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In the NiGHTS... dreams delight... (No56k) (It is FANTASTIC)
TheSonicRetard
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
NiGHTS 2 is PHENOMINAL
MY INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
Wow. This is NiGHTS in every way possible. So far my favorite aspect is the music - it sounds like classic sega and like the original. The weather functionality is awesome - it's overcast in houston, and overcast in the game. Previews and reviews haven't mentioned it, but the time integration from Christmas NiGHTS has returned. I set the game to valentines day and the game world changed.
Visually, it's on par with Sonic and the Secret Rings. However, it's art direction is vastly superior. Nightopia has never looked so great. And have I mentioned the music is fantastic? Linking is a bit more difficult because rings and items are more spread out, but that seems to add to the difficulty. Make no mistake, this is still a link-happy racer-platformer hybrid. Fucking fantastic. If you loved the original, you'll love the sequel.
i'll post a full review after I've beaten the game and explored all the extras.
p.s. the music is FANTASTIC.
Official Website
~~~~~
Late at night, when all the people of the world go to sleep, they transport themselves into an alternate, magical universe known as Nightopia, where anything can happen. As we grow older and lose our sense of magic, we dismiss these nightly trips as being nothing more than figments of our imagination - dreams in common terms. But what if they were real?
Deep within Nightopia, an omnipotent being known as the wiseman dwells. Discontent with living in a world conjured up by the dreams of people, the wiseman schemes to remove himself from Nightopia and conquer the world. Every human is made up of different virtues which manifest themselves as orbs of power called Ideya. Ideya come in 5 varieties: white for purity, green for wisdom, yellow for hope, blue for intelligence, and the rarest red dream energy - courage. Some people only contain wisdom. Some people contain only hope. Some are only pure. Some are intelligent. Most people contain several ideya in varying combination. But only a few very special people contain the rare red ideya. The wiseman will, over the next 3 days, steal the ideya of every sleeping person in the world and use their power to manifest himself in the real world, where he'll be free enslave the people of earth.
The wiseman has amassed an army of nightmaren to steal the ideya from the sleeping people of the world. However, the special red courage ideya cannot be stolen easily. It can only be given away, or violently ripped away by an extreme nightmare. For this very reason, the wiseman has created 2 special twin nightmaren. Unlike normal nightmaren, these 2 possess free will, which grants them more power than normal. These special nightmare are NiGHTS and Reala. Their goal - to track down those who possess the special red ideya and rip them away. However, with his free will, NiGHTS rebells against the wiseman, and is placed into a prison.
It is 3 days away from the 100th annaversary of the city of Twin Seeds. Twin Seeds is a bustling modern city, filled with people living out their lives. Within this unassuming city lives 2 unassuming children who live unassuming lives. Elliot Edwards is a child new to the city, struggling to make friends. Unsure of himself, he finds a group of kids playing basketball but backs off, afraid he isn't good enough to play with them. Across town, Claris Sinclair is a young girl who wants to be the lead singer for the Twin Seeds centennial play, but she refuses to audition out of fear that she'll be laughed off stage. When night falls, and the two go to sleep, their fears manifest and they find themselves in nightmarish world. However, these two are special - buried deep inside of themselves is the red Ideya. As nightmaren persue them throughout nightopia, stealing their other ideya, they run into the imprisoned NiGHTS, who offers his hand out. By lending him their courage, they can become one and take to the skies to try and foil the wiseman's plot.
~~~~~
Boys and girls, TODAY is the release of the 3rd game in the NiGHTS series, the first two being NiGHTS into Dreams and Christmas NiGHTS. NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is an unrelated sequel to the original NiGHTS (unlike Christmas NiGHTS) which features new children and a new setting, but retaining the classic gameplay. For those who have never played a NiGHTS game, they're more of a racing game than a platformer. The Green Hill Zone describes the gameplay as follows:
NiGHTS is a wonderful game filled with style, substance, and gameplay. The main game can be finished in but a few hours, but it's replayability is through the roof. Beyond that, the world of Nightopia is also filled with Nigtopians. If any of you have played the Chao mini games from Sonic Adventure 1 or 2, then you'll instantly recognize the Nightopians. Both Nightopians and Chao belong to the same sysem, called the A-Life system. Bring a Nightopian egg an enemy, and they'll merge into a pian. Pians evolve, grow, and eventually die. Be kind to them, and they'll be happy, following you singing as you play. Piss them off, and they'll become reclusive. the game is completely reactive to the pian society per level. As the mood of the pians change, the music in the game will change to reflect their mood. The happier they are, the more upbeat the tempo of the in-game music will be, and more instruments will be added. they can do this because the music in game is generated on the fly, not prerecorded. Make your nightopians sad and you'll be playing to some weak-ass music.
