Me and My NiGHTS

I want to tell you all a story about me and my love of NiGHTS. To start from the beginning, it all began in August of 2005. I was maybe 14 at the time. My older cousin had invited me over to his home to show me some older games which I had never even heard of before. The first game he pulled off the shelf was a game for a system called the Sega Saturn that was called NiGHTS into Dreams. I was mildly intrigued, to say the least at the title. When he told me that it was one of the single greatest games to ever exist, I was even more excited to see what it was all about. He explained some of the back story to me and then turned the console on. The first stage he showed me was Splash Garden.

My eyes widened in excitement. The backgrounds, the music, all the sounds, and the wonderful flying maren itself. As soon as my cousin finished and explained to me what I had to do, he handed me the controller. At first, I was really no good at all and my cousin often asked me what I was doing. It didn't matter to me though. I was having the most fun playing a video game I ever had. After I failed to beat the boss which I believe was Clawz, he took back the controller and showed me the Twin Seeds stage and the full ending cutscenes and credits because at the time, we both figured that I'd never have a Sega Saturn and copy of NiD. I left that house that day with a very changed look at gaming.

For the longest time afterward, I thought about NiGHTS very frequently when it came to gaming. That mystic lovable jester kept flying around in my head. A few months later when I was in school, I met an otaku who became my best friend for a while and asked him if he'd ever heard of NiD. He said he had, but unfortunately did not have a Saturn. At one point, we even found a small magazine article with rumors of a NiD sequel. However, the article said that the odds of that happening were very small. Little did we know...

Anyway, one cold January afternoon I was with my mother at the place where my father works getting some ice for an event that was coming up. I bumped into the same cousin who had shown me NiGHTS into Dreams. The topic of the game came up and he said he could get me a Saturn and copy of NiD if I paid for it. I told him that if he got me some numbers for a price, then I'd consider it. I was overjoyed and excited. At that point in time, I couldn't get my mind off NiGHTS. A few days later, he got a price to me. I accepted and scrounged up enough money to pay him.

Now another detail I have to mention before I keep going is that at the time, my mother would have never allowed me to buy another game console. She felt it was a waste and that I had better things to do. Maybe she was right, but oh well. I had to do the whole process behind her back. It was a bit tricky, but it was worth it. For days afterward, I kept asking my dad if my cousin had gotten the package to him, and dad said no. I was starting to lose hope when one cold night on February 8, 2007, I had gotten home from band practice and dad whispered to me that there was a package waiting for me in my closet. I ran upstairs and was overjoyed by the fact it was there.

I then went to take a shower because I had been told to do so. Once I got out and dressed though, my parents had to go somewhere for a little bit. I tore into the package and hooked up my Saturn and popped in NiD. The first stage I played was Spring Valley. All the memories of that August day came flowing back into me and I was happier than ever. However, my parents soon returned home and I had to unhook everything and put it all away so that my mother wouldn't know I had it. That night, I went to sleep a very happy person.

As the winter pressed on, NiD was the reason I got up extra early in the morning. I would play and have a wonderful time before going to school. I was only getting C's for the courses, but I was having fun anyway. It was just me and my NiGHTS. It was that wonderful game that only I knew about and had and none of my other friends did. It was the best time playing games I ever had. Then early one morning not too long after I'd gotten the game, I was on the internet and was bored. I typed into the browser, "nightsintodreams.com". I honestly didn't think anything would pop up, but something did.

It was a very wonderfully done piece of fan art with the title of the site on it. I tried clicking around, so I left the site. Soon, I was discovering how the A-Life system worked and was fascinated by the way it would alter the music. My cousin had never mentioned that to me previously. At the time, I thought I'd done something wrong and I tried to reverse it. Then I found out why it was doing that and was then all right with it.

Then in April of 2007, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams was announced to the public. I was insanely excited. I knew I had to get a Nintendo Wii just to get this game. Over the course of the next several months, I would follow any updates I could find carefully and closely. I got excited by the sight of even just a screen shot. As soon as I had a Wii and the money to do so, I pre-ordered the game ASAP. I kept following the countdown and would get angry when I would find out there was a delay in the release date.

On December 18, 2007, the game was released. I got my copy and was excited as all heck to play it. I even ignored a grounding from video games from my mom just to do so.(I do hereby in no way promote or endorse the breaking of rules and punishments) I was happy to have the game. However, I like many other long time fans of the franchise was disappointed by it. However, I'm sure by now you already know what all the complaints about the game are, so I won't go into detail. That Christmas break, I played that game religiously and soon had it all beat.

In the mean time, I was still playing NiD a lot. Soon after I had beaten both Claris and Elliot's dreams, I discovered the fan art section of NiD.com. I tried joining, but I didn't understand how it worked, so I left. I kept playing and playing and eventually got all A's on the dreams. It was a very wonderful feeling indeed. Then came a day I'll never forget. March 17, 2008. That was the day I joined the NiD.com forums officially. At first, I was happy to see that there was such a big site dedicated to the NiGHTS fandom. I was really chatty and was on the site a LOT over the course of the first week, due to the fact that I was on spring break. It ate up a lot of my time to say the least. However, something unfortunate happened. I was spending more time on the site than I was playing the game that had brought me so much joy in the first place. The admins there were friendly, but I was starting to become more of a fan and things they put out for the forum members than I was of NiGHTS.

This continued on for a very, very long time. I would get excited when the admins would give us news of anything NiGHTS related or if they were putting up a podcast. I would still play NiD, but it just didn't feel the same any more. That joy, that excitement, it was just gone. It seemed like just another game to me. In the mean time though, I was also making a fair amount of NiGHTS fanwork. I made a very poor guitar remix of Gate of Your Dreams which is still for some reason on my youtube channel. I also did several drawings that actually weren't too shabby. In class, I would even draw mini NiGHTS pictures to keep from being bored.

