Infinity Nikki Review (PS5) | Push Square

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The long-running Nikki series – not to be confused with Stellar Blade dev Shift Up’s saucy mobile shooter NIKKE: Goddess of Victory – has been styling smartphones across various iterations for several years. This version, available on console for the first time and introducing an enormous whimsical open world, is by far the most ambitious, however. It’s also utterly brilliant.

Those of you who’ve played the previous instalments, like Shining Nikki, will know what to expect to an extent. The eponymous heroine is a sharp-tongue stylist with impeccable fashion taste, and she explores the world of Miraland with her contrary talking cat Momo. In this particular entry, the pair get embroiled in a plot involving prophets, wish jars, and a guy called Giovanni.

The story, which is paper-thin but brisk and breezy, outdoes Kingdom Hearts for its melodrama and ostentatious outfits. You’ll already have a good sense, from that sentence alone, whether you have the stomach for something as flowery as this. Personally, we absolutely love the unreserved ridiculousness of it all, but your mileage will certainly vary.

While previous games were largely about assembling costumes and winning style battles, there’s a lot more to this newest version. The so-called style battles do return, and you’ll be rated across a number of categories, from sexy to cool. But the real meat and potatoes of the game lies with exploration, and it’s absolutely outstanding.

Lifting inspiration liberally from releases like Genshin Impact, you’ll spend a lot of your time simply navigating the lush Unreal Engine 5 landscapes, using your Ability Outfits – special dresses augmented with superpowers – to either float to out-of-reach places or engage with basic activities, like fishing and bug catching.

There’s a pinch of Super Mario Odyssey here, as you’ll need to use certain abilities to pass specific gameplay gates. Along the way you’ll be gathering Whimstars, which can then be used to unlock parts of an enormous