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Goddess of Victory: Nikke

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This article is about the video game. For the mythological goddess, see Nike (mythology).

Goddess of Victory: Nikke
Developer(s)Shift Up
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Yoo Hyung-seok
Producer(s)Hyung-tae Kim
Artist(s)
  • Hyung-tae Kim
  • KKUEM[1]
Composer(s)
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Android, iOS, Windows
Release
  • Android, iOS
  • November 4, 2022
  • Microsoft Windows
  • February 15, 2023
Genre(s)Third-person shooter, role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
Goddess of Victory: Nikke
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese勝利女神：妮姬
Simplified Chinese胜利女神：妮姬
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinShènglì Nǚshén: Nījī
Bopomofoㄕㄥˋ ㄌㄧˋ ㄋㄩˇ ㄕㄣˊ ： ㄋㄧ ㄐㄧ
Wade–GilesSheng4-li4 Nü3-shen2: Ni1-chi1
Korean name
Hangul승리의 여신: 니케
Hanja勝利의 女神：니케
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationSeungniui Yeosin: Nike
McCune–ReischauerSŭngniŭi Yŏshin: Nik'e
Japanese name
Kanji勝利の女神：NIKKE
Kanaしょうりのめがみ：ニケ
Transcriptions
RomanizationShōri no Megami: Nike
Nihon-shikiSyôri no Megami: Nike

Goddess of Victory: Nikke[a] is a third-person shooter action role-playing video game developed by South Korean developer Shift Up and published by Level Infinite. Development of Nikke began as early as 2017, and it was released for Android and iOS in 2022, and Windows in 2023. The game's action-based battle system revolves around quick character-switching and the usage of combat skills in an anime-style environment. The game is free-to-play and features a gacha game system, through which in-app purchases are used as a method for monetization. It garnered over US$70 million in its first month of release.

Goddess of Victory: Nikke set in a post-apocalyptic future where the surface of the Earth was overthrown by mechanical aliens, called Raptures. The surviving humans fled underground and produced artificial soldiers called Nikkes. The story follows a Commander and his squad of Nikkes who hope to reclaim the surface.

Gameplay

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Depicted is one character under the player's control aiming a reticle towards the stage boss in the background.

Goddess of Victory: Nikke is a role-playing video game (RPG) in which the player controls one of up to five interchangeable characters (Nikkes) who are distributed in a row facing a battlefield and positioned behind a defensive object.[5] A third-person shooter, the player aims a reticle to shoot at enemies and takes cover to reload[6]—which automatically happens when a character is out of ammunition—allowing them to strategically plan their attacks.[7] Each Nikke wields her own firearm and possess one of five possible elements that determine strengths and weaknesses when attacking foes.[8] Characters each have three unique combat skills: two normal skills and one Burst skill, the latter is each assigned with a numeric value of up to three and requires users to accumulate enough cost, amassable through damaging enemies, before activating the initial Burst—subsequent skills can be activated immediately—and a temporary Full Burst mode is entered upon triggering the final skill, which significantly increases the attack power of all allies.[9]

A stage ends once the player defeats a powerful boss following several swarms of basic enemies.[10] Moreover, a special battle mode called the Interception requires the player to destroy a runaway locomotive throughout the stage.[11] The game features a cooperative multiplayer mode of up to five players who can challenge the environment.[12]

New characters are obtainable via a gacha game system, which costs in-game currency—acquirable by playing the game or via microtransactions—to use.[6] While there is no pity system to guarantee rare characters, players can accumulate mileage tickets every time they draw from the gacha banner, and can exchange a certain amount of mileage tickets for a featured character of their choice at the in-game shop. The player can raise characters' strengths by enhancing their levels and skills, increase their level caps, and equip better armour; the resources for all of those are obtainable by completing various quests.[8]

