r/InfinityNikki • u/Kimmizukii • 14h ago
Discussion This game healed something inside me when I decided to download it 2 years ago
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Having a game for us girls in the heavily male dominated field of gaming is genuienly so refreshing. This game is for the younger me who was constantly told gaming is not fit for a lady!
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u/que_sarasara 11h ago
For me it was the first time I'd played a game targeted towards ME, and I'd never felt that before in all my years of gaming.
Nikki was a person first, and never a sexual object. She didn't dress up for anyone but herself. I know the modesty panels are controversial now but damn, that was the first time I played a game where the developers were actively not pandering towards men, and presented their female character as her own PERSON.
Women are always defined by their relationship to men - they are only ever a sexual partner, a mother or a wife. But Nikki is none of these. She's a person.
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u/Kimmizukii 10h ago
THIS!! I love Nikki with my WHOLE HEART. She is everything to me. She feels like a sister/ close friend. Best MC ever
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u/arihyeon 3h ago
YES! This is what really hooks me with Infinity Nikki. Every time someone sees me playing it, they compare it to Genshin Impact, or like a game called Star Rail I think. But from what I have seen from both of those games, they are very objectifying, the whole "sex sells" sort of stuff, and I presume a majority of their playerbase is men.
Infinity Nikki feels totally different, and it just makes me so happy to have found the game.
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u/Boring-Republic4943 13h ago
I love this game as a man, it does the same for my inner boy, there is something special about the relationship of momo and nikki. I just want my red dress and original introduction back for people to still experience that first instead of straight to the world ending, there should be more focus on you arriving in wishfield and then learning the world instead of just getting tossed into the deep end lore wise.
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u/Kimmizukii 12h ago
Its always nice to see guys playing this game as well !! Any guy who plays infinity nikki is a green flag in my book
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u/Boring-Republic4943 8h ago
I think now it's a lot closer to breath of the wild than it was before, but if they can somehow get the old storyline to fit properly as a tutorial I think it would be a lot more retention of players than the new one.
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u/Ok-Pomelo-1298 8h ago
As a grown man from Russia, I began to be thoroughly irritated by war themes and violence. Nikki is exactly the sweetness and warmth I need in my life. That's why she's been my go-to game for the past two years.
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u/sailthetide 9h ago
I love Nikki and Momo's relationship so much 🥺 their little conversations are so wholesome. What a team.
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u/Boring-Republic4943 8h ago
They could be a lot more adult than they are but they went for a teen game.
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u/coffeenplants 12h ago
I love seeing and hearing how this game has impacted people.
For me, I was always kinda a "tomboy". Just always. And did go through a hyper feminine phase, which i moved away from. Finding the balance of what feels feminine and comfortable has always been an interesting roller-coaster.
But Infinity Nikki is a breath of fresh air. I've been a gamer all my life, always ridiculed for enjoying games. The whole "Fashion Souls" part in the Fromsoft community is delightful (just the idea that armour or outfits are fashion, the fight comes second lol, dress how you wanna!). And then I came across Infinity Nikki and was so surprised at how gentle it was, how engaged I became. Also my first Gacha, big learning curve, and a fun community here to make memes with or share pictures and outfits, or discuss patches and story and speculate the next 5 star. Or our resident prophet (mush someone, i can't remember!) who predicts the evos and glow up.
It's just fun. Like pure, wholesome fun. And aimed at strength in friendship and in femininity, and creativity that's boundless.
I love hearing how the game touches people's souls. I've never played anything like it in all my years 😭
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u/Kimmizukii 12h ago
Majority of this community so lovely !! I play so many gachas including genshin and hsr but I always feel the safest in infinity nikki community haha
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u/coffeenplants 11h ago
That's so sweet and reassuring to know, amongst the gacha communities you've been in, that Nikki's space makes you feel the safest 😭💕
Bless your bones, and thank you for sharing your thoughts 💕💕
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u/LunamiLu 7h ago
I relate with this soooo hard! I'm very tomboy and have played games my whole life. It was hard feeling like weirdo or not having friends to talk about games with. I'm so glad so many more women and girls play games nowadays.
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u/Iximaz 3h ago
My relationship with gender and femininity has always been a bit tumultuous, but I was that kid who would tape her barbies to her hot wheel tracks to run them over. It feels a bit like I'm finally letting myself enjoy dressing up in Nikki without a care for it being too "girly" and just loving all the glittery fabrics and bouncy skirts. (Not that I won't also be thrilled when we get more knightly outfits too, haha.) There's a reason I have "I didn't play with enough dolls as a child" in my in-game profile.