NiGHTS' worlds are based off Carl Gustav Jung's psychological research of dreams. Several real-life dream motifs are present. For example, half of the level of Soft Museum takes place in front of mirrors. The mirrors reflect a world that isn't really there - objects which aren't visible in front of NiGHTS are reflected behind him. The entire world morphs and shifts. It's a truly beautiful game which needs to be seen to be believed.
Hence, screenshots:
And videos:
Soft Museum (Original NiGHTS)
Stick Canyon (Original NiGHTS)
Spring Valley (Original NiGHTS)
Final Boss (Original NiGHTS)
NiGHTS Journey of Dreams Trailer
EDIT: Reviews are rolling in:
EGM: 7.2/10
Nintendo Power: 9/10
-"Director Takashi Iizuka and his team have hit one of out the park, delivering a follow-up in every way worthy of its legendary predecessor."
MY INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
Wow. This is NiGHTS in every way possible. So far my favorite aspect is the music - it sounds like classic sega and like the original. The weather functionality is awesome - it's overcast in houston, and overcast in the game. Previews and reviews haven't mentioned it, but the time integration from Christmas NiGHTS has returned. I set the game to valentines day and the game world changed.
Visually, it's on par with Sonic and the Secret Rings. However, it's art direction is vastly superior. Nightopia has never looked so great. And have I mentioned the music is fantastic? Linking is a bit more difficult because rings and items are more spread out, but that seems to add to the difficulty. Make no mistake, this is still a link-happy racer-platformer hybrid. Fucking fantastic. If you loved the original, you'll love the sequel.
i'll post a full review after I've beaten the game and explored all the extras.
p.s. the music is FANTASTIC.
Official Website
~~~~~
Late at night, when all the people of the world go to sleep, they transport themselves into an alternate, magical universe known as Nightopia, where anything can happen. As we grow older and lose our sense of magic, we dismiss these nightly trips as being nothing more than figments of our imagination - dreams in common terms. But what if they were real?
Deep within Nightopia, an omnipotent being known as the wiseman dwells. Discontent with living in a world conjured up by the dreams of people, the wiseman schemes to remove himself from Nightopia and conquer the world. Every human is made up of different virtues which manifest themselves as orbs of power called Ideya. Ideya come in 5 varieties: white for purity, green for wisdom, yellow for hope, blue for intelligence, and the rarest red dream energy - courage. Some people only contain wisdom. Some people contain only hope. Some are only pure. Some are intelligent. Most people contain several ideya in varying combination. But only a few very special people contain the rare red ideya. The wiseman will, over the next 3 days, steal the ideya of every sleeping person in the world and use their power to manifest himself in the real world, where he'll be free enslave the people of earth.
The wiseman has amassed an army of nightmaren to steal the ideya from the sleeping people of the world. However, the special red courage ideya cannot be stolen easily. It can only be given away, or violently ripped away by an extreme nightmare. For this very reason, the wiseman has created 2 special twin nightmaren. Unlike normal nightmaren, these 2 possess free will, which grants them more power than normal. These special nightmare are NiGHTS and Reala. Their goal - to track down those who possess the special red ideya and rip them away. However, with his free will, NiGHTS rebells against the wiseman, and is placed into a prison.
It is 3 days away from the 100th annaversary of the city of Twin Seeds. Twin Seeds is a bustling modern city, filled with people living out their lives. Within this unassuming city lives 2 unassuming children who live unassuming lives. Elliot Edwards is a child new to the city, struggling to make friends. Unsure of himself, he finds a group of kids playing basketball but backs off, afraid he isn't good enough to play with them. Across town, Claris Sinclair is a young girl who wants to be the lead singer for the Twin Seeds centennial play, but she refuses to audition out of fear that she'll be laughed off stage. When night falls, and the two go to sleep, their fears manifest and they find themselves in nightmarish world. However, these two are special - buried deep inside of themselves is the red Ideya. As nightmaren persue them throughout nightopia, stealing their other ideya, they run into the imprisoned NiGHTS, who offers his hand out. By lending him their courage, they can become one and take to the skies to try and foil the wiseman's plot.
~~~~~
WIKINiGHTS into Dreams... is a video game released by Sega in 1996 for the Sega Saturn video game system. The game's story follows two children entering a dream world, where they are aided by a being called Nights. Nights was developed by Sonic Team, with Yuji Naka as producer and lead programmer, and Naoto Oshima as director and designer of the titular character. The developers' intention was to make the sensation of flight the central gameplay element, achieved through 3D graphics and a combination of both 2D and 3D gameplay. The game will be rereleased on the Japanese PS2 on February 21st, 2008. It is unknown at this time if it will be released in other territories.
