NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams offers a visually stunning return to the dream world of Nightopia, where you'll soar through fantastical landscapes as the acrobatic jester, NiGHTS. The flight mechanics feel liberating, and the vibrant stages overflow with imagination. However, the story feels overbearing at times, and the gameplay outside of flying segments can be clunky and repetitive. Still, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams captures a sense of childlike wonder, making it enjoyable for fans of the whimsical and those seeking a unique platforming experience.
I legit don't get why people disliked this sequel.
It takes all of the great things that makes Nights Into Dreams a classic and expends upon it in all the ways.
The atmosphere is litersally dream-like, able to mix together incredibly beautiful scenery with really effective nightmare fuel (seriously, some of the bosses looks messed up, in the best way). The controls are solid and feels natural with a Wii remote (even if I would love to see a port with a more traditional controller) and the side modes featured, both single and multiplayer, offer a lot of replayability.
While I can see why the writing can be a letdown for a lor of old fans (specifically regarding NIGHTS's character), I feel the message of following your dreams, trusting yourself and keep moving forward to face the challenges you can meet in your life, are still intact, and can even surpass the morals of its predecessor.
I kinda wish SEGA will do more with this franchise. One of the most underrated games from their catalog!
It takes all of the great things that makes Nights Into Dreams a classic and expends upon it in all the ways.
The atmosphere is litersally dream-like, able to mix together incredibly beautiful scenery with really effective nightmare fuel (seriously, some of the bosses looks messed up, in the best way). The controls are solid and feels natural with a Wii remote (even if I would love to see a port with a more traditional controller) and the side modes featured, both single and multiplayer, offer a lot of replayability.
While I can see why the writing can be a letdown for a lor of old fans (specifically regarding NIGHTS's character), I feel the message of following your dreams, trusting yourself and keep moving forward to face the challenges you can meet in your life, are still intact, and can even surpass the morals of its predecessor.
I kinda wish SEGA will do more with this franchise. One of the most underrated games from their catalog!
This review contains spoilers
Disclaimer: I played this game with a Wii controller. Also, English is not my main language, I'm sorry if you see grammatical errors.
Each entry in the Nights Franchise (yes, all two of them) can represent the core ideas and game design philosophies of Sonic Team in the respective times each game was made, arguably more so than the Sonic franchise.
The first "Into Dreams..." is an arcadey unique 2.5D flight simulator with a setting as inventive as the idea behind the game: 2 children venturing into a world made of their dreams with the help of a magical Jester creature. It was simple and effective, and while not everyone's cup of tea due to the enjoyment coming from trying to get the highest ranking possible, for the ones that stick to try that herculean task it's worth every hour spent.
10 years later Sonic Team drops its follow-up "Journey of Dreams" which mixes the timeless charm of the original, with awkwardness and head scratches that make you go "Why did they do that?"
In all fairness, I don't think the game is necessarily Bad, but you can tell a different Sonic Team made this than the one from 1996.
Like its predecessor, Journey of Dreams main and core gameplay style is a 2.5D Flight game where every level is made of 3 routes/courses + a boss fight at the End that is the major factor on the raking for the level, or in this game's case, the first main mission.
Unlike the first game where you need to get a certain number of Blue Chips to destroy a generator and then get to the temple at the center of the level to complete a Course, in Journey, you need to chase a Bird guard Nightmaren (the villains of the series) that has a key. Catch the bird to get the key, then use it to break the cage at the beginning of each Course. You have to do this before the timer on top of the screen Runs out. While Chasing the Guard, the player needs to go through loops and catch blue chips to fill a combo meter (or links as the game calls it) that serves to fill the boost meter and earn points that are used to rank the player's performance in each Course, which also plays into the ranking at the end.
To start with the positives, I welcome the change in Direction: the first game was all about repeating the courses multiple times to get higher rankings, but if someone wasn't interested in that they could just destroy the generator and move on with a Low Rank missing part of the gameplay Appeal; but turning the main stages from a "Score attack" philosophy to a "Time Attack with a moving goal" one surprisingly works. They simplified some of the Loop and chips positions and the camera angle is adjusted to have a clear view of the surroundings. I like the first game approach a little better, but if we ever get a Nights 3, I'll be happy if they insert both approaches as separate missions.
Speaking of which, as I implied before, each level is now separated into 5 missions and you need to complete all of them to progress through the game. I was scared at first because, after Sonic Adventure it feels like every time Sonic Team puts Variety in their games, they usually tend to lose the focus of what should be the main gameplay style and put something completely different like Fishing or roaming around a map for 10 hours finding 3 mcguffins.
Thankfully, except for one type of mission, most of the gameplay variations fall in the Crash Bandicoot vehicle stage category, where even with slightly different controls or objectives I never feel I'm straying away from the main gameplay of the game: even when nights become a boat or needs to do paraloop challenges or needs to do a certain amount of links in the Octopaw levels, I'm still going though loops, flying around, performing tricks, chaining links and trying to get a high score like in the main missions. and the quality (not counting the stages I'll talk about later) ranges from OK to pretty good.
This is a Sonic Team project so of course the production value will be of good quality. This game doesn't disappoint for the most part: the soundtrack is stellar with various re-arrangements and covers of the series' main theme "Dreams Dreams" plus various banger songs like Queen Bella's boss fight or Reala Theme, and while the environment reuses most of the themes of the previous game, it's nice to see them again made for the ground up for a 6th gen system.
Honestly, if I'm in a completionist mood where I take a good stack of games that I completed the main story, but I skipped the Side content or I didn't get the highest rankings or all the collectibles, I wouldn't mind putting this one in that stack, especially in between the larger games with a ton of side stuff. I say this with levity now because I finished the game and I can go back and revisit the missions I want. But unlock them for the first time...that's another another story (and not a good one).
An Area where the game stumbles story and pacing.
The game's narrative is a retelling of the first game: two young children, a boy named Will and a girl named Helen, are suffering from "anxiety" (this game treats more like "not believing in themselves") due to personal problems, from Will feeling like his father doesn't give enough attention because of work, to Helen feeling like she is ignoring her training for a big Violin concert she has to do with her mother in a week. One night while sleeping, both kids get called into the dream world and meet the title character NIghts, and the new addition to the cast, a stereotypical intellectual owl named... Owl. Both of them notice that the two visitors have the power of Ideya, the dream energy that powers the dream world and that is hunted by the main antagonist of the series, Wizemen, and his army of nightmaren. So the Kids and nights need to unite their powers (literally) and collect all the Ideyas to restore peace in the dream world and resolve the kid's issues.