Story

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Goddess of Victory: Nikke takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where the Earth was suddenly attacked by extraterrestrial mechanical creatures called Raptures that destroyed everything on the surface, forcing the remaining humans to take refuge underground and establish the Ark,[13] a metropolis ruled by the Central Government. The PMC manufacturers Elysion, Missilis Industry and Tetra Line—owned by Ingrid, Syuen and Mustang, respectively—that compose the Big Three work on converting women and children into powerful obedient soldiers called Nikkes to be used as weapons to defeat the Raptures and restore humanity on the surface.[14][15][16] Due to their prominence, the Big Three CEOs have very high authority; they are, however, heavily monitored by the Central Government to prevent any hostile behavior.[17][18]

The story is played from the perspective of the Commander who graduated from the Military Academy one day prior to the events of the game;[19] despite this, he performs extraordinarily in the operations and survive various encounters with rare Rapture species throughout the journey.[20] He leads a squad called Counters, which consists of the Nikkes Anis, Rapi and later down the story, Neon.[21] The Commander views Nikkes with sympathy and privately advocates for Nikke rights, which is illegal in accordance with the laws of the Ark.[15] Outlaws may be sent to the Rehabilitation Center or the Outer Rim, an area fully isolated from the rest of the Ark, and they have formed terrorist organizations claiming to fight for human rights for themselves.[22]

Development and release

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Nikke was developed by South Korean-based studio Shift Up working with Level Infinite, a publishing brand of Tencent Games.[23] Development began between 2017 and 2018 with an internal planning competition of which one idea was selected to be the predecessor of the game.[24][25] It was originally planned to be played from a first-person perspective but later was changed to incorporate battle poses inspired by the Gears of War series.[25]

Shift Up's CEO Kim Hyung-tae, who was responsible for the production and illustrations of the game, said in an interview with IGN Japan that the battle environment features life-size models using Live2D,[6] instead of chibi-style characters, to amplify sex appeal.[25] Contributing composers include Hiroyuki Sawano, who produced one of the game's theme song.[26] Shift Up and Level Infinite hosted closed beta tests for the global version between the announcement and its release, allowing selected registrants to test out the game mechanics. The game contains voice-overs in English, Japanese and Korean.[27]

Shift Up first revealed Nikke along with Stellar Blade at the Crank in Showcase event in 2019,[1] with several trade exhibitions being held ahead of its launch, such as at BEXCO[28] and Tokyo Game Show.[25] The game was initially planned to be released worldwide for Android and iOS in 2020,[1] but it was rescheduled and officially released on November 4, 2022.[29] A Microsoft Windows version of the game was released on February 15, 2023, with, soon later, a brand collaboration with manga series Chainsaw Man that introduced characters therefrom as playable characters.[30] The game has since collaborated with the RPG Nier: Automata in September of the same year and the series Re:Zero in March 2024.[31][32]

Reception

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A cosplayer dressed as Rapi

Pete Davison of Rice Digital criticized the early gameplay for being too easy to the point that "it feels at odds with the narrative at times". He called the character design a "thirst trap" and "horny to an almost satirical degree". He describes the story atmosphere as having "an interesting, almost Nier-esque melancholy". He remarks the early killing of Marian, calling it "a ballsy move" because it "means deliberately eschewing potential income".[6]

According to data analysis from SensorTower, Nikke grossed over $70 million in revenue in its first month of release,[33] which was mostly generated from Japan, South Korea, and the United States.[23] It reached a total of $400 million less than one year after its release,[34] and saw over 25 million downloads before the Windows port's release.[35] PocketGamer.biz reported that though the game's "excess of fanservice" played a significant role in its "more than respectable levels of success",[35] its unique gacha mechanics may have also been a contributing factor.[36][33]

Goddess of Victory: Nikke was nominated for the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2022's "Best App" category.[37]

Controversies

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Following the release of a character costume, players criticized Tencent for having the design altered from beta versions to show less revealing clothing. Since Tencent is based in China, its video games must adhere to the censorship policies of China in addition to those of other jurisdictions.[36][38]

