Goddess of Victory: NIKKE review, a blend of visual novel, shooter and gacha RPG

Let's discover a post-apocalyptic sci-fi universe in our test of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, the tactical shooter from SHIFT UP and Level Infinite, available for free on Android and iOS. Blending in shooter, visual novel and gacha RPG genres, this anime-style game puts you in the role of the Commander of a team of Nikkes fighting to save humanity. But how well do all these features blend in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE?

Test of Goddess of Victory NIKKE : a visual novel scenario

Let's start our Goddess of Victory: NIKKE review by setting the context of the story of this post-apocalyptic universe. In the relatively near future, the world has been invaded by deadly alien robots called Raptures, which has forced humans to take refuge underground in the Ark.

In this new shelter for humanity, the Nikkes were born, female fighters follow the orders of commanders and must protect them at all costs. These female-looking androids take part in missions to regain control of the surface from the Raptures.

In this adventure, you play as a commander who suffers from amnesia and only remembers being born on the Ark, but also attending the academy. In charge of a team of Nikkes, your mission is to confront the threat of the Raptures, in the hope that humanity will one day regain its freedom.

Goddess of Victory: NIKKE offers a highly developed narrative in the form of a visual novel, in which you get to know the many characters with very different characters.

For example, Rapi is a first in class who you can count on to help you with your administrative tasks, Neon is the geek of the group, expert in designing firearms and explosives, while Anis is a rebel, slightly rude, but very funny.

In addition to developing the story, getting to know the Nikkes allows them to increase their attraction level and at the same time improve their stats.

If you are only interested in the action phases, the dialogues can be skipped or played in auto mode, but this would be missing an important part of the game. Especially since the voices of the characters, available in English, Japanese and Korean, are interpreted by well-known voice actors.

The text is only available in English, German, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Korean.

Beginner-friendly gameplay with a variety of game modes

Now let's go to the gameplay part of our test from Goddess of Victory: NIKKE. Playable with one hand in portrait mode, this tactical shooter offers a different experience from the usual gacha RPG.

The combat phases benefit from an original angle of view, with the camera placed behind the characters. Using your thumb, you simply aim to trigger the automatic fire of the Nikke you control.

To take cover, simply stop aiming, which will block some of the damage. However, you can order your characters to adopt a defensive posture by clicking on their profile to take as little damage as possible.

Since your team consists of five Nikkes, you can switch to one of them at any time while the others are managed by the AI. Unlike many games, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE offers an adjustable auto mode that doesn't spoil the game experience.

So you can choose to automate only the skills of the characters you don't control to focus on one Nikke, or let your whole team manage itself. This comes in handy when you just want to farm equipment or resources, because after a few hours of play, battles become repetitive. It's time to farm.

The main campaign and the secondary contents

After the story and gameplay, let's take a look at the content available at the time of our test of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE. The main part is the game's campaign, playable in normal and hard mode, which consists of a series of battles against the Raptures for control of the world's surface.

It is divided into stages and chapters, which allow you to progress in the scenario. Nevertheless, side missions will make you go through the old areas again to face additional opponents.

Outside of combat, the movement phases take place in top view. It's not just a matter of moving from one chapter to another, as there are rewards hidden all over the map. However, they are not indicated and you have to search the area to find them by moving your team.

To improve your characters and thus advance in the campaign, you must collect resources. To do this, go to the Ark's additional content.

Firstly, the Simulation Room allows you to train by doing a series of battles without recovering any HP. Between fights, you can select one of the proposed bonuses and at the end of each sector, you cash in the rewards and move on to the next step. Once the three sectors are completed, you choose a permanent bonus. The simulation room resets every day.

In addition, there is the Intercept mode, which allows you to earn new pieces of equipment, and the Tribe Tower, a series of increasingly complicated levels.

Finally, the Outpost is your HQ. This is where you will have access to the command center, the tactical academy and many other buildings that you can build as you progress through the main campaign.

Team composition: roles, elements and weapons

To compose your team of five Nikkes among the 62 available at the time of our test of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, several parameters are to be taken into account. First of all, the characters are divided into three roles:

• Attack: inflict high damage, but have few hit points;
• Defense: very resistant, they can protect their allies with shields, but cause low damage;
• Support: able to heal their allies and apply various bonuses.

Each Nikke belongs to one of the following five elements: water, fire, wind, iron, electric. Any element has a strength and a weakness against another element. For example, a water Nikke will be powerful against a fire enemy, but ineffective against an electric opponent.

Beyond these two characteristics, it is necessary to keep track of the weapons used by your characters. There are six types of weapons in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE :

• Assault rifle: balanced at medium range;
• Machine gun: high rate of fire, medium range, large capacity magazine;
• Rocket launcher: all distances, area damage ;
• Shotgun: short-range area damage;
• SubMachine gun: fast rate of fire at short range;
• Sniper: high damage at long range with a slow rate of fire.

Quality graphics and a soundtrack that adapts to game situations

The graphics of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE are clearly one of the major strenghts of the game. With a neat character design in the anime style and fluid animations in 60 frames per second, the game stands out from its competitors.

The same goes for the 2D scenery, enhanced by the aiming system that gives a pleasant impression of depth. The special skills of the SSR characters trigger animations when they are launched.

In order to allow all devices to run the game, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE has a lot of graphical settings, such as the quality of textures, characters or the speed of hair animation.

Another strong point of our test from Goddess of Victory : NIKKE is the quality and the diversity of the soundtrack, which alternates between electro tracks in the menus, rock tracks during the fights, but also jazz or other ambient music during the dialogues.

A generous business model at the beginning of the adventure

Now let's talk about the business model of our test from Goddess of Victory: NIKKE. To get characters, you need to perform summonses. At launch, the game is relatively generous with 110 draws offered, which allow you to start the adventure with at least 2 SSR and 1 SR. The first 45 are obtained from the beginning, while the other 65 are unlocked when you finish level 9 of the main campaign.

In the ordinary recruitment banner you can use recruitment tickets, but also gems, the in-game currency won during missions or bought in the store. This banner offers a 4% chance to get an SSR, 43% chance to get an SR character.

In addition to this permanent banner, there is a special New Commander banner, which can be used once for every 2,000 gems purchased in the store, and which gives access to 10 recruitments, so at least one SSR character is guaranteed.

The Mission Pass allows you to earn additional rewards . The levels increase by completing various missions. In the free game, you will unlock mods of medium quality. When you accumulate 50 of them, you get a SR or SSR Nikke.

The premium version of the Mission Pass allows you to get high quality mods to perform summons with a 60% chance of getting a Nikke SSR, as well as regular summon tickets at each level. However, this paid version still costs 23.99 euros.

Conclusion of our Goddess of Victory : NIKKE review

To conclude our test of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, Level Infinite's title offers an original experience that mixes gacha RPG and tactical shooting, with a dynamic and accessible gameplay. Visually splendid thanks to its anime-style art direction, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE immerses us in an immersive atmosphere and lore, while getting carried into its post-apocalyptic universe to the sound of a varied soundtrack that adapts well to different situations.

Positive points

• Quality graphics
• Varied soundtrack
• Original gameplay
• No energy limit

Negative points

• Repetitive battles
• High prices in the store
• Not available in French