Nights: Journey of Dreams

Nights: Journey of Dreams
Developer(s)	Sega Studio USA Sonic Team
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Takashi Iizuka (producer/director/lead design) Kazuyuki Hoshino (art director/lead character design) Takahiro Kudo (world art director)
Composer(s)	Tomoko Sasaki (lead composer) Naofumi Hataya (sound director) Jun Senoue (also sound fx)
Engine	PhysX
Platform(s)	Wii
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer, online multiplayer

Nights: Journey of Dreams (trademarked NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams) is a platform game for the Wii console developed by Sonic Team and Sega. It is the sequel to the 1996 Sega Saturn title Nights into Dreams.... It is the fourth and last game developed by Sega Studio USA, with Takashi Iizuka, the head of the United States branch and one of the designers of the original, as producer, director, and lead game designer. Like the original, the game is set in the dream world of Nightopia, which is under threat from nightmare beings called Nightmaren, and the gameplay is based around the flight of a jester-like rebel Nightmaren named Nights.

Gameplay

Much like in the first game, the primary gameplay mechanic is to glide, spiral and loop through a variety of worlds, blasting through rings and gathering orbs. Special power ups can transform Nights' form into a dolphin, a dragon, or a rocket, to reach areas not accessible otherwise. There are also platform stages where the player controls one of the children. There is a variety of gameplay styles, and Nights is not playable in every level.

The game features three different control options: the Wii Remote as a standalone controller, the Wii Remote in combination with the Nunchuk, and the Classic Controller.

Levels

The game features a deeper version of the level structure from into Dreams... The player starts by choosing one of two dreamers, the game's main characters, and from a central hub area called the Dream Gate, they choose one of seven worlds they wish to play. When a player first enters a new world, they are automatically given the world's first mission. After successfully completing this mission and beating the world's boss, more missions are opened up, which can be chosen when the player again enters this world.

When a world has been chosen, the player starts out as one of the dreamers. While the game's main objective is playing with Nights, the dreamers can also explore the world, albeit with only a limited amount of time. By opening up treasure chests, players can extend the time with a dreamer. When the player wants to start playing the level with Nights, they need to find and climb into Nights' cage, causing the dreamer to dualize with them. There are four levels for each character, plus a staircase in the dream gate leading to the finale of the game.

Persona masks

The gameplay involves the use of "persona masks" that transform Nights and give them new abilities. With some of the persona masks, Nights is able to transform into the mask's form with the dreamer, while some are used without the dreamer. The three personas received throughout the game are:

• Dolphin Nights: allows the ability to go underwater. It is received after defeating either Donbalon or Girania.
• Rocket Nights: allows the ability to travel at very high speeds. It is received after defeating either Chamelan or Bomamba.
• Dragon Nights: allows the ability to ignore the effects of strong winds. It is received after defeating either Cerberus or Queen Bella.

In the final fight against Wizeman for both Dreamers, all three personas are used in a random order. Two additional persona masks are owned by Nights and Reala, but the powers of these masks are never shown.

The idea of persona masks was inspired by the first game, Nights into Dreams..., where Nights transforms into a bobsled on the Frozen Bell stage, inflates on the Soft Museum stage, and grows flippers on the Splash Garden stage. In Journey of Dreams, they can also transform into a boat on the Pure Valley stage and a roller coaster car on the Lost Park stage.

Multiplayer mode

Nights: Journey of Dreams has two multiplayer modes: Battle Mode and Speed Mode. The Speed mode is playable online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

The Speed mode can be played through three modes:

• Nearby Friend with another player on the same console.
• With a Friend Far Away for online play with friends.
• Random Character in the World for a random challenge online with anyone in the world.

The game also keeps track of high scores in the single player levels and publishes them via an online scoreboard. When the player selects one of the two stories and checks their record list, the player can choose to update their scores and show their online rank.

My Dream

The Artificial Life (A-Life) feature from Nights into Dreams... returns in Nights: Journey of Dreams, known as "My Dream". This is a feature where the player can capture, raise and combine the inhabitants of the world of Nightopia and Nightmaren in their self-developed sandbox environment.