Then a few months ago, the bubble burst. A close internet friend of mine awakened me to what was really going on in NiD.com and how things actually were. I couldn't believe how I'd been deceived and mislead for some of the admins' own purposes by way of campaigning for NiGHTS. I realized the truth and started going to NiD.com less and less.

These days, I come to Dftf as my main NiGHTS fansite. I found this wonderful place a long time ago when I was browsing through NiD.com's web circle. I looked around, but didn't act on joining until maybe a year or so later.

The main lesson of this story is don't forget you and your NiGHTS. Don't let any kind of "fandom" push you into believing anything. Just remember why NiGHTS makes you happy and keep playing. Share the happiness around here from time to time, but don't let a fansite consume your life. I'm still trying to get back to the way I was all those years ago with my fandom.

Remember You and Your NiGHTS!

Sweet dreams!

I really love your story Musashi! I bet everyone here has one about their first encounter with NiGHTS, I'll post mine.

I was playing Sonic Adventure on my friend's Dreamcast, when I went to Casinopolis, I saw a Poker pinball, since I liked Poker, I've decided to play. It amazed me! The music, the characters on the cards and that purple jester in the magical Gazebo. I asked my friend what game it was from, he said, "it's from a SEGA Saturn Game."

I was disappointed that it wasn't on the Dreamcast.

Five years later, I was on SEGA's website, looking at upcoming games. I saw that same purple jester on the screen, "isn't that the guy from the Poker Pinball game in Sonic Adventure?" I clicked on the button which explained the game, and I fell in love the opening cut-scene and the concept of the game.

It was around Christmas, and my parents wanted me to make a Wish List for what I wanted, and they told me to make what system the games are for. For Journey of Dreams, I wrote down, "Nights: Journey of Dreams - (An amazing looking game) Wii. I didn't write that down for any other game that I wanted, just for NiGHTS.

My parents were actually out of town when NiGHTS Journey of Dreams came out, and since they reserved the game without thinking that they would be out of town, they asked my sister to pick JoD up from the store.

At Christmas Day, I opened up a DVD box shaped package, and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams was in the wrappings. My sister said, "yeah, I had to pick that game up for you, looks like a game you would like."

I've tired the game with the Wiimote, but didn't like the controls. Yet I wanted to know the awesome story, so I went online to see how to beat Girania. I found out that I should play the game with the Gamecube controller. So I did, and it felt great!

One day, after beating the game, I was bored, so I set out my laptop and looked up, "NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams" on Youtube, to see some if some GMVs were made. I've found one called, "NiGHTS: Journey of Disney," which I enjoyed a lot, then I found a short called, "write to Reala," I looked at it, and found it funny, so I watched what was so far of The Reala Show. I saw a link to Dreams for the Fandom, so I clicked on it, and thought a forum for NiGHTS was a wonderful idea, and signed up.

And that is how I've met you guys!

Awww... That's such a nice story, PiCKLE! I'm glad that you remembered NiGHTS after all those years and then got one of the games and joined the fandom. Dftf sure is a great place to be a fan. I loved that story so much. ^_^

Thanks, I've wanted to play a NiGHTS game for a while at the time, and I'm glad that SEGA made JoD. I actually don't care about other fans' opinions, I actually like the game: Journey of Dreams.

It's always a joy to see how something as simple as a well made video game and its philosophies has touched so many lives.
Thank you for sharing, Musashi!

If you've been positively affected by the NiGHTS games, please feel free to share.
Or as I like to say, Share the Dream!

That's right! If you feel like doing so, please share your stories too! We'd love to hear about how your fandom came to be and what its been like so far, everyone!

After reading the two stories above, I think I will post my first encounter and story as well.

I was always a video game fan, ever since I was about 4 I think. And I loved Sega games the most. But I didn't hear about NiD at the time. I think I was about 9 years old when I first saw NiGHTS. And let me say, It was love at first sight. (Not like that. I mean fan wise. XD)

Like others, the first time I saw him was in Sonic Adventure when you play NiGHTS pinball. I would sometimes just spend my time playing that pinball game over and over. I didn't know that it was an actual game at the time to be honest.

Then some time later on, I forget exactly when, my older brother told me that it was based off an old game. I was happy to hear that there was more to know about NiGHTS but since it was a old game that I haven't heard of before, it was probably long gone. So I couldn't help but feel some disappointment. This was before I was allowed access to the internet. Considering that I was a child.

Anyway, as years passed I would see more cameos of NiGHTS in the Sonic games as they came out. (We were big Sonic fans ) I had got to thinking that maybe the purple jester was not "dead" and that maybe I could still play the game someday.

After more years passing and gaining my own computer, one day I was looking through some japanese art sites and found something called "NiGHTS search". I clicked it and found all these links to beautiful NiGHTS fanart sites. I spent hours looking through them and after getting lost a few times, since mostly everything was in Kanji or something, I found a link to the offical site of NiGHTS Journey of Dreams.

I looked up gameplay of the game and also the original NiGHTS into Dreams and I was hooked! Just months ago I was so motivated by the amazment I had for the unique NiGHTS series, I hurried out to by JoD and beat it in one week.


Now I'm making NiGHTS fanart, watching SiLK's TRS series, playing JoD almost every day, and coming to DFTF as much as I can.


To me, NiGHTS is not just for children. NiGHTS is for everyone with a heart for fantasy, joy, beauty, and fun! It's all pure art of the mind and heart. Think about what sort of Nightopia your heart would make. Whenever I'm feeling down, all it takes is for me to play NiGHTS and I forget my troubles. Now if I could just get the original NiD. lol >.>

So that's my story.

That was an excellent story, Kumori! I love hearing everyone's experiences with NiGHTS.