Infinity Nikki is a stunning open-world adventure that takes a distinctly different approach to theme and gameplay, focusing less on combat and more on exploration, questing, discovery and design, all both feature a smart and stylish female character in the lead role.
Nikki, a young girl who loves fashion, finds a mysterious dress in the attic. When she puts it on, she and her chubby, chatty cat Momo are whisked away to a strange new world. She met a person named Ena the Creator, who gave her the Infinity Heart and tasked her with finding the Miraculous Costume.
I recently had the chance to practice the game on PS5, so let’s get into it.
It’s all about style
The world of Infinity Nikki is powered by the power of Whim, the sparks of joy and creativity that exist in all of us. The way people here tend to tap into their Whim energy is through fashion. Clothes are powerful self-expression, and a stylish outfit can even give the wearer new abilities. With that energy woven into fabric, it’s no surprise that Stylists – talented clothing makers – are highly regarded. And after Nikki came here, she was quickly rated as a top stylist and was included in the Florawish Village Styling Association.
But things aren’t completely peaceful: there’s a strange situation happening around that’s causing people to fall into comas, along with a group of suspicious stylists who are up to no good. During the beta test, we got a chance to meet some characters, good and bad, and go through some events: join the Stylist Guild, help some people in town, investigate a school contract a mysterious illness, battle against other stylists to create the coolest outfit, and explore a well filled with frogs to stop a rampaging fish that has cut off Florawish’s power source.
As a Stylist, Nikki is able to create clothes that suit her abilities. Initially, she will have two outfits – one that helps her float after jumping and another that allows her to shoot purifying energy – that she can access by simply pressing a button. However, to gain more awesome powers, she will need to acquire sketches: blueprints for new clothing parts. There are many ways to get sketches – you can find them in chests, earn them from quests, etc. – but many of the most important costume sketches are obtained and enhanced through the Infinity Hearts tree by Nikki. To unlock the tree parts, Nikki will need to find Whimstars scattered around the world.
Stargazing
Nikki’s companion Momo can help her locate Whimstars with his refined senses, but not all Whimstars are acquired simply by walking close to them. Many are in hidden locations that need to be searched. Others task you with completing a platforming challenge, collecting a set of items, or using a specific power-up to obtain a Whimstar. One particularly fun type of challenge is where you have to search an area for a star-shaped object hidden in the background – some spots are obvious, while other hidden spots disguise the star shape in different ways smart.
Before Nikki can wear anything, she needs materials. If you get into the habit of picking up everything you see (and there’s plenty to pick up everywhere), you won’t have any problems creating important outfits, although creating Some optional accessories and rarer optional accessories may require more effort. Once you have your costume, you will have a new power to use.
During our playtest, we wore a cute waterproof outfit to groom the animals, a bright overalls to catch bugs, a stylish summer outfit and hat for fishing, and a high-impact gowns and gloves for repairing malfunctioning electronic devices. Each of these powers serves a purpose, to collect more materials or solve puzzles to progress. We’re especially excited about the animal grooming, which plays an adorable custom animation for each creature Nikki gets her soapy hands on.
Infinity Nikki is full of personality and potential, and you won’t have to wait much longer to dress up for success: the game launches on December 5.