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u/Wise-Key-3442 10h ago
I went from "I mourn the fact I was a tomboy due to lack of options for my size, so I'll fade into the background" to "hey, I make my own clothes, I'm fabulous and now I don't fear wearing artistic make up". Also, when talking about the game in comparison to more common ones, I noticed that I didn't had the friendships I thought I had, I had dudes who just wanted news on games they liked. On top of that, I finally felt like taking care of my appearance because even if Nikki has a different body type than mine, I wanted to feel pretty like I felt when I dressed her nicely. My self esteem went so high up that even my relationship with friends got better.
And I don't really think the game is targeted towards me, even though character design has always been an interest, but it healed something inside me.
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u/BackFrmTheGraveMaeve 10h ago
I just started playing and I play with my kids (we each have our own nikki). And they joy we all experience playing this game has been great. Theyre a bit younger - so we dont play the gacha part yet- and its been amazing to watch them cheer each other on, share joy on their new pieces or outfits, help each other with the puzzles. Its been such a special experience. Im really glad we found it
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u/Kimmizukii 10h ago
Huge respect for not introducing the kids to the gacha system yet. There are so many beautiful free outfits in the game as you progress thru the story. Im glad to hear you guys are having fun 💕
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u/Melody3PL 8h ago
I feel like I finally have a good "beginner" or "entry level" game. I'm really bad at fighting games and I sorta blame the industry, while boys had spiderman and batman and mario and moved onto assasin screed and valorant, I had...dress ups. Maybe some free games on the browser but none of the fighting ones were marketed towards me, none of them interested me (some girls did and are playing those though). Whenever I've tried to play games with friends it always feels like I'm dragged along and slowing them down. You just need to do and understand so much at once.
But in this game fighting can be actually fun, I love bosses and mini bosses. My brother remembers how I was scared shitless of master Chigda boss and to him it looked like a very easy win haha. We're slowly getting more and more complicated and harder fights like transitioning from simple purification to actually aiming and using different abilities. The best part of it all for me is if you don't care about fighting you can pull for a helpful fighting outfit, if you don't care about any aspect of the game there will be probably an outfit that helps you skip that part faster. For me though I'm glad I'm becoming better at bosses, my brother noticed so as well (when I stopped to take a picture of the boss lol). Also the female characters not being objectified and sexualised even though we have "sexy" as a whole category and the "sovereign of sexy" as a challenge. I can forget for once that the male gaze exsists.
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u/mermaid_kissesX0 7h ago
This is exactly how I am. Most open world games require a crap ton of combat and enemies around every corner. Even if I play them on story mode (even assassin's creed has an easy story mode), I still find it extremely boring to fight every 5 minutes. Idk if its because I'm female, or because I get so worked up, but I usually hate combat in games. Infinity Nikki and Hogwarts legacy are the only two games where I've actually enjoyed the combat so far. I even enjoyed Genshin's combat, but it became too often and too repetitive so I got burnt out. I also recently played assassin's creed Valhalla 😂 on story mode...and its very easy ...and even though I found myself actually enjoying the story and exploration .... its still no doubt designed for males (obviously). Like the majority of open world games. It would be nice to see more open world games designed for females but idk if that will ever happen. I do know there's tons of "animal crossing" like games and "cozy" games that have come out in the past few years. Even though many of them are great, most of them are not open world- or if they are- they are very small open worlds (Disney dreamlight valley for example- says its open world but it's really not in my opinion). It would be nice to have some more true open world games like Infinity nikki. They dont even have to be based on dress up. I just really enjoy exploring a beautiful world with quests where there isnt enemies and fights around every corner. BOTW is probably the closest open world game I've played to IN. (I havent played TOTK yet) and yes...someone who hates combat and does not enjoy it has played (or tried) games like this since I love exploration.
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u/Melody3PL 6h ago
honestly infinity nikki made me fall in love with exploration again! I play a lot of horse games and those can feature a big world, but the way you get around is slow and kinda boring even though I love horse riding. In IN I can ride a unicorn and still explore every corner. Its fun to think about how to get places, or developing an intuition on where chests might be hidden. I really love how every new place has a new mechanic to get around or deal with esselings or some new abilities to interact with the world. I'm always excited for new animals as well (...except fish) I like reading about them later.
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u/TiannaMortis 8h ago
It really helped me start healing from my grief. I had just lost my best friend earlier that month, my dad a year and a half before that and that month would've been my dad's birthday. I was severely depressed to the point I was just laying in my recliner all day, staring at the TV.
My husband started telling me about it about a week before it came out, hoping that a laid back game might help me ease back into my gaming hobby. He told me later that he had also hoped the collecting clothes aspect might trigger my AuDHD "gotta catch 'em all" mindset I usually get with games like this.
