Infinity Nikki is the latest gacha by Papergames. Built with a loan from Hoyo hanging over their heads where they would get a controlling stake in the company if they can't pay it back, Papergames needs Infinity Nikki to be a smash success. With 10 million downloads in under a week, it seemingly is.
2024-12-15: I've hit the end of the main story as of a couple of days ago. I don't have much to say, it was kind of bland. I went and took a look at Shining Nikki to compare and that one was a lot more pulpy and Nikki didn't seem as much like the world's okayest lobotomite as she does in Infinity. She had some signs of a pulse there. It was funnier when some rando pulled a gun on her in node 1-5 of Shining and said "we're having a fashion battle now" than anything I've seen in Infinity so far. I wish Infinity Nikki were more campy and schlocky like that. It would help give it a more distinct identity.
2024-12-10: I've picked up Infinity Nikki to gawk at it, and then I got sucked in. Infinity Nikki initially seemed to be just another game trying to copy Genshin, but after playing it a bit I'd say where Genshin takes Breath of the Wild as a base and then expands on the combat, Infinity Nikki takes that base and then de-emphasizes combat in favor of focusing on platforming. It's closer to Mario Odyssey than Breath of the Wild. It's good. Infinity Nikki solves the gacha equipment problem by merging the weapon gacha and cosmetic gacha into one unified system. Every piece of equipment you get can go into making a distinct outfit to run around the world in. Infinity Nikki distills the MMO endgame into its purest form: creating good glams and upgrading your item level. Everything else is irrelevant. I've already spent a decent bit chasing one of the genpool gacha 4* fishing outfits because it looked way better than the default one. This game will be a monstrous success.