Naturally under the 1st level Nightmaren of Wizeman's henchman hierarchy are the 2nd level Nightmaren. They serve as the bosses of the game and will appear only when their respective level has been completed. Each Nightmaren has a unique way of fighting that you'll have to learn if you hope to get the 2.0 score multiplier! Thanks to neriede for the translations!

Gillwing

JP Remake Translation:

"By Second Level standards, he's got a huge, enormous body but he's really just a big air-head. The moment he considers you an enemy, he'll stop at nothing to chase you down. he possesses the ability to re-grow his head from his long tail."

Gillwing is a gigantic dragon consisting of a head, two wings, a tail and more spikes than you can shake a broom at! He can regenerate his head at the expense of losing a section of his tail. You can defeat him by knocking his head off until he runs out of tail to regenerate from, thus winning you the battle. A quicker way to beat him however, is to sneak up behind him and paraloop the end of his tail, destroying all of it at once! This method is recommended for more true paraloop masters though, so get practising! In Christmas NiGHTS Gillwing is redesigned to have a far more christmas themed appearance.

His theme is called "The Dragon Gave a Large Scream."

Puffy

JP Remake Translation:

"A rubber ball-like Second-Level, her body is pliable and flexible. Because of this, NiGHTS' attacks don't seem to work on her. Maybe somewhere around that mansion she created there's a clue to defeating her."

A bejewelled humanoid bouncy ball with rabbit ears, Puffy is definitely one of the more obscure Nightmaren, at least in appearance. Puffy is invincible to typical attacks such as drill dashing and paralooping. Instead, you have to knock Puffy through the various walls of her domain. This leads to the end of a corridor, where our poor bouncing gal is flattened and popped by falling debris. In the "Sonic into Dreams" present on Christmas NiGHTS, Puffy is reskinned to look like Doctor Eggman. Her theme is replaced by "Final Fever" from Sonic CD.

Her theme is called "She Had Long Ears."

Gulpo

JP Remake Translation:

"This fish-type Second-Level will swallow anything up completely with his huge mouth. His form is ferocious, but his personality is surprisingly calm. Knowing his weakness is his slowness, he's set up traps all around his body to catch his prey."

Gulpo is a Large fish-like Nightmaren who swims within a cylinder of water. He summons smaller red fish to surround the perimeter of his water, and has them attack with purple waves only a handful at a time. NiGHTS can use these fish when not attacking to propel himself through the water to the opposite side of the cylinder. If NiGHTS collides with Gulpo, it will hurt him and make him expose his belly, allowing NiGHTS to land further hits quickly. Be careful though, as sometimes Gulpo will surround his own body with waves of energy which will detract 5 seconds of valuable time from the player if NiGHTS hits Gulpo in this state.

His theme is called "Deep it Lies."

Clawz

JP Remake Translation:

"ASecond-Level black cat with sharp claws, he's spiteful by nature and would rather torment you from the shadows than attack you fair and square. So, just how far will NiGHTS have to chase those quick feet…?"

Clawz is cat-like in appearance, and has the incredible agility to go with it. The arena consists of two rings, with firework mice lining them. Clawz can only stand on these mice, and detonates them over time, jumping to the nearest other one. NiGHTS must break the sparking ones before they take off, acting as missiles. If NiGHTS gets close to Clawz when he can't reach the other mice, he can grab him and kill him in one hit.

His theme is called "E-LE-KI Sparkle."

Jackle

JP Remake Translation:

"Wrapped in a huge cloak, this is one insane Second-Level. He'll use totally bizarre and unthought of methods-whatever it takes, really-to scare visitors. Stored within his cloak is the unrivaled power to repel whatever attacks come this way. Rumor has it that Wizeman intended for him to be a First-Level, but something failed in that moment of creation…"

Jackle is perhaps the most popular of the 2nd level Nightmaren. It is often debated whether his body is invisible or non-existent. Regardless, only his hands, feet, eyes and mouth are apparent, alongside his hat and cape. It is also speculated that Jackle represents the Grim Reaper, with the surrounding of his domain backing this. Jackle attacks by throwing tarot cards which leave a trail of colour behind. He is invincible so long as he possesses his cape, so the aim is to catch up to Jackle and knock his cape off. Once detached, Jackle will make a beeline for his cape, allowing NiGHTS to catch and attack him continuously. 