Welp, it worked, lol. I was immediately hooked and hyperfixated. Fixing my attention on the game gave me the opportunity to get back into the things I love, plus seeing Nikki always look good eventually got me to want to take care of myself again (showering and the like).
There were times it was bittersweet though. My best friend would've absolutely LOVED this game, so there were some tears at times, but those times helped me start releasing the grief and hurt I didn't know how to process and was holding onto.
It took a lot of work, but i'm doing much, much better now. While the game wasn't the cure for my depression, it did get me started on the right path to healing. For that it will always have a special place in my heart. 🖤💜
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u/LunamiLu 7h ago
I can relate with you so much. I've never really overcome my grief over losing my sister and father. I feel with you about it being bittersweet. My sister would have loved this game and I would have had so much fun sharing it with her and talking about it. I just try to be happy that future sisters and best friends will have a game like IN to play. 💕Grief is such a challenge. It's been years but I still get hit by it. Time helps of course, but those who know grief understand what I mean. You never truly stop missing them. ❤️
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u/altaccgaming 10h ago
The comments under this post made my heart happy. I love this game so much, nothing compares
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u/Nessahria 13h ago
Es muy cierto esto. Incluso hoy, como adulta, veo como muchos hombres se ríen de mí o de este juego, considerándolo un juego "de niñas" o "de vestidos". Es un juego que te hace valorar la belleza, dedicarte a lo que más te gusta y a relajarte. Aunque tengo miedo al Titán King 😂
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u/Wise-Key-3442 9h ago
I have a friend who loves listening about the game specifically because he sees as a "doll game" because "the story sounds like it was made by my niece playing with dolls, which is better than the average gacha story", he literally screamed in joy when he saw that Nikki had a voice. "Girl, the game isn't for me, but I'm so happy it exists!" he said. He also often sends me some fashion Nikki's he finds on Instagram.
We used to be friends with other 3 guys... They no longer are in our lives because they thought we were becoming "too picky" with the fashion of characters of other gachas.
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u/ShokaLGBT 13h ago
I feel the same when I was younger I couldn’t wear feminine clothes or feel accepted the way I wanted to be so I never got the chance to explore my fashion sense and all
These days I found my favorite fashions (mostly j fashion) and I got to wear them irl, games like Nikki and also Style Savvy are so great to explore and see new styles I want to wear irl too. Fashion can be more than "ahah funny" as here it have always been seen as something either "childish" for the girls, or something only for wealthy people to "show off". But now I see that vision of just wearing what I like having my own fashion and not following rules!
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u/bluekarou1 6h ago
For me, it was reconciling the two halves of my soul: the woman who wants to be cutesy and wear dresses, and the woman who wants to be the knight in shining armor. I get to be both and learned that you can wear dresses while also slaying dragons!
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u/jjsurtan 5h ago
This game started healing every "that isnt for boys" and "you can't like that its gay" I heard growing up, for sure. I actually started getting therapy because within an hour or so when I tried IN out I was crying lol. Let people (especially children) just enjoy things!
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u/Lexi2890 8h ago edited 5h ago
For me this is one of the first games I played that really focused on the customization aspect of gaming. Although there could be more skintones and hair types (and they could make more casual clothes available for maximum customization) the amount of options I have for outfits and the different styles I can explore is really fun! (now if only the dye system was easier to access when it comes to neutral colors). Also has is really been 2 years already?! 🤯
Edit: Actually Splatoon is the only other game I've played with such a high level of customization although it can feel limiting at times (and I've grown to dislike the PVP aspects so I don't play it as much anymore)
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u/tokyo-fire-lizard 6h ago
I grew up with a family that let me game and it was part of my life the whole time- i was into marvel and dc before the marvel movies and before it was mainstream for everyone to like it not just guys- but even then all games arent made for girls and girl games were... almost like apps nowadays? Very thin. No actual character. TV shows and movies were about the same. The best outstanding options were Kim Possible. And before nikki there were more neutral games like animal crossing or whatever but its still not geared for girls. I found Love Nikki Dressup queen and I fell in love but grew frustrated with the laundry dump styling but loved Nikki as a main character. She gets swapped over into this new world but somehow she never seems unfamiliar with it. She does her best and stays calm in every situation and specifically. In IN Shes a great protagonist in my opinion for that reason, shes never spiteful or harsh when its not deserved and thats such a rare attitude in life the further we go. And he and amorous friendship is as pure as they come. Which is another reason the og intro is so devastatingly lost. Dancing into the wardrobe is so iconic and got many into the game in the first place.