It's a pretty cheesy standard videogame plot that does its job and doesn't require too much explaining....and that's exactly what Sonic Team did!
I don't know if it was because of the change in industry standards or playing catch up with other devs, but Sonic Team is trying so hard to make the story much more involved, but ended up with a even less compelling result than what a Saturn game did 10 years earlier.
The original "Into Dreams..." isn't Oscar-worthy with its story and it can also be put in the cheesy category to some extent. Still, it shows the ingenuity of the Sonic team of old and it's a good evolution of the "using gameplay for storytelling" mantra they created with Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Since the dream world is made of the dreams and memories of the kids, Sonic team went around the limitation of the Saturn and used the environment as a representation of their state of mind: there are forests made of illusions and musical instruments, desert valleys with steamy cold machines and other various biomes that can be representative of the kid's inner emotional state, or a happy/sad memory, or their subconscious, or a mix of all and the above, making the player coming to their conclusions and interpretations without any sorta of forced explanation.
Journey of Dreams does (Unfortunately) force some explanation: in some instances, the game stops to explain what the level represents and that just sucks some of the magic of the original. in its place, we have the trademark Sonic Team 2000's writing and cutscenes directing in all its Awkward glory: the cutscenes are a bunch of nothing burgers that fail to have any (intentional) charm with bland dialogue that feels first draft, almost like place holder lines that they forgot to cut, and a cast of flavorless characters that don't go beyond their archetype. The only enjoyment I got was from riffing the hell out of these cutscenes.
It wouldn't even be that bad if it wasn't for the amount there is in this game. there's one every time you start a mission for the first time and you can't skip them unless you see them once.
They are so boring, it's like playing Mario 64 or a crash bandicoot game but everytime you enter a stage, a "lore" video from late 2000's/ early 2010's youtube will play, like the ones linkara makes.
And Speaking of immature, let’s talk about the kids, They are probably the worst part of the game. They are the emotional center of the game but fall flat in every aspect like they are trying their hardest to hijack the game in every way possible. And they are especially disappointing if you compare them to the previous Kids, Claire and Elliot, and they didn't speak a word: their dilemmas are very generic, the models are the most uncanny of the whole game, and the ACTING!?
Look, this game is 15+ years old, the actors of the kids are adults and I hope they are living their lives to their fullest and that they will have the best future possible, because man, their performances don't help their cases: they sound like they are acting in a bad school play, with their directionless delivery.
And to top it off, they have the worst missions in the game. Yes, you play as the kids without nights in a few instances and it’s just painful! You know when you start a main level you are briefly playing the kid you choose just to reach Nights and dualize (the name of the fusion between Nights and the children)? Sonic Team, in their infinite wisdom, decided to make levels out of those brief sequences and all of a sudden the player is trusted in a puzzle platformer that is completely different from the rest of the game. And just like any other half-assed shift in gameplay made by these devs, it’s not good: the puzzles are braindead, attacking with the blue chips is imprecise and the levels are LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG, some almost reach 10 minutes.
At first, I didn’t think that they were going to be prominent because Will’s campaign has only one, but then I played Helen’s side and she had not one, not two, but 3 of these things, one for each level. Combine them with the nothing story at the beginning of the mission and the game just becomes a slog. The pacing is all over the place in this game: because the missions are not very long, it feels like the game comes to a halt when I can’t skip the cutscene before the mission where I have to collect bubbles that do nothing but tell me that I’m going to collect bubbles.
(Conclusions)
To reiterate, this is for the first time Only. After that, you can play the levels as you want.
And that’s the duality of Journey of Dreams: it’s a game that can be fully explored in its full potential when everything is simple and laid out, kinda like the first game.
I can see Sonic team giving an honest try in making Night appealing for the home console sensibility of the post saturn/dreamcast days and some of the changes I welcomed. But going through the game for the first time is painfully slow and some players may not have the patience.
It’s a painful 7 out of 10 game brought down by a few but very noticeable flaw that kinda makes it another 2000s Sonic team project: something with good intentions but ended up being kinda awkward.
Each entry in the Nights Franchise (yes, all two of them) can represent the core ideas and game design philosophies of Sonic Team in the respective times each game was made, arguably more so than the Sonic franchise.
The first "Into Dreams..." is an arcadey unique 2.5D flight simulator with a setting as inventive as the idea behind the game: 2 children venturing into a world made of their dreams with the help of a magical Jester creature. It was simple and effective, and while not everyone's cup of tea due to the enjoyment coming from trying to get the highest ranking possible, for the ones that stick to try that herculean task it's worth every hour spent.
10 years later Sonic Team drops its follow-up "Journey of Dreams" which mixes the timeless charm of the original, with awkwardness and head scratches that make you go "Why did they do that?"
In all fairness, I don't think the game is necessarily Bad, but you can tell a different Sonic Team made this than the one from 1996.
Like its predecessor, Journey of Dreams main and core gameplay style is a 2.5D Flight game where every level is made of 3 routes/courses + a boss fight at the End that is the major factor on the raking for the level, or in this game's case, the first main mission.
Unlike the first game where you need to get a certain number of Blue Chips to destroy a generator and then get to the temple at the center of the level to complete a Course, in Journey, you need to chase a Bird guard Nightmaren (the villains of the series) that has a key. Catch the bird to get the key, then use it to break the cage at the beginning of each Course. You have to do this before the timer on top of the screen Runs out. While Chasing the Guard, the player needs to go through loops and catch blue chips to fill a combo meter (or links as the game calls it) that serves to fill the boost meter and earn points that are used to rank the player's performance in each Course, which also plays into the ranking at the end.
To start with the positives, I welcome the change in Direction: the first game was all about repeating the courses multiple times to get higher rankings, but if someone wasn't interested in that they could just destroy the generator and move on with a Low Rank missing part of the gameplay Appeal; but turning the main stages from a "Score attack" philosophy to a "Time Attack with a moving goal" one surprisingly works. They simplified some of the Loop and chips positions and the camera angle is adjusted to have a clear view of the surroundings. I like the first game approach a little better, but if we ever get a Nights 3, I'll be happy if they insert both approaches as separate missions.
Speaking of which, as I implied before, each level is now separated into 5 missions and you need to complete all of them to progress through the game. I was scared at first because, after Sonic Adventure it feels like every time Sonic Team puts Variety in their games, they usually tend to lose the focus of what should be the main gameplay style and put something completely different like Fishing or roaming around a map for 10 hours finding 3 mcguffins.
