Geeky Nerd

This post is meant to talk about a recent Infinity Nikki “drama” and some recent choices in Genshin Impact. I want to provide some context to the situations and talk about some of their similarities and the two vastly different approaches that the companies took to solve what could be seen as similar issue. Now, I need to emphasize that in no way situation with Infinity Nikki and Genshin Impact is the same, but I have found some similar elements in them which I want to highlight today in this post.

A New Laid-back Gacha

Infinity Nikki is a game developed and released in 2024 by InFold Games and Papergames. This game is the fifth installment in the Nikki dress-up game series. It was always targeted primarily towards female audience and was meant to be cosy adventure with little to no fighting. The game was meant to emphasis creativity and connection at it’s core. I played it on the day of release and I can vouch for the fact that it was exactly how it felt. The plot was not overwhelming and the world felt bright and whimsy. It wasn’t all good, though. I could only play on the phone and the controls fell short for me, which made me frustrated at times. Yet, no game is flawless, especially at launch, so I did follow the story for at least a while.

The story went like this: Nikki and her familiar cat-friend Momo were in the mother’s attic searching for a dress for the prom. Suddenly, a gorgeous dress hidden in the wardrobe comes to live and dances Nikki away into a magical world where she is met with a goddess who knew Nikki’s mother and who sets Nikki on the mission to save this world by collecting Miracle Outfits. During Nikki’s time in this magical world we learn that the inspiration for those Miracle Outfits should come to Nikki from her experiences of helping people there. It’s a very wholesome and heart-warming tale. Please, keep this premise in mind for the future.

Genshin Impacted My Life for Years

Genshin Impact, on the other hand, is a far more ordinary gacha game in the sense of it’s audience, yet not the way it was presented. It was developed and released in 2020 by MiHoYo and it was the first gacha to take place in such a vast 3D environment as it does now. It was Genshin Impact who influences the look and tactic of Infinity Nikki is that regard. I’ve joined it in early 2022 and still follow its lore with great interest. There are many things I can say about the game, but most importantly for this post I want to mention how Genshin Impact was gradually introducing new elements to the story. It started like a medieval fantasy with dragons and gods, but with each region it evolved into a sci-fi world with magic and who knows what else. It took its time to develop into the very controversial motorcycle that Mavuika, one of the playable characters, rides. Some say it’s defying the tone of the game they play, I say, this game has got Internet and robots anyway. In other words, I don’t make a big issue out of it.

The Update That Broke The Game

On the 28th of April, the was the 1.5 update in Infinity Nikki that changed the game entirely. Remember how I told you to keep the premise I described in mind? Well, of course it was done so you can through it into the trash now because that’s exactly what InFold did without any prior notice.

Now, Nikki was a world travelling goddess, whose world got destroyed, so she simply moved to the next one… I… Let’s just say, I don’t play the game any longer. It’s not the story I have embarked upon and it’s not a story that is easy to get attached to if you know that it’s just another one of the world that you visit. There is no emotional connection to the story now.

Worse still, I could not find any good reason from the company why the simple, understandable premise from before has been forsaken for the development of this new abstract and confusing story. The closest thing I can find is every players unanimous consensus that the story change would lore-wise justify the new co-op feature which was added in the same update.

For Dungeons And Dragons To Dragons And Spaceships

Before I say another word on Infinity Nikki I want to describe the main reason why I decided to write this post in the first place. You see, on Friday, 6th of June, Genshin Impact had a live stream about the upcomming update. In this live stream a spaceship was mentioned. Whether it’s the Traveller’s spaceship or someone else’s is up to interpretation until the update goes live but I need to emphasize the build-up done to this revelation. I’m reminding you that the game started like a medieval fantasy, there’s not supposed to be spaceships in medieval times, yet this reveal sounds normal due to the plot’s development over the years.

Yes, some people may feel like it’s out of place since the world doesn’t look like our modern world and, therefore, it’s underdeveloped. But this line of thinking cannot be further from truth. At the very first region players could already fight giant robots and with each new area more and more technological gadgets beyond the scope of our modern ones have been gradually introduces in the game, it’s just that many players didn’t pay much attention to it.

Retconning and Layering, Where is the Problem?

And now I want to conclude with explaining why Infinity Nikki failed to provide a nice story while Genshin Impact thrives in adding more and more elements to it.

To begin with, unlike Infinity Nikki, Genshin Impact is not trying to change the premise of the game by adding elements to it which to many may seem otherworldly. On the contrary, those elements finally provide a reasonable answer as to why certain things happen certain ways.

On the other hand, Infinity Nikki tried to mend that which was not broken. At least, not broken yet. You see, the reason why I decided to compare them in the first place not just comes from the fact that they mentioned a spaceship in the life stream. It’s an element that can add another layer or twist to the story that players were not aware of much before, because, let’s be honest, Genshin Impact’s lore is so heavily based in real life works and ideas, knowing them well will give a nice outline of how the story will play out even if it’s left unspoken in the game.

To me, if InFold really wanted to change Nikki’s story, they could only wait and mend the course by switching the plot from one to another with a little line of quests. Simply cutting a limb which was not dead yet seemed like an overkill. If you want Nikki to be a space travelling goddess instead of an ordinary girl who wished to find a dress for her prom, it’s possible to do that by introducing a short quest which would give you the opportunity to do what you want.

In other words, what I want to say is InFold’s controversy of Infinity Nikki is a cautionary tale for any author who wished to drastically change the story that many people have fallen in love with. After all, if the audience is already in love with a story regardless of how flawed it is, it’s wiser to let it stay and reshape it step by step to cover the problems over a stretch of time in order not to lose the audience who is fascinated by it as it is.