Game Review: Love Nikki Dress Up Queen

Love Nikki: Dress Up Queen is a wardrobe styling game by Elex in the same vein as Nintendo 3DS’s Style Savvy Fashion Forward. Your character arrives in an alternate world where Pokemon-style fashion battles is an everyday occurrence.

The story follows a fashion-savvy world with neighboring kingdoms crippling under the fear of the Iron and Blood Queen. You were brought here by The Goddess as the only one fashionable enough to overthrow her.

 

Quest System

The main basis of the game is a progressive quest chain in several Acts. Each Act features its own story in a series of quests that propels the main story forward. Each quest challenge has a theme and two style elements. For instance, a boyish charm challenge has Simple and Elegant elements. Wearing a Simple and Elegant Dress will not score as well as a Simple and Lively button down shirt with pants.

On the other hand, a school-girl challenge with Simple and Elegant as the two elements does very well with the Simple and Elegant dress, even though there’s nothing school-girl about the dress.

After you get dressed, the showdown begins. Tap buttons on the bottom to increase your score or lower your opponet’s. For instance, click Smile after receiving a high point total. Some abilities knock points off your NPC opponent’s total. Because of a shared cooldown between all your abilities, only use the point deduction tactics for close races.

Some challenges will take some experimenting to win. The items don’t need to necessarily look good together so long as the pieces fulfill the requirements. If you lose, Momo will let you know which piece didn’t do well for you. If you get stuck on what to wear or need a hint, Momo provides tips for your outfit. You can toggle between Momo’s immediate suggestion and her opinions on what pieces will help you get an S (top) ranking.

The challenge quests can be repeated to earn a better score or to try for a clothing item prize drop. Each stage has two items you can win. There is a stamina meter, and each quest costs 4 each, even to repeat.

There are also two modes. The mode you start in is Maiden. As you progress and unlock Princess mode, you can toggle between them. Princess mode is more difficult, giving no hints, and it can only be completed 3 times.

The Seven Kingdoms

One of my favorite parts of this game is the variety of styles for each of the kingdoms. I loved these images so much that I wanted to put them here. You can collect wardrobes from each kingdom (and other things like seasons and holidays), and complete each outfit rewards a prize from gold to gems to other clothing items.

Love Nikki Game Map

Mystery House: Visit here daily for free rewards. See if you have any free draws on each of the cards. Collectables can be turned in for even more rewards, and you have a chance of winning items of clothing during the free draw.

Store: Purchase all kinds of wardrobe pieces here. I recommend waiting for a challenge and shopping with the specific challenge in mind. Gold is easy enough to come by, though tedious at times. Repeating quests grants a small chunk of change, while completing new quests and improving your score will reward more.

Recipe Workshop: Later challenges will require you to create specific items of clothing or customize whole outfits. Use this facility to craft new items, dye eligible clothing to change their stats, evolve current pieces, or scrap pieces for additional materials.

Stylists Arena and Competition: Both of these are PvP style challenges. In Stylist’s Arena, you are paired up with another player to compete in a particular theme like Spring Outing or Office Worker. Competition is more like a world arena. Put together an outfit with the current styling theme, and enter the pool where other players can cast their vote for their favorites.

Final Thoughts

I admit I didn’t get very far in the game, stopping mid-way through Act 3. Constantly needing specific items/ types requires repeating old quests in a tedious grind if you’re unwilling to purchasing coins and gems. If there was a button to “replay quest with the most recent outfit,” it would make it so much less of a chore.

Sometimes when you log into the game, you’re accosted by tons of pop-ups. On top of that, the sides of your screen are always littered with events, sales, offers, and shortcuts. There seems to be a lot of events and promotions going on at once. On top of that, you juggle crafting, customizing, and acquiring gold to complete not just individual quests but the Chapter quest as well. To me, it feels quite overwhelming.

Overall, the game itself is good. The music is fresh and relaxing. The art style is classic anime with a sweet and magical touch. It’s fun to create outfit combinations, and you can do that without questing and save your favorites. Between achievement rewards, shopping, quests rewards, and more, your closet is never short on new clothes.

If you would like a full walkthrough and detailed descriptions of everything in Love Nikki: Dress Up Queen, I recommend the Unofficial Love Nikki Guide.