Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), PS5, iOS, Android
Genre: Adventure, Lifestyle, Sim, Dress-Up, Open World

If there’s one thing to gather from Infinity Nikki, it’s the “chill” atmosphere it exuberates from its whimsical look.

Infold Games’ latest open-world game, which is what happens when you blend an open-world action-adventure Breath of the Wild-style title with fashion and free-to-play mechanics, is exactly the kind of game to balance out 2024’s testosterone-filled and serious tone of titles. It’s the kind of fluffy experience you need, and I use that term with no derogatory intent, with the sole purpose to set your brain at ease. Infold Games isn’t going all-out to compete in the field crowded by Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, but rather just create a wholesome kind of fantasy adventure game where clothes & style make the man. Or woman in this case.

Be My Fantasy

Infinity Nikki puts you in the dress shoes of its female title character Nikki, who is thrust into an unknown realm called Miraland. Yet through some plot contrivances, she gets the hang of the unfamiliar setting thanks to help from her speaking anthropomorphic barbeque-loving cat Momo and her innate ability to change dresses instantly that happen to bestow her magical skills. Video game magical skills to be exact, which translates to platforming, collectibles-searching, solving puzzles involving blocks, shoving balls into holes, and aligning electrical nodes so that they all connect on a grid panel.

The kicker? You do this while looking as glamorous as possible. As one of the game’s Stylists, powerful magicians who uses the power of magical clothing, Infinity Nikki has you collecting different outfits for both practical and stylistic reasons. Different outfit ensembles let you perform different abilities and moves, from floaty jumps to purification powers. There’s even a shrinking power-up where you need to rely on your cat friend Momo to carry you through small pathways and secret entrances.

Heck, some of them allow you to perform Animal Crossing-esque tasks like bug-catching, fishing, and animal grooming. The latter is surreal to pull off; you are required to sneak up to animals and then groom them, lest they run away in fright. Think of it like a stealth minigame, but instead of CQCing your target, you give them a nice loving scrub and get a clothing resource as a reward.

To make these special outfits to make any sort of progress, you need to gather materials in the world: magic thread, animal fur parts, bugs, even fish: all those activities I mentioned are for the sole purpose of making new fashion statements, as well as eventually creating the Miracle Garment, the game’s macguffin. You also need to find Whimstars all across the land to get outfit sketches before you can even craft these dresses and clothing, which means you’ll be traversing far and wide through the towns and hillside, completing Whimstar minigames and collectathon gauntlets to proceed. That’s half the fun of Infinity Nikki: finding a rich world with lots to collect and random portals of Breath of the Wild-esque puzzles to wrap up.

Down The Catwalk

All these clothes-making all culminate in Infinity Nikki’s Style Battle minigame. What are Style Battles, you ask? To get through certain quests, you need to have a fashion showdown with different characters; they decide the theme of the fashion battle and you create an ensemble of clothing combination to score points based on that theme.

For example, if the theme is “Cool”, you need to combine as many articles of clothing -head, top, bottom, outerwear, and so forth- that give you more “Cool” points. You’ll be given plenty of opportunities to collect and buy many, MANY different clothes and styles, as well as materials to make specific outfits. So yeah, it pays to be OCD in getting as many shiny things as possible. Plus, these battles are mandatory in the story quest, though their score requirements aren’t as insane as the optional ones, to the point where you need to equip Eurekas (sparkly bits to boost your fashion score) to get the leg up.

And there is a LOT to do in the vast world of Infinity Nikki. You’ll take 12+ hours going through the majority of the world map from Floral Town to Wishing Woods; I got as far as the public version could take me story-wise, to the point where I’m not receiving any more Main Quest prompts. I am nowhere near creating a Miracle Gown or two, but I have a huge ensemble of clothes and Eurekas ranging from “Sweet” to “Elegant” types.

The story quests have its share of fun dungeons filled with platforming and puzzle-solving. These are all fun, ranging from lilypad jumping and silver hearts projectile-avoiding in a giant well maze, to a moving train where you have to dodge oncoming signal lamps and avoid ghosts that careen you off the vehicle.

However, they are mostly easy to tackle as you’re given a generous amount of health and checkpoints. The boss fights are equally so, though they vary it up with different attack patterns and are arguably tougher if you fight them in the Realm Challenge arenas (on each of the world map’s fast travel points). That’s really the only big problem with the game, if you can call it that as well as the whole title’s intent: it’s pretty easy.

Actually, there is another problem: this being a free-to-play game, there is a form of content gating. To progress further through the main story, you need to upgrade your Stylist Rank. Apart from completing quests and in-game tasks on your game’s Pear-Pal tablet app, you also need to fulfill Daily Wishes. Daily Wishes themselves have a daily quota; once you complete all of them to get rank stars, you need to wait a whole day until the quota resets. For those who just want to blaze through the game’s plot, that can be an issue. Then again, the developers purposely built it as such so that you can enjoy the rest of the game’s side content and explorable world filled with Whimstars and treasure to uncover.

As for the gacha elements itself itself, they’re all cosmetics and meant for display only. Throughout my 12+ hours of play, I have not come across any issues where I needed to pay to win the Stylist Battles; you’re just putting in money for this free game to get exclusive outfits for Nikki, in case the already-bountiful apparel you have isn’t enough to make your Nikki stand out. And trust me; there are tons of accessories and clothing articles that will make a number of you go out of your way to dress up your Nikki, either as a Disney Princess or a raccoon cosplayer.

Dressing Down

Beyond those niggles, everything else in Infinity Nikki screams fun and chillax, from its plethora of things to do and complete, to its vibe to its lovely music and aesthetic, to even the controls. I’m having a blast controlling the whole of Infinity Nikki using a keyboard and mouse; it remains to be seen if the iPhone/Apple phone touchscreen controls will warrant the same responsiveness and accuracy, but so far they’re smooth and undeterred. If you’ve played Genshin Impact on a keyboard and mouse with no hassle, you’ll slip right in just fine with Infinity Nikki.

Long story short, this free-to-play adventure game is as whimsical as it gets from its plot to the nature of the game. And that’s not a bad thing, as long as it’s pulled off right. Infinity Nikki’s got substance to back up that style. Granted, it’s not the most challenging F2P game out there, but it is the most comforting and pleasant among the China-made lot.

Pros

• Fun and wholesome adventure game.
• Good mix of puzzle, platforming, and combat.
• Loads of collectibles & outfits to collect and mix/match.
• Pretty art style & great music.

Cons

• Can be too easy for most players looking for a challenge.
• Content gate system in place due to its F2P nature.
• Some graphical glitches in main story quest cutscenes.

Final Score: 80/100

Review code provided by publisher.