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Also self reblogging this to add that since this post, Detchibe has uploaded a ton more gaming magazine scans (both Sega-centric ones and just general gaming ones). For NiGHTS stuff, you might want to check out Tech Saturn and Monthly Famitsu 👀 They also have a BlueSky account

I wanted to mention that a new NiD Japanese guidebook has recently been scanned and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user Detchibe, it has a lot of cool visuals and contains some uncommon art 👀

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From Monthly Famitsu Bros. - Oct. 1996: An early version of this shirt with NiGHTS and Reala - less colorful and missing the Sonic Team logo that’s on the final

This specific shirt is from this eBay listing… it could be yours for only $225 😃👍

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A Christmas NiGHTS comic drawn by the illustrator and actor Lily Franky, from Tech Saturn, January 1997 🎄

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Continuing potential Nightmaren design inspirations… Reala time :) I wanted to save him for later but today is ✨ his day ✨

Not much new stuff, but he actually has a lot of canon design lore already 👀

All together, the Nightmarens are made to resemble a circus group, and of course NiGHTS and Reala as jesters. Jester-like designs were chosen due to jesters being able to be seen as either cute and funny or as sinister— and Reala reflects the latter part of that (source)

Naoto Ohshima: “By the time the character of NiGHTS was complete, many different versions of NiGHTS had been created, but the one that brought together the “cool and cute” parts was what became the current NiGHTS. And then, Reala was created by collecting the “scary and frightening” parts. They are two beings of light and darkness, with equal abilities but contrasting personalities.” (Full post here)

Further than that, Reala is meant to represent reality whereas NiGHTS represents dreams:

“In this nightmare world, only Reala is different. He asks us to "face reality!" and "don't let your dreams control you!" Yes, we can't live on dreams alone, and we need Reala. I think all the characters in NiGHTS are necessary for us.” (source)

Reala’s main colors— gray/white, red, black, and yellow— are more natural in comparison to NiGHTS’ more fantastical purple and pink. This could also be the reason NiGHTS’ design is more “complicated,” with a full suit for an outfit while Reala just has a simple vest to wear. Some have also suggested that Reala’s colors and features may be meant to invoke a corpse-like design, with pale skin and yellow nails. His blue-purple-red diamond pattern might also be a continuation of the reality vs. dreams theme, with blue representing dreams in their entirety, purple representing a middle ground/crossing between dreams and reality, and red reprsenting reality in its entirety.

This part is pretty well known, but Reala’s final design was made through a combination of two previous designs by Ohshima and Kazuyuki Hoshino. Also, Ohshima has posted that Reala’s final colors were decided by Hoshino, too (source, goes through the whole thread)

I’ve posted about this theory before, but one potential design inspiration I’ve thought of for Reala is a wrestling heel. Heels play an antagonistic role in matches, similar to the role a lot of fans assume Reala might have played before NiGHTS’ rebellion: they would befriend visitors and help them gather their Ideya, then Reala would come in to steal them (similar to what Reala says the two of them are doing in Helen’s Memory Forest cutscene)

As seen in the second image, heels are also known for a focus on physical moves rather than those requiring more technical skill (which may explain why Reala is designed with muscles while NiGHTS isn’t), as well as for costumes/makeup inspired by trickster-esque characters (Reala’s is also just inspired by regular clown face paint, though, lol)

While it isn’t explicitly canon, just the feeling the author of this article got from watching Reala’s gameplay, there are theories that Reala doesn’t like flying as much as NiGHTS does, either, and does it mainly as a means of scaring people:

“Watching Reala fly, I don't get the impression that he enjoys flying as much as NiGHTS does. Is it because of the Nightmarens’ inherent nature to instill fear in the human mind and enjoy it?” (Full post here). Coincidentally, Reala flies differently than NiGHTS in both games, having a different Drill Dash in NiD and different acrobatics in JoD. Both are due to oversights, but it’s cool to see this lore continues in any form they should just make it canon though tbh

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SRB but I also wanted to show this here, not exactly obscure content but I’ve been wanting to try to explain some potential design inspirations for the Nightmaren after watching this video about Earthbound 64 🐟 Here’s some Fish Lore to begin with

From this post - In terms of both name and design, Gulpo might be based off of Monstro from Pinocchio (or “The Terrible Dogfish” as he’s called in the original novel). While dogfish are a small species of shark, Disney’s version of Pinocchio adapts the character into a creature more resembling a sperm whale. No matter which adaptation you look at, though, the one thing that stays consistent about this character is his ability to swallow things whole, which some NiD guides also claim Gulpo is able to do.