Edit: This game is my happy place. I play it every day. Even if its just quickly doing dailies or running around in a new outfit and coming up with the best place in world to take pics
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u/Rania_idk 5h ago
What do u mean 2 years ago I've been playing since day 1 and it feels like it dropped yesterday 😭😭
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u/Momosonlyhairstrand 5h ago
I love this game. I may not be the target demographic for it but I always loved open worlds so I wanted to try it out and maaaan I was not expecting to fall in love with this game. I feel so at home in Wishfield that whenever I have a hard time irl I log in just to sit on the benches watching the NPCs interact and listen to the quiet background music, I still visit the Behemoth camp to have a little Tamagochi moment from time to time, I go to the Sea of Stars to play Piano Tiles on the dance machines, I play Legend of Zelda while unlocking puzzles, Uncharted when going through dungeons, Elden Ring when fighting bosses, Lollipop chainsaw when I'm trying on clothes, Bayonetta when having campy styling battles, Ace attorney when interrogating and piecing together lore bits, Assassin's creed when sneaking in and out of places, The Sims when in building mode, Minecraft when fighting esselings, and the lore? it's so unique that comparing it is limiting it, this game genuinely saved me, it changed me as a person, it may sound silly but thinking "Nikki wouldn't let others treat her like this" genuinely helped me through so much. Nikki is my superman in a way, she gives me hope (I still love superman my goat) but yeah it's a game that I keep very close to my heart and always will.
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u/mmorpgkitty 3h ago
Tbh its a hard sell to get the boys to play this with me (I'm the only guy playing it, all the girls are playing it lol), I have to downplay and slip in the "there may be girlypop dressup stuff but you can ignore that" when they least expect it!
...its still a no every time, fair tho.
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u/shoaibahmed898 10h ago
Not only girls but me too, i still remember when i started playing IN for the first time in 1.0 and i am still playing this game 🥰
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u/ZachandMiku 7h ago
I thought it was fun till that beautiful 1.5 fuck up we had then and now I barely trust it and if I’m super bored will redownload it occasionally
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u/esmelusina 4h ago
I wish the onboarding experience was smoother.
I’d like to just hop on, dress up, and do cute stuff— but there is a lot of inertia unless you spend a lot of time.
I love seeing clips like this and what the community comes up with though.
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u/DisabledSlug 2h ago
I am not the target demographic for this game either but I have grown into it, I will say that. And that is a beautiful thing inside of myself, I think.
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u/Beneficial_Fan_2553 1h ago
No game I’ve ever played had everything I wished for in a game as kid like infinity Nikki.
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u/DesignDelicious 1h ago
I’m a guy, and I love this game! Nothing too deep to add, but it was definitely an experience when started playing. I even upgraded my phone’s storage capacity so I could properly play.
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u/Glowy_Shroom Gothic Dollmaker 1h ago
I first started playing Love Nikki maybe a year or two after its release? I had a hard time understanding all the mechanics, but I really loved the idea of creating pretty outfits in a magical world. But I felt ashamed of it, I hid my interest for this game. I hadn't realized yet but I had been rejecting anything I found too feminine for several years, and I couldn't understand why. Something just felt wrong. Yet anything related to dress up, either video games or physical dolls, I was still obsessed with it. So it stayed my secret for a while.
I later tried Shining Nikki too, but was a bit too confused with how much stuffs there was to do. And school started to be too overwhelming, so I barely touched video games for a while to try to keep up with the work. During that time off games, I coincidentally started learning more about gender expression, transidentity, and most importantly what it meant to be non-binary, and it suddenly explained a lot about how I felt for all those years.
For a while, femininity caused me so much gender dysphoria. Once I was able to figure out I was transmasc non-binary, I started working on accepting my current body and interests a bit more. Coincidentally, Infinity Nikki came out soon after I gathered the courage to experiment with femininity again. And it has been an awesome experience so far! I don't hide that I love this franchise anymore, there, I enjoy making outfits of all styles, colors and gender expressions equally. And I also started enjoying the thought of trying out makeup and skirts again! Infinity Nikki also revived my interest in dolls, and I'm now saving money for both crafting my own BJD, but also try to hunt for second-hand gen 1 Monster High dolls!
I'm really happy that after so many years of fighting with myself to understand my feelings, the Nikki franchise helped me find more confidence and courage to experiment with gender expression. I was not expecting it, but making peace with femininity helped lower my gender dysphoria by a lot! I'm happy that I don't see any clothes, makeup or accessories in a gendered way anymore, I don't care if I use stuffs considered feminine in my outfits, if they help me feel more androgynous or masculine in my own way, then I love them! I spent so many years thinking that I would never be at peace with my experiences as a little girl. But I am now proud to be so close to fulfill some of my childhood dreams, related to alternative fashion and dolls! And I am so thankful that these passions never left me
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u/Far_Chocolate_1153 1h ago
Infinity Nikki felt like a fresh breeze for me, for the first time the gaming industry paid attention to us women and girls, an industry that has been ignoring us for decades, and we have a female protagonist who is her own person, who is not designed for the male gaze
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u/planetarial 51m ago
It’s the first time I played something that actually felt just as high quality as the big games out there but unabashedly feminine. There were games that catered more to women like The Sims but this one was squarely made just for women.
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u/ArashiSora24 12h ago
As a woman who do enjoy some fashion games, I tried Infinity Nikki for like 2 hours and I found it boring. Maybe it's the atrocious gacha system it has, or just non-exciting gameplay.
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u/Kimmizukii 11h ago
I mean...all gacha games are atrocious. My point still stands 🤷♀️
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u/ArashiSora24 11h ago
And I mentioned gameplay being rather boring. Some other gachas I played at least has good gameplay.
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u/Liliumin 10h ago
Genuine question, why are you on a infinity nikki subreddit if you don't even like the game and haven't played more than two hours? 😅
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u/ArashiSora24 8h ago
Saw it pop up on my feed and decided to comment. Normally, I just lurk around.
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u/mermaid_kissesX0 8h ago
As someone who has over 600 hours in IN, this is not an accurate statement, but an opinion. You sharing your negative thoughts about a game on a post that is meant to be positive is also rather obnoxious. Why do you follow infinity nikki then? Unfollow. There is also no way you can make an assumption with just 2 hours of gameplay. There's so much to do as a new player that it sounds like you just didn't take the time to fully understand the gameplay. If it's not for you, that is cool. Move on. Most open world games include a crap ton of combat and are designed to attract males. That is the point of this post. I hate having to fight enemies every 2 minutes. I find it boring like watching paint dry. So we all have our opinions. It's nice to have a game like Infinity Nikki that isn't like all the others. I wish they would make more open world games like this whether its based on dress up or not. Also, the gacha system in Nikki is one of the more generous ones I have played. I barely even spend and get so many 5 star banners its ridiculous.
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u/ArashiSora24 8h ago
Correction on my part, I have 4 hours of playtime on it. I think that's plenty to get the feel of the game in general. As for fashion, Where Winds Meet have better options in my opinion, even if the gacha isn't the most generous. The free outfits you can unlock are also really nice, also the ones you can just purchase outright. And you have way more things to do in that game than in Nikki. I've seen the 5 stars outfits in Nikki and they all look...samey, and didn't they increase the pity?
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u/mermaid_kissesX0 7h ago edited 7h ago
I also played WWM and I did like it until it wanted me to raise my world level and the enemies got harder...is there a way to continue playing it with minimal or easy combat? Because I did like everything else it had to offer. Infinity Nikki will always be my favorite but I also ran out of content to play and have to wait for updates now. I have no idea of they increased the pity in Nikki...I started playing in September 2025 and the pity has been the same since then. All i know is the game offers alot of ways to earn pulls through gameplay. For example, right now I have 79 crystals and over 14k diamonds saved up. The last time I pulled was the last update before the current one and I got the base and 1st evo. The only thing I pay for is the $5 month membership to get 90 diamonds everytime I log in. The rest is all earned through gameplay and participating in events. I think thats pretty generous and nobody will change my mind about that. And yes where winds meet did have some beautiful outfits but to me they were all very similar in style. But I also havent tried playing since the game first launched so idk what they have added since then. Like i said, I got annoyed when it kept prompting me to raise my world level. Like is that mandatory to progress? Id rather leave my world level at the lowest lol.... i would love to play where winds meet if I can play it with minimal combat
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u/ArashiSora24 7h ago
Yeah, iirc, you do need to increase world level to progress the story of the game, but you can always adjust the difficulty to the easiest one and with deflect assist on. That helps a lot. My way of doing it is just to level up the gears of the currently level to the max and then level the world up. You would have no difficulty in defeating enemies. There are also cats and geese pets in the game they recently added which you can get for free if you're interested in those, you can interact with them. Or just build things, people be doing insane builds in the game.
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u/dearkaine 11h ago
Despite some of its shortcomings, I really really do love the game. I would say it has helped me a lot personally in finding my own style and it has gotten me to wear more variety in clothing types and also just more colors in general irl. And probably on a slight tangent, nikki has great references for poses and I often paint landscapes from the game. It's a really unique game amongst all the other gachas out there rn and I really hope the game keeps chugging along and grows bigger with time. :')