using the highest rated items and hoping they’ll net me enough points to win.

(Image credit: Infold Games)

Infinity Nikki - Nikki tries on a puffy sleeve jacket that’s S rank for coolness

How does the gacha get ya?

(Image credit: Infold Games)

Infinity Nikki - A result of 10 resonances and the rewards

If that wasn’t enough, Nikki also puts more gacha inside your gacha. In addition to the premium currency “resonating” activity, there’s an actual little capsule toy machine (which is where the term “gacha” comes from) outside the stylist’s guild called the Surprise-O-Matic. You can pay blings, the free currency found while exploring that refreshes daily, to get a little outfit piece prize. There are some shops in town that just outright sell outfit pieces for bling without the gachapon element though.

The whole fit

Outside of all that Nikki is stuffed to the seams with little side activities. It has some physics puzzle challenges reminiscent of Breath of the Wild, a flying paper crane game minigame, hidden object photo challenges, on-rails platforming challenges, and observation quizzes. There’s a tiny bit of combat too, though not anything worth getting fussed over. Most enemies can be dispatched with Nikki’s basic ranged “purify” attack in one hit, though I did eventually find some enemies that would block my attacks until I flanked them.

(Image credit: Infold Games)

Infinity Nikki - Nikki rides a cloud in a jumping challenge to collect a whimstar

What I need you to understand is that I’m a build mode person. Almost any game can hand me a building system and I can play with that forhours, sans any other real goal. But creating a character and choosing their outfits, though something I enjoy, I get bored of without some extra sauce. Like, I enjoy broccoli but I do get a little tired of it if there isn’t some cheese on top. Infinity Nikki’s open world is a whole fondue pot of cheese, to me. A whole lot of dress up built on top of a lovely open world full of puzzles and challenges to keep my brain tickled.

I don’t think Nikki is necessarily innovating in the gacha space (or in the open-world platform puzzling space either). It’s sliding down a groove that Mihoyo has been carving into PC gaming for four years. But it does come at an auspicious time. Everyone I knew wasabsolutely head over pumpsfor the Roblox PvP fashion game Dress to Impress last month. Infinity Nikki is set up to strike a very hot iron while everyone is completely primed to get into another dress up game.

Infinity Nikki is going through a couple different closed beta tests this month on both PC and mobile. There’s no official launch date yet, but itsApp Store listingwith a placeholder December 31 launch date has fans anticipating it will launch before the end of this year.

Infinity Nikki codes: Which freebies are active now?Infinity Nikki multiplayer: How co-op works right nowInfinity Nikki resonance banners: What’s active and coming next?Aventura quiz answers: Observe wiselyInfinity Nikki Wishful Aurosa: how to craft the miracle outfitInfinity Nikki calm thoughts: Get upgrade materials

Infinity Nikki codesInfinity Nikki multiplayerInfinity Nikki resonance bannersAventura quiz answersInfinity Nikki Wishful AurosaInfinity Nikki calm thoughts

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A passion for fashion#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

How does the gacha get ya?#

The whole fit#

A passion for fashion

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

How does the gacha get ya?

The whole fit