The Nightopians outside of the My Dream world act with similar artificial intelligence to how they did in the first game: they will follow the children if fed blue chips, and will panic if Nightmarens (other than Nights) are nearby. Additionally, in the Nightopias, one can make a creation called a Mepian if they manage to have a Nightmaren make physical contact with a Nightopian, a feature also found in the previous game. The game uses features from the Forecast Channel on the Wii, changing the weather conditions in the My Dream world according to real-world weather conditions. There will also be special content made available during certain days, such as the holiday season.

Plot

Setting

Every night all human dreams are played out in Nightopia and Nightmare, the two parts of the dream world. In Nightopia, distinct aspects of dreamers' personalities are represented by luminous colored spheres known as "Ideya". However, the evil ruler of Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked, is stealing this dream energy from sleeping visitors to gather power to take control of Nightopia and eventually the real world. To achieve this, he creates numerous beings called "Nightmaren", including two acrobatic, jester-like, flight-capable beings called Nights and Reala. Nights, however, rebels against Wizeman's plans, and is punished by being imprisoned inside an Ideya palace, a gazebo-like container for dreamers' Ideya.

Synopsis

William Taylor and Helen Cartwright are the two new chosen dreamers. Will is an aspiring soccer player, while Helen is a prodigy violinist. They're both from a London-based city known as Bellbridge. Both children are close to their respective parents; Helen her mother and Will his father. However, the closeness between them has changed over the years; Helen has chosen to spend more time with her friends than with her mother practicing the violin, a choice which has begun to fill her with guilt, while Will's father is transferred to another city for work and leaves his son by himself. Both children suffer individual nightmares and come under attack by the Nightmaren, who chase them into the world of Nightopia. There, the two children separately meet the wise Owl and the playful dream jester Nights, who has the ability to "dualize" with the children, allowing them to share Nights' body and fly through the skies. Learning that the wicked Wizeman is plotting to take over the dream world and then emerge into the real world, the children and Nights resolve to stop Wizeman, but face hindrance from the Nightmaren he commands, particularly Nights's former comrade Reala.

The children's stories are unique, though they share a similar structure at some points and some of the same cut scenes appear in both stories. They converge into each other at certain points, allowing Will and Helen to meet in their dream worlds and help each other, though Owl states that normally this shouldn't be possible. The story reaches its climax as a stairway appears at the Dream Gate and Helen and Nights ascend, only to be trapped by Wizeman himself and pulled into darkness. Will arrives too late and dives in after them, arriving in the night skies above Bellbridge, where he finds that he now has the ability to fly alone without Nights using his Red Ideya. He rescues Helen, and the two head off to save Nights, who has been imprisoned at the top of Bellbridge's clock tower. Reala shows up to stop their efforts and accepts Nights' challenge to one final showdown between them (if the condition below is met). Defeating him, the trio prepare to face Wizeman, and Nights dualizes with both of the children. Will-Nights and Helen-Nights defeat Wizeman, who assures them that as long as human beings fear, he will never truly be gone. The next day, the children separately accomplish their goals; Helen plays onstage with her mother at a recital to a thunderous applause and sees her friends in the audience, while Will scores the winning goal for his soccer team after seeing that his father has come back to visit him.

As with ...into Dreams, if the player manages to get a C Rank or higher on all missions in both stories, they will see the secret ending; when Nights and the children defeat Wizeman, he is destroyed. Since Wizeman keeps the Nightmaren alive, Nights vanishes in a white light, bowing as if at the end of a performance, and the children wake up crying. That evening, Helen plays "Dream Dreams" on the violin for her mother at an outdoor stage, while Will celebrates with his new friends and his father after the game on the street above. He loses the ball and goes after it, only to come upon Helen playing the song. The lights suffer a temporary blackout, and when they turn back on, Helen sees Will extending a friendly hand to her. Recognizing each other from their adventures in Nightopia, the two reach for each other as it begins to snow, to which they can only laugh. The final scene is of either child sleeping in their room at home as the camera pulls back towards Bellbridge's clock tower, where Nights is seen to still be alive and peacefully watching over the city from the atop it.

