Shining Nikki is a mobile game developed by Papergames. A sequel to Love Nikki, it was released in Japan on March 18, 2021, ^[1] and globally released on July 5, 2021. It was also released in Korea on October 29, 2020, but then discontinued on November 6, 2020, due to controversy.

Gameplay

Shining Nikki is a dress-up game that is played through styling. In its battle mode, there are five attributes: Sweet, Fresh, Elegant, Sexy, and Cool. The player has to choose the highest scores of the following clothing to increase their Styling Power in order to win against the opponent. After choosing, the player is directed to selecting a Designer's Reflection, artwork of the different designers of sets where each have different skills. After selecting a Designer's Reflection, gameplay of Nikki's outfit is shown, where the player has to press buttons on the corresponding outfit piece that the player has selected. Missing clicking the button loses the chances of the player to click it again. ^[2]

To increase the Styling Power of a Designer's Reflection, the player can go to the Ark. To level up a Designer's Reflection, the player can go to Clock Workshop, where a certain number of exp can be collected depending on the level. A Designer's Reflection also has Stars that correspond with their rank, which can be increased through the use of Memory Keys, which can be collected through Neverfall; Passive Skills, which can be increased through the use of Outfit Crystals, obtained by decomposing extra pieces of clothing the player has already owned; and Call of Reflection, a Designer's Reflection's personal skills increased through a specific Designer's Reflection. Designer's Reflections can also be increased through the use of Concepts and using Concepts from the same series creates resonance. ^[2]

Styling Power can also be increased by developing a player's bond with Nikki through the use of gifts and witnessing events that occurred in Home. In order for Nikki to use gifts, the player has to buy her snacks to increase her vigor. ^[2]

To obtain clothing, the player can collect from Apple Apparel, where the clothing must be purchasing through the use of Gold or Pink Gems; the Gate of Heart through two types: Sea of Fantasy, requiring Fantasy Tickets or Pink Gems, and Sea of Mystery, through the use of Mystery Tickets or Gold, and Workshop, where the player has to collect materials from different story stages to craft certain pieces. ^[2]

Development

Liu Cong Vasiliy, art director of Papergames considers the materials of the clothes as the most important aspect of the game. Having to study the fabrics to achieve a level of high quality, they use Substance Designer to achieve it and consider it to be worthwhile after witnessing the output. They also consider modelling Chinese style embroidery to be the most difficult due to its exquisiteness. ^[3]

Bro Seal, Director of 2D Art behind the game, describes Shining Nikki as having a vast collection of costume styles and how each set is the representation of a character's memory and dedication behind their creation. To make the sets, they settle on a theme, then hire multiple illustrators to decide the details that strike the design. The team picks out the best design into 2D art, eventually being processed to become assets. Along with costume details, fabric texture, and decorative patterns, they are submitted to 3D artists to be adapted as models. Wanting to prioritize creativity, illustrators were provided with the utmost freedom. As Shining Nikki is the first 3D game they created, the development team found it difficult to create a 3D model and took a whole year to do so. They also found challenge in modelling costume designs, placing the set of Out the Phoenix Palace as a particular example as its massive detailing made it difficult to process into the modelling. Thus, they had to spread the assets into multiple layers. ^[4]

Animations are also added to the game as it grants Nikki a much livelier presence, who had always been a 2D character in her previous appearances. The teams make different promotional videos for specific events in the game showcasing Nikki to elite impressions through the sets she's wearing. The team also specifically does research and verifying assumptions made by the team as an idea as to how a realistic 19-year-old girl like Nikki should act and wanted to let the players know of Nikki's thoughts behind her actions. ^[4]

3D animations are created through motion capture and post-production. They are provided scripts and are told what to do as an idea of the actions to portray the animation with the actors' own understanding behind it. They originally had 18 actors, having to be assessed for the team to know how they understand Nikki until finally finding one actress who they believe represents the character. ^[4]

The game had been released in Japan on March 18, 2021 ^[1] and globally on July 5, 2021.

The game has also made collaborations with Neon Genesis Evangelion, ^[5] Cardcaptor Sakura, ^[6] Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, ^[7] Frozen ^[8] and Sanrio through the use of the characters My Melody, Cinnamoroll, Kuromi, and Pompompurin. ^{[9] [10]}

Reception

Shining Nikki had been downloaded 100 million times worldwide. ^[11]

TheGamer considers the game to be better than its predecessor, Love Nikki, owing to its newer features and better UI that the latter lacks. ^[12] However, The Gamer has also criticized the game for having too many currencies. ^[13] Hardcore Droid states the game is rather generous due to being given lots of rewards for free and how despite being a mobile game with lots of spending, it manages to be enjoyable. ^[14] 4Gamer.net praises the quality of the clothing in the game, finding their detail to be well produced and praises the story to be much more serious behind its cheerful outlook. ^[15]

Controversy

The Korean servers of the game shut down on November 6, 2020 when Chinese netizens complained the use of the hanbok in the server in the game. When Paper Games sided with the complaints, this caused an upset among Korean players. ^{[16] [17]}

Legacy

A sequel to the game, Infinity Nikki, has been announced. ^[18]

References