"Let's have a little fun, shall we?"
— NiGHTS
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is the sequel to Sega's NiGHTS into Dreams…, released in 2007 for the Wii.
Like its predecessor, the game revolves around two Visitors to the dream world, Will and Helen, who are struggling with difficulties in their everyday lives—Will, a talented soccer player, is distant from his recently-absent father and feels lonely, while Helen, a violinist, feels extremely guilty for putting her social life ahead of her relationship with her mother. In the dream world of Nightopia, they encounter the mysterious NiGHTS in the fight against the evil Wizeman the Wicked, lord of nightmares, and his henchman Reala. Will and Helen must help NiGHTS defeat Wizeman in order to grow as people, collecting the powerful Ideyas to help save the world of dreams.
Unlike its predecessor, the game has a heavier focus on story and character development, including cutscenes between levels, as well as more world-building, as the levels reflect the hearts of each Visitor.
This game contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Helen, especially when she rescues Will.
- Adorable Evil Minions: Nearly all of the Level 3 Nightmaren (the Mooks) resemble cute, colorful, toylike animals. Among the most adorable are Shleeps (fluffy sheep), Cuttles (small, pink-and-green squid with large eyes), Murtles (sea turtles with gemstone-like shells), and Mothpils (moths with vibrant wings and big, green eyes).
- All Witches Have Cats: Bomamba has a whole swarm of black cats. They're the source of her magic power.
- And I Must Scream: Before the Bellbridge level in Journey of Dreams, Owl warns the Visitors that being tossed into the black sea that surrounds the Hub Level would most likely strip them of their Ideya, lock their consciousness in an eternal nightmare, and put them in a coma in the waking world. When they are eventually forced into the sea by Wizeman, their will and their Red Ideya manage to spare them from this fate.
- Another Side, Another Story: Will and Helen have their own stories which intersect at various points, and playing both gives you the complete picture.
- Art Evolution: NiGHTs and Reala both got slightly redesigned in this game, making them look a lot more detailed and formal looking compared to how they looked in the first game. Will and Helen are also much more realistic looking compared to the anime-esque Claris and Elliot from the original game.
- As Long as There Is Evil: Wizeman pulls this in the first ending of Journey of Dreams, although it's subverted in the true ending.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: How NiGHTS is characterized in Journey of Dreams.
- Bag of Spilling: Every level starts with NiGHTS captured, forcing you to get him back. Journey of Dreams' added cutscenes make this stand out even more, as poor NiGHTS is constantly getting caught.
- Cats Are Mean: Bomamba, since the cats are her weapons and her weakness.
- Child Popstar:
- When you achieve the incomplete ending on Journey of Dreams, whoever you got it as sings the credits music.
- Helen herself employs the trope, being a skilled violinist.
- Clock Tower: This is the final "race" stage of Journey of Dreams, and it precedes the final boss.
- Coming of Age Story: This is spelled out more than in the first game, as Will and Helen gain the Ideya missing from their hearts and grow to overcome their personal crises.
- Crystal Landscape: One of Helen Cartwright's Dream Lands in Nightopia manifests as Crystal Castle, also known as the Land of Glass. As its name implies, the world and everything in it is made of a crystalline glass.
- Cutscene Incompetence: A lot of NiGHTS' troubles would be avoided if he remembered he could fly in cutscenes.
- Disappears into Light: When Wizeman is finally defeated, NiGHTS fades into a bright light in front of a children while gracefully taking a bow. However, the true ending reveals that he survived the events of the game anyways.
- Disney Death: NiGHTS appears to die in the true ending, only to return at the very end.
- Distress Ball: NiGHTS gets captured very frequently in cutscenes, and every level starts with you rescuing him, after which he blazes paths through the stage until it's time to get caught again.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: The kids in both games gain the ability to fly in the final stages. After they reunite with NiGHTS, they dualize simultaneously to engage the final battle.
- Exposition Fairy: Or "Exposition Owl". Owl is the one who explains Nightopia and how to use the game's controls to complete any levels ahead.
- Foe Romance Subtext: NiGHTS and Reala, with the latter seemingly making it a point of capturing the former every other level or so (and getting up close and personal about it).
- Fridge Horror: Helen has an in-universe example after learning that the World of Glass she's visiting, which is fragile, is created from her heart. She immediately worries that it symbolizes her own heart's fragility.
- Friendly Enemy: Sort of. NiGHTS expresses concern for Reala when the other fakes an injury, and the two apparently chat from time to time when they're not beating the crap out of each other.
- Gameplay Grading: Both NiGHTS games are largely about Scoring Points, and each time you return an Ideya to its palace, you're given a letter grade based on your performance, as well as a cumulative grade upon finishing a stage or boss. You typically unlock extra content by completing all the levels with either an A or a C rank.
- Heroic Sacrifice: NiGHTS seemingly performs one of these to take out Wizeman for good during the true ending... only to be revealed as still alive in The Stinger.
- Hub Level: Dream Gate in Journey of Dreams is traversed to access each main level.
- Jump Scare: One takes place in Helen's opening cutscene. An image of her mother appears on a store window... Which quickly turns into a monster that shatters the window and startles both Helen and the player!
- The Maze: Crystal Castle has a section with a maze. Will intends to get to Owl and NiGHTS with Helen leading him to the exit.
- Mental World: Nightopia's dimensions are shaped by Visitors' hearts, with Will's loneliness manifesting as a barren desert with a tree representing his resolve, while Helen's fragility manifests as a world of glass and crystal.
- Morphic Resonance: During the course of the two games, NiGHTS shapeshifts into a mermaid, a sleigh, a dolphin, a Chinese style dragon, a rocket, a boat, and a roller coaster. All of the forms keeps NiGHTS's color scheme and, in a few cases, his face.
- Mr. Exposition: Owl explains the lore of Nightopia and Nightmare to Will and Helen and explains the general plot to them.
- The Owl-Knowing One: Owl is an owl who knows about Nightopia and how to go through the game's controls.
- Peter Pan Parody: The titular NiGHTS bears many resemblances to Peter Pan, most notably being defined by his ability to fly and the freedom it embodies. In Journey of Dreams, this is much more prominent, being a carefree Trickster Archetype with the voice of a young boy and the Clock Tower iconic to the game resembling the Elizabeth Tower to accent it.
- Playing Tennis with the Boss: The Reala battles in Journey of Dreams are more or less a game of dodgeball with explosions.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: While Will is able to regain trust in NiGHTS relatively quickly after learning he's a Nightmaren, Helen is devastated and needs a pep-talk from Will to trust him again.
- Previous Player-Character Cameo: Elliot and Claris, the heroes from the first game, can be unlocked for use in the Hub Level.
- Soft Reboot: While it is a sequel to NiGHTS into Dreams..., the game doesn't acknowledge its events (outside of having Claris and Elliot as secret characters) and the story is effectively an expanded reimagining of the original game's story.
- Suddenly Voiced: Unlike the previous game, which had very minimal actual voice acting with much of it being Voice Grunting, Journey of Dreams features full voice acting for all the characters.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Reala is surprisingly absent from the ending, and the yellow Ideya is nowhere to be found. Both are averted in the true ending.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Reala fakes being seriously hurt after a battle to capture NiGHTS when he's off-guard. Doubles as an unintentional Deliberate Injury Gambit, since Reala actually got badly hurt in the fight, which he reluctantly admitted to NiGHTS.
In the nights, dream delight
I want to see you smile again
In the nights, dream delight
You are the one I've waited for.
I want to see you smile again
In the nights, dream delight
You are the one I've waited for.