Cast

Protagonists

• Nights (voiced by Julissa Aguirre) is the game's main protagonist, whom Helen and Will befriend.
• Helen Cartwright (voiced by Victoria Ashby) is one of the dreamers, in whose dreams the game takes place. Helen is a sweet girl from a wealthy family who is aspiring to be a violinist, but has begun to feel guilty over sacrificing time to practice for her social life.
• William "Will" Taylor (voiced by Riley O'Flynn) is one of the dreamers, in whose dreams the game takes place. Will loves to play soccer, but after his father leaves on a business trip, he has begun to forget the true meaning of trusting others.

Enemies

• Wizeman the Wicked (voiced by Roger L. Jackson) is the main antagonist and the creator and god of Nightmare, bent on destroying the Night Dimension.

• Reala (voiced by Casey Robertson) is Wizeman's right hand and leader of the Nightmaren army. He is also Nights' rival and sibling.

Nightmaren are minions created by Wizeman. In the game, several creatures wreak havoc in Nightopia under the orders of Wizeman. There are different levels that determine the strength of a Nightmaren, with Nights and Reala being first level, the highest known possible level. In the chase missions, as well as several others, various types of minion Nightmaren can be found. For example, there are Shleep, the only minion Nightmaren returning from the original game, which have the head of a sheep and the body of a yellow cloud; Baloogas, puffer-fish Nightmaren that inflate with spikes; and Goodles, small humanoids that ride on bird-like Nightmaren. Goodles hold the keys to the Nights captures, and three must be caught each chase mission to save him.

Six powerful "second level" Nightmaren are the bosses of the game, with one allocated to each stage.

• Donbalon, a spherical Nightmaren (Similar in appearance to, Puffy, the equally spherical opera singer from Nights into Dreams...) wears a four tailed jester hat with bells on the end, feathers around his neck, and a waistcoat. His arms are extremely thin and are shaped in a zigzagged pattern, ending in gloved hands with spiky fingers. His body is a sphere with patch-work appearance. He haunts Will's Pure Valley dream and is most noted for his high-pitched laugh and general lack of concern that Nights is throwing him to his demise. His arena is a circus-themed tower.
• Chamelan is a chameleon with a purple top-hat and overcoat. His body ends in a tail, but no legs. He attacks using playing cards, similar to Jackle's Tarot cards from Nights into Dreams..., and in his second fight, he also uses bombs. Chamelan is the dark terror in Will's Lost Park dream. His arena appears to be a jungle/forested area, covered by the spatial distortion he hides behind.
• Cerberus is formed with three orbs linked by chains, the outer two having dog heads and legs (the third head being revealed in the second fight with him). Its three heads are red, yellow, and blue, surrounded by fire, thunder, and ice respectively. His arena, a huge cage-like structure, is hidden within the Delight City dream, disguised as a dog's kennel.
• Girania, the huge Nightmaren who has sunk the Aqua Garden dream into darkness, is in the shape of an armored fish. It has bulging eyes, a pair of black catfish whiskers, and a medieval metal helmet. Girania swims through rock, as well as water, and jumps up at Nights. His arena is a large coliseum with an enormous chandelier in the center.
• Bomamba is a fat green witch with a cat tail and has a long, pointed nose. She distributes her power into her "black cats", who are cat heads with tails and almost resemble snakes. Once her minions are defeated, her magic seals disappear and she falls into the unknown. Her arena, hidden within the blackness of Helen's Crystal Castle dream, is a witch's lair, complete with cauldron, broom, spellbook, bottles of poison and fish bones on the floor.
• Queen Bella, the queen of the spiders, has defiled the Memory Forest dream. Queen Bella is there messing with Helen's memories. She is a huge pink spider with a golden crown and Victorian garb who can produce silk balls. The arena consists of several metal gratings aligned in circles above a pool of lava, which Queen Bella uses as footholds. Once all of the gratings underneath her are broken, Queen Bella falls into the pool of lava and is burnt to a crisp.

Assisting

• Owl (voiced by Jeff Kramer) is the player's tutor and narrator.

Development

Demand for a sequel to Nights into Dreams... has been strong for many years. A game with the working title Air Nights was in development to use a tilt sensor in the Saturn analog pad, and development later moved to the Dreamcast for a time, but eventually the project was discontinued and ended up being a mere prototype for the motion-sensing technology that was later used in Sonic Team's Samba de Amigo.

According to the game's original producer and main programmer of Nights, Yuji Naka:

I know a lot of people love it and want us to make a sequel, but for us it's a really important game. Like the way Spielberg likes E.T. so much he won't remake it, I don't want to make another Nights.

In an interview in the November 2003 edition of Edge, he was asked whether he would like to develop another Nights game:

I see Nights as a license. When dealing with such a license from the past it is quite a lot of work, but I would like to use Nights to reinforce Sega's identity, yes.

In March 2006, Yuji Naka left Sonic Team to form his own independent studio, Prope, where he was rumored to resume work on the game's sequel for the Nintendo Wii; however, the studio announced that they will be creating new intellectual properties and do not currently plan on revisiting any of Sega's past franchises. Rumours regarding a Wii version continued to appear during 2006.

Takashi Iizuka first started working on Nights 2 in November 2005, after Shadow the Hedgehog was shipped. In May 2006 the actual development started.

• Naofumi Hataya, one of the composers from the original game, helped produce the sequel's music as the sound director. 26 Sonic Team staff members have been involved in the game. Despite the game having some of the core members from the original game, the entire team from Shadow the Hedgehog worked on this game. While the game was developed in San Francisco, the music and CGI movie production were made in Japan.

Promotional campaign

In March 2007, Sega.com ran a poll titled "Which Sega game/character would you like to see return?" featuring Nights as one of the options (along with Streets of Rage, Samba de Amigo, Virtua Cop and Flicky).

Around the same time as the poll, Official Nintendo Magazine stated that an upcoming game for the Wii would be revealed in its May 2007 issue. It printed the words "a classic game makes a long overdue return" underneath an image of a constellation in the shape of the Nights logo.

This caused further speculation on the future of the franchise however, the issue's proximity to April Fools' Day left the validity of the report in question. Official Nintendo Magazine stated that the teaser was valid, but also made clear they never stated it was a Nights sequel.

On the cover of the April 2007 issue of Swedish magazine Gamereactor, a mildly redesigned Nights is shown, along with the text "Sega's dreamdemon returns." The cover has since been replaced with an outline of Nights, with 'GameReactor commenting that Sega had contacted them about it.

In the April issue of the Portuguese magazine Maxi Consolas, the first images of the game were published, finally confirming the existence of a new Nights game for the Wii. Scans of the article were posted onto Jeux-France. The article reports that Sega will officially announce the game in early April.

In April 2007, Famitsu announced the name Nights: Journey of Dreams.

Music

Original soundtrack

Tomoko Sasaki reprised the role of lead composer from the original Nights into Dreams…, also rejoined by Naofumi Hataya and Fumie Kumatani. Other composers including several from Wave Master contributed to the soundtrack. Full credits are available at Sega Retro. The OST was released on 3-disc CD, the first CD prominently featuring music from Will's story, the second CD mainly featuring music from Helen's story and the third CD having bonus tracks. The tracks are as follows:

Track list

CD 1

1. Nights: Journey of Dreams
2. Solitude
3. Eloquent Echo
4. Drifting Donbalon
5. Eloquent Echo: Fluffy Catch
6. Eloquent Echo: River Rescue
7. Drifting Donbalon: Hard Ver.
8. Wandering Wildness
9. Cackling Chamelan
10. Wandering Wildness: Bomb Panic
11. Wandering Wildness: Coaster Rescue
12. Cackling Chamelan: Hard Ver.
13. Dreams Dreams: Located Link Mix (instrumental)
14. Nights And Reala
15. Electrical Entertainment
16. Clashing Cerberus
17. Electrical Entertainment: Neon City Battle
18. Electrical Entertainment: Broadway Guide
19. Clashing Cerberus: Hard Ver.
20. Growing Wings
21. Persona Non Grata
22. D'Force Master
23. Win a Goal
24. Dreams Dreams: Will ver.

CD 2

1. Dreams Dreams: Adult Ver.
2. Conscience
3. Sweeping Seashore
4. Giant Girania
5. Sweeping Seashore: Aqua Challenge
6. Sweeping Seashore: Marine Escape
7. Giant Girania: Hard Ver.
8. Crystal Choir
9. Bony Bomamba
10. Crystal Choir: Labyrinth Guide
11. Crystal Choir: Jewel Fever
12. Bony Bomamba: Hard Ver.
13. Merry Memory Go Round
14. Queen Bella's Ball
15. Merry Memory Go Round: Forest Adventure
16. Dreams Dreams: Sky Concert
17. Queen Bella's Ball: Hard Ver.
18. Cruising Together
19. Nights And Reala: Theme of A Tragedic Revenge
20. Sonatinas for Two Violins
21. Applause
22. Dreams Dreams: Helen ver.
23. On The Way Back Memento of Nights
24. Dreams Dreams: Sweet Snow
25. Fragmented Nights

CD 3

1. Dreams Dreams: Kids ver.
2. Nights: Journey of Dreams(Short ver.)
3. Gate Of Your Dream
4. Encounter
5. When The Night Falls
6. Sweeping Seashore: in Daylight
7. Cowardly Custard
8. Catch Me If You Can
9. Duel in Dream
10. Al-Di-La: Lavender Ver.
11. Reala Returns
12. Peaceful Moment
13. Al-Di-La: Sandal Wood Ver.
14. Bad News
15. Twist of Fate
16. Al-Di-La: Peppermint Ver.
17. Captive
18. Suspicion
19. Belief
20. Al-Di-La: Bergamot Ver.
21. Precious Orgel
22. Sentimental Separation
23. Thank You Nights
24. Dreams Dreams: Located Link Mix
25. Dreams Dreams: Sweet Snow (instrumental)
26. Dreams Dreams (instrumental)

"Dreams Dreams"

The theme song of the series, "Dreams Dreams", makes a return appearance in the game in several different forms. The signature ending theme version is now sung by Robbie Wyckoff & Francis M. Benitez. A children's version is also sung by Riley O'Flynn and Victoria Ashby, who voice Will and Helen in the game, and much like the original before it, segues into the adults' version. Within the game as well is the "Cruising Together" version of the song, which plays during the Bellbridge stage as the children reunite and go to rescue Nights; this version of the song retains the original vocals of Curtis King, Jr. and Dana Calitri.

A slower version of the song also plays over the perfect ending credits and 'full A rank' dreamgate, and is called "Dreams Dreams: Sweet Snow", which is sung by Jasmine Ann Allen who performed on the original children's version of the song in the previous game when she was younger.

Reception

Reviews have been positive to mixed, averaging at around 70%. Nintendo Power reviewed the game in their January 2008 issue and gave it a 9 out of 10, saying "Director Takashi Iizuka and his team have hit one out of the park, delivering a follow-up in every way worthy of its legendary predecessor." Electronic Gaming Monthly also reviewed the game in their January 2008 issue, giving the game a 7.0, 7.5, and 7.0, averaging out to a score of 7.2/10. They praised the game for its appealing art style, pleasant soundtrack, and its faithfulness to the original game, but criticized it for the 3D platforming segments, confusing boss battles, and saying the Wii Remote controls don't work nearly as well as the standard control scheme. IGN scored the game a 6.5/10, saying it was only for die hard fans of the original. GameSpot scored the game a 7.5/10, and Game Zone gave it 8/10. Famitsu gave the game an overall score of 29 out of 40, praising it for its heartwarming story and good replay value, but criticizing sometimes bothersome controls.

Possible sequel

In an interview with Games TM, head of Sonic Team and Nights into Dreams... co-creator Takashi Iizuka has expressed his desire to create a third Nights game in the cult Sega series "I would personally love to make a third Nights game...but that decision will always be up to the management at SEGA."

See also

• Nights (character)
• Nights into Dreams...
• Takashi Iizuka (game designer)
• Sonic Team

External links

• Official English website
• Official Japanese website
• Games For Lunch Review
• Crispy Gamer Column