Infinity Nikki is one of those games I've been wanting to check out for a long time, but never really had the time to fit in until now. The recent Stardew Valley collaboration finally gave me the push I needed to dive in. Ironically, it ended up being the weakest part of the experience—and yet, I kept playing anyway.
What originally made me want to try this game out turned out to be one of the least interesting aspects of it, but Infinfty Nikki's stellar gameplay kept me captivated beyond it. The Stardew Valley crossover alone wouldn't have kept me playing, but luckily, there's a lot to love outside of it.
To reach the Stardew Valley content, I first had to work through many entry quests. These missions took a decent chunk of time to complete, and I slowly chipped away at them over a few days. Since I had to put in quite a bit of work to unlock the event, my hopes were rather high. So imagine my surprise when it turned out to be barely five minutes' worth of content that was over before it even began.
In this event, a Junimo appears near Nikki's house and mistakes her for the farmer from Stardew Valley. You're then asked to plant and grow a crop, talk to the Junimo, give them a gift, they reciprocate, and then they leave. Even if you navigate through this event rather slowly, it's still not more than 10 minutes of content, and that's stretching it to the max.
Stardew Valley doesn't do collaborations very often, so it just feels like a missed opportunity. Calling it an event is generous, and for all intents and purposes, the items given by the Junimo really could've just been sent in the mail, and it would've felt basically the same.
Taking stellar photos is one of the key gameplay elements in Infinity Nikki, yet you're not even given a chance to snap some pictures with the Junimo before they leave. Luckily, I decided to take a few between the mini event missions, but if I hadn't, I would've missed the opportunity entirely.
Fully finishing the event mission gets you a Stardew Valley Encounter outfit that includes a hairstyle, dress, socks, shoes, headwear, choker, chest accessory, and backpiece. You also get a small chicken gramophone to place around your home, and can unlock some music and a bonus hair clip by interacting with it.
The prizes are nice, but since this collaboration was advertised as an event, I expected a lot more from it. With what it actually is, it should've been marketed as just a free giveaway with a couple of goodies given to all players. Events promise multiple quests, rewards you have to work hard to earn, and depth, all of which were missing here.
I don't know what exactly I would've wanted from this crossover, but I know it was a missed opportunity to do more. More furniture items, perhaps including items like a Junimo plushie or hut, and interacting with characters from the game in a series of quests seem like a good starting point, though. Especially wacky ones like Krobus and the Wizard, who would've fit into the mysterious world of Infinity Nikki quite well. The Junimo was a good starting point, but there's so much more that should've come over from Pelican Town, too.
What makes this crossover even worse is the dialogue that went with it. This super short interaction ends with Nikki saying something along the lines of how she'll never forget this event, which feels ridiculous since nothing happened, and it was over in about five minutes.
I'm completely hooked on Infinity Nikki now, but it's not at all thanks to the Stardew Valley crossover. This collaboration event had so much potential, but it really fell flat, and even calling it an event at all feels generous. Maybe there's hope for a more meaningful part two in the future. Until then, I'll be happily lost in Infinity Nikki for its own merits—despite the letdown that brought me here in the first place.
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The post I started Infinity Nikki for the Stardew Valley collab—and stayed in spite of it appeared first on Destructoid.
