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NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams E3 thread

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:09 pm
by Segaholic2
Nights: Journey of Dreams

Trailer: http://au.gamespot.com/wii/action/night ... e=trailers

Gameplay: http://au.gamespot.com/wii/action/night ... e=gameplay

Mods feel free to edit new media and info into this post.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:12 pm
by BlazeHedgehog
(go ahead and delete my post in what used to be the General E3 thread and is now the Mario & Sonic thread)

NiGHTS looks pretty awful. The trailer feels like it's advertising a Disney movie and the gameplay footage is so... BORING.

Even using the dash, NiGHTS moves REALLY slow and the levels are so bare! No enemies, barely any hoops, a few chips here and there... Unfortunately, the game is at a point where that's probably how that level will look and play when it's released in five months.

I can't help but flash back to Sonic 2k6's E3 and TGS presentations. "Well, the game still has time, maybe they'll clean it up!"

Yeah right.

The boss fight looks a little bit better, but it's just Puffy with a different (and uglier) character serving as the boss in a larger overall space.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:33 pm
by Timestones
Actually, I think that's about as fast as NiGHTS was in the original game.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:36 pm
by BlazeHedgehog
Timestones wrote:Actually, I think that's about as fast as NiGHTS was in the original game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0danX6sjcsg

Nope.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:54 pm
by Timestones
Actually yeah, I kind of see it. But I'm not sure if that's so much because the difference in speed is so great or because the levels are just lacking stuff to judge NiGHTS' speed against in the new game.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:23 pm
by G.Silver
Is anyone else not able to see these?

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:27 pm
by Segaholic2
Yeah, I guess someone jumped the gun and they got taken down for now.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:52 pm
by Rlan
Though I'm going to wait for some better judgement - The without the music is seems to be lacking something. Also, I'll wait for someone who has played the original to play this game - who ever is playing in the video looks like he has no idea what he's doing, which is disheartening :(

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:33 pm
by Pepperidge
Well, I'm glad that the game looks functional, which is more than I was expecting. Don't see any real problem with the speed. The lack of music gives me hope that this is an early build, but the levels still look just outright desolate.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:34 pm
by G.Silver
who ever is playing in the video looks like he has no idea what he's doing
Or maybe the new controls really suck. xD

Saw it now, this does look really early, with no HUD and no music it actually does seem like it might be early enough that there are still changes being made, at least in this version. Probably this is what the original screens were taken from and the game is much further along already.

The speed looks identical to the original to me, NiGHTS is just a lot smaller on the screen and further from the background (since they have the processing power to show more of it at once), so it creates the illusion that he's not moving so fast.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:06 am
by Ritz
You can still view the gameplay video here.

Anyway, I was among the first to shoot this game down when the first screens surfaced, but seeing the game in motion now, it actually looks really, really nice. Sure, the item placement is a bit sparce, but I'm sure they'll rectify that before the final release. Go ahead and doubt me on that one, but the link system was a pretty big part of the original game, and I don't see it working here unless they wind up fucking with it.

On the speed, it seems about as fast as the original NiGHTS to me- I'd attribute the slower pace to the player not knowing how to Drill Dash properly. My main concern right now is the lackluster background. I mean, pause the video at 0:18. The backgrounds are what made the original Nights so pretty, what happened there? The actual level aesthetics make up for it, and it's not like you'll see it often, but man, they can do better.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:13 am
by SuitCase
This looks really bad. They're just redoing the Saturn one again. I hope this fails to sell well.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:48 am
by Opa-Opa
It does look a bit boring... and I couldn't see the trailer.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:47 am
by Radrappy
dude it looks fine. Pop in some music and it'll be charming enough for me.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:22 am
by Gaz
Gamespot seem to have taken the trailer down but it is on YouTube.