Here's a great opportunity for all you American NiGHTS fans to meet the lady behind the official voice of NiGHTS in Journey of Dreams! The wonderful and multi-talented Jewels Aguirre has been confirmed as a special guest at RMCC this coming October in Colorado. Jewels will be doing signings and would really love to meet the NiGHTS fans. This is her first convention appearance so lets give her lots of support! Tell all your NiGHTSy friends who live local to the convention or hit the road yourself I really wish I could go but I'm stuck in the UK, booo.

The Rocky Mountain Collector Con runs over the course of 3 days from October 4th to the 6th. Tickets are available to purchase online at the convention website.

To learn more about Jewels' impressive portfolio of work check out her guest page on the RMCC website. You can also connect by showing her support on her official Facebook page.

It’s Sonic’s worst NiGHTMARE!  Sonic has been sucked into a world of nightmares created by Wizeman, and must defeat the Deadly Six, who are riding on gigantic Nightmaren monsters inspired from the game NiGHTS into Dreams… .  This exclusive level is accessed via a redeemable code when pre-ordering the game, or while supplies last.  The NiGHTMARE DLC can be played at any point in the game and when the level is completed, a special Color Power (usually only obtainable from Miiverse) is rewarded to the player. Pre-order the Deadly Six Bonus Edition (called the Deadly Six Edition in Europe) of Sonic Lost World today!

 

 

Official SEGA Blog here! Go shower them with thank yous and good things : http://blogs.sega.com/2013/08/22/sonics-worst-nightmare-sonic-lost-world-deadly-sixbonus-edition/

A new Sonic Lost World video has appeared online with a VERY SPECIAL teaser for NiGHTS fans at the very end. Really. Just wow.

The video can be seen here:

The resulting reaction of NiGHTS fans so far online has required a lot of mops.

What really is a huge and amazing thing here is that we didn't have to ask for this or cause a fuss or annoy anyone. It just happened. This is great for the NiGHTS franchise. I'm so happy I can barely type lol, don't be expecting any well thought out journalistic write ups from me – I'm too busy straight out fangirling at the fact JACKLE is in this.

If you'd like to see some screenshots then read on below. I'll try to get some nice HD ones up soon as I get any.

Absolutely amazing. Thank you so much SEGA.

Clawz

Gillwing

Puffy and Sonic

Chuck Norris

Jackle

Puffy

Wizeman!

Now please excuse me. I need to return to squealing. Oh- and finding out how to preorder this edition. Guys get on this as quick as you can so none of you miss out on the NiGHTS content!
Thanks to Daniele Narducci for the heads up!

Listen to the Kazuyuki Hoshino interview MP3
[PLAY] – Kazuyuki Hoshino interview 2013

Summer of Sonic 2013 – Kazuyuki Hoshino interview
Special thanks to Bobby Wertheim for translating

It was a Saturday. It was Summer of Sonic. It was sunny. Very sunny. London was over-run by hundreds of bicycles. Tesco Local was a warm sandwich gauntlet of death. Small hyperactive children ran around in circles outside with pointy blue hats… Oh and we spoke to the legendary SEGA artist/designer Kazuyuki Hoshino about all things NiGHTS. It's not often you get to sit down and have a jolly good chat with the Lord of Nightmares dad, so yeah! Prepare to be slightly awed by the creator of everything wonderful from Jackle to Metal Sonic!
{The following is an transcript of our short interview we have on audio recording unedited. There also exists a video version by Mr Awesome Eva who loaned us his camera, but for now have the full untouched version with the lols, rustlings, insanely obscure questions and jokes still included. As we were pressed for time and didn't get the chance to have our other interview with Iizuka san (long series/story based questions) we kind of had to just pick short questions on the fly since our plans got messed up a bit. But what we got was still very very cool.}
Also random Jun Senoue *happened* which was hilarious at the time.
Read on for the full interview:

