NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

I had promised myself I’d do this one much earlier; either in the same year where I released my original review of the first NiGHTS game, or perhaps the year after. Oh well, better late than never, as they say.

SEGA has a thing for
free-spirited protagonists.

If that name doesn’t ring a bell, I can understand; SEGA promotes the franchises that do well like Sonic, Persona and Yakuza. Still, due to a design that almost fits in Sonic’s world, NiGHTS benefits from having cameoed in the hedgehog's games every now and then, so they’re not completely unknown. The gender-neutral dream jester can only claim two full games to their name, with a third unofficial one that’s an add-on to the first, and has a cult following as a result. I already covered the original game, NiGHTS Into Dreams…, which first came out on the SEGA Saturn in 2006 before seeing a rerelease on Steam in 2012. Then at some point I got the "sequel", a Wii game titled NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, released in North America on December 18th, 2007, more than 11 years after its predecessor.

Semi-sequel, semi-reboot, this game carries over the themes, story and ideas (or should I say Ideya) of the previous entry. Journey of Dreams tries to bring the original idea of NiGHTS’ flight-based gameplay to a modern console. (…well, I say that, but this game has been out for 15 years so, depending on who you ask,  it may count as retro by now.) It’s probably easier to jump right into it so that we can compare and contrast.

Two Kids in Dreamland

At least he's not dreaming of his teeth falling
out... that's something, I guess.

The story opens as we follow two kids, twelve year olds Will and Helen, through their subconscious. These kids' storylines begin separate but intertwine down the line. Will has nightmares about his father who is always gone, and his soccer team mocking him for it; while Helen is torn between her social life with friends and the relationship with her mom, who pushes her into improving as a violinist. Both see their fears morph into nightmarish shadows, and are rescued by a bright light and finding themselves in a garden.

All that, plus the intro movie of NiGHTS flying around the skies of “London” and the dream worlds, in gorgeous 3D animation! Animation way better than anything the Wii can pull off through in-game cutscenes… as we’re instantly proven once we switch to actual gameplay. Feels like a downgrade. Part of me wonders if these pre-rendered intros were just how SEGA did things in the latter half of the ‘00s, as other games of theirs (such as the infamous Sonic The Hedgehog 2006) had similar, gorgeous intro movies followed by disappointing, "actual game footage".

I know it's a dream world, but... damn, the return to reality is
rough. P.S. Thanks to both Crash Star Gaming and Saturn
Memories on YouTube for the cutscenes and a full
playthrough of this game, respectively.

Poor Helen must be wondering why her dreams are so
bizarre tonight.

Entering a dream garden with a fountain, the kids meet Owl, an elderly… er… owl who explains the existence of Nightopia, the world of dreams, and Nightmare, the world of… gee, take a friggin’ guess. Both the Owl and NiGHTS speak with a British accent, perhaps in an attempt to emphasize the fictional city the two kids live in, which was designed to remind of London, clock tower and all. Makes it a more blatant nod to Peter Pan, with a character living in a timeless dream world and who has the power of flight. Everyone is voice-acted, with NiGHTS having a voice that sounds to me more like a woman’s. But the acting itself is... passable.

To defeat enemies, nothing's better than a Spin Dash!
I mean Drill Dash! Yeah, that's what I meant!

Several plot beats left unexplained within the previous game are given a spotlight here with Owl and NiGHTS explaining both what this dream world is about and the dream jester’s abilities, such as dualization. A kid who dualizes with NiGHTS takes control of them and can fly using their body. In the quick tutorial that follows, we learn the basics of flight; dualizing takes energy, which can be refilled by going through yellow rings. Going through more rings in sequence and grabbing blue Chips refills the meter faster. NiGHTS has two forms of “attack”; the first is a Drill Dash, which can hurt some foes and also lets the jester fly much faster, though the meter will deplete more quickly. The second is the Paraloop, which involves looping and making a circle out of the magic dust that trails behind NiGHTS; this eliminates enemies and collects all blue Chips within the loop.

The game allows all forms of controllers: Wiimote only, Wiimote & Nunchuk, Classic Controller and even GameCube controller (though the Wiimote-only version relies on the on-screen cursor, which is impractical and imprecise, while the others are more reliable).