Thankfully, except for one type of mission, most of the gameplay variations fall in the Crash Bandicoot vehicle stage category, where even with slightly different controls or objectives I never feel I'm straying away from the main gameplay of the game: even when nights become a boat or needs to do paraloop challenges or needs to do a certain amount of links in the Octopaw levels, I'm still going though loops, flying around, performing tricks, chaining links and trying to get a high score like in the main missions. and the quality (not counting the stages I'll talk about later) ranges from OK to pretty good.
This is a Sonic Team project so of course the production value will be of good quality. This game doesn't disappoint for the most part: the soundtrack is stellar with various re-arrangements and covers of the series' main theme "Dreams Dreams" plus various banger songs like Queen Bella's boss fight or Reala Theme, and while the environment reuses most of the themes of the previous game, it's nice to see them again made for the ground up for a 6th gen system.
Honestly, if I'm in a completionist mood where I take a good stack of games that I completed the main story, but I skipped the Side content or I didn't get the highest rankings or all the collectibles, I wouldn't mind putting this one in that stack, especially in between the larger games with a ton of side stuff. I say this with levity now because I finished the game and I can go back and revisit the missions I want. But unlock them for the first time...that's another another story (and not a good one).
An Area where the game stumbles story and pacing.
The game's narrative is a retelling of the first game: two young children, a boy named Will and a girl named Helen, are suffering from "anxiety" (this game treats more like "not believing in themselves") due to personal problems, from Will feeling like his father doesn't give enough attention because of work, to Helen feeling like she is ignoring her training for a big Violin concert she has to do with her mother in a week. One night while sleeping, both kids get called into the dream world and meet the title character NIghts, and the new addition to the cast, a stereotypical intellectual owl named... Owl. Both of them notice that the two visitors have the power of Ideya, the dream energy that powers the dream world and that is hunted by the main antagonist of the series, Wizemen, and his army of nightmaren. So the Kids and nights need to unite their powers (literally) and collect all the Ideyas to restore peace in the dream world and resolve the kid's issues.
It's a pretty cheesy standard videogame plot that does its job and doesn't require too much explaining....and that's exactly what Sonic Team did!
I don't know if it was because of the change in industry standards or playing catch up with other devs, but Sonic Team is trying so hard to make the story much more involved, but ended up with a even less compelling result than what a Saturn game did 10 years earlier.
The original "Into Dreams..." isn't Oscar-worthy with its story and it can also be put in the cheesy category to some extent. Still, it shows the ingenuity of the Sonic team of old and it's a good evolution of the "using gameplay for storytelling" mantra they created with Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Since the dream world is made of the dreams and memories of the kids, Sonic team went around the limitation of the Saturn and used the environment as a representation of their state of mind: there are forests made of illusions and musical instruments, desert valleys with steamy cold machines and other various biomes that can be representative of the kid's inner emotional state, or a happy/sad memory, or their subconscious, or a mix of all and the above, making the player coming to their conclusions and interpretations without any sorta of forced explanation.
Journey of Dreams does (Unfortunately) force some explanation: in some instances, the game stops to explain what the level represents and that just sucks some of the magic of the original. in its place, we have the trademark Sonic Team 2000's writing and cutscenes directing in all its Awkward glory: the cutscenes are a bunch of nothing burgers that fail to have any (intentional) charm with bland dialogue that feels first draft, almost like place holder lines that they forgot to cut, and a cast of flavorless characters that don't go beyond their archetype. The only enjoyment I got was from riffing the hell out of these cutscenes.
It wouldn't even be that bad if it wasn't for the amount there is in this game. there's one every time you start a mission for the first time and you can't skip them unless you see them once.
They are so boring, it's like playing Mario 64 or a crash bandicoot game but everytime you enter a stage, a "lore" video from late 2000's/ early 2010's youtube will play, like the ones linkara makes.
And Speaking of immature, let’s talk about the kids, They are probably the worst part of the game. They are the emotional center of the game but fall flat in every aspect like they are trying their hardest to hijack the game in every way possible. And they are especially disappointing if you compare them to the previous Kids, Claire and Elliot, and they didn't speak a word: their dilemmas are very generic, the models are the most uncanny of the whole game, and the ACTING!?
Look, this game is 15+ years old, the actors of the kids are adults and I hope they are living their lives to their fullest and that they will have the best future possible, because man, their performances don't help their cases: they sound like they are acting in a bad school play, with their directionless delivery.
And to top it off, they have the worst missions in the game. Yes, you play as the kids without nights in a few instances and it’s just painful! You know when you start a main level you are briefly playing the kid you choose just to reach Nights and dualize (the name of the fusion between Nights and the children)? Sonic Team, in their infinite wisdom, decided to make levels out of those brief sequences and all of a sudden the player is trusted in a puzzle platformer that is completely different from the rest of the game. And just like any other half-assed shift in gameplay made by these devs, it’s not good: the puzzles are braindead, attacking with the blue chips is imprecise and the levels are LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG, some almost reach 10 minutes.
At first, I didn’t think that they were going to be prominent because Will’s campaign has only one, but then I played Helen’s side and she had not one, not two, but 3 of these things, one for each level. Combine them with the nothing story at the beginning of the mission and the game just becomes a slog. The pacing is all over the place in this game: because the missions are not very long, it feels like the game comes to a halt when I can’t skip the cutscene before the mission where I have to collect bubbles that do nothing but tell me that I’m going to collect bubbles.
(Conclusions)
To reiterate, this is for the first time Only. After that, you can play the levels as you want.
And that’s the duality of Journey of Dreams: it’s a game that can be fully explored in its full potential when everything is simple and laid out, kinda like the first game.
I can see Sonic team giving an honest try in making Night appealing for the home console sensibility of the post saturn/dreamcast days and some of the changes I welcomed. But going through the game for the first time is painfully slow and some players may not have the patience.
It’s a painful 7 out of 10 game brought down by a few but very noticeable flaw that kinda makes it another 2000s Sonic team project: something with good intentions but ended up being kinda awkward.
Nights: Journey of Dreams is a slightly frustrating but ultimately solid game. It follows the story of two kids with somewhat interesting emotional baggage (that is slightly different from the struggles of the two kids from the first game) and attempts to build off the first game by introducing more mission variety, toggable power-ups, repeat bosses with higher difficulty, and cutscenes. Unfortunately, each of these aspects falls a bit flat in some way. The mission variety is hit or miss and can feel like padding, there are a couple frustrating bosses that feel luck based, and the story cutscenes mostly just stretch out the basic story too thinly and have mediocre voice acting. Fortunately, the core gameplay still feels good (on a normal controller), the levels are imaginative and colorful, and the music is still sublime. I also do enjoy most bosses, and the final level is genuinely great. Overall I do recommend this game and especially if you're a fan of the first game. I can't help but feel like this game has a lot of wasted potential stemming from the devs not quite understanding why the original is beloved by a small but dedicated fanbase. Overall though I do enjoy it and find a lot to like despite it’s issues.
