Infinity Nikki Review- A Cozy Genre Mix That Shouldn’t Work, but Does

Infinity Nikki Review 2025 Artwork

If you had told me a year ago that my new daily game for the next 9 months would be a mix between Zelda and Genshin about a girl who collects outfits and dresses I probably would have laughed and called you crazy. But that’s exactly what Infinity Nikki did to me.

A genre mix that shouldn’t work

When Breath of the Wild released in 2017 it was truly one of the Milestone moments in gaming. Nintendo defined and inspired a new sub genre of open world games and it’s no surprise that the game inspired many games after it. Three years later, Genshin Impact followed. A game that combined Breath of the Wild’s open-world design together with gacha games. Again a game with an earth-shattering success and many games that tried to follow its footsteps.

There are tons of BotW or Genshin clones but only a few managed to really get their own spin on the formula. Infinity Nikki is one of those few. First and foremost, Nikki wants to be one thing: cozy. This is a concept the game follows in almost all aspects of the game. Story, events, gameplay, combat and even daily quests. Most things are done very fast and easy and simply relaxing.

None of Nikki’s gameplay elements are better than its inspirations but it’s all executed in a very potent way and in many ways it feels like baby’s first Zelda game. But most importantly Infinity Nikki knows who its target audience is and what it wants to be and does an excellent job in this regard.

Review Infinity Nikki

Nikki surprised me with its Gacha

The gacha aspect of Nikki is clothes and outfits. Honestly this is the part that I never expected to appeal to me. I knew I would like the cozy gameplay of Nikki, I knew I would enjoy exploring the maps and finding secrets, but I never expected to feel motivated to collect gacha clothing outfits and to be honest with you at first I didn’t.

But over time the outfits became more and more appealing with special abilities and skills. They also added a dyeing mechanic that gives you the option to really customize your look and slowly but surely I got sucked into it. Nowadays I feel a similar hype for a new outfit release than i did in the past in genshin impact when a new character came out that i really wanted.

Another really fun aspect of Infinity Nikki is picture taking. The game gives you great and easy tools to do so and to even share your images. Another feature I never thought I would care much about but the more I play the game the more I enjoy taking pictures.

Infinity Nikki PC Review

The internet is a toxic place

So when all of this is so good why does Nikki have mixed reviews on Steam right now? Well it’s a mix of a few missteps and a very toxic internet culture. Let’s start with the missteps. Along the way Nikki released a multiplayer update. This update was released with many issues. It’s clear that they underestimated how difficult it would be to add multiplayer to the game. Furthermore they changed some of the main story in the same update. A change that made some of the hardcore fans very mad.

Since then many great updates followed and most bugs got fixed. But the internet often sees things only in black or white and Nikki sadly got stuck in a toxic circle of hate. Thankfully all of this negativity is slowly dying down. However it does make me sad that such a positive and cozy game that brings me so much joy gets treated so unfairly.

F2P or not?

The last thing many complain about is the same discussion we have with every F2P Gacha game. How free to play friendly is it? Are the Devs greedy? All I can say is that since launch, I’ve been a low spender on Nikki. Most months (though not all), I bought the 5€ monthly pass and once in a while I would get one of the very cheap deals (between 1-5€) and with that I have been able to get almost all the outfits I wanted. In my eyes this is more than fair. After 9 months of playing I spent maybe around 60€. The price of a normal AAA Game. The amount of fun and content I got from this was more than worth it.

Infinity Nikki worth it?

A game for the soul

I personally think Infinity Nikki still has a bright future ahead. User Reviews are recovering, a big housing update is only weeks away from releasing and as of right now the game seems to make enough money to be profitable. When I first played Nikki I thought it would be a fun little game to play for a week. Now almost 9 months later it has become my cozy place. A game I can turn on when I want to relax and simply give my soul some peaceful and fun time. Nikki might not be better than its inspirations. But it managed to take its own twists on the formula and knew exactly what it wanted to be. A cozy place for your soul and heart and simply a fun and good time. And it more than achieved that.

Rating: Recommended