While Gulpo is referred to as “Monster Fish” by internal data, his tail more closely resembles that of a whale or dolphin, moving vertically rather than horizontally (like a fish’s tail would). What canon lore we have for him describes him as being intelligent and as having a surprisingly calm personality, which may relate to the “gentle giant” view of sperm whales

Both the Archie comics and the NiGHTS stage in Sonic Lost World also show him surviving outside of water or in low levels of water (although canon is debatable and this also just might not matter since he’s a Nightmaren)

He has the ability to utilize electricity as an attack, which is also done by many species of real fish. The best known is probably the electric eel, and while Gulpo doesn’t really resemble one at all, this could be another example of his design coming from a combination of several well-known/feared aquatic animals (sharks, whales, eels, possibly more— some people have compared him to a piranha). His blue and white coloration may also be inspired by countershading, a form of camouflage seen in marine predators such as killer whales and many shark species.

While we don’t have any obvious concept art of him, there are beta designs showing an octopus Nightmaren. Because its colors match Gillwing’s, its overall idea might have been split into both him and Gulpo

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Screenshots of ‘NiGHTS Into Dreams’, a game released as part of the 'Sonic Cafe’ series in Japan. It was released for the NTT Docomo 504 / 503 mobile phones. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20020809090326/http://www.sonicteam.com/cafe/nights/index.html Support us on Patreon

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It’s hard to notice in normal gameplay, but NiGHTS and Reala have differently colored trails following their Drill Dashes. Interesting colors for Reala’s 👀🌈

During normal flight, Reala also has blue and red sparkles as opposed to the gold sparkles he has in NiD— but the turtle Nightmarens in Crystal Castle, who transform into NiGHTS, have a gold sparkle trail 🤔 (NiGHTS has bluish/silver sparkles in both games)

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To think about it, Saturn NiGHTS might be the most datamined out of all nights games as of right now. Currently it's even being torn down on a coding level to understand the a-life system in there. Which is actually quite impressive and complicated! And it also got a lot of cut features and behaviors which we would've never knew about if it wasn't for GremmarWarden's efforts

If you want to check up her findings you can see them here:

As for Jod a-life. We'll that's a whole wild depths that no one was able to tackle yet. There is only some info available through official guides (like the fact that pians have typings somewhat similar to chao, and that the only way to find what type your pian was is the color of the flower that it leaves behind after it's death)

So yeah I imagine, datamining jod's a-life mechanics would require some programming and probably decompilation knowledge as well as the knowledge of wii archetecture

Hell, even datamining game for resources normally is actually quite annoying. You have to get a really specific .one unpacker that still can mess up some of the files, and then use other software to datamine models/textures etc. Also some files are just so hidden that no one would even look in there to check it out. That's how it was with the freaking PROROTYPE DESIGNS AND CONCEPT ART that I once found. And I still shiver remembering the pain I went to dig for unused cutscenes subtitles...

Oh and I still dream of enabling the game to run in debug mode... (at least I was able to make it run in regular dev mode tho!)

So yeah, JoD datamining is pain in the ass and no one bothers to do it aside from me who was insane enough to spend her time on it. But on the bright side, the TCRF JoD page is not like 90% contributed by me and my findings!

So yeah go check it out maybe. Or not

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UPDATE! UPDATE!!

I HAVE NOT GOT THE MEDALS, but a dataminer has revealed the mountain icon and the ribbon badge. The mountain is confirmed 100% So activate your weather links, get your flying pian and UP your playtime guys!!

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I wanted to look around more on the Sonic Team website archive after seeing the last post— turns out there are two more NiGHTS figurines 👀

There’s also a Christmas Nightopian plush and a version of the book’s cover without text on it

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A custom figure for ‘NiGHTS Into Dreams’, which appeared on Sonic Team’s website in 1996. The figure was made by TOUMA, who also wrote about how they made it. Naoto Ohshima posted a photo of it recently: https://x.com/NaotoOhshima/status/1560288869739683840 Support us on Patreon

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A closer look at this unique pose NiGHTS does in one of JoD’s level select transition screens - this is never seen in the game itself as far as I know

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This render also seems to be unique to this picture

btw that same concept art contains a render of nights that i don’t think is seen in its entirety anywhere else

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I wanted to mention that a new NiD Japanese guidebook has recently been scanned and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user Detchibe, it has a lot of cool visuals and contains some uncommon art 👀

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i noticed two of reala's voice lines from sega superstars tennis match up with two of the unused cutscenes in journey of dreams. am i crazy?

(In case anyone needs them, Reala’s Tennis voice clips can be heard here, and the text for JoD’s unused cutscenes are here - I think the two mentioned here are “I’ll destroy your hope” and “The time for mercy has passed”)

I’m not sure if voiceovers for these cutscenes were ever recorded, plus Reala’s voice in Tennis is a lot different from his voice in JoD 👀 They might be references to the unused cutscenes though, this is a cool find

(Quick editing to say that the other line is “you irritating little child” (lol) which definitely seems like a reference to these cutscenes— the way he says it matches how it’s written in the script)

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Sonic blasts past Nights, from the intro to ‘Sega Superstars’, an Eyetoy game for the PlayStation 2.  @NakaYuji @NaotoOhshima