The Nightmarens

Rings! Rings! Rings everywhere!

Both kids are warned about the Dark Ocean, a mass of darkness in the dream world; it is said to destroy the souls of those who venture into it, and no one can come back from it. (They'll both get thrown into it before the end of the story, I wager.) We’re also told about Ideyas, sparks of light made from positive ideals, and which help form Nightopia. Both kids have an Ideya of Courage in their possession, as we learn after we see NiGHTS being captured by another dream jester named Reala and taken to a cage in Nightopia.

Then there's the hat thing that looks like
spikes...

How to best describe Reala… a bad guy whose main colors are red and black, who looks a lot like the protagonist, almost sounds like they have a rivalry with the hero (who is more playful and carefree), and both have similar skill sets. Reala has a deeper voice and a pretty threatening attitude. Please tell me I’m not the only one seeing a Shadow the Hedgehog wannabe here. Even if the “edgier, darker rival” trope is a common ocurrence, that Reala’s colors match Shadow’s doesn’t feel like a coincidence.

NiGHTS turning into a rollercoaster train? Weird.
The weirder part about it is how indifferent
about this power they apparently have.

Thanks to their Ideya, the kids are able to enter NiGHTS’ cage and dualize with them, breaking free. They must chase enemies holding keys, and grab them back to destroy containers where other Nightopians are also held captive. At the end of a “captured NiGHTS” world stage, we have a first encounter with that world’s boss, who is met again in a harder battle after three more stages.

Stages between the first and the boss feel a bit more like mini-games; one where you must make a link of 30 points by flying through rings spawned by an octopus and collecting blue Chips, one where NiGHTS adopts the form of a vehicle to rescue Nightopians, and another where the dream world is threatened in some way and NiGHTS, controlled by Will or Helen, has to act. Across the first two worlds, both kids thus manage to retrieve the white Ideya of purity and the blue Ideya of intelligence.

"It's okay, it's a friend I had to save twice already."
"You too? I had to save a friend twice today!"
"Huh."

Both kids find worlds that represent them; Will’s inner world is a desert adorned with an amusement park that no one (but Nightopians) visits, representing his loneliness, though a giant beanstalk found there symbolizes his resolve. Helen’s world, meanwhile, is a castle made of glass and crystal, representing her fragility. When Will is sent to Helen's realm by Reala after the nasty jester has captured NiGHTS (again), he meets Helen who helps him leave and, from this point, the kids often meet and help each other against the threat of the Nightmaren and their leader, Wizeman. Will even returns the favor later, helping Helen through a stage from his subconscious.

I'll admit, the puzzle platformer level here, albeit simple,
was a nice change of pace. (Helen's foot is broken so she
cannot jump, forcing Will to find alternate paths for her.)

Through the story, we unlock three extra forms for NiGHTS: A dolphin, allowing them to go underwater; a rocket, much quicker than their usual Drill Dash; and a dragon, which can shrug off strong winds and other obstacles. All three are needed to beat Wizeman.

Those acrobatics, though?
NiGHTS has always been able to do those.

Will say, Wizeman is a menacing villain. Kind of
a shame that the stories in the NiGHTS games
tend to underutilize its presence and might.

Through a clever ploy, Reala eventually reveals to the kids that NiGHTS is a Nightmaren. Both have crises of faith as a result, though Will recovers from it faster than Helen. Both also take a trip into the Dark Ocean and return thanks to their Ideya. Just in time, as the friendly jester has been captured by Wizeman (...what else is new?), both regain trust in NiGHTS, and learn to believe in themselves, and become able to fly without the jester’s help. Then, Will and Helen free them and dualize with them at the same time, leading to two NiGHTS fighting against the final boss, Wizeman.

Chao Nightopian Gardens

So, the game has two paths to play through, so six worlds and roughly 30 levels… some of which feel like filler. Did we really need one stage per world in which we chase a magical octopus around? But I digress. The game is also not over after beating Wizeman twice, as the kids are still short an Ideya each. The only way to get the final Ideya and the proper ending is to get a C ranking or higher on every level. Not too extreme of a request, but still tricky.

