NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams E3 Trailer

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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Mind my fangirling please, I just happened to see this today: the NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams E3 trailer. Oh it made me so nostalgic, I loved the original game as a child (well I still do, my Saturn is still alive and kicking), and for all the complaints of other fans based on what’s been seen so far, the more I see the more I think it’s going to be good. Does it still have the possibility of being corny? Yeah, most definitely. Am I completely in love with the in-game graphics? No, but I don’t think they’re as bad as I’ve heard them made out to be. And besides, even though it’s due out in the Fall I’ve seen articles saying the game is only about 50% complete, so over the next few months who knows what changes to the environment texture (which is the most jarring thing to me, at the moment) and what not there will be. They definitely seem to have toned down that godawful BLOOM that was seen in the early screenshots. Whatever it will be, I’m sure it’ll be fun to play, and it looks adorable and I’m curious to see how it works with the Wii remote.

The thing that interested me most in the trailer, however, was the music. I had heard the guy who scored the original game (when its innovations are discussed the music always comes up) was returning, and I wonder if this is an example of what to expect. It has a slight Danny Elfmanish quality to it, I thought, which is good in my books.

One of the new Nightmare bosses.
For now I shall call him Rape Clown

As for other news, the Japanese magazine Famitsu has released the details on the children for this game, who are two new kids from a different city (the last game featuring Claris and Elliot from the city of Twin Seeds), Will and Helen. The new children are less animu and less cartoony, with natural hair colors. Given that, my only problem with them is Will looks like a Kingdom Hearts reject. Well my other, slight, problem, is that both kids are blonde-haired and blue-eyed. I kinda get when a game has male and female main characters to choose from and makes them kind of look alike, but, eh, I dunno, it’s kind of boring when you put them next to Claris and Elliot. But in the end it’s no big deal.

These children are younger, and their problems/nightmares/adversity seems to stem from not their hobbies or goals and needing courage to overcome self-doubt, but more anxiety in the relationships with their parents. Maybe it’s a reflection of the times (the first game was released 11 years ago), it does seem like a darker message to me, somehow. Not that that’s a bad thing.

All I can say is expect a full, casual review from me when the game is released this Fall or Winter.