Is that a contradiction? Also, what distinguihes "Modern" Japan? I'm curiouss.

What I mean by modern Japan is Japanese culture, it's cities and sense of aesthetic now, as opposed to that of historic Japan with samurai and feudal lords. It's like comparing modern European culture to its past.

I was not. While Sonic and Mario have had TONS of megahits, would you consider "Mario Is Missing" excellent? Hardly. Conversely, Zelda's worst reviewed game, "Wind Waker" is rather poopular. Sonic is widely considered to be past his prime, although his games sell well. NiGHTS, with three games (I consider Xmas NiGHTS it's nown game), is at it's prime. Maybe I should explain better next time.

I actually hadn't considered "Mario is Missing". When I think of Mario or Sonic games I tend to disregard the horrible spinoffs. So for Mario I pretty much just consider Mario 1-3, Super Mario, Mario 64, Mario Sunshine (horrible game) and SM:G. Paper Mario, Mario Kart and other good games come to mind, but I don't think of them in the sequence of real Mario games.

Unless Sonic Unleashed is amazing, then it's long past time for Sega to have put him to bed. All the Genesis, Game Gear, Sega CD and Dreamcast games were great. It's too bad that Sega couldn't handle the transition from its own systems to being a 3rd party developer.

As much as I love Nights, I would hardly say it's in its prime. 200k copies of JoD is dismal. Maybe Trippy or someone else would know better, but with such low sales numbers I would guess that they had to have lost money on the game. I would love to see Nights attain the glory that his predecessor once had. Sega just needs to regain the focus it had in the 90s.

I have to agree though that while Sonic and Mario (and Nights, let's be truthful: JoD is no shining success; we all love it because NiD is so freaking good--we'd probably have bought it if it were just a single level -- or even less -- just to perpetuate our fanaticism) are variable in quality, Zelda has always maintained a certain level. Wind Waker, as much as I hate it, is a decent game.

I just hope that Sonic Team Japan can pull the sh!t out of the fire while there's still something left to salvage.

-Minigames. By this point, Arcen hates me, because all of my things to stay are his/her things to go. Annnnnywho, the minigames ahould stay. I Love NiD, but face it, sometimes it can get a tad repetitive. *gets attacked by an angry mob* The minigames in addition to the regular levels varried tha gameplay, and I enjoyed them.

I hardly hate you Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. And, to be honest, I quite like mini-games when they're either seamlessly integrated into the game or separate unlockable features that aren't integral to game completion. NiD had a number of mini-games which are nearly indistinguishable from the game itself. JoD forces you to play things that are obviously mini-games, and most of them are tedious. And, while they may vary overall gameplay, having to get A's on some of them is just a pain.

-The Eurpean atmosphere. I love Twin Seeds as much as the next guy, but every game company seems to have an "American" game (Sega- Sonic, Nintendo- Mario) and a "European" game (Sega- NiGHTS, Ninty- Zelda). The ones with a more American character/setting tend to be the mascot who has a sequel every year, whilst the one with a European atmosphere are classier and have a few games, all of which are excellent.

While, as I stated earlier, I prefer a Japanese (modern not historical) influenced atmosphere, the atmosphere of the game shouldn't necessarily be derived from any one specific culture, but should reflect a world appropriate to the game. That said, I'm not sure why Nights should have a European setting, as dreams have no specific locale.

The games you chose to represent the two cultures are rather interesting. If you judge their excellence by sales, then the American games would be considered better. Super Mario: Galaxy sold 7.15m copies while Zelda: TP sold 4.83m copies. Sonic and the Secret rings sold 1.81m copies while JoD sold 0.2m copies (numbers from VGChartz.com). I prefer Zelda and Nights to Mario and Sonic, but sales are what speak to developers.

-Owl, albeit as an OPTION. Whilst most everyone here hates him, he makes the game sooooooo much easier to explain to a six year old. Trust me, when you make some one play NiGHTS, "listen o the Owl" is much easier to say than becoming the NiGHTS encyclopedia.

When I was six no games had tutorials, and they were still playable and fun. The present trend is to overcomplicate games, requiring tutorials as a result. I've never met a six year old (or a 20+ year old) who wants to sit through a tutorial. Nights isn't so complex that it requires more than a few screen shots of what to do. That said, the option of a tutorial is far preferable to a forced tutorial.

-Personas. NiGHTS should change forms. I think the masks were a pretty touch

Nights should change forms; it's one of his most endearing qualities. I just don't understand why his freedom should be limited by arbitrary masks. When you encounter an obstacle in a dream, it's either resolved by some oddly inexplicable method (in my experience) or you dwell on it as an insurmountable roadblock. Personally, I've never had to go get anything special in a dream -- it's usually there when I need it.

-Gender Roles. Not every boy likes sports, and not every girl likes music. Let's give the dreamers some variety.

I agree entirely. Though I suspect Sega USA, absent of any ingenuity or originality, essentially copied the original game's premise, changing enough so that it would seem to be a different game.

-One ideya of each colour per person. Come on, in NiD, everyone had ONE ideya that represented their personality. In JoD, the dreamers have one of each. Nobody's perfect, one eadeya per person.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this. In NiD the dreamers started with each ideya, and then had to collect them all back, except courage. It was integral to the gameplay and the story.

Additionally I was thinking about what I would like to see in a new game, and remembered how much I hated the JoD interface. I like how quickly you can navigate to the level of your choice in NiD. Having to run to the stage, deal with owl, run back and forth to decide what to play, etc was just annoying. Menus should be clean and easy to navigate.

I loved the first game.. I'm not sure why they changed the formula at all.

Things that need to go:

Voices - keep the dreamlike quality of the original; sometimes it's nice to have to interpret rather than be force-fed the plot.

Night's new costume - update the old one a little, but don't completely change something that's so nostalgic (and better to boot)

Owl - tutorials are irritating... Nights should be simple enough to not need one ... additionally, figuring out the first game was part of what made it fun

Mini-game Aspects - Hopefully this won't be a problem anymore since Sega USA (Sonic Team USA) left San Francisco for Japan... Sega has put way too much emphasis on mini-games. I prefer a seamless game-play experience rather than having to complete a new mini-game/platforming section every other level.

"12" year old kids who look like they're 9 - I really don't know what Sega was going for with Will and Helen. Little kids would rather play older, cooler characters. While adults generally lose interest when the main characters are too young. There's a reason why most anime series focus on late middle school (14/15 in Japan) or high school aged characters.

Personas - it sounded kinda cool at first, but I'd rather not have Nights' powers be derived from items. It's more fun when he just changes to suit the situation.

JoD Bosses - either bosses that are just minigames in disguise (read Bomamba) or bosses that are clearly rip-offs of older bosses (Donbalon = Puffy, Girania etc).



Things I'd like to see:

New Levels - there were too many copycat levels in JoD. I'd love to see some of the NiD levels, if Claris and Elliot are in the game. But I'd also like to see completely new levels that take their inspiration from something other than the original.

New/More Dreamers - I'd love to have a Nights game with more than just 2 dreamers. 4+ dreamers with 13+ levels would be great. It'd be nice to see a male character whose life didn't revolve around sports and a female character whose life didn't revolve around music.

Older Claris and Elliot - It'd be nice to see Claris and Elliot aged 12 years like the original fanbase. I think this would open a number of interesting possibilities: plot continuation, more complex themes/levels etc.

"Japanocentric" culture/game play - Japan sells. Eurocentric JoD was a lot less visually/conceptually appealing.


If another Nights game were made (and I hope one is made), I just hope that it's made by Sonic Team in Japan and not farmed out like so many other "Sega" games.