Boys and girls, TODAY is the release of the 3rd game in the NiGHTS series, the first two being NiGHTS into Dreams and Christmas NiGHTS. NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is an unrelated sequel to the original NiGHTS (unlike Christmas NiGHTS) which features new children and a new setting, but retaining the classic gameplay. For those who have never played a NiGHTS game, they're more of a racing game than a platformer. The Green Hill Zone describes the gameplay as follows:
2D, 3D...hell, why draw a line? NiGHTS gameplay takes place along a 2D plane, but this plane weaves in and around a fully realized and gorgeously rendered 3D arena.
Each level (Dream) consists of four rounds (Mares), which are actually just four different 2D tracks around the same 3D stage. In each Mare, the object is to destroy the Ideya Capture within the time limit by collecting 20 Blue Chips and depositing them into the capsule, which overloads and blows up. NiGHTS automatically picks up the Ideya freed from the capsule, at which point you can advance to the next Mare by returning to the Ideya Palace where you started. NiGHTS drops off the Ideya you picked up, and the next Mare begins. The timer resets when you start a new Mare, so if you're good, you should have plenty of time left over to fly around the stage collecting points. Once you cash in at the Ideya Palace, your score is tallied up and you receive a letter grade of A-E with A being the best. After clearing all four Mares, you take on the boss, where your overall grade is based solely on how quickly you were able to defeat him/her/it.
You start off each Dream as either Elliot or Claris, depending on which Dream you select. As Elliot and Claris, you have total freedom to explore the stage on foot, and while it is technically possible to collect Blue Chips and destroy the Ideya Capture using this method, don't bet your "chips" on it. (Sorry...) The only special move available to the two kids is the Mario 64 style triple jump: jump once, hit the button again the moment you hit the ground for a higher jump, and hit it a third time for a super leap. You can hatch Nightopian eggs by walking over them and check out all the nooks and crannies you can't explore as NiGHTS... But no matter what you do, your progress will be constantly hindered by the Alarm Egg. After about 30 seconds of wandering around, the Alarm Egg appears and begins chasing you down. It can't be destroyed, and should it capture you, it's Night Over (game over, in the traditional lingo). So if you're going to play a serious game, dash for the Ideya Palace and transform into NiGHTS as soon as possible.
The mechanics change completely and the real gameplay begins when you transform into NiGHTS. While you're now restricted to a 2D flight plane, the speed is kicked up to near Sonic levels and you can really cut loose with a dazzling array of aerial acrobatics. While you don't have to deal with the Alarm Egg as NiGHTS, the timer kicks in. In fact, there's no kind of power bar at all... when you take damage, five seconds are shaved off the timer. Run out of time and you transform back into Elliot/Claris, which resets your score for the course almost ensuring a failing grade.
The one basic goal is to collect Blue Chips, but playing it straight is the way of the LUH-HOOSER. NiGHTS is all about skill, style, and score-crunching. The skilled player will almost invariably meet the Blue Chip quota on the first or second round, but will continue to dash around the Mare using every last second of time to rack up points and put on a show in general. After the Ideya Capture is trashed, Blue Chips turn into Gold Chips and point values double.
I recall a quote from an old issue of the defunct Game Players magazine: "Sonic collects Rings, NiGHTS flies right through them. Gaming just keeps getting better and better." Throughout each Mare you'll find large, orange Rings lined up in intricate, snake-like patterns. Fly through them for points. Chain them together to form Links, which is easily the most effective means of racking up points in a short amount of time. A skilled player can zip around most Mares over and over and over, creating a constant chain of Links and earning massive points. It's not uncommon to Link into the hundreds, and the chain is usually only broken because you're almost out of time. There are four different types of Rings: Ring: normal orange Rings, worth 10 points. Disappear after you fly through them
- Double Rings: yellow and blue double Rings, usually built at right angles. 10 points for each loop
- Double Rings: yellow and blue double Rings, usually built at right angles. 10 points for each loop
- Spine Rings: spiked Rings... good for 10 points when you fly through the middle, but don't touch the edges or you'll take damage and lose 5 seconds
- Acro Rings: fly through an Acro Ring and the trail of sparkles behind NiGHTS is replaced by a long yellow banner. For 10 seconds, you will earn points for performing acrobatics. When the music ends, the banner disappears and your performance is rated from 1-10 along with a one-word commentary based on your score: 0 is Don't Mind!, 1-3 is Nice, 4-5 is Wonderful, 6-7 is Excellent, 8 is Cool, 9 is Marvelous, 10 is Superb, and 11 is Dreamy!!!
