Love Nikki: Costume Up Queen – “Dressed up” doesn’t equal “modern”

…What? I instructed you I used to be a misplaced trigger. Save yourselves!

I needed to do a spot of prolonged babysitting earlier this month due to causes. To maintain my niece entertained, I downloaded Love Nikki: Costume Up Queen on my pill and let her attempt it. Why that recreation particularly? As a result of I’d seen adverts for it (which turned out to be false and non-representative of the particular recreation, however that’s a matter for an additional day) and it regarded innocent sufficient for a second-grader, so I believed why not.

As for a way I ended up enjoying the sport myself after she went dwelling, and the way I ended up spending sufficient cash on it to achieve VIP 6 stage… effectively… Umm… I’d like to let you know how, however I don’t fairly know myself. I believe initially it was as a result of she would ask for assist at any time when she couldn’t cross a stage – which was typically, as a result of Love Nikki isn’t actually about trend. So I acquired concerned in serving to her cross phases. Then I acquired tremendous concerned within the crafting facet of making new fits as a result of videogame crafting has at all times been my “factor.” And one factor led to a different and now, right here we’re.

Story

Nikki, an bizarre pink-haired woman, and her bizarre speaking cat Momo are whisked away to the magical world of Miraland by a mysterious lady. They uncover that Miraland is a world the place every part, completely every part together with conflict and politics, is determined by means of type battles. Can Nikki type her method by means of a political quagmire and return to her authentic world? … In fact not, in any other case the sport would finish. I truly get pleasure from Love Nikki‘s story, what little sense I could make of it. And I hear it will get very critical and darkish in a while, however with the highway blocks the sport loves throwing in my method, I in all probability gained’t discover out until late 2022.

Gameplay

While you learn the title “Love Nikki: Costume Up Queen,” you is likely to be forgiven for pondering that it’s a cell recreation about trend and styling. It’s not, although. It says “gown up,” it doesn’t say something about “look modern” or “put on gadgets that look good” or something outrageous like that. Love Nikki is truly about throwing collectively random gadgets with excessive stats so you possibly can cross phases and get fairly footage as digital rewards.

It really works like this: each stage has a theme. Each piece of clothes has tags that correspond with a mode or a theme, e.g. “Easy,” “Elegant,” “Workplace,” “Swordsman.” In addition they have grades like 1-5 hearts and A-SS in sure qualities. So that you obtain your theme, then you definately match the items to the theme, creating an outfit. Throw in some abilities like smiling or dissing your rival (there’s nearly at all times a rival) after which, in case your rating is excessive sufficient, you win.

And that’s why my niece struggled with the sport. The poor youngster was attempting to play Love Nikki like a correct trend recreation and choosing clothes that truly regarded good and made sense as an outfit. Hahaha, so cute. An skilled RPG participant would know that you simply at all times go along with the gear with the best stats, trend be damned. So if a stage requires “elegant and mature” clothes, you don’t wanna appear like this:

You need to appear like THIS!

Frequent sense, practicality, aesthetics, not blinding onlookers… none of that issues a whit. Simply throw on the rarest items with the best stats and wing it. And in the event you’re unsure what finest to put on, your assistant Momo will flat out let you know what garish combo you’ll want to clear the stage. Creativity? What’s creativity within the face of a strolling trend Chernobyl?

The one place the place trend and looking out good truly issues is the Competitors, a mini-game the place the builders set a theme and gamers do the judging. However that’s an entire ‘nuther kettle of fish with its ultra-specific themes that require a small subset of fits, backgrounds and equipment (typically paid or tremendous grindy) to get a excessive rating in.

The TL;DR is that Love Nikki shouldn’t be about trend. It’s about grinding/farming/paying for fits with excessive stats so you possibly can cross challenges. Not solely will you fail phases in the event you don’t gown loopy sufficient, however the recreation may even cease you frequently and power you to grind and craft fits you don’t even need earlier than you possibly can progress.

Come to consider it, truly there’s treasured little else you are able to do on this recreation in addition to grinding for fits. The Competitors takes a number of seconds to arrange. The Stylist Area takes about 10 minutes a day after you have “good” fits arrange. Dreamweaver is just like story mode the place you want particular fits/grinding gadgets to cross. After which… that’s it.

love nikki dress up queen stylist arena battle

Whoever wins, all of us lose.

The remainder of the sport is about spending puny bits of stamina to collect fancy-looking fits of clothes. A few of that are actually beautiful, however a lot of that are too far-fetched and excessive for me. It’s not that the garments don’t look good. They actually, actually do and I love the colourful 2D artwork. It’s not too vivid, not too pastel, not too girly, not too drab, and there are some very inventive gadgets! It’s a great-looking recreation. Nonetheless, personally I’m far more interested in practical-looking garments. A brilliant-fancy go well with like this…

..simply raises all types of questions. Wouldn’t these sequins be scratchy? Why is she sitting on damaged glass? Think about the associated fee to make it, the dimensions of the dry cleansing invoice… And the place would you put on that gown to? I’ve lived on this earth for many years, and the one ball I’ve been close to is soccer.

