Video Games

Fans of gacha games are gearing up for their own “Barbenheimer” week

Infinity Nikki and Girls Frontline 2 are set for launch

Marco Wutz

Infold/GLHF

The first week of December 2024 will be a busy one for gacha game connoisseurs, as they face their very own “Barbenheimer” moment – two games with fantastic pre-launch credentials will be launching basically back-to-back.

Taking the role of Barbie if Infold Games’ Infinity Nikki, the whimsical dress-up RPG promising a fun mixture of open-world exploration, puzzles, and incredibly deep character customization. In the role of Oppenheimer we have Sunborn and Haoplay’s Girls Frontline 2: Exilium, a turn-based tactical RPG taking place in a sci-fi setting.

Both titles had strong beta tests in recent weeks and will be launching in the coming days. GF2 will be out on December 3, 2024, for PC, iOS, and Android, while Infinity Nikki is headed to PC, iOS, Android, and PS5 on December 5, 2024.

Girls Frontline 2: Exilium screenshot of a turn-based combat.
Girls Frontline 2: Exilium is basically gacha XCOM starring cute androids. / Sunborn / Haoplay

While GF2 certainly fits the part of Oppenheimer more than Nikki, the latter is likely not going to be without its sad and dramatic moments – anyone who’s played previous Nikki games will tell you that even the dress-up game series features plenty of moments showing humankind at its worst.

Tone aside, what makes these releases such a great pair is their difference in gameplay, which is arguably the more crucial factor for a gaming version of “Barbenheimer” than sheer visuals. In Infinity Nikki, everything happens in real time and you freely explore a beautiful open world while you harvest materials, pet cute animals, and do some casual platforming and combat. GF2 is basically gacha XCOM – instead of collecting cute outfits, you collect characters to use in battle, each coming with their own ability kits, and equip them with weapons.

Of course, if none of those titles are to your taste, HoYoverse has you covered with the release of Honkai: Star Rail 2.7 next week.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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