PlayStation free open-world game has major GOTY potential, no PS Plus required

Recently, I’ve been in the mood for some fluffy gaming. Cosy gaming, if you will. Just something that will entertain me enough but not tax me too much, or something that looks cute and accessible that will perhaps steal away my free time. When this time of year rolls around and the evenings draw close, I find myself wanting to escape into interesting worlds that won’t require too much brain power.

It appears that this upcoming PlayStation 5 game, which is releasing for the stellar price of absolutely nothing, might scratch that itch. You don’t need PlayStation Plus either!

I saw the trailer for Infinity Nikki earlier this year as part of Summer Game Fest, and its saccharine visuals instantly pulled me in. I have no idea about the history of this franchise - this is the fifth game in the series - though my trips through Reddit are preparing me for a deeper and darker story than the visuals belie.

Infinity Nikki comes to PlayStation on 5 December.

Reddit user SaintCaricature helpfully sums up what to expect once the cute visuals make way for more. “Nikki lore tends to be very dramatic and tragic. Pretty people desperately keeping their lovers alive with vanishing magic, repeatedly going back in time to save the universe, getting tied up in a tower to cry diamonds to financially sustain their kingdom,” they teased.

I honestly thought it was just a cute anime girl prancing around a colourful world checking off tasks and doing some light platforming. The trailer paints Infinity Nikki as a girl exploring her world and finding her place in it via cute side characters and stunningly produced areas. And it is stunning - the water, the grass, the wildlife, it’s all lovingly created with luscious rendering that borders reality with dreamlike qualities.

As I began to dig deeper into this game, I found it’s headed up by Breath of the Wild’s Kentaro Tominaga, so it’s no surprise that the open-world exploration seems so magical and engaging. There’s a shot of Nikki in the trailer floating like Link with a glider and it instantly evoked warm memories of simply wandering around Hyrule giving myself over to my meandering mind. I’m hoping to discover more of that when Infinity Nikki releases on 5 December.

It’s the core premise that has grabbed hold of my brain in a myriad of ways, however. While I may not seem the target audience for this game - a 42-year-old, bearded, and heavily tattooed dude - I’m loving the idea of collecting fashionable outfits in order to bestow Nikki with new abilities and powers. You see, in order to progress in this new world Nikki finds herself in, she must collect ‘whim stars’ which are, apparently, the embodiment of whimsy. Sounds delightful. To do this, she puts on various dresses and outfits to gain abilities.

Like a bubble dress that makes her lighter than air, or a set of dungarees that turns her into a bug-catching pro. There’s a dress made of petals that allows her to glide on the breeze (as mentioned previously) and a ‘purification’ outfit that dispels darkness from cuddly characters gone rogue. It seems like, instead of collecting tools to farm or interact with animals, it will all happen through fashion.

Infold Games

I’m looking forward to the Rippling Serenity dress that allows for fishing. I’m a sucker for fishing in any game and will happily look like a pretty waifu while doing it.

Perhaps the only thing I’m wary of, though not against, is the Gacha mechanics to be included. As I mentioned, this is a free-to-play game but you can support the game with microtransactions. This was one reason I gave up on the recent Zenless Zone Zero, which ticked many of my boxes but became overly reliant on Gacha-style play.

Due to having to craft these ability outfits, my fear is the materials and ingredients will be found through Gacha pulls, though I would assume that some simple grinding through play will achieve the same results.

Infold Games

There’s a lot of potential here for the game to be incredibly successful. I’ve highlighted playing it on PlayStation, but the game will also be available on mobile and PC too. At the time of writing, Infinity Nikki has over 32 million players pre-registered to play, with the developers giving away in-game items when registration milestones are met.

Now I’m counting down the days until release. I just wanna be a pretty anime girl wandering through a twee and beautiful world revelling in everything whimsical. For now, I’m falling into a Reddit rabbit hole to catch up on the history of Nikki and her adorable cat sidekick. I’ll be back on 5 December for my dress fitting.