One thing I dislike about NiGHTS is that so much of the game
is about going through rings, getting points and fuel for the
Dash, and Drill-Dashing, that getting screenshots that aren't
blurred or where NiGHTS is distinguishable is really difficult.

In that ending, an additional fight takes place against Reala before the final boss, Wizeman. Since ending the great evil will erase its creations, NiGHTS performs a heroic sacrifice by destroying Wizeman. The children awaken from their dreams, crying from losing their friend. Nonetheless, Will sees his dad at his soccer match, and Helen’s violin recital is a success. The two get to meet in real life, too, which doesn’t happen in their original respective endings. Plus, NiGHTS turns out to have survived, playing air flute on top of not-London’s clock tower.

Big empty field, little vegetation, little
population. Nothing really stands out here.

The whole letter ranking system reminds me of the Sonic franchise. What else does? The “My Dream” area, where creatures you’ve paralooped – Nightopians and Nightmarens alike – will reappear. You’ll then have to get rid of the Nightmarens and care for the Nightopians. There’s a bunch of ways to take care of them, and you can even have Nightopians breed with each other or with Nightmarens. The place could also be affected by weather, gain random decorations depending on which worlds you visited the most, and back when the Wii’s Wi-Fi connection was available, you could even visit friends’ Gardens. Much as I’d like to be interested… the Nightopians do NOT have the charm of the Chao from Sonic. They look like baby Coneheads.

Final thoughts

Wished there was more free-flight.

I was hoping I’d love this one, but much like in my review of the original game, I’m torn. NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is a gorgeous graphical update to the original NiGHTS Into Dreams…, with the worlds to explore being much more beautiful and interesting, and the game’s mechanics and features being explained in  greater detail definitely helps. A few interesting twists on the idea are even thrown in from time to time, such as the city that we can semi-freely explore in flight. And, in my opinion, the more detailed worlds make it easier to fly around and find things, which was something that bothered me in Into Dreams….

The story is given a greater focus here; it follows roughly the same beats as the original game’s, but I felt it was more interesting in that the Visitors, Will and Helen, interact with and help each other, even having their own dedicated stages. However, the quality of the voice acting varies wildly, which clashes with the seriousness some cutscenes attempt to go for. I also could have gone without the unnecessary padding; I understand there was a desire to make this game worth the price in length, but the filler nature of the octopus stages is blatant.

Decent variety in gameplay, so that helps a bit
with the impression of padding.

I have the same issues with gameplay that I had with the original NiGHTS: First, everything boils down to a strict timer mechanic. Many times, the timing is unbearably tight to actually achieve what’s requested, especially in the main stages where the Nightmarens who hold keys can be really annoying to chase down. Worse even is that these main stages all end with a first, easier battle against that world’s boss, but if you fail to beat the boss, you have to play through the entire stage again, all three rounds, from scratch. Never mind that the strategy against bosses is often a pain to figure out. Checkpoints? That would be too easy! Following a single path every time still feels limiting, which was an issue I already had in the previous title. Also bad is that the motion-based controls (read: Wiimote-only) are implemented poorly and make flight harder than it already is; the game even recommends using the Wiimote with Nunchuk or the Classic or GameCube controller to direct NiGHTS.

Maybe I'm the one who's harsh. Still, I gave
the franchise a fair try, twice.

Despite the filler, the game still feels like it’s on the short side. I’m also unable of shaking away that impression of derivativeness, with so many elements reminding me of Sonic the Hedgehog; the happy, adventurous blue-tinted (NiGHTS’ main color is purple) protagonist against a no-nonsense rival/enemy in red and black and the Chao Garden wannabe (which has some degree of complexity, sure, but too little that’s properly explained within, and feels lacking in comparison). Lastly, this is more of a reboot than a proper sequel, and so the story, while interesting, felt too similar to that of the previous entry in the series.

Overall, unlike the major nostalgia-driven preference for its predecessor, I think I personally like Journey of Dreams more than NiGHTS Into Dreams…, but it’s still got plenty of issues that dampen my enjoyment of it. Should you get it? Only if you’re a fan of the franchise… or intrigued about it. But with all that said, I think NiGHTS deserves more spotlight, and a part of me hopes they get another game that reinvents them in a much better fashion than Journey of Dreams... (sigh) ...and Balan Wonderworld... tried to do.