Underrated as fuck, it's a shame that NiGHTS doesn't get much recognition as Sonic
nights voice HELEN!
i feel bad to the kids who were introduced to the franchise through this game, go pick up the og game which is infinitely better
shitty voice acting, glitches with disappearing models, unskippable cutscenes, truly sega thing to do
shitty voice acting, glitches with disappearing models, unskippable cutscenes, truly sega thing to do
I guess the fun of the original NiGHTS gameplay worked on me well enough, therefore I was immediately interested in trying out the sequel to see what that entailed. I had no prior expectations going into it, haven’t even really heard much on impressions. Some people have found it worse than the original, some people found it better. That being said right off the bat, I did have some weird emulation issues, mainly during cutscenes as characters jump and teleported in weird locations, and characters often stopped moving as if the camera weren’t viewing them during said cutscenes, but otherwise the game ran fairly well at 60.
Gotta say though, right off the bat, the game makes a MUCH better first impression than the first NiGHTS. The prominent focus on story means there’s a better opportunity to explain what’s going on and establishing the world you’re in, the controls are just as tight and responsive as before, and lo and behold, you get an actual proper fully fledged TUTORIAL, to, yknow, EXPLAIN WHAT THE CONTROLS ARE AND WHAT THE OBJECTIVES ARE. It’s almost as if, JUST almost as if, actually explaining how to play the game makes the player then want to properly delve into the whole package as a result. Crazy how that works yeah?
In any case, NiGHTS Journey of Dreams is…odd. The best way I can describe it is that it’s a more campaign focused game than the original NiGHTS, having more of a pronounced story focus and narrative to boot. The main campaign (or campaigns I should say, playing as 2 different children like before; Helen and Will) is broken up into several missions instead of being a single stage each. I guess Sonic Team really had a hard on for this mission structure, Secret Rings had it, Black Knight had it, Unleashed Wii had it (though that was Dimps but the point still stands) and now this. The missions usually vary, but the first missions will always revolve around playing the main stage as normal and fighting the boss at the end of it, like the original game; then afterwards you’ll usually be tasked with flying through rings to get a long chain going, a few random minigames, and the final mission has you fighting a harder version of the boss you’ve already fought prior. Now while this system works fine enough, it does tend to get repetitive after a while, as you end up doing the same set of missions for every world you visit. And frankly, needing to fight the boss twice for each world gets very exhausting. The game does attempt to spice things up by having quite a few different unique side missions and minigames (especially prevalent in Will’s campaign), and for the most part they’re all fine and good. What bums me out though are the first missions of each world. Essentially the closest link (haha get it) to the original NiGHTS into Dreams stages, being a single stage with laps to loop around, collectables to get, enemies, stage hazards and gimmicks, ranking system, the whole deal. Unfortunately the score attack element that made the original game satisfying to master is not here. The main objective this time is to chase a bird holding a key, and once you get it, you fly over to the “cage” you were in and bust it open. Rinse and repeat 3 times (thankfully not 4 times) and fight the boss. You can’t really fly past the container so any semblance of the frantic score attack nature the original had is gone, compounded by the much MUCH more lenient ranking system. It’s a different take on the traditional NiGHTS formula for sure, and while it works, I just wish we could have our cake and eat it too. These sections are still fun enough in their own way I suppose. The game also tries to do what the first game did in that you need to get at least a C rank on every mission to unlock the true final stage, but what that really entails is that you play through the final stage all over again (of which beforehand you’ve already done twice with both characters) with no changes aside from new story cutscenes and dialogue, you fight Reala again, and you fight the final boss again (of which you’ve also already done twice). That really wasn’t needed, I feel like they could’ve at least changed the level and obstacle layout of the final stage or given us a new final boss with Wizeman or SOMETHING.
As for the bosses themselves they’re still a mixed bag. Some are actually pretty decent (Cerberus, Reala and Wiseman were a lot of fun) but others were just kinda whatever and some were still completely terrible. I know everyone likes to rag on Bomamba, and while her fight was awkward as hell, Chamelan was by far the worst of the worst. It almost felt completely luck based at times, I went from getting a time over 3 times in a row to killing the boss in like 15 seconds, it’s not very fun at all. An improvement over the original game’s bosses but that’s…not exactly saying much.
The story is a mixed bag for many, but I actually found it to be enjoyable. Not great or anything, but it was charming and fun to watch everything play through. I liked NiGHTS’ bond with the children as a standout highlight; and speaking of which, the children in this game are MUCH more interesting characters than Claris and Elliot, although that’s mainly due to these characters having actual dialogue and personalities and whatnot, but yeah. I felt like I connected with Helen’s story with her and her mother more than Will’s but both were great. The mocap is dated af, the voice acting is a little hokey and the game can sometimes be a little too on the nose when trying to showcase the dream world environments (“HEY HELEN, ARE YOU AWARE THAT THIS DREAM WORLD IS A REPRESENTATION OF YOUR FRAGILE HEART WHICH IS WHY EVERYTHING YOU SEE IS MADE OF GLASS????”), but otherwise I liked what I saw. To be honest NiGHTS’ voice was not at all what I expected them to sound like, but the more I think about it I don’t really know WHAT I expected them to sound like in the first place so I guess it’s whatever. Owl was…fine but he wasn’t anything more than an exposition machine, though NiGHTS constantly playfully teasing him was pretty amusing
While I did end up enjoying the children in context of the story, there is one mission structure I’ve neglected to mention for a reason. During certain points, you have missions (primarily in Helen’s campaign, Will gets like 1 and that’s it) where you take control of the children themselves and try to reunite with NiGHTS. Controlling the children in the original game always seemed kinda pointless to me. It was mainly a fallback tool if you ran out of time when playing as NiGHTS and nothing more. While I appreciate the attempt to make the children themselves more involved and have this kind of mechanic be more fleshed out, this was NOT the way to do it. The standalone children missions have you doing some of the most bland, BASIC puzzle platforming I have ever seen, oftentimes in a maze like environment with a time limit. You can run and jump and uh…that’s about it. Your movement speed is lackadaisical and the stages themselves drag on for an agonizing 8-10 minutes or so. The only defense you have against enemies are the typical blue orb collectables you pick up (you just kinda chuck em at the enemy and hit em like twice in order to down them). These were by far the lowest points of the entire game. There’s just nothing standout about these missions at all and they snap the pace of the game clean in 2 every time you have to play them. I don’t mind controlling the kids in like, say, the hub world or even when you need to free NiGHTS at the beginning of the main first missions, but this was just not it sorry to say.
