Nights: Journey of Dreams (ナイツ 〜星降る夜の物語〜 Naitsu: Hoshifuru Yoru no Monogatari, lit. Nights: Tale of the Night Studded with Stars), stylized NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, is an action game for the Wii console developed by Sonic Team and Sega. It is the sequel to the 1996 Sega Saturn title Nights into Dreams.... Like the original, the game is set in the dream world of Nightopia, which is under threat from nightmare beings called Nightmaren, and the gameplay is based around the flight of a jester-like rebel Nightmaren named Nights. The game was released in Japan and North America in December 2007, and in Europe and Australia in January 2008.
Every night all human dreams are played out in Nightopia and Nightmare, the two parts of the dream world. In Nightopia, distinct aspects of dreamers' personalities are represented by luminous colored spheres known as "Ideya". However, the evil ruler of Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked, is stealing this dream energy from sleeping visitors to gather power to take control of Nightopia and eventually the real world. To achieve this, he creates numerous beings called "Nightmaren", including two acrobatic, jester-like, flight-capable beings called Nights and Reala. Nights, however, rebels against Wizeman's plans, and is punished by being imprisoned inside an Ideya palace, a gazebo-like container for dreamers' Ideya.
William Taylor and Helen Cartwright are the two new chosen dreamers. Will is an aspiring soccer player, while Helen is a prodigy violinist. They're both from a London-based city known as Bellbridge.[8] Both children are close to their respective parents; Helen her mother and Will his father. However, the closeness between them has changed over the years; Helen has chosen to spend more time with her friends than with her mother practicing the violin, a choice which has begun to fill her with guilt, while Will's father is transferred to another city for work and leaves his son by himself. Both children suffer individual nightmares and come under attack by the Nightmaren, who chase them into the world of Nightopia. There, the two children separately meet the wise Owl and the playful dream jester Nights, who has the ability to "dualize" with the children, allowing them to share Nights' body and fly through the skies. Learning that the wicked Wizeman is plotting to take over the dream world and then emerge into the real world, the children and Nights resolve to stop Wizeman, but face hindrance from the Nightmaren he commands, particularly Nights's former comrade Reala.
The children's stories are unique, though they share a similar structure at some points and some of the same cut scenes appear in both stories. They converge into each other at certain points, allowing Will and Helen to meet in their dream worlds and help each other, though Owl states that normally this shouldn't be possible.
Tomoko Sasaki reprised her role of lead composer from the original Nights into Dreams…, and was also rejoined by Naofumi Hataya and Fumie Kumatani. Additional compositions were provided by Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tomoya Ohtani, and Teruhiko Nakagawa. The original soundtrack was released as a 3-disc set, the first CD prominently featuring music from Will's story, the second CD mainly featuring music from Helen's story, and the third CD having bonus tracks. The theme song of the series, "Dreams Dreams", makes a return appearance in the game in several different forms. The signature ending theme version is now sung by Robbie Wyckoff & Francis M. Benitez. A children's version is also sung by Riley O'Flynn and Victoria Ashby, who voice Will and Helen in the game, and much like the original before it, segues into the adults' version. Within the game as well is a new "Cruising Together" version of the song, which plays during the Bellbridge stage as the children reunite and go to rescue Nights; this version of the song retains the original vocals of Curtis King, Jr. and Dana Calitri.
A slower version of the song also plays over the perfect ending credits and 'full A rank' dreamgate, and is called "Dreams Dreams: Sweet Snow", which is sung by Jasmine Ann Allen who performed on the original children's version of the song in the previous game when she was younger.