I imply, searching for realism in a online game about preventing conflict by means of type battles is… not advisable, however when I’ve to spend real-life time and power gathering such fits, I want those that require me to do fewer psychological gymnastics. To not point out the easier ones are simpler to get too. It’s enjoyable to play with them within the Free Dressing choice, regardless of the bittersweetness of figuring out you’ll hardly ever “use” them in-game as a result of the boring regular stuff nearly at all times has dismal stats. It’s all concerning the stats, I’m afraid.

Pay to Win? Free to Play?

Now, let’s speak about how I got here to spend… hmm, about $50? on this recreation once I’ve been enjoying many different, higher gacha video games for longer and by no means spent a penny. I ought to preface this by making it clear which you can completely play and luxuriate in Love Nikki at no cost. No adverts, no pestering, no nothing. There are some things you possibly can’t get with out paying cash, however there’s sooo many others out there that you simply gained’t even discover. Actually, you’ll typically hear individuals within the fandom saying they’re “V0” i.e. “VIP stage 0” = they by no means spent something on the sport. Roughly 90% gacha video games are F2P (free to play), in order that’s the conventional method of issues.

What makes Love Nikki a little bit completely different is that you simply get everlasting advantages for spending cash even as soon as. Most video games, you purchase your crystals or your primogems or no matter, you spend them and get your shiny items and that’s it. Till the subsequent time you spend cash. In LN, along with the shiny JPEGs, you additionally get a lift in standing that offers you minor rewards in perpetuity. For instance, now that I’m V6, I’ll get all these items day-after-day:

Plus 15 additional max stamina, +20% to Area and Competitors spherical prizes and reductions on new gadgets, all for so long as the sport will final. For those who’re in it for the lengthy haul, the additional boosts will add up considerably over time.

Naturally the builders aren’t silly. They’re not providing you with all this out of the goodness of their hearts. Plenty of these privileges value premium foreign money, a.ok.a diamonds to unlock. For instance, in concept a V6 participant can problem the Stylist’s Area 17 instances and win as much as 85 Starlight cash a day. In follow, 12 of these challenges will value 20 diamonds every, i.e. 240 diamonds a day for the total gamut. In the meantime the sport solely provides 60 diamonds at no cost each day (120 with a month-to-month card), so the place does the deficit come from? Yup, they anticipate you to spend extra IRL money on diamonds.

Plus they intentionally jack up the costs of clothes you’ll want to cross phases.

…however I gained’t. Having purchased two month-to-month playing cards for additional each day diamonds and a bunch of starlight cash to jumpstart my story progress and construct a good wardrobe, I believe I’m good for now. It’s fairly intelligent of them to offer “privileges” that require you to spend extra money to benefit from them, although. I ought to pay attention to that for the actual world purposes. Hmm…

Aaaanywaaay, I’ve been enjoying Love Nikki for lower than a month, so if I’m nonetheless within the recreation and have the time to spare, I’ll discuss extra concerning the story, characters and gameplay development one other day. That is sufficient for a preliminary submit.

What else am I enjoying?

Nothing a lot. I finished enjoying Genshin Influence for like 2 months, however I picked it up once more final week as a result of I hear the summer season islands are solely non permanent and can be going away quickly. A lot exploring to do. I even have two archon quests to make amends for and the Vagabond Sword thingy and the Dodoball tennis factor to do. And the sport has login bonuses this week, yay.

In “correct” gaming information, selection paralysis continues! I used to be googling PS3 emulators the opposite day, and I believe possibly my desktop laptop might run one? Possibly? There are solely three PS3 video games I need to play: Ar Tonelica Qoga, Time and Eternity (rip Imageepoch) and Persona 5, so I undoubtedly don’t need to purchase an entire console only for three video games. Not that I’ve the time to play them, however I’ll look into the emulation route and see. Shhh, don’t inform Sony.

In different information, I acquired my laptop computer mounted, so I can proceed Tokyo Xanadu eX+ if I need to. However I believe it’s time for me to confess I simply don’t need to end it so I can transfer on. I hold eager to do a last roundup submit for it, which might require a last roundup play session, which I’m too lazy to do. To not point out all these video games I attempted for an hour and thought they have been form of cool however really feel too lazy to proceed enjoying, particularly since I do know they are going to solely disappoint me ultimately. I don’t need to assume any extra, so carry on the informal video games!

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