The presentation is really well done. The models are pretty good for Wii standard and the music is very good as well (was pleased to hear Gate of your Dream again, love that track. Also Jun Senoue went HARD on the final Reala fight geez). The CGI is absolutely breathtaking compared to…whatever the original tried to accomplish. The mocap is a bit awkward as I mentioned prior though, and idk if this is a hot take or not, but I felt like the environments in this game were a lot less colorful and surreal compared to the original game. I felt that’s something they could’ve taken a step further. While I do still prefer the score attack arcady nature of the original, this is still a fairly enjoyable title. The highs aren’t as high, but this game does have different strengths in different areas that help it stand out.
And uhh, nope. Shleep are still creepy. Still hate them 😃
Gotta say though, right off the bat, the game makes a MUCH better first impression than the first NiGHTS. The prominent focus on story means there’s a better opportunity to explain what’s going on and establishing the world you’re in, the controls are just as tight and responsive as before, and lo and behold, you get an actual proper fully fledged TUTORIAL, to, yknow, EXPLAIN WHAT THE CONTROLS ARE AND WHAT THE OBJECTIVES ARE. It’s almost as if, JUST almost as if, actually explaining how to play the game makes the player then want to properly delve into the whole package as a result. Crazy how that works yeah?
In any case, NiGHTS Journey of Dreams is…odd. The best way I can describe it is that it’s a more campaign focused game than the original NiGHTS, having more of a pronounced story focus and narrative to boot. The main campaign (or campaigns I should say, playing as 2 different children like before; Helen and Will) is broken up into several missions instead of being a single stage each. I guess Sonic Team really had a hard on for this mission structure, Secret Rings had it, Black Knight had it, Unleashed Wii had it (though that was Dimps but the point still stands) and now this. The missions usually vary, but the first missions will always revolve around playing the main stage as normal and fighting the boss at the end of it, like the original game; then afterwards you’ll usually be tasked with flying through rings to get a long chain going, a few random minigames, and the final mission has you fighting a harder version of the boss you’ve already fought prior. Now while this system works fine enough, it does tend to get repetitive after a while, as you end up doing the same set of missions for every world you visit. And frankly, needing to fight the boss twice for each world gets very exhausting. The game does attempt to spice things up by having quite a few different unique side missions and minigames (especially prevalent in Will’s campaign), and for the most part they’re all fine and good. What bums me out though are the first missions of each world. Essentially the closest link (haha get it) to the original NiGHTS into Dreams stages, being a single stage with laps to loop around, collectables to get, enemies, stage hazards and gimmicks, ranking system, the whole deal. Unfortunately the score attack element that made the original game satisfying to master is not here. The main objective this time is to chase a bird holding a key, and once you get it, you fly over to the “cage” you were in and bust it open. Rinse and repeat 3 times (thankfully not 4 times) and fight the boss. You can’t really fly past the container so any semblance of the frantic score attack nature the original had is gone, compounded by the much MUCH more lenient ranking system. It’s a different take on the traditional NiGHTS formula for sure, and while it works, I just wish we could have our cake and eat it too. These sections are still fun enough in their own way I suppose. The game also tries to do what the first game did in that you need to get at least a C rank on every mission to unlock the true final stage, but what that really entails is that you play through the final stage all over again (of which beforehand you’ve already done twice with both characters) with no changes aside from new story cutscenes and dialogue, you fight Reala again, and you fight the final boss again (of which you’ve also already done twice). That really wasn’t needed, I feel like they could’ve at least changed the level and obstacle layout of the final stage or given us a new final boss with Wizeman or SOMETHING.
As for the bosses themselves they’re still a mixed bag. Some are actually pretty decent (Cerberus, Reala and Wiseman were a lot of fun) but others were just kinda whatever and some were still completely terrible. I know everyone likes to rag on Bomamba, and while her fight was awkward as hell, Chamelan was by far the worst of the worst. It almost felt completely luck based at times, I went from getting a time over 3 times in a row to killing the boss in like 15 seconds, it’s not very fun at all. An improvement over the original game’s bosses but that’s…not exactly saying much.
The story is a mixed bag for many, but I actually found it to be enjoyable. Not great or anything, but it was charming and fun to watch everything play through. I liked NiGHTS’ bond with the children as a standout highlight; and speaking of which, the children in this game are MUCH more interesting characters than Claris and Elliot, although that’s mainly due to these characters having actual dialogue and personalities and whatnot, but yeah. I felt like I connected with Helen’s story with her and her mother more than Will’s but both were great. The mocap is dated af, the voice acting is a little hokey and the game can sometimes be a little too on the nose when trying to showcase the dream world environments (“HEY HELEN, ARE YOU AWARE THAT THIS DREAM WORLD IS A REPRESENTATION OF YOUR FRAGILE HEART WHICH IS WHY EVERYTHING YOU SEE IS MADE OF GLASS????”), but otherwise I liked what I saw. To be honest NiGHTS’ voice was not at all what I expected them to sound like, but the more I think about it I don’t really know WHAT I expected them to sound like in the first place so I guess it’s whatever. Owl was…fine but he wasn’t anything more than an exposition machine, though NiGHTS constantly playfully teasing him was pretty amusing
While I did end up enjoying the children in context of the story, there is one mission structure I’ve neglected to mention for a reason. During certain points, you have missions (primarily in Helen’s campaign, Will gets like 1 and that’s it) where you take control of the children themselves and try to reunite with NiGHTS. Controlling the children in the original game always seemed kinda pointless to me. It was mainly a fallback tool if you ran out of time when playing as NiGHTS and nothing more. While I appreciate the attempt to make the children themselves more involved and have this kind of mechanic be more fleshed out, this was NOT the way to do it. The standalone children missions have you doing some of the most bland, BASIC puzzle platforming I have ever seen, oftentimes in a maze like environment with a time limit. You can run and jump and uh…that’s about it. Your movement speed is lackadaisical and the stages themselves drag on for an agonizing 8-10 minutes or so. The only defense you have against enemies are the typical blue orb collectables you pick up (you just kinda chuck em at the enemy and hit em like twice in order to down them). These were by far the lowest points of the entire game. There’s just nothing standout about these missions at all and they snap the pace of the game clean in 2 every time you have to play them. I don’t mind controlling the kids in like, say, the hub world or even when you need to free NiGHTS at the beginning of the main first missions, but this was just not it sorry to say.
