Nights (character)

Nights is a video game character and the protagonist of the games Nights into Dreams... and Nights: Journey of Dreams, developed and published by Sega. The character wears a purple jester style hat and outfit, with a diamond-shaped red jewel on its chest. (In the Archie mini-series comics, this is a shard of Ideya sphere that broke off and latched onto its chest).

Game appearances
The character's first appearance was in the video game Nights into Dreams... for the Sega Saturn. The second game in the series, Nights Journey of Dreams, is for the Nintendo Wii. It also appeared in the sampler game Christmas Nights for the Sega Saturn. It also has a role in Sega Superstars Tennis

Outside appearances
Nights has appeared in numerous other games besides the series, including Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure DX (in the Casinopolis zone), Sonic Adventure 2 (in the City Escape and Radical Highway levels), Shadow the Hedgehog, as in Lethal Highway, the title screen appears in a billboard without any text, and also in Sonic Adventure 2, the player can raise a Chao that resembles the character. Nights also appears in Sonic Pinball Party, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, Sega Superstars, Sonic Riders (as a secret character), and is in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. Nights is also a playable character in Sega Superstars Tennis.

Nights has also made a guest appearance in Phantasy Star Online I & II Plus, in an Episode 2 quest.

Creation and conception
Naoto Oshima was the original Nights designer and Kazuyuki Hoshino was the character designer for the video game Nights into Dreams.... Though Nights into Dreams... was left without a sequel for over a decade, the character continued to appear within games developed by Sonic Team as a cameo, showing much affection for the character and the game. This led to the eventual sequel, Nights: Journey of Dreams. Naoto Oshima had left Sega by that point, so Kazuyuki Hoshino was placed in charge of character design for Nights: Journey of Dreams. Takashi Iizuka, the lead game designer, felt that with Hoshino, they captured the style used for the character in the original game.

The character's personality is described by Iizuka as "a mirror of the child's personality." The player is supposed to become Nights, thus being either gender depending on the interpretation of the player. They wanted the character to speak more often in Journey of Dreams, so they decided to give the character a voice to play into the fact that the player decides the gender. The character was also given an English accent to meet the style of the games.

Character
Nights is a first-level Nightmaren, created by Wizeman to steal Red Ideya. Despite being one of Wizeman's most powerful creations, Nights is a remarkably mischievous free spirit who did not like taking orders, so much so that Wizeman has on multiple occasions, imprisoned Nights within Nightopia to keep him/her out of the way. Nights asks for the assistance of Claris and Elliot (Will and Helen in the new game) in defeating Wizeman simply because he/she doesn't like Wizeman, and not because Nights is inherently 'good'. Nights' rival is the first-level Nightmaren, Reala.

Personality
Nights detests being ordered around or restrained, and freely flies through the skies of Nightopia. Nights is full of curiosity, and loves anything new or unusual. Nights sometimes scares or makes fun of people. Although Nights doesn't have a strong sense of righteousness, it is unhappy about Wizeman's attempts to eliminate Nightopia.

Abilities
Besides flying, Nights shows various other abilities in both games.

In the first game, Nights shows the ability to transform into a bobsled, an ability that was expanded upon in the sequel with the introduction of persona masks. Each mask allows Nights to change forms and abilities accordingly, including those of a dragon, rocket and dolphin.

Along with the persona masks, Nights is also able to transform into a boat and a roller coaster, as well as rolling up in a ball to roll down slides (a possible reference to Sonic Team's title character Sonic the Hedgehog).

Nights can create small portals called paraloops if he/she flies in a circle.

Home
Nights comes from the dream world of Nightopia (referred to in-game as the Night Dimension), takes shape according to the thoughts, ideas, personalities, and will of the Visitors (humans from the real world). Nights is, however, actually a Nightmaren alongside Owl (a brown owl who acts as elder and guide in the sequel) and the Nightopians, Nights does what he/she can to stop Wizeman from taking over.

Interaction with other characters
Nights sometimes scares or makes fun of people, but is playful in nature and shows kindness to Visitors.

Characters:

The Children: (Claris, Elliot, Will and Helen) Nights is kind towards the children in both games, helping all four of them to defeat Wizeman on two separate occasions. Nights shows the children around different Dream Worlds and works together with them to dispatch numerous Nightmaren.

Owl: Nights shows disrespect for Owl on a regular basis, but also shows a sort of friendship with the bird. Owl often seems frustrated with Nights' rambunctious behavior, and occasionally lectures Nights, but to no avail.

Wizeman: Nights shows a special distaste for Wizeman. Nights is glad to put a halt to Wizeman's plans, and has defeated Wizeman in combat twice. Any orders given to Nights by Wizeman are in vain, as Nights simply continues the rebellion against the creator of Nightmare. It should be noted that the reason that Nights rebels against his master is not because Nights is good and Wizeman is evil, but simply due to Nights' extreme dislike for Wizeman and his ideals.

Reala: Nights' relationship with Reala appears complicated. Nights seems to still hold Reala as a friend or at the least as a former one, while Reala pities Nights for rebelling against Wizeman. Reala often plays on Nights' mercy, using it as opportunity to imprison Nights. Reala sometimes refers to Nights as a "sibling."

Reception
In his review of Nights: Journey of Dreams, Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot described the character as an "androgynous jester." VanOrd said, "Nights is smoothly animated", but said Nights' "vocal personification (may not be) everyone's cup of tea." VanOrd wrote, "The jester is genderless...and the accompanying voice is, well, correspondingly confused. But whether you think Nights sounds like a young woman or a young boy, it's a good fit for the character."

Referring to Nights into Dreams..., IGN said "Nights was essentially Sonic in the air..." The IGN review of Nights: Journey of Dreams called Nights a "mysterious creature." The IGN reviewer noted, "strangely Nights and all other characters in Nightopia are from England?" but said the voice acting was "decent, if not a bit over-the-top." In the English version of the game, Nights is voiced by American voice actress Julissa Aguirre.