In December, I decided to take a chance on Infinity Nikki because some people were posting about it on Bluesky and it was free to play. Since the first day I started, I was hooked. I even made a YouTube video on the second day I played because I was so obsessed. And I have been posting photos on Bluesky ever since. I don’t think I have been so captivated by a game since Disney Dreamlight Valley.
And now sadly I think my love of this game might have come to an end. At least for now. I suppose these things always happen, you fall in love with a game, play it non-stop and then you don’t touch it for ages. But this is not one of those things.
Infinity Nikki is an open-world gatcha game and has pretty regular updates so there is always new content to pull you in. And unlike Disney Dreamlight Valley, it is not going back on its promise to go free to play, it just is free. However due to the gatcha element, there are times when you are tempted to spend money. But the microtransactions are not what is putting me off either. It’s the 1.5 update.
So this is not a secret, so many people have been posting online about this and so I thought I’d put my two cents out there.
This update launched at the end of April along with the game launch on Steam and so I was excited to move from Epic Game Launcher to Steam because I wanted to see my actual game stats aka how many hours I actually put into this game. Since the update, according to Steam I have put in 7 hours, but I’d say at last half an hour of that is just me waiting for the game to properly quit. But that’s not really what I’m here to complain about.
When you load up your game after updating you are immediately thrown into a cutscene. Which is not great for returning players because you have no idea what’s going on. I thankfully was prepared for this because while my game was downloading, I was scrolling on Reddit to see what was new in the update. I think we should at least be given the option to do the cutscene or not because it leads you into a tutorial which you can’t skip and takes about 10/20 minutes to complete before you get into the game normally.
Also, they have completely retconned the storyline of the game which is upsetting because I feel like the new one does not have the same impact as the first one. It also changes the lore as an existing player if you are far enough in the game by giving a weak explanation as to what other characters said as being false. It cheapens the experience I feel if you are an existing player who was invested in the current storyline. I am not sure how they handle retelling the story as you progress as I am quite far in the game working towards the first miracle outfit, but I don’t think I would enjoy it much if I knew they’d shoe-horned in a completely different storyline. I think I saw some people say some quests don’t make sense anymore so it clearly wasn’t well thought out.
Aside from this there is also the new area Sea of Stars which is very lack luster. I didn’t realise how empty it was until I went in there myself. There’s not really anything to do unless you are doing daily tasks or I guess taking photos/playing with other Nikkis? I haven’t done multiplayer myself so I can’t really comment on that aspect of it. The animal area is also a bit random and doesn’t make sense to me? I was in it for 5 minutes but I feel like there’s no point to it, like no mini game or incentive to really do it.
Another thing I have not figured out or enjoyed is the Swish & Stitch soiree. It is a fun idea but the time window means you are constrained and I can see a lot of people struggling to do it in that time. Even I have struggled as it is not based on real time but server time. So I have done it multiple times at 9pm in the UK but it has not registered as me participating. I don’t know what time I am meant to do it but I think it should be labelled more clearly when you can do it and also be held for a longer period. In my head it’s a stylist competition based thing and you should have at least a day to enter the theme and other Nikki’s could vote or something. But it’s not that at all.
The Swish and Stitch soiree is just a runway which you can do and watch other Nikki’s perform. There is a theme but I don’t think you need to stick to it and also I have seen on Reddit it can be glitchy. It’s glitchy in that what you see when your Nikki walks the runway vs what other Nikki’s see is not always the same. I don’t think dyed outfits work well or if you have accessories. So it’s a disappointing feature which doesn’t really work. That being said, I think it is great if you want to get good pictures of a certain outfit.
These are just the issues I personally have had in my game, in terms of the other update content with Serenity Island and the dyeing gameplay I have barely scratched the surface. I think Serenity Island in itself has a lot going on, the questlines and everything seem in line with what we have had in previous updates which is good.
The dyeing aspect I have not taken part in because it seems overwhelming. Based on what other people have said and how it uses a new game currency and not collected materials it seems like a let down. Not to mention how when you dye something, it will look one way in the closet screen and another in the real world lighting.
So yeah TLDR there is a lot of issues in this update and it makes you not want to play the game. On top of that, there are also the game-breaking glitches people have experienced where you physically can’t play the game. I know that there have been a few updates to fix bugs since the 1.5 update released but not sure if it is enough.
On top of that, I also feel like I am influenced a lot by what I see online. I used to love going on Reddit to find out information about the game or how other people are playing. But now all I see is complaints and so it really doesn’t make you want to play the game and gives me a lot of negative vibes around the game. Which is valid, I agree with the points people are making, I mean I’m literally making my own negative post right now lol. But I suppose when that’s all you see about the game it’s very disheartening and does not make you want to play.
A lot of the negativity has also come from the fact the development company, Infold have not really said anything about the issues. Which is frustrating because at the end of the day most of us just want to know that our complaints are being heard. In the beginning, I feel the company was very good at listening to feedback and providing updates but they have not said much recently. We know fixes won’t be magically done overnight, but it would be nice for them to acknowledge the error.
Aside from all the negativity, I don’t think that should take away from the existing game before the update. Despite the storyline changes I still think it’s a good game to play. I don’t regret the time I have spent in it and as a free-to-play player I don’t think I can complain about the experience. I have had a lot of fun. It’s just sad that I don’t think I will get the same enjoyment out of it now.
So I am shelving Infinity Nikki for now in favour or other games. I am hoping that with the release of the latest survey and everyone providing feedback that we will see some changes. At the minute I am not sure if changes alone will be able to get my back to playing. I think maybe the online/community negativity has also hit very deep and until the overall community vibes improve it’ll be hard to find motivation to play.
But that’s where we are for now. In the meantime I have been finding joy in Coral Island, it’s a farming sim which I haven’t really given a proper chance in a long time. I’ve literally not even gotten past the first year so I would like to spend time doing that. Aside from that I hope we hear some positive Infinity Nikki news soon. It would be sad for a game with such potential to go down hill so quickly barely 6 months after launch but we’ll see.
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