It’s hard to pin down what exactly Infinity Nikki is about, and not just because its story of magical comas and the ghosts of wheat sacks goes off the rails at times. At its core, I’m not even sure what its main mechanic is. You’d think ‘dress up’, but this is almost entirely aesthetic, and the rare bouts of styling contests are typically won by the worst outfits imaginable that just happen to have the right scores attached.
Does anyone like that stupid bee jumper? If so, I don’t like you.
It’s an open-world dress up game, and the open world takes precedent. But what is chief amongst that plethora of gameplay options? There’s resource gathering, fishing, bug catching, and animal grooming, which are all really just different forms of resource gathering and feel like they exist alongside the main gameplay loop rather than being part of.
There are minigames, vast in variety but none of any consequence, and there’s sporadic combat of limited narrative weight (in 25 hours I have faced two boss battles). I would probably say it’s a collectathon, first and foremost. This is where the Whimstars shine.
Few Collectibles Show The Balance Of Infinity Nikki
Most of the things you’re collecting are covered in the ‘resource gathering’ portion of the game. There are also Blings gathered around the world, but seeing as each Bling is worth 100 and quests reward around 20,000 Blings, picking up random ones in the world doesn’t seem like it has much point. The Dews of Inspiration for Kilo are worthwhile, as they reward parts of an outfit (including a cape for Momo) each time you reach a certain milestone, but don’t quite lean into the collection mechanics like Whimstars.
To be a great collectable, you need to strike a balance. You should be common enough that you feel like a regular part of the game, but rare enough that each one is special. This is why the go-tos of coins for Mario, rings for Sonic, boxes for Crash, or gems for Spyro are not truly great collectables, iconic though they may be.
Crash’s crystals are closer, but these fall at the second hurdle – they must offer variety. Crash gets a crystal in the back third of most levels (or sometimes just automatically at the end), and then must finish the level to keep it. It’s a reward for beating a section of the game, not a true collectible. There’s no variety in how they are obtained, and they are not optional. Crash’s coloured gems would be the best example, but lose points for how rare they are (just five or six per game) and how fiendishly difficult they are to collect. Infinity Nikki’s Whimstars show the way forward.
Whimstars Are Full Of Variety
These large pink and purple stars are dotted throughout the overworld, and the story dungeons typically have around three. They act as currency to unlock new sketches, but I’ve never been close to running out of them. Maybe when the grind kicks in I will, but for now the appeal in Whimstars is simply in getting them at all.
Some of them are pretty standard – you see them on the tops of buildings or floating in the sky, and need to find a way to clamber up to them. Others are hidden behind breakable boxes, or within rooms you need to drop down into. Again, pretty basic stuff, especially with Momo constantly pointing them out to you. But it keeps going.
Sometimes the Whimstars are ferrets you must approach slowly and groom as you would other animals. Sometimes it’s a butterfly fluttering perilously over a drop that must be jumped and scooped into your net. Sometimes it’s a fish to be caught. They might be puzzle portals. At times it will generate a chain of other Whimstars, which must all be grabbed in order to make the original star whole. Other times it starts a chain you must complete while floating on a cloud that often drag you away from the intended destination. The best ones, however, are the hidden stars.
I’ll Never Find Them All
Occasionally you will find a Whimstar that is not a Whimstar, but is a glowing ball of light. When you interact with it, this light ripples around in a circle, and somewhere in that circle is a star. Not a Whimstar, just a star. It may be a chalk drawing on a wall. It may be a star carved into a sign. It may be a hanging basket shaped like a star. It could be anything. But it will be there. Find it, and you get your Whimstar.
These are much harder than the other Whimstars, which are engaging but fairly straightforward exercises. There are a few I have completely given up on, and players have even started leaving photographs of themselves pointing at the stars like Dark Souls notes. They capture the variety and challenge of Whimstars perfectly, and they’re part of the reason why Infinity Nikki feels a cut above other gacha games. I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with Infinity Nikki, but as long as there are Whimstars, I’ll be there.
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OpenCritic
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Top Critic Rating:
80/100
- Released
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December 5, 2024
- Developer(s)
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Papergames
, Infold Games