Anyhow, this just looks really bland and boring to me.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:24 am
by Zeta
It looks good to me, and true to the predecessor. I don't see anything to complain about so far. The boss stage is pretty damn creative, too.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:43 am
by b_boult
Well I just rewatched these videos again, and overall it's more positive impressions for me now. The gameplay does seem fairly sparse and bitty, particularly the distribution of loops amongst other things, but this is obviously a pretty early build of the game, not least because of the lack of music but almost everything in this footage looks extremely unfinished. Infact in many ways, more like they haven't really started to be honest. I hope they tweak the polygon count at some point though, because in some areas it does still feel like a previous generation game, although I'd much rather they focussed on the actual level layouts themselves now and create a solid gameplay experience in the few months of development time they have left. On the flip side I quite like the hybrid camera perspective. The almost side on view seems more reminiscant of the original title and seems to work fairly well, and then there are sections where it appears to pan to a fully behind view, which I was worried would be the case for the entire game originally, but might be alright if only used occasionally like this. I have a horrible feeling I've just tempted fate, though.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:04 am
by Esrever
Well, it certainly looks like NiGHTS!

Again.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:19 am
by One Classy Bloke
The Disney style presentation of the game means nothing really. Sega's marketing is a load of crap and i've seen them in action.

Gameplay wise, i think it looks fine. It does seem more like presentation footage opposed to game footage though.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:48 am
by Forza Johnman
The announcer makes my soul smile, like the Christmas NiGHTS lady.

Didn't they announce in one of the previews there was going to be a sort of mission mode/free roaming mode in the game and the footage could be from that. I think it looks alright.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:32 am
by SDHawk
My hopes aren't too high, but I admittedly like what I see in the gameplay trailer. The level has a much larger feel to it than the original's on account of the much larger draw distance and less emphasis on the background. I rather like how it works with the feeling of flying. But otherwise it's still too early to get much of an impression from it. (Also, the blurry quality of the video makes it hard to tell how it actually looks. )

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:46 am
by BlazeHedgehog
The fact that the video has no music doesn't mean anything. About a month before Sonic 2k6 hit shelves Sega released an "Environments" video that didn't contain music, either. (About a week later Sega added the video to it's japanese Sonic 2k6 site, but it contained music - nothing was changed, besides that)

Shadow the Hedgehog had a video or two a couple months before release that also did not contain music.

Given how those two games faired, compared to the way NiGHTS looks right now, I highly doubt this is video of an old build or anything weird like that. If you're getting your hopes up or trying to make excuses for as bad as the gameplay footage looks, you probably should think twice.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:19 am
by Zeta
It's true that the larger enviroments do give you the impression of flying more, instead of just floating between two stages - one that's upside down, and one that's not.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:40 am
by Neo
Esrever wrote:Well, it certainly looks like NiGHTS!

Again.
And I fail to see how this is a problem.

Wasn't our greatest fear Sega destroying a classic revered by most and taking away all of NiGHTS' glory? Well, by looking at those videos, I'm not terribly afraid that'll happen anymore -- it looks like it plays exactly like the original NiGHTS.

While you may use the Twilight Princess argument and say "it's Ocarina of Time all over again", is that really such a bad thing? I'd rather have the same game polished up and released to a more successful and accessible console than seeing the addition, removal or change of gameplay features that will ultimately completely break the game (read: Sonic The Hedgehog 2006).

So yeah, while the graphics seem a little bit dodgy (what's up with those blue chips?), the gameplay seems mostly intact and control seems to be tight enough (you don't see the player constantly ramming the walls or such), so this is actually shaping up to be a worthwhile game.

What I'm still very concerned about is the game's music. It was undoubtedly one of the defining aspects of the original, and so it should remain in the sequel. I can't tell you how tired I'm getting of seeing games with background music which is, well, just background music. (Sure, there are a few gems here and there, but 75% of today's game soundtracks aren't exactly what you'd put on your MP3 player and listen to on the go.)

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:49 am
by Frieza2000
It's also been over a decade since the original. That's more than long enough to justify releasing an extension of it.