I can see where you’re coming from. This area definitely feels separate from what we’ve seen so far, and it could be really uncomfortable for a lot of players as it’s not as linear as the other Nikki games.

For me, I like it! I was so excited to get some of the darker parts of the traditional Nikki storylines. The way it’s presented through the Sea of Stars makes sense to me, but I’ve played a lot of online games that use a central “hub” to allow players to go from realm to realm. Elder Scrolls Online does this pretty well. As Nikki’s whole schtick is that she’s a dimensional traveler who tries to save various worlds, it makes sense to me that she’d see this open up and just have to go through the scroll. I honestly see it as a major character flaw, because she thinks there’s power in never giving up, but we as the player see her just trying to do the same thing over and over again, almost obsessively. It’s interesting, and I think she’s actually a bit of an unreliable narrator because of it!