[DiGi] Allllright! Cool.
[Hoshino-San] *spots DiGi's NiGHTS E3 T-shirt* What a great T-shirt!
[DiGi] It's hers! *laughs*
[TRiPPY] It's mine… he took it off my shelf :<
*T-shirt/camera related ramblings and interview begins*

[DiGi] Okay, so firstly, how did you end up working for SEGA and how did your career begin as an artist?
*insert comedy group harassing of translator* Come on Bobby. *fast writing*

[Hoshino-San] I actually went to an art University and always liked pictures and drawing art, I always wanted to be a designer of some sort. Now in Japan at the time games were all the rage and the Famicom was huge for example. When I was in University I wanted to and had the ambition that I want to make games and be involved in that. So in my mind I either wanted to apply for Nintendo or SEGA. Nintendo's HQ they're based in Kyoto, which is quite far away from Tokyo. Now after University when I was going through the whole job hunting phase I was asked by Nintendo to come down to Kyoto for an interview. 'Where do I have to go for this interview?' I said. *laughs* They said 'Kyoto', as at the time they didn't have a Tokyo office. So I just immediately ruled that one out because that's just -too- far away.
*laughter*
So I applied for SEGA. I passed the entrance exam and joined the design/artwork section. That was the beginning of my career.

[TRiPPY] What is your favourite NiGHTS cameo of all time out of all the Sonic games?
*pause*

[Hoshino-San] Pinball (in Japanese).
*TRiPPY and DiGi laugh*
[DiGi] It's ok you don't need to translate that *laughter*

[DiGi] For the NiGHTS series what did you have a hand in creating? What characters were your creation? What did you create for that series?
[Hoshino-San] *starts listing character names in Japanese* But suddenly does a VERY familiar noise. This is the ingame sound effect of Elliot's voice when he jumps in the air* (wow!!)
*pause* [Hoshino- San] What's the name of the fish?
*group laughs*
[TRiPPY and DiGi] Gulpo, Gulpo.
(Translated)[Hoshino] The characters that I specifically created were Elliot, Claris, they were the playable characters that I created. You probably already know but did you know I was the voice for Elliot? I done all the the 'HYAH!' *motions*
*bemused laughter from TRiPPY and DiGi (We didn't know!)*
And also I designed all of the bosses, Puffy and all of them.

[DiGi]Jackle! I LOVE Jackle.
[TRiPPY] You're a Jackle fanboy.
[DiGi] Amazing.

*Jun Senoue suddenly walks in the room. Everyone stops and looks up. Jun pauses and waves.*
[Jun] Yo.

[TRiPPY] Hello Junnn~
[Group] Eyyyy! *laughter* /end random Jun (Is shushed by TRiPPY)

[TRiPPY] -Begins confusing question of doom about concept art- About Reala! He used to have a different design, he had a different shaped head. I think it was uh, one part Ohshima-San's design and the other part you designed and then they both came together.
[Hoshino-San] *surprised*
Can you tell us a bit about why Reala was changed because the design seemed pretty final, then he got the red and black colour scheme?
[DiGi] We seen some concept art for the first game for Reala and his design changed completely from what he was.
[TRiPPY] *laughter* He used to have earrings.
[Hoshino-San] *laughing* You know too much, you know so much.
[TRiPPY] I know – everything! *laughs*
[DiGi] Fangirl.

[Hoshino-San] So originally it was actually Ohshima-San's job to create Reala, he was designing NiGHTS. He was really struggling, so he actually asked me like 'Hey, Hoshino help me out'.
[LAUGHTER]
[TRiPPY] Do my homework for me.
[DiGi] I need a favour.
[Hoshino-San] So I was like 'Okay' and I started making some designs. So Ohshima-San basically took what he liked from the designs I made, like the nails and stuff like that.