In January 2023, an official Thai advertisement—which depicted a Nikke player watching Anis', Rapi's and Marian's bouncing buttocks and fantasizing about such with cosplayers—was taken down and apologized for by Tencent after they received backlash from Thai fans who were unhappy with the portrayal of the playerbase.[39] This pullback, however, faced another backlash from a different portion of fans who were already upset with the censorship,[38] claiming that "there is nothing wrong with the ad for being honest about why some players are attracted to the game".[40]

Notes

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  1. ^ Stylized in all caps; Korean: 승리의 여신: 니케; formerly Nikke: The Goddess of Victory[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Agossah, Iyane (April 8, 2019). "Shift Up Announces Project Eve and Nikke the Goddess of Victory with First Trailers". DualShockers. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  2. ^ "Works".
  3. ^ @zekk_wa_zetku (November 5, 2022). 告知 [Announcement] (Tweet) (in Japanese). Retrieved November 11, 2022 – via Twitter.
  4. ^ @Feryquitous_ (November 5, 2022). 告知 [Announcement] (Tweet) (in Japanese). Retrieved April 9, 2024 – via Twitter.
  5. ^ Seo (서) 2021, "전투는 총 5명의 캐릭터를 선택하고 분대를 구성해 진행한다. ... 각 캐릭터를 개별로 콘트롤하며 액션 플레이를 즐길 수도 있다. [Battles are fought by selecting a squad of up to five characters. ... You can also control each character individually and enjoy the action play.]"
  6. ^ a b c d Davison, Pete (November 7, 2022). "Nikke: another horny thirst trap gacha or a worthwhile game to try?". Rice Digital. Archived from the original on December 27, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  7. ^ Iwase (岩瀬) 2022, "また、ハイド中に自動でリロードしてくれるため、プレーヤーはしっかり敵を狙ったり、敵の攻撃を見極めるのが主な役割だ。"
  8. ^ a b Paliwal, Harsh (December 2, 2022). "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE guide for beginners". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on December 12, 2022.
  9. ^ Mesesan, Cristina (November 15, 2022). "Best teams in NIKKE: Goddess of Victory". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on November 19, 2022. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  10. ^ Iwase (岩瀬) 2022, "どんどん機械群を倒し、最後に登場する強力な敵を倒すことができればステージクリアとなる。"
  11. ^ Nagaoka (長岡) 2022, § 迎撃戦で生き延び強大な敵を倒してアイテムを手に入れよう.
  12. ^ Nagaoka (長岡) 2022, "協同作戦では、最大5人のプレーヤーとチームを組んで共闘可能。"
  13. ^ "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Official Trailer". Goddess of Victory: Nikke. March 7, 2022. Archived from the original on October 23, 2022. Retrieved October 23, 2022 – via YouTube.
  14. ^ Shift Up 2022, scene: Anis episode 2: Food. "Anis: 'Elysion, Missilis Industry, Tetra Line. ... Only they can produce Nikkes. ... Each company has its own expertise. Let me think... I remember Elysion's expertise is military supplies, food, and transportation. Tetra's are entertainment, clothes, daily necessities... The rest are all Missilis' fields, I think.'"
  15. ^ a b Shift Up 2022, chapter 16.
  16. ^ "GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE | About the World". Goddess of Victory: Nikke. September 7, 2022. Archived from the original on October 23, 2022 – via YouTube.
  17. ^ Shift Up 2022, chapter 02. "Syuen: 'You do realize that the CEOs of the Big Three have the same authority as Deputy Chiefs?'"
  18. ^ Shift Up 2022, scene: Anis episode 2: Food. "Anis: 'Of course, there may be some aggressive behavior from the big companies. Our great Central Government keeps its eyes on the Big Three.'"
  19. ^ Shift Up 2022, chapter 00.
  20. ^ Shift Up 2022, chapter 08. "Andersen: 'You're the only Commander who has survived multiple encounters with Chatterbox. You're the first to come in contact with the Pilgrims and the Heretics, and witness an altercation between them. You're also the first to see one of their former subordinates become a Heretic.'"
