[quote=“Abadd”]
Remember, he also did Sonic Adventure which, I believe, is generally considered the best 3D Sonic.[/quote]
Its not just the best 3D Sonic game its the best Sonic game I’ve played along with Sonic CD , and a game that I think its the best 3D platfrom game I’ve ever played . Even now I still go back to it .
Any idea who’s doing the music anyone ? , That to me is just as imporant, as the music score on its own was a bit of magic and added so much to the game
I wouldn’t mind seeing Richards Jacques helping out. I’ve never been disappointed to hear about his involvement in a game.
I’m feeling an urge to unearth my Saturn and play NiGHTS again soon, as a primer for this…
Though if I do I’ll end up playing through Azel also, of course. 
I’m hoping Tomoko Sasaki makes her return as the primary composer. She hasn’t composed music since NiGHTS… she’s done mostly vocal themes for various games since then, such as the ending song for Space Channel 5 Part 2.
Naofumi Hataya and Fumie Kumatani also contributed to NiGHTS’ music, and it’d be nice to see them also make a comeback. Hataya did a lot of Space Channel 5 music, and Kumatani recently worked on Phantasy Star Universe but also did Phantasy Star Online, as well as some Sonic Adventure music.
[quote=“Abadd”]
Remember, he also did Sonic Adventure which, I believe, is generally considered the best 3D Sonic.[/quote]
Hmm - in that case, it’s a bit of a mystery why Sonic Heroes was so much of a lesser experience than Sonic Adventure. I mean, there were some great ideas in Heroes, but the overall experience felt so much less polished and fun than nearly every Sonic game before it.
Well, consider this: Did you like Empire Strikes Back?
Now ask yourself: Did you like A Phantom Menace?
Did you like The Matrix? How about The Matrix Reloaded?
Stuff like that happens all the time. Musicians, movie-makers, game developers… I don’t know the exact specifics of why one game was better than the other, but many things can go wrong. One time you may have been inspired, but not so much the next. Maybe you had stronger team leads one time. Maybe you miscalculated what you’d be able to accomplish with your tech and had to scale back your design to fit within the constraints. Maybe you didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be developing for multiple platforms.
I am personally hoping that Nights 2 turns out to be everything the fans have been waiting for. All we can do is wait and judge the game on its own merits.
I resent that.Phantom Menace was good.Oh and Empire Strikes Back wans’t directed by Lucas.
I think Abadd makes a great point though , Matrix was done by pretty much the same team , yet the last 2 films were rubbish and not a patch the amazing 1st film , some times making sequels for the sake of it doesn’t work even the same team .
Or what about Jet Set Radio Future most people see this as
Inferior to the DC game (not me btw) even though I?m pretty sure more or less the exact same team worked on the X