[DiGi] Out of ALL your creations, which one would you say is your favourite and why?
[Hoshino-San] (Japanese) Wizeman.
[DiGi] Yeaaah.

Photo thanks to sonicwrecks.com

*insert Hoshino-San enthusiastically describing Wizeman by doodling on paper and mimicking his hands and cape*
(TRiPPY and DiGi fangirl mode while the translator needs new paper to write on)
[DiGi] Keep going.
[LAUGHTER]

[Hoshino-San] In the story Wizeman is like the all knowing, all seeing, be all and end all, he is the creator of creation. He is everything. He is the ultimate god. So I really wanted to sort of scale that and represent that visually. That sort of scale of what he represents. So i took inspiration from the Buddhist statue. You know like a Buddhist statue, a typical Japanese Buddhist statue has multiple hands and they've got this sort of halo effect thing going on in the background.

[TRiPPY] Journey of Dreams has the halo in.
[DiGi] Yes!
[Hoshino-San] It's not your sort of Christian halo though, it's like Japanese halo in the background. So I've taken inspiration from those statues for that. So he has all floating hands, *in the circle* so that's what it's forming. And instead of having a body, he's got no body but he has a cloak – and by not having a body it represents like infinity.
[DiGi] That's awesome~
[Hoshino- San] He hasn't got eyes, but he's got eyes in his hands. That's basically him, he's not looking because he hasn't got eyes, but he's seeing everything. Like he sees – everything. So it's that sort of sense of spirituality, that mythic feeling that he has, that sort of religious motif, that's what I think of, I really like that.

[DiGi] He is a great design.
*laughter*
[TRiPPY] Well done!
Wizeman in Journey of Dreams was amazing, I loved him.
*thinks* Uh, If you voiced Elliot who voiced Reala? *laughter* Does anybody know? I know how the voices were done for the game (*Anon members of Sonic Team recorded the voices during sleep overs at the office in secret)(Just because)(Sonic team)(90's!) So does anybody know?

[DiGi]Nobody knows.
[TRiPPY] Everyone asks me!
*long think*
[Hoshino-San] I'm not too sure.
[TRiPPY] I think it's better if nobody knows *laughs*
[Hoshino-San] I will ask Ohshima-San!
[TRiPPY and DiGi] Yaaay, cool.

[TRiPPY] Where any of the Nightmare designs inspired by nightmares in your own dreams?
[Hoshino-San] Well from when I was a student I was always interested in dreams and what it meant, what it could mean. I read up a lot about it, the philosophy and academic side of what others think of it, like Freud and Jung. So that's what really I was basing it all around. But it turned out, different, what we were concepting at first was quite a difficult and academic thing to grasp. Ohshima-San wanted to implement a more entertainment based, feeling of festivity, of almost like a circus. So it really transferred from being a really academic point of view to start with- to a more light-hearted entertainment colourful and flashy sort of thing. So anyone should be able to understand. It's more sort of mass acceptable entertainment content. Then, with it being a very evil world as well, rather than it being being based specifically on my experiences.

*End of interview ramblings, signing and nattering*

Thank you Hoshino-San for a great and funny interview! Thank you everyone for your questions. Don't be disheartened if your question didn't get asked this time because I'll try to get everything answered eventually by those in the know.

Questions must be respectful, sensible and not massively long/obscure.

Comment to have your questions considered! The resulting interviews will be recorded and uploaded for your listening pleasure.

It would appear our voices have been heard guys! F4F are now asking for your opinions on what you'd like to see in a NiGHTS statue in terms of pose and outfit. They are running a poll for a week so you can give your personal opinion of what you'd like to see the most.

My personal favourite!

