As Goddess of Victory: NIKKE enters its third year, the devs want to explore ways to keep the game fresh while making sure it’s what players want
Goddess of Victory: NIKKE will celebrate its 2nd anniversary on November 4. Looking ahead, the TPS RPG’s operations producer at Level Infinite, Reed Lu, talked to AUTOMATON about what players can expect from the game’s third year.
Published and operated by Level Infinite and developed together with Stellar Blade studio Shift Up, Goddess of Victory NIKKE takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where specially manufactured soldiers called Nikkes must battle against the mechanical Raptures who have taken over the Earth. Known for its attractive female characters, “back views” and jiggly butt physics, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE has amassed a dedicated playerbase, with its biggest market in Japan, followed by the USA and South Korea.
However, as Lu points out, “NIKKE’s selling point is not just collecting attractive female characters, which is a common genre in the market, rather, it combines this with unique gameplay. (…) While keeping NIKKE’s distinctive “back view” shooting, we hope to continue to make the game stand out in the anime/bishoujo genre.”
When asked about the direction in which he would like to take NIKKE over the next year, Lu comments “What is most important for the third year is the story and characters.” Lu adds that “The challenge is how to make the most of the story and characters to create content that is fresh and new for our users.” He also emphasized that the team is always checking on user feedback to see what works and what doesn’t when coming up with new content and adjustments for the game.
In a separate recent interview, Lu also mentions the importance of collaborations, especially for bringing in new players. Over the past year, NIKKE has collaborated with franchises as diverse as Dave the Diver and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Collaborations “have actually been effective and brought in new players every time,” Lu revealed to Famitsu.
Nikke’s second anniversary update “Old Tales” launched on October 31, containing new iterations of Nikkes based on characters from fairy tales, including Cinderella, Rapunzel and Little Mermaid, as well as a Hollow Knight-style mini-game, among others.
In year 3, players can expect even more collaborations, storylines and characters to keep the game fresh. “We want to make sure that users don’t get the impression that ‘NIKKE’ is an old game.” Lu explains. “It’s always our goal to create something new.”
Goddess of Victory: NIKKE is available on Android, iOS and PC.