NiGHTS is a wonderful game filled with style, substance, and gameplay. The main game can be finished in but a few hours, but it's replayability is through the roof. Beyond that, the world of Nightopia is also filled with Nigtopians. If any of you have played the Chao mini games from Sonic Adventure 1 or 2, then you'll instantly recognize the Nightopians. Both Nightopians and Chao belong to the same sysem, called the A-Life system. Bring a Nightopian egg an enemy, and they'll merge into a pian. Pians evolve, grow, and eventually die. Be kind to them, and they'll be happy, following you singing as you play. Piss them off, and they'll become reclusive. the game is completely reactive to the pian society per level. As the mood of the pians change, the music in the game will change to reflect their mood. The happier they are, the more upbeat the tempo of the in-game music will be, and more instruments will be added. they can do this because the music in game is generated on the fly, not prerecorded. Make your nightopians sad and you'll be playing to some weak-ass music.
NiGHTS' worlds are based off Carl Gustav Jung's psychological research of dreams. Several real-life dream motifs are present. For example, half of the level of Soft Museum takes place in front of mirrors. The mirrors reflect a world that isn't really there - objects which aren't visible in front of NiGHTS are reflected behind him. The entire world morphs and shifts. It's a truly beautiful game which needs to be seen to be believed.
Hence, screenshots:
And videos:
Soft Museum (Original NiGHTS)
Stick Canyon (Original NiGHTS)
Spring Valley (Original NiGHTS)
Final Boss (Original NiGHTS)
NiGHTS Journey of Dreams Trailer
EDIT: Reviews are rolling in:
EGM: 7.2/10
Nintendo Power: 9/10
-"Director Takashi Iizuka and his team have hit one of out the park, delivering a follow-up in every way worthy of its legendary predecessor."
TheSonicRetard on
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Posts
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
3 ways to play
*Point the wii remote at the screen, and nights flies towards where you point, A drills
*nunchuck+wii remote, A drills and nunchuck moves
*gamecube controller to play exactly like it did on the saturn, complete with analog shoulder buttons
Holy shit, sweet.
I read that as you were disappointed in Zack and Wiki, and was immediately going to attack like a wild cat. But then I re-read it, and you're in favor of it, and the claws went back in.
I hope this game does well too. It's a shame that great games tend to be overlooked.
If this game is well recieved by the press, I'll be surprised. I just don't think the mainstream gets NiGHTS. I expect low sales, lots of "this game sucks!" type reviews, and overall disappointment from everyone expecting Mario Galaxy.
But I also expect to love every fucking second of this game. It's not FOR them.
Edit: EGM gave it a 7, but seems largely positive about the aspects I'm looking forward to. Apparently, using a GCN or classic controller is a must, but we knew that already.
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Anyway, EGM reviews this in the latest issue and it does pretty well. I don't have it on hand, but I think the complaints were that the wiimote controls sucked, the setting and (unskippable) storyline were childish, and the new concepts weren't fleshed out or developed enough. They also expressed disappointment that it stays very, very close to the original's formula, but I wouldn't really consider that a criticism. It got about a 7 average.
This game I'm interested in, but not quite sold on yet. I'm looking to read what people here thinking of it before picking it up myself.
Merry Christmas!
I so want to play this game.
Also: The Wiseman?
God I wish I never lent it out.
Tumblr
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
1 more day. God I can't wait. What's awesome is it's coming out JUST as I finish Mass Effect.
What about Europe? I need this game!
PSN ID - S-Starwind (Playing Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Gundam Battle Ops)
Final Fantasy XIV - Masamune Server (Moving to Sargantanas) - Rykosho Hoshikaze
Steam ID - The Starwind
remake.
God I'm pumped.
bad ASS.
Sigh.
Seriously. The entire soundtrack for the original game is stellar, save for that godforsaken vocal track. Every version of it. Eugh.
I dunno how I made that connection, but whatever
34K sales during the month of Dec/Jan.
Was it good though? Will it ever come to the US?
Highly probable, and highly unlikely.
They didn't bring over any of the other numerous Ages remakes/ports, so I don't see why this of all things would get special treatment.
And if it does, I expect Dragon Force next.
Man. I was hoping for...
I'm also hoping that the final level is a mad dash through Bellbridge, or whatever the new city is called.
Now I have to go find my NiGHTS soundtrack and the remix CD. I'm trying not to get too hyped about this game in case it doesn't meet my expectations... but it's so hard.
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter