Infinity Nikki was cutting it close, but it turns out the cozy open-world game will sneak out right in time to close out 2024. The game looks like Just Cause inside an anime cottagecore feed and it’s coming out on December 5.
That’s the release date for the PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile versions of the game which brings the Nikki Up2U dress-up RPG series into a Genshin Impact-style open world. Infold Games first revealed Infinity Nikki back in 2022, and has been touting the involvement of former Nintendo director Kentaro Tominaga who happened to be a designer on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The game revolves around Nikki and her chatty cat Momo as they explore the whimsical Thomas Kinkade-looking world of Miraland. Players collect Miracle Outfits to gain new abilities like flight and fishing that they’ll use on their journey, solving puzzles and collecting materials. Players will also face off against a “suspicious gang of stylists up to no good” as they investigate a strange condition making the locals populace turn mysteriously comatose.
The game already has 30 million players pre-registered on smartphones, and it has the potential to be huge on PC and PS5 as well. While the franchise has been popular in China for years, Infinity Nikki’s cross-platform timing and new blend of fashion-oriented gameplay and open-world exploration has the potential to make it one of this year’s bigger hits. Long-time fans, at least, feel like the game, hailing from a historically underserved genre, has the potential to make Nikki go mainstream.
While I haven’t previewed the game or participated in the recent closed beta, the bucolic fields and talk of rival stylists battling it out is giving me major Pokémon trainer vibes, just with outfits instead of magical creatures that live in your pocket. I have no idea if Infinity Nikki will turn out to really have the secret sauce, but for now I’m definitely not betting against it.