The presentation is really well done. The models are pretty good for Wii standard and the music is very good as well (was pleased to hear Gate of your Dream again, love that track. Also Jun Senoue went HARD on the final Reala fight geez). The CGI is absolutely breathtaking compared to…whatever the original tried to accomplish. The mocap is a bit awkward as I mentioned prior though, and idk if this is a hot take or not, but I felt like the environments in this game were a lot less colorful and surreal compared to the original game. I felt that’s something they could’ve taken a step further. While I do still prefer the score attack arcady nature of the original, this is still a fairly enjoyable title. The highs aren’t as high, but this game does have different strengths in different areas that help it stand out.
And uhh, nope. Shleep are still creepy. Still hate them 😃
I feel like I'd understand this a lot better if I wasn't a pea-brained 9-year-old when I first played it.
I wanted to like this so, so bad. I love the original NiGHTS. But Journey of Dreams makes several decisions that just make the game feel really half baked. Giving NiGHTS extended voice lines is a huge mistake, the series doesn't need Mario 64-style missions, and taking something that was a punishment in the original game (being forced to walk around as a human) and making it mandatory in the sequel is just baffling.
Also, some things that are charming in the original's blocky graphics are just embarrassing with modern graphics--like NiGHTS turning into a boat. Just, deeply unfortunate.
Also, some things that are charming in the original's blocky graphics are just embarrassing with modern graphics--like NiGHTS turning into a boat. Just, deeply unfortunate.
erm.. peak
Journey of Dreams is proof that Sonic Team doesn't just make bad Sonic games, they're perfectly capable of fucking up NiGHTS too.
Although I found the original NiGHTS Into Dreams to be a perfectly fine Sega Saturn game, I did note that it's horrible camera and wonky controls held it back from being great. Nevertheless, I cut it some slack. After all, you can cheat to pan the camera out, and the controls "could be potentially alleviated if you have the right tools." I may need to make an addendum to that review, though, as Journey of Dreams proves that NiGHTS kinda controls like total garbage even if you have an analog stick, or a wiimote, or any of the other dozen control methods you can use to play this game (they're all bad!) The camera is at least pulled back enough to make each level perfectly readable, and it rarely tilts in a direction that makes it difficult to see upcoming rings, blue chips, or hazards.
Considering the controls are bad but the camera is fine, at worse I should feel about the same as I did with Into Dreams, right? Well, that would be true if it weren't for the fact that you don't really play a whole lot of NiGHTS levels in this NiGHTS game. Each world is broken up into five stages, among which is a singular flight level, a smaller run through the same stage where you have to get a set amount of "links," and a boss fight. The other two levels are either underbaked minigames or incredibly dull 3D platforming stages where you control Helen or Will. I'm not sure who on staff looked at the bits of the original NiGHTS where you're running around as the kids and thought "there should be whole levels of this." The ranking system from the previous game also returns and earning a C or better in every stage is required for the true ending, though the requirements to earn a C rank seem pretty lenient so you shouldn't have too much trouble managing that, at least. I suppose one could view that as a tacit admission that the game is frustrating to play so you gotta lowball the score requirements.
So, I can't wrap this review without mentioning the fact that NiGHTS speaks in theQueen's King's English, and there's just something really disconcerting about that. Part of what made the first game so charming was how it silently told its story, but Journey decides to toss out all the brevity and mystery for cutscenes that sometimes take as long to sit through as some levels are to play. I'd say half my time was spent watching Journey of Dreams, which isn't exactly ideal, and over-explaining how Nightopia works robs it of that dream-like quality that was so crucial to the atmosphere of the first game. Dreams are discordant and confusing, so if you're going to set your story within one then it seems really counterproductive to carefully explain exactly what the imagery of the dream means. "This world is made of glass, a reflection of your fragility," ok you didn't need to say that, maybe consider shutting up and letting they player just exist within this abstract space and come to that conclusion themselves. Even the ambiguity of NiGHTS' gender is abandoned as he's very clearly referred to in masculine terms, rather than letting the player impose upon him their own interpretation of who he is, as you might do with a character symbolic of a dream world. Hell, even known criminal Yuji Naka put it best when he said "the residents in the dream world shouldn’t have a gender, rather, the form of the characters should be determined by the person who is dreaming." It's almost like this was an intended part of NiGHTS' design for a reason, which in the intervening decade was apparently forgotten by Iizuka. Why am I not surprised.
NiGHTS is an interesting series that I see a lot of potential in, which has unfortunately been done dirty and probably won't see the light of day outside of references in other Sega projects. Into Dreams was held back by the Saturn's hardware, but Journey of Dreams is held back by a lack of creative vision and thoughtful design. I drank too much egg nog while playing this game and had a dream that hundreds of little spiders with NiGHTS' face crawled out of an open wound on my arm, and one of them turned its head and looked me dead in the eyes and told me the date of my death.
Although I found the original NiGHTS Into Dreams to be a perfectly fine Sega Saturn game, I did note that it's horrible camera and wonky controls held it back from being great. Nevertheless, I cut it some slack. After all, you can cheat to pan the camera out, and the controls "could be potentially alleviated if you have the right tools." I may need to make an addendum to that review, though, as Journey of Dreams proves that NiGHTS kinda controls like total garbage even if you have an analog stick, or a wiimote, or any of the other dozen control methods you can use to play this game (they're all bad!) The camera is at least pulled back enough to make each level perfectly readable, and it rarely tilts in a direction that makes it difficult to see upcoming rings, blue chips, or hazards.
Considering the controls are bad but the camera is fine, at worse I should feel about the same as I did with Into Dreams, right? Well, that would be true if it weren't for the fact that you don't really play a whole lot of NiGHTS levels in this NiGHTS game. Each world is broken up into five stages, among which is a singular flight level, a smaller run through the same stage where you have to get a set amount of "links," and a boss fight. The other two levels are either underbaked minigames or incredibly dull 3D platforming stages where you control Helen or Will. I'm not sure who on staff looked at the bits of the original NiGHTS where you're running around as the kids and thought "there should be whole levels of this." The ranking system from the previous game also returns and earning a C or better in every stage is required for the true ending, though the requirements to earn a C rank seem pretty lenient so you shouldn't have too much trouble managing that, at least. I suppose one could view that as a tacit admission that the game is frustrating to play so you gotta lowball the score requirements.
So, I can't wrap this review without mentioning the fact that NiGHTS speaks in the
NiGHTS is an interesting series that I see a lot of potential in, which has unfortunately been done dirty and probably won't see the light of day outside of references in other Sega projects. Into Dreams was held back by the Saturn's hardware, but Journey of Dreams is held back by a lack of creative vision and thoughtful design. I drank too much egg nog while playing this game and had a dream that hundreds of little spiders with NiGHTS' face crawled out of an open wound on my arm, and one of them turned its head and looked me dead in the eyes and told me the date of my death.