  21. ^ Shift Up 2022, chapter 02.
  22. ^ Shift Up 2022, scene: Anis episode 4: People in the Outer Rim.
  23. ^ a b Cao, Ann (December 20, 2022). "Tencent expands global footprint by taking stake in Korean studio Shift Up, creator of hit game Goddess of Victory: Nikke". South China Morning Post. Shanghai. Archived from the original on December 19, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  24. ^ Seo (서) 2021, "김형태 대표는 '니케는 시프트업이 5년만에 내놓는 신작'".
  25. ^ a b c d Kasai (葛西), Shu (祝) (October 3, 2022). 韓国を代表するイラストレーター、キム・ヒョンテ氏インタビュー『勝利の女神：NIKKE』から新作『Stellar Blade』に至る過去20年以上の画業で変わっていったもの. IGN Japan (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 10, 2022. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  26. ^ Level Infinite (October 28, 2022). 背中で魅せるガンガールRPG『勝利の女神：NIKKE』澤野弘之氏、NIKKEのグローバル主題歌を作曲！並びに主題歌の歌唱はmizukiさんが担当！本人達とのインタビュー内容も後日公開予定！. PR Times (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 29, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  27. ^ Nagaoka (長岡) 2022, "今回のグローバルクローズドβテストで新たに追加されたメインストーリーを、日本語、英語、韓国語のフルボイスで楽しめる。"
  28. ^ Seo (서) 2021, "시프트업이 19일 부산 벡스코에서 신작 '니케: 승리의 여신' 간담회를 개최하고 게임의 상세 정보를 공개했다."
  29. ^ Liu, Stephanie (November 4, 2022). "Goddess of Victory Nikke Launches for Mobile Worldwide". Siliconera. Archived from the original on November 5, 2022. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  30. ^ Bernasibo, Dave (February 15, 2023). "NIKKE to launch Chainsaw Man event, PC release". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on February 17, 2023. Retrieved February 17, 2023.
  31. ^ Gunawan (August 21, 2023). "NIKKE: Goddess of Victory Mobile Game Collabs with NieR:Automata". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on August 21, 2023. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  32. ^ Liu, Stephanie (March 13, 2024). "Re:ZERO Event in Nikke Will Star Emilia, Rem, and Ram". Siliconera. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  33. ^ a b Morris, Iwan (December 6, 2022). "Goddess of Victory: Nikke hits $70m revenue in first month of release". PocketGamer.biz. Steel Media. Archived from the original on December 31, 2022. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  34. ^ Obedkov, Evgeny (June 23, 2023). "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE tops $400 million in mobile revenue in less than 12 months". Game World Observer. Archived from the original on June 27, 2023. Retrieved October 1, 2023.
  35. ^ a b Morris, Iwan (February 16, 2023). "Goddess of Victory: Nikke exceeds 25m downloads prior to PC port". PocketGamer.biz. Steel Media. Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  36. ^ a b Rees, Lewis (December 6, 2022). "China blamed for Goddess of Victory: Nikke censorship, despite being unavailable in China". PocketGamer.biz. Steel Media. Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  37. ^ Doolan, Liam (March 19, 2023). "Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Wins 'Best RPG' At Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2022". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on March 19, 2023. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  38. ^ a b Price, Renata (January 18, 2023). "Mobile Game Takes Down Ad Portraying Its Players as Horny Nerds". Vice. Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  39. ^ Hakim, Luqman (January 13, 2023). "NIKKI Devs Took Down Controversial Advertisement Video After Thai Playerbase Backlash". IGN SEA. Archived from the original on January 18, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  40. ^ Koch, Cameron (January 18, 2023). "Removed Game Ad Featuring Player Salivating Over Jiggle Physics Sparks Fan Outcry". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2023.

Sources

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