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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - New NiGHTS preview + screens (looking a lot better...)

shams on 19 August 2007

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3162068

After 11 years, thousands of fan outcries, and three console generations, here we are, getting a sense that an actual Nights sequel is on the way. The Saturn classic -- you know, the one Sega claimed would take down Super Mario 64 back when "next-gen" meant "3D" -- sat lonely for a decade, but now we've finally seen enough that it has settled in: a sequel exists.

Granted, we still haven't played Journey of Dreams (you may prefer to call it Nights 2), so questions on just how it feels to fly again will have to wait, but Sega recently provided a look at a new level of the game, named The Dream of Desert, that shows a bit more about how the gameplay works and reveals part of the story behind it all.
SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Nights: Journey of Dreams screens.

The idea here is that Will -- one of the new characters in the sequel -- has lost contact with his father, which has led to him having nightmares. So for this level, or "Nightopia" as the game calls it, players will come across objects that tie-in with his past. An amusement park is there to reflect the happy times of his childhood (and his current sadness as the sand all around covers it up). A beanstalk rising out of the ground "serves as a subconscious symbol of Will's inner desire to grow up and escape the desolation he feels," according to an official Sega description.

Okay, so that part makes sense, and certainly fits in with the types of levels we saw in the original Nights, but the next part of the level takes things in a more confusing direction. Once you transform into Nights and start flying around ("dualize" as Sega calls it), you come across televisions in the world. Touch them, and a lake in the background grows to the point that the desert becomes a water-filled paradise with free stuff everywhere; miss them, and the desert takes over with enemies thrown your way.

It makes sense from a gameplay perspective, and the idea of levels that change as you go seems like it'll work quite well, but if you're confused by the TVs, we can't say we've got an answer for you. Maybe it's a metaphor for teaching kids television is good. Or perhaps more likely, it'll tie-in with other aspects of the game we don't know about just yet.
SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Nights: Journey of Dreams screens.

Given how careful Sega has been with what questions it can answer about the game, we wouldn't be surprised to see a number of new elements introduced to the game structure -- how you get from level to level, how you balance your time between controlling Nights and controlling the kids, and how you switch between characters are all things we're waiting to figure out.

But The Dream of Desert does a nice job confirming there's more variety to the game than the limited glimpse seen in previous screenshots and at E3. The visuals, as you can see in the latest screens, have sparked a lot of mixed reactions and will likely to continue to do so, but from a gameplay perspective Journey of Dreams seems quite promising. We'll definitely need to see more before we can say much definitively about the game's quality, given how secretive Sega has been, but this latest glimpse is a good sign that there will at least be some variety along the way.

 

 



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Neos on 19 August 2007

they indeed look ALOT better

i always trusted the team..they will not screw up



Neos - "If I'm posting in this thread it's just for the lulz."
Tag by the one and only Fkusumot!

 

akuma587 on 19 August 2007

Yeah, those do look noticeably better.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

Cadence on 19 August 2007

I don't really see much of a difference from the previous screenshots.



ckmlb on 19 August 2007

I think they look hugely better. The lighting and such in that level make it look great. It looks like it's at sunset or something, I like it.

I still don't have this really high on my list but it is promising.



Thanks to Blacksaber for the sig!

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ckmlb on 19 August 2007
RolStoppable said:
I wish I owned a Wii...

?



Thanks to Blacksaber for the sig!

Cobretti on 19 August 2007

I agree it looks alot better. However the gameplay better be good or this will flop. I hope they delay the game if they don't feel like it betters the original nights experience.


Just like Retro did with MP3. Everyone was pissed off. However look what they managed to achieve.

IMHO they should release a demo of the game. Let people play it and tell them what they think is missing, and hwo their general feel about it is.



Legend11 on 19 August 2007

@RolStoppable

You don't own a Wii? I think a lot of people probably assumed you did (including me).



Legend11 on 19 August 2007

The game is shaping up very nicely :)



akuma587 on 19 August 2007
Cadence said:
I don't really see much of a difference from the previous screenshots.

 Did you look at the other screenshots?  It may just be this level, but as ckmlb said the lighting is much much better.  The textures on every surface are vastly improved as well.  They were kind of flat in the older ones.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson