NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - Crystal Castle

As Helen continues to make her way around the dream worlds, she finds herself in another place that she created: Crystal Castle. Like Lost Park, Will's 2nd world, Crystal Castle (as Helen's 2nd world) is pretty, but a bit eerie at the same time. Much of the place seems to be made of brittle glass, representing the fragility in Helen's heart.

As for this place itself, you can see that I'm noticeably worse at Crystal Castle than the worlds before this. I make a lot of mistakes, though I also found a few hidden paths as I played here today. It's probably also pretty easy to see that this stage is significantly harder than the ones before them, with crystals growing in NiGHTS's path and a mirror hall inside the castle that displays the otherwise invisible rings NiGHTS has to fly through. In the third segment, there are prisms that split NiGHTS into five tiny clones, though I messed up and you don't get to see that for very long. Then, there are lens that turns NiGHTS huge. That you can see very well.

The boss this time is a witch named Bomamba. Her sorcery seems to derive from a large group of black cats she keeps with her, and when those black cats are defeated, she loses her magic and falls. The battle here is a really strange one: NiGHTS must grasp the handle of a platform Bomamba creates and roll all of the cats into the holes on it while avoiding attacks from the cats and Bomamba herself. The deal is that while NiGHTS can push side to side or down, pushing up is impossible, and NiGHTS must go to another handle if all the cats are at the bottom. This is an infamously frustrating boss battle, however, because you can't get a good view on the playing field.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• nights
• journey
• of
• dreams
• helen
• will
• reala
• wizeman
• wii
• crystal
• castle
• bomamba

[radclaw1]

you made the bose look easy.

[Overhazard]

It was by accident. Bomamba is definitely not easy.

[randomyoshi]

The part where you have to use the mirror to get through the rings (or links?) looks pretty tricky. Strangely, it reminds me of Crystal Palace in Paper Mario, where you have to solve some of the puzzles by using the clues the "reflection" of the mirror gives you (such as destroying the clubbas to destroy clubbas on the other side of the mirror, or using your reflection to hit the ! switch).

[Overhazard]

I remember the Crystal Palace. The puzzles here aren't quite as complex, but that's reasonable considering that when a game is about flying, breaking up the flow is a no-no.

The mirror hall is actually a reference to the Soft Museum world in the original NiGHTS. The museum contains a mirror hall where all of the hoops and Blue Chips are invisible and must be obtained by looking at the reflection.

[wiishadow4]

the music is beautiful

[TheNightSkyBreeze]

I BEAT THE WHOLE GAME AND UNLOCKED THE SECREAT ENDING!!!! THIS IS SOO EASY!! I JUST CANT GET ALL THE DOORS!

[Omegahazard]

the best part of this game are the boss battles, theryre creative compared to most games and exellent music to boot and some even pose a challenge even after you know how to fight em

[radclaw1]

got that right

[CDub7888]

Nice. I might have to give this game a whirl myself if it proves to have all these cheesy, buy-em-at-a-dime-store lines. Those are always entertaining.

And you don't have to tell me about Freud; studying psychology and sociology for years and I've heard Freud's theories about a million times. I guess things are more like that now because not everyone takes refuge in complacency anymore.

[Overhazard]

You get to hear a lot of cheesy acting, that's for sure. But that's a normal thing in video games. My favorite line is, "Go over and touch NiGHTS. You'll see what I mean. That is, of course, if you're interested in that sort of thing."

The idea that dreams are symbolic came from psychoanalysis in the 1950s, and more specifically, Sigmund Freud. It's an idea that people continue to believe in today, and the dream worlds here were made with that approach. (The original game had no such thing.)

[CDub7888]

Well, that's most of society today; everything seems to have a hidden meaning to most. So, it's not too surprising that they'd have the same thing going on with dreams.

And that seems like a lot of running around to do.  But it looks like fun, so I'm guessing it's worth it.