Banger oomfie
NiGHTS always gets the benefit of the doubt. Spin around some orbs. Feel the speed as you zoom effortlessly through a twirling 3D world. What more could you possibly want.
Honestly, hearing that there was a sequel to NiGHTS into Dreams at all felt like a gift of sorts. Most of Sega's oddball IPs from the 90s have all but been left to rot these days. Then again, creating a sequel to something so beloved by diehard fans can severely backfire if the new product doesn't meet their expectations. So, does Journey of Dreams meet my expectations? It's complicated.
The original game left you in the dark on most of the story's concepts, and I can infer that many people enjoyed interpeting the meaning of that game in their own way. This'll probably sound like sacrelige, but I don't entirely mind the concept of telling us more about how Nightopia works, and what certain things symbolize. Unfortunately, the voice acting and dialogue itself is very stilted, and nothing much of value actually happens in the cutscenes. Some lines are also just...yeah. It also tends to suffer from overexplaining, or telling us too much. Worse yet, these cutscenes severely bog down the pace of the game. I'm pretty sure I was watching cutscenes for about the same amount of time I got to actually play the game. There's also one thing I can't ignore about the story cutscenes above all else, that being how all the in-engine ones are stretched in widescreen, which feels like a massive oversight. I can't be the only one who sees this. I have to wonder if switching to 4:3 makes them look more natural, but even then, that cuts down on your field of view in normal gameplay, and everything else looks fantastic in widescreen. What happened here?
The most controversial element introduced in these cutscenes (afaik) is giving NiGHTS a proper voice. To me, it feels like it draws away from their androgynous nature. In this game, NiGHTS is referred to by characters as a he, has a voice that's leaning toward female (but you could argue for "young boy"), and the same androgynous design from the 90s. It's a weird mix of elements that comes off more confusing than anything. The main plot for either character also doesn't seem to line up, from my perspective. I think they wanted to focus on the relationships between the children and their parents, but like, Will's Dad heads out to buy milk and never come home right in the opening cutscene. How am I supposed to connect with that? The original NiGHTS had simple plots that almost anyone could relate to, and it's hard to not see this as anything more than a confusing downgrade.
Okay. Cooling my jets on the negativity now. I don't hate this game, far from it, really.
Each world is split up into 5 missions, all of which are required to progress to the next world. The first mission is always the typical NiGHTS action stage you'd expect. The main change to the formula is that you're now chasing a target during each lap. In this context, having to repeat a lap isn't ideal; there's a bigger focus on getting everything done in one lap and moving on to the next lap ASAP. I actually prefer this change, in all honesty. Repeating laps for a higher score in Saturn NiGHTS was a cool concept, but in execution, it could cause the whole run to really drag. JoD NiGHTS puts more of a focus on unique setpieces for each lap in each area, and the setpieces are always delightful. There's a pillar of slot machines, a hall of mirrors, naturally growing musical notation, and more. After three laps, you'll face off against a truncated version of that area's boss (we'll come back to them later).
Missions 2, 3, and 4 of each world are all gimmick stages. Mission 3 is always a Link Challenge where you pursue Octopaw through the chase stage in an attempt to create the longest link chain you can muster. As for missions 2 and 4, anything goes. Sometimes you'll be paralooping Nightopians to safety, other times you'll be pushing small water orbs into a big water orb, and god forbid, sometimes you'll play levels dedicated to the kids alone. Yeah, what was originally a punishment for running out of time in the original NiGHTS has entire 3D platforming stages dedicated to them in this game. It's not even that they're outright bad; the controls are fine and the levels are fine, but they vastly overstay their welcome, and suddenly the only thing you can think about is "I wish I could go back to flying around as NiGHTS."
The fifth mission of every world is an extended standalone version of mission 1's boss fight. Just like the original NiGHTS, the bosses are pretty hit-or-miss. Some are self-explanatory, and pretty enjoyable as a result. Others range from mediocre to bad due to either being completely unclear, or simply unfun to begin with. One saving grace is that you can ask Owl for a hint at any time on the pause menu, and he's pretty good at telling you exactly what you should be doing. Doesn't stop Bomamba from being complete shit though.
Cutscene oddity aside, the one thing I cannot knock this game for at all is the presentation. All the environments are bursting with creative ideas and spectacle, and the music is excellent. I'm glad I switched to playing the game in the Dolphin emulator with a 60 FPS cheat about halfway through my playthrough, this game deserves it. (If you plan on playing this game, this is how I recommend you do it!)
When a sequel to a beloved cult classic is released, people are realistically going to have high expectations. However, even taking the original NiGHTS' legacy into consideration, I'm still not entirely sure where all the virtiolic hate for this game comes from. The story feels confused, and the game's content feels padded, but the underlying gameplay has never felt better, and the dream worlds have never looked more stunning. I can easily see myself returning to play the "chase" missions, if nothing else. Even with all my nitpicking and comparisons to the original, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time playing this one.
The original game left you in the dark on most of the story's concepts, and I can infer that many people enjoyed interpeting the meaning of that game in their own way. This'll probably sound like sacrelige, but I don't entirely mind the concept of telling us more about how Nightopia works, and what certain things symbolize. Unfortunately, the voice acting and dialogue itself is very stilted, and nothing much of value actually happens in the cutscenes. Some lines are also just...yeah. It also tends to suffer from overexplaining, or telling us too much. Worse yet, these cutscenes severely bog down the pace of the game. I'm pretty sure I was watching cutscenes for about the same amount of time I got to actually play the game. There's also one thing I can't ignore about the story cutscenes above all else, that being how all the in-engine ones are stretched in widescreen, which feels like a massive oversight. I can't be the only one who sees this. I have to wonder if switching to 4:3 makes them look more natural, but even then, that cuts down on your field of view in normal gameplay, and everything else looks fantastic in widescreen. What happened here?
The most controversial element introduced in these cutscenes (afaik) is giving NiGHTS a proper voice. To me, it feels like it draws away from their androgynous nature. In this game, NiGHTS is referred to by characters as a he, has a voice that's leaning toward female (but you could argue for "young boy"), and the same androgynous design from the 90s. It's a weird mix of elements that comes off more confusing than anything. The main plot for either character also doesn't seem to line up, from my perspective. I think they wanted to focus on the relationships between the children and their parents, but like, Will's Dad heads out to buy milk and never come home right in the opening cutscene. How am I supposed to connect with that? The original NiGHTS had simple plots that almost anyone could relate to, and it's hard to not see this as anything more than a confusing downgrade.
