Infinity Nikki: hands-on report

Infinity Nikki is a beautiful 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 with a smart and stylish female character in the lead role.

Nikki, a young girl with a love of 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 meets a being named Ena the Creator, who gives her the Heart of Infinity and entrusts her with finding the Miracle Outfits.

 I recently had an opportunity to go hands-on with the game on PS5, so let’s dive in.

It’s all about the style

The world of Infinity Nikki is fueled by the power of Whim, the sparks of joy and creativity that exist within us all. The way people here tend to harness their Whim energy is through fashion. Clothing is powerful self-expression, and a stylish outfit even has the power to grant its wearer new abilities. With that kind of energy woven into fabric, it’s no wonder that Stylists–talented clothing makers–are highly respected. And after Nikki gets here, she’s quickly judged to be prime Stylist material and brought into the Stylists Guild of the hamlet of Florawish. 

But things aren’t perfectly peaceful: there’s a strange condition going around that’s making citizens go comatose, alongside a suspicious gang of stylists up to no good. During our time in the beta, we got a chance to meet several characters, good and bad, and play through several events: joining the Stylists Guild, helping out several folks in town, investigating a case of the mysterious illness, fighting against other stylists to make the coolest outfit,  and exploring a frog-filled well to stop a rampaging fish that cut off Florawish’s electric power. 

As a Stylist, Nikki can make clothes that grant her abilities. Early on, she’ll have two outfits–one that lets her float after jumping and another that lets her shoot purifying energy–that she can access by simply pressing a button. However, to get more fabulous powers, she’ll 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, and so on–but many of the most important outfit sketches are acquired and enhanced through Nikki’s Infinity Heart tree. In order to unlock parts of the tree, Nikki will need to find Whimstars scattered throughout the world.

Seeing stars

Nikki’s companion Momo can help her locate Whimstars with his finely-tuned senses, but not all Whimstars are acquired by simply walking up to them. Many are in hidden locations that require searching. Others task you with completing a platforming challenge, collecting a set of items, or using a specific power to get the Whimstar. One particularly interesting challenge type has you searching in an area to find a star-shaped object hidden in the background — some are obvious, while other hiding spots disguise star shapes in clever ways.

Before Nikki can wear anything she needs materials. If you make a habit of picking up everything you see (and there’s plenty of things to collect everywhere), you shouldn’t have any problems making the key outfits, though making some of the rarer, optional accessories and optional pieces might require more effort. Once you’ve got your outfit, you have a new power to play with.

During our playtest, we wore a cute waterproof ensemble for grooming animals, a bright set of overalls for catching bugs, a stylish summer hat-and-clothes set for fishing, and a heavy-duty cloak and gloves for fixing malfunctioning electronics. Each of these powers serves a purpose, either for collecting more materials or solving puzzles in order to progress. We were particularly enchanted with animal grooming, which plays an adorable custom animation for every critter Nikki gets her soapy hands on.

Infinity Nikki is brimming with personality and potential, and you won’t have to wait much longer to dress for success: the game is due to launch on December 5.