You can vote or add more ideas here:
http://forum.first4figures.com/topic/1358-poll-of-the-week-week-starting-20th-may-2013-nights

Am I happy? … you bet I am

You can find the poll here: http://forum.first4figures.com/topic/1335-vote-for-your-favourite-sega-all-stars

You have to sign up to their forum but it only takes a minute.

Lets try get an actual NiGHTS statue after 16 years eh? I know you guys want one because you've all been actually asking for it.

xx

TRiP

Just a heads up to let those of you who don't own the NiGHTS port know that it's HALF PRICE down to only 400MSP. A total steal for an incredible and timeless game.

For more details please read the SEGA blog here:

http://blogs.sega.com/2013/03/05/xbla-deal-of-the-week-nights-and-fighting-games

Spark up your Ideya dreamers – It's epic competition time here at NiGHTSintodreams.Com with amazing prizes of brand new official merch from SEGA!
With tons of prize packs up for grabs everyone has a good chance of winning something really special in time to celebrate the HD release of NiGHTS into dreams… this October.
After our successful fan campaign supporting a rerelease of the original game and NiGHTS hitting the track for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, it's time for even more fan love from the company.

What can you win in this competition?

The main prize up for grabs are these wonderful official NiGHTS pillow cases created for this competition and promo use. You can't buy these anywhere! This is the variant version of the black pillow case that SEGA held a competition for recently. The new white case features one of my favorite bits of artwork taken from the Japanese Saturn game's cover. It was also used a lot for our NiD15 campaign, so this one should mean a lot to you community guys out there especially. It fits a regular bed sized pillow and is made from a super soft fleece fabric.

But that's not all!

These lovely badges were created as promotional items for the recent PAX event in America. Seriously limited edition each set of 4 come in a little sealed baggie with a pretty backing card featuring NiGHTS. Each badge set includes NiGHTS, The game logo, Wizeman, Claris and Elliot.

We have lots of these to give away as prizes, so the top 20 winners will each receive a pillow case AND a set of 4 badges.
30 runners up will receive a set of 4 badges each.

We want you all to get creative with this one. Dreams are an amazing source of magic and inspiration, we all dream, even if we don't remember it – dreams are something we all have in common. For this competition I want to see you design yourself a dream persona. An alter ego. Over the years many of us have encountered our own personal dream creatures and personalities when we slept at night. NiGHTS into dreams… encouraged self interpretation and exploration of real dreams. So what would you look like when you dream? Draw a picture of your dream self, your alter ego in the world of Nightopia. Designs can take influence from Nightmarens, Nightopians and Dreamers. A wild reflection of yourself within the world of dreams.

This competition will be judged on imaginative and inventive designs – not artistic skill. If you want to you can also write a short paragraph about your creation to accompany your entry.

If you'd like some reference materials or inspiration for design you can check out our official character art archive [ here ].

* Entries can be digital or traditional. Traditional artwork can be sent to us by scanning it or taking a photograph if you don't own a scanner.
* Your image can be either full color or black and white.
* Any character description to accompany your design must be included in the same email entry you send us.

So when you've got your entry good and ready email it to us at [nidsubz@googlemail.com]

- The design concept must be done by you. It must not be a direct copy of someone elses fan character.
- Do not trace another artists work to create your own.
- ONE ENTRY PER PERSON.
- Entries are welcome from anywhere in the world I'll post prizes anywhere there is a NiGHTS fan!
- Nothing offensive please. Questionable entries will be rejected outright.
- By entering this competition you are agreeing to provide me with your name and an address to mail a prize to if you win. This information will be deleted straight after I've used it for the sole purpose of mailing prizes.
- If no response is received from a winner after 2 weeks their prize will be given to another suitable entrant.
- Winners will be notified by email after the closing date. The winning entries will be up for display on this website afterwards. Prizes will be sent out as soon as possible.
- Prizes are as stated. No cash equivalent or replacements are available for items lost in the post.

The closing date for this competition is the 5th of October 12pm GMT. No entries will be accepted after this date.
Winners will be announced on the 6th of October via this website.