Where dress up and open world meet: Infinity Nikki

Instead of attending a ball, our hero Nikki and her furry companion Momo find themselves in Miraland. It’s a place where they have to set off on a quest to find the Miracle Outfits to save the world. The premise of Infinity Nikki’s pretty underwhelming. At the same time, it’s not what makes the game so magical. Instead, it’s the beautiful world, various outfits and the exploration that does that. I checked out the PC version of this free-to-play game.

No gacha for me

Infinity Nikki is aimed at people with or without open-world experience. This becomes clear from the get-go, where the controls are explained in great detail. Skills include a double jump, gliding and attacking. After a short time, however, you lose these skills and have to earn them back. This is done so players can familiarise themselves with gathering resources, creating clothing and acquiring skills.

In your changing room, you can change Nikki’s style, dress her in various clothes and accessories and give her new make-up or hairstyles. At the beginning, you still have very little to choose from. You can add new options by either progressing through the story, through gacha mechanics or by exploring the world you’re in.

I haven’t made use of the gacha mechanics yet. It’s something I never do as a matter of principle, I find them dumb. Every now and then I’m told that I have the chance to win a great outfit, but I ignore it.

After all, the world of Infinity Nikki has so much more to offer.

Beautiful world beckoning to be explored

I discover that Miraland has Whimstars – stars wrapped in yarn I need to unlock skills. My BFF Momo is able to locate them for me. Skills are tied to clothing in Infinity Nikki. To be expected from a dress-up game, I suppose. All of a sudden, Nikki might be wearing a blue dress and sporting blonde hair, for example. When she attacks – referred to as «purification» in the game – she puts on an elegant white dress to match her purity.

Equipped with these skills, you’re let loose into a beautiful open world. Miraland is breathtaking. My first destination is the village of Florawish. There, I want to meet Dada, a member of the Stylist Guild. In Miraland, they’re a kind of Esseling police. Esselings are enemies you have to «purify».

On the way, I diligently collect Whimstars, resources and Bling – one of the many currencies in the game. In Florawish, there are many things to discover in addition to stores where you can buy resources. And so, I collect various side quests in passing, take to the skies in a balloon and change my outfits for a game of hopscotch. To put it simply, I waste a solid hour before I meet Dada, join the Stylist Guild and get on with the actual story.

Petting, fishing or mending

Dada hands me the Pear-Pal, which is basically a tablet that now functions as the main menu. In the Courses menu, for example, you can increase your Stylist rank. To do this, you have to master various requirements across five categories. The whole thing’s confusing and I’m not really sure what I need to do to move up. The Compendium is full of meaningless headings packed with information about random outfits. I’m totally overwhelmed.

At least I can just get on with the story. As I continue my quest, I acquire new skills and outfits. One challenge is to find fluffy yarn for children. But I can only do that with an appropriate animal grooming outfit.

On a separate occasion, a make-up specialist needs a fish for reasons unbeknownst to me. My job is to catch one in the lake, which obviously only can be done in the right outfit. And catching bugs requires both a net and dungaree hot pants.

Styling contest without style

In the short time I’ve been playing this game, I’ve only been allowed to take part in a styling competition once so far. There, I had to compete against another faction – another concept that’s introduced.

Before the competition, I’m given instructions about what clothes to wear. I’m told to put together a «cool» outfit. Items of clothing are divided into different categories. I’m not sure if my outfit was cool or if the items worked well together, but I won.

Fighting and platformer passages

When I’m out exploring and in the few dungeons I’ve seen so far, the focus is on small environmental puzzles and platforming elements. They’re all solidly implemented, but not challenging at all.

The few «battles» I’ve fought so far aren’t really worth mentioning either. Honestly, the developers could’ve left out this gameplay element. But perhaps it’ll develop as things progress.

Worth a go for dress-up fans and explorers

Infinity Nikki isn’t a perfect game. All those options and confusing menus can be overwhelming at times. They’re also in stark contrast to the rather calm gameplay, which is focused on exploring a beautiful world and countless outfits. And this is precisely where the game’s strengths lie. It’s fun to discover new things, catch fish or bugs and look after all kinds of animals.

I like the idea of linking skills to different outfits. What’s more, they’re original and surprise me time and time and time again. Fortunately, I don’t have to rely on the gacha mechanics to get new outfits or progress through the story. At least not so far. I only spent a few hours playing the game and haven’t got past the first part of the open world yet.

There’s so much to be discovered in the game. If you like dress-up and open-world games, you should definitely give Infinity Nikki a go. It won’t even cost you anything, it’s free-to-play. And as it supports cross-play, you can play it either on your computer or on PlayStation 5, then switch to your smartphone when you’re out and about.

Infinity Nikki release date: 5 December 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5, Android and iOS. The PC version was provided to me for testing purposes.