Okay. Cooling my jets on the negativity now. I don't hate this game, far from it, really.
Each world is split up into 5 missions, all of which are required to progress to the next world. The first mission is always the typical NiGHTS action stage you'd expect. The main change to the formula is that you're now chasing a target during each lap. In this context, having to repeat a lap isn't ideal; there's a bigger focus on getting everything done in one lap and moving on to the next lap ASAP. I actually prefer this change, in all honesty. Repeating laps for a higher score in Saturn NiGHTS was a cool concept, but in execution, it could cause the whole run to really drag. JoD NiGHTS puts more of a focus on unique setpieces for each lap in each area, and the setpieces are always delightful. There's a pillar of slot machines, a hall of mirrors, naturally growing musical notation, and more. After three laps, you'll face off against a truncated version of that area's boss (we'll come back to them later).
Missions 2, 3, and 4 of each world are all gimmick stages. Mission 3 is always a Link Challenge where you pursue Octopaw through the chase stage in an attempt to create the longest link chain you can muster. As for missions 2 and 4, anything goes. Sometimes you'll be paralooping Nightopians to safety, other times you'll be pushing small water orbs into a big water orb, and god forbid, sometimes you'll play levels dedicated to the kids alone. Yeah, what was originally a punishment for running out of time in the original NiGHTS has entire 3D platforming stages dedicated to them in this game. It's not even that they're outright bad; the controls are fine and the levels are fine, but they vastly overstay their welcome, and suddenly the only thing you can think about is "I wish I could go back to flying around as NiGHTS."
The fifth mission of every world is an extended standalone version of mission 1's boss fight. Just like the original NiGHTS, the bosses are pretty hit-or-miss. Some are self-explanatory, and pretty enjoyable as a result. Others range from mediocre to bad due to either being completely unclear, or simply unfun to begin with. One saving grace is that you can ask Owl for a hint at any time on the pause menu, and he's pretty good at telling you exactly what you should be doing. Doesn't stop Bomamba from being complete shit though.
Cutscene oddity aside, the one thing I cannot knock this game for at all is the presentation. All the environments are bursting with creative ideas and spectacle, and the music is excellent. I'm glad I switched to playing the game in the Dolphin emulator with a 60 FPS cheat about halfway through my playthrough, this game deserves it. (If you plan on playing this game, this is how I recommend you do it!)
When a sequel to a beloved cult classic is released, people are realistically going to have high expectations. However, even taking the original NiGHTS' legacy into consideration, I'm still not entirely sure where all the virtiolic hate for this game comes from. The story feels confused, and the game's content feels padded, but the underlying gameplay has never felt better, and the dream worlds have never looked more stunning. I can easily see myself returning to play the "chase" missions, if nothing else. Even with all my nitpicking and comparisons to the original, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time playing this one.
Comparing this to the original Nights, there are definitely many improvements and this feels a lot more complete. The original is still better and genuinely captures a very specific emotion for me personally that means a lot to me, but this game is still a very very very good sequel.
I sort of feel like Nights on the Saturn could be compared to, like, Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2- tighter, less story, less hand holding, infinitely repayable. This game is more like Banana Blitz, a few new added things and ideas that sometimes work really well, still a really great time but the original always reigns supreme while being a little simpler.
The fact we never got a third Nights game makes me mad 😠
I sort of feel like Nights on the Saturn could be compared to, like, Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2- tighter, less story, less hand holding, infinitely repayable. This game is more like Banana Blitz, a few new added things and ideas that sometimes work really well, still a really great time but the original always reigns supreme while being a little simpler.
The fact we never got a third Nights game makes me mad 😠
CARALHOOOOOOOOOOO 2
This game is so ugly that my Wii refuses to play the cutscenes half the time
Overhated sequel. The core gameplay is still great, if only you could skip the cutscenes.
Say what you will about Balan Wonderworld, at least it was a new IP.
you tried
Good:
This is a largely satisfying iteration of a game I really like. The arcade gameplay has changed some, but the objective and mechanical mix-ups are still appreciated. Music is perfect and definitely rivals the first game's.
Not good:
Due to the design of the wii's analog controllers, imprecision plagues movement and is much less smooth than before. Game often looks nice but has lower framerate and resolution. Contains performance issues. Some amateur sounding VA's. Unskippable cutscenes for some reason.
Polished with a remaster, this game could be closer to a 9 / 10. As much as I personally love this game the verdict is an 7.75 / 10.
This is a largely satisfying iteration of a game I really like. The arcade gameplay has changed some, but the objective and mechanical mix-ups are still appreciated. Music is perfect and definitely rivals the first game's.
Not good:
Due to the design of the wii's analog controllers, imprecision plagues movement and is much less smooth than before. Game often looks nice but has lower framerate and resolution. Contains performance issues. Some amateur sounding VA's. Unskippable cutscenes for some reason.
Polished with a remaster, this game could be closer to a 9 / 10. As much as I personally love this game the verdict is an 7.75 / 10.
still solid tbh. soundtrack also goes
some hardcore NIGHTS fans hate this but i thought it was fun, the plot and voice acting is kinda on the meh side of things for sure but the visuals, OST, and gameplay still feel good. They wanted to make a more plot-focused NiGHTS game, and honestly the vibes are still there so I dig it. I guess it's not really much of a score attack as much as it is just a chase action game but i still had a lot of fun with it. I wish I could have seen what the weird online garden sharing mode was tho, as I played this well after the servers were shut down and I don't think Wiimmfi supports it. I like NiGHTS too much to have this game feel disappointing, I guess.
Journey of Dreams definitely doesn't quite capture the magic of the original NiGHTS, but I still applaud the effort. The music is great, and I appreciate some of the new challenges designed to shake up the formula.
Really wish Sega could give this series a 3rd shot...
Really wish Sega could give this series a 3rd shot...
scary--gave me nightmares lol
Maybe I need to go back but the controls were real bad in this one. I think they should have released a specal controller like the Saturn 3D controller for a game like this. I think maybe its just that I dont like this series or its characters or its concept or its gameplay. Maybe I just shouldnt be playing these types of games.
Geez laweez, I cant believe that I almost completely forgot about this one... Yeah, Nights Journey of Dreams is pretty great. I remember renting this one when it first came out on Wii from Blockbuster.
I think the controls are too janky for my taste, but I can still admire Sega's effort
decent enough on its own but there's just enough changes from the first game to make it not my cup of tea