Gaming Age orders a drink…or four at the NIKKE: Goddess of Victory x Xing Fu Tang NYC pop up

I’m a bit of a Shift Up hipster…before every culture warrior or gooner had the company’s name on their lips due to their console effort Stellar Blade, I was playing the company’s gacha titles such as the poorly named Destiny Child (you need to add the word “game” in your search queries otherwise you’re getting the musical act) and the company’s recent endeavor NIKKE: Goddess of Victory. The latter is celebrating it’s second anniversary and as a part of the celebration the company teamed up with Xing Fu Tang which makes the claim of being Taiwan’s #1 Boba. 

So when I found out that Manhattan’s Koreatown had a branch of this store and they would be hosting a one day event…I charged up my social battery and decided to take a look. While the store opens at noon, employees I spoke to mentioned there were fans waiting in line at 6pm and when I had arrived at around 12:30pm the line to get in snaked around several times and it seemed like there were over 150 people waiting in line. My original plan was to get on line around 3pm as part of the day’s festivities included a “Lucky Draw” aka lottery for prizes. Thank god I did the audible as if I stuck to my original plan, I would not have gotten inside to participate.

One might think that ordering a drink would be a simple task and the line would move quickly, but with the activities going on inside, such as a wish wall, prize redemption, the eventual photo session and lucky draw a lot of fans loitered inside the store, making entry a slow and arduous affair While on line I chatted up with people both in front and behind me and found out that both parties traveled from Philadelphia to attend the event and it certainly got me curious as to how far people traveled for this. I also saw some attendees had cosplayed as characters from the game such as Rapi, Soda and a very brave duo who dressed up as Blanc and Viper (Toxic Rabbit) ostensibly wearing bunny costumes during late Fall in New York, thankfully the weather was a bit mild, but kudos to them for braving this weather for their art.

 

After nearly 2 hours of waiting in line, I was able to get inside where I could order the drinks that were part of the collaboration. Each drink was designated a character or group’s favorite. They were Brown Sugar Boba Milk Tea (Cinderella), Strawberry Macha Boba Milk (Grave), Brown Suga Boba Milk (Counters and Marian) and Jasmine Green Tea with Honey (Goddess Squad). Each drink would come with a cup sleeve showcasing which Nikke who preferred the drink and since the advertisement of the event didn’t quite indicate this was a collaboration that would run til December 20th, many attendees risked diabetes and ordered multiple drinks hoping to collect all the cup sleeves (…of which I did the same.). In terms of taste I had to say the Goddess Squad’s option was my preferred option and possibly the healthiest. 

 

The event also had a gift component where attendees could collect “gems” (although they were actually Pilgrim Molds from the game’s Tribe Tower) by completing various tasks that could be redeemed for prizes such as stickers, cards, acrylic standees or even a t-shirt. Due to my drink splurge, I was able to get 9 gems which netted me one of the 8 gem prizes with one to spare…I opted for the acrylic standee set.

At around 2:45pm, the cosplayers hired for the event gathered attendees to take a group photo and video, the latter asking attendees to wish the game a happy 2nd anniversary and then the “main event” took place. The lucky draw was like experiencing Gacha in real life, 23~ character pillows and 6 acrylic box sets were being raffled off and some attendees managed to score multiple prizes and some of the people I chatted up also won (meaning my tickets were close…but no cigar). Nonetheless the winners were overjoyed and the staff managing the event wrangled the winners for a group photo at which I made my exit. I would assume after the raffle was over the line to get in to order drinks would move a lot quicker as there would not be as many people loitering inside.

New York was not the only place to get the pop up, Houston had their event the day after New York and another will be taking place in LA this weekend on the 23rd. I was frankly surprised by the turnout and I guess NIKKE Goddess of Victory has a bigger fan base in the US than I thought. Here’s hoping that this turnout will convince the game that in person events for the title are worth holding in the US and not just on the West Coast. 

For those who missed the pop up, but still want to experience the drinks, fret not! The promotion is going until December 15th. In addition to the cup sleeves, any purchase of participating drinks will also grant you a code for 150 Gems in game. However it’s until supplies last so get to it,  commanders…ENCOUNTER!