Nights: Journey of Dreams
is an action video game developed by Sega Studios USA and published by Sega for the Wii. The sequel to the 1996 Sega Saturn title Nights into Dreams, it was released in Japan and North America in December 2007, and in Australia and Europe the following month. The story follows two children, William Taylor and Helen Cartwright, who enter a dream world called Nightopia. When their nightmares come to life, they enlist the help of Nights, an exiled "Nightmaren", as they journey through Nightopia to stop the evil ruler Wizeman from escaping into the real world.
As with its predecessor, gameplay is centred around Nights flying through the dreams of the two children. The main objective of the game is to fly through rings while gathering enough keys to proceed to the next level. Development of Journey of Dreams began shortly after the release of Shadow the Hedgehog in 2005, and was headed by Sonic Team veteran Takashi Iizuka. The team took steps to ensure that the game stayed faithful to the original, while incorporating a variety of new mechanics and features. The game's setting was designed to resemble England, especially parts of London.
Journey of Dreams received mixed reviews; critics praised the game's colourful visuals, boss battles, soundtrack, and special effects, but criticised its controls, camera, aesthetics, and aspects of its gameplay. Despite the mixed reception, Iizuka said that he would be interested in making a third Nights game, should Sega commission one.
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 coloured spheres known as "Ideya". The evil ruler of Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked, is stealing this dream energy from sleeping visitors to gather power and take control of Nightopia and eventually the real world. To achieve this, he creates "Nightmaren"—jester-like beings who can fly—including Jackle, Clawz, Gulpo, Gillwing and Puffy, and many minor maren. He also creates two "Level One" Nightmaren: Nights and Reala. Nights rebels against Wizeman's plans, and is imprisoned inside an Ideya palace, a gazebo-like container for dreamers' Ideya.Synopsis
William Taylor and Helen Cartwright are two children who live in the city of Bellbridge. Will is an aspiring football player, Helen a prodigy violinist. Over the years, both have grown apart from their respective parents; Helen has chosen to spend more time with her friends rather than practising the violin with her mother, 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 nightmares and come under attack by the Nightmaren, who chase them into the world of Nightopia. There, the two children meet and free Nights, who has the ability to merge with the children, allowing them to share Nights' body and fly through the skies. Learning that Wizeman is plotting to take over the dream world and consequently enter the real world, the children and Nights resolve to stop Wizeman, but face resistance from the Nightmaren he commands, particularly Nights' sibling, Reala.Though different, the children's stories share similar structures. The story reaches its climax as a stairway appears at the Dream Gate and Helen and Nights ascend, only to be trapped by Wizeman 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 has the ability to fly without Nights or their Ideya. He rescues Helen, and the two attempt to save Nights, who has been imprisoned at the top of Bellbridge's clock tower. Reala arrives to stop their efforts and accepts Nights' challenge to battle. After defeating Reala, the trio prepare to face Wizeman. Both Will and Helen defeat Wizeman, who is subsequently destroyed. Since Wizeman kept all of his creations alive, Nights vanishes in a white light, bowing as if it were the end of a performance, and the children wake up and cry. That evening, Helen plays her violin for her mother in a crowded hall, while Will celebrates with his father after winning a football game. He then loses the ball and goes after it, only to come upon Helen playing her violin for her mother. The lights suffer a temporary blackout, and when they turn back on, Helen sees Will extending a friendly hand to her. Recognising each other from their adventures in Nightopia, the two reach for each other as it begins to snow. The final scene is of either child sleeping in their rooms at home as the camera pulls back towards Bellbridge's clock tower, atop which Nights is seen to be alive and peacefully watching over the city.
Gameplay
Journey of Dreams features four different control options: the Wii remote as a standalone controller, the Wii remote in combination with the Nunchuk, the Classic Controller, and the GameCube controller. If the Wii remote is used by itself, Nights' flight is controlled by pointing it at the screen. Additionally, the game offers two multiplayer modes: "Battle Mode" and "Speed Mode", the latter of which is playable only online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. "Battle Mode" allows two local players to battle each other by using a splitscreen, and "Speed Mode" revolves around players competing in races against online opponents.Nights: Journey of Dreams is split into seven levels. The levels are distributed equally between the two children characters: three are unique to Will, three to Helen, and both share a final boss stage. Gameplay is centred around controlling Nights' flight along a predetermined route through each level, resembling that of a 2D platformer or a racing game. In each level, players initially control Will or Helen but will later on assume control of Nights. The player may collect various pick-ups while exploring the level on foot, but will be pursued by "Awakers" which will awaken the player-character and end the game, should three of them come into contact at once. The main objective of the game is to fly through rings and capture bird-like Nightmaren, who possess keys that unlock a series of cages. There are three cages in each level, and all must be unlocked within a set time before the player can proceed. Each collision with an enemy subtracts five seconds from the time remaining, and if the time runs out, the game will end prematurely. While flying, Nights can use a boost to travel faster, but the boost meter is slowly depleted while doing this. If it is fully depleted, the player will no longer be able to use boosts.
The game features items and traps which will either help or impede the player's progress. Collecting blue chips scattered around the levels will increase the player's score; time chips will extend the player's time and slow "Awakers". Flying through gold rings will replenish the player's boost meter, spiked rings will harm the player if flown through, and green rings will never disappear. The gameplay also involves the use of "persona masks", which will transform Nights into a different entity, thus granting new abilities to the player. There are three personas: transforming into a dolphin allows the player to swim underwater, a rocket speeds up Nights' flight, and a dragon will increase resistance to wind. Bosses are encountered twice in each level—an easier version early in a level, and a more difficult one at the end.
The artificial life system feature from its predecessor returns in Journey of Dreams, known as "My Dream". This feature revolves around the player raising entities called Nightopians and keeping track of their moods. "My Dreams" connects with the Wii's Forecast Channel, which will change the weather conditions in the player's "My Dream" world according to real-world forecasts. Cosmetic changes are visible every month, for example in February Nightopians hold a giant dragon for the Chinese New Year, whereas in December they are dressed as Father Christmas. Players may visit other players' "My Dreams" through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. In order to increase the population in a "My Dream", Nightopians must be captured in the game's story mode. If there are more Nightopians than Nightmarens in the player's "My Dream", then the environment will look more like Nightopia and if there are more Nightmarens the landscape will change accordingly.
Development
Prelude
A sequel to Nights into Dreams with the working title Air Nights was originally outlined for the Sega Saturn and subsequently developed for the Dreamcast with motion control being a central element of gameplay. In an August 1999 interview, Yuji Naka confirmed that a sequel was in development, but by December 2000 the project had been cancelled. Naka expressed reluctance to develop a sequel after the Dreamcast's discontinuation, but later noted in 2003 that he would be interested in using the licence of Nights into Dreams to reinforce Sega's identity as a video game developer. Around the same time, Nights into Dreams designer Takashi Iizuka said "as long as I'm with Sega, I will create Nights again" in an interview concerning Sonic Heroes. Discussion concerning a new game in the series had increased in frequency by 2006. Rumours regarding a Wii version continued to appear when a list of upcoming games was published by Japanese developer G.rev, which included an unspecified Nights title. Before the development of Journey of Dreams, Naka confirmed in retrospective interviews that he had intended to base the next Nights game around a unique motion controller.Design
Nights: Journey of Dreams was first conceptualised in November 2005 after the release of Sonic Team's Shadow the Hedgehog. Game design was primarily prepared by Iizuka and took around six months to reach the development process. Iizuka wanted to ensure that the next Nights game would stay faithful to the original, and felt the need to keep the game's concept fundamentally the same while incorporating a variety of new mechanics. Despite the cancellation of Air Nights, Iizuka stressed that he had always wanted to make a sequel and asserted that Sega's exit from hardware manufacturing had no effect on the delay. Iizuka felt that it was the appropriate time to release a Nights game—he felt that the industry was dominated by violence and was keen to release a more family-friendly title. The team realised that Nintendo's upcoming Wii was marketed as a family-orientated console, and factored in its online features and user-friendly design.The team wanted Journey of Dreams to revolve around a dramatic storyline in the hope that the player would find it more engaging and intuitive, as Iizuka thought the original Nights into Dreams was not user-friendly. Originally, the game had a full free-roaming 3D flight system, but Iizuka thought it was too complex and "not as fun" as the core flight element featured in the original game. Iizuka thought the most difficult challenge of the development process was keeping the game's flight mechanics fun while building upon elements of the original game. To recreate the experience, the team tested a variety of controller schemes which included the Wii remote and Nunchuk, the GameCube controller, and the Classic Controller—the latter two left for players who preferred using a traditional controller configuration. Initially, the game used the Wii remote by having the player point it at the screen, but the team discovered that its motion sensors would not pick up small movements, so Iizuka created an alternative hybrid motion-pointer system, which he believed would retain the game's fun-to-fly experience. In a retrospective interview, Iizuka said that the entire game was created from scratch and used a new engine specifically designed for the Wii.
The original character designer of Nights into Dreams, Naoto Ohshima, had left Sega by the time its sequel was under development, with Kazuyuki Hoshino being placed in charge of character design for Journey of Dreams. Takashi Iizuka, the lead game designer, felt that, with Hoshino, they captured the style used for the character in the original game. Sonic Team decided to give all characters in the game voices as Iizuka believed that full dialogue helps add depth to both the story and gameplay. With Nights already designed as an androgynous character, the team wanted to leave impressions regarding gender up to the player, despite Nights being voiced by actress Julissa Aguirre, who portrayed the character with a British accent. This is because the team designed the Nights franchise to have a distinctly British style, in contrast to Sonic the Hedgehog, which was designed to be more American. Thus, Bellbridge—the game's main setting—closely resembles London, and all of the game's characters have English accents. The development team consisted of 26 members of Sonic Team in the United States, while all sound work and CGI was developed in Japan.