Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen an increasing number of beautiful-looking adventures coming from Chinese developers, and Infinity Nikki looks to be the latest example of this trend. Developer Papergames describes the project as a “open-world dress-up adventure game,” which may leave you scratching your head, but it’s really not that odd.
Basically, Infinity Nikki is a Zelda-Breath-of-the-Wild-flavored open-world adventure where your abilities are tied to various outfits your anime-style heroine can switch between. Speaking of Breath of the Wild, the game is being produced by Kentaro Tominaga, who previously served as a designer for BOTW and director of its Expansion Pass content. You can check out a trailer for Infinity Nikki below, which is partly cinematic, but does seem to feature something resembling actual gameplay.
Infinity Nikki’s genesis is a somewhat unconventional one, as the series began as a series of simple mobile games focused entirely on dressing up the main character. The decision to turn that into a huge open-world game with AAA production values may seem odd, but it’s the direction a lot of Chinese studios are going (let’s not forget, the makers of Genshin Impact began as mobile developers).
As for what we can expect from Infinity Nikki gameplay, according to an IGN China interview with Tominaga you’ll be exploring the open world and crafting individual clothing items to make outfits. Some of these outfits will give you new powers, some will just be cosmetic. The end goal is to craft various legendary outfits, which will require you to visit a variety of locations, including snowy, mountainous, and wasteland regions. Here’s a brief official English description…
“Infinity Nikki is a cross-platform open-world dress-up adventure game developed by Papergames. Here, you will join Nikki and Momo in a vast fantasy world, exploring freely and savoring varied playstyles. The power resting in gorgeous outfits will find you a path forward and offer infinite fun along the journey! Looking forward to meeting you in Miraland!”
Infinity Nikki is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, and mobile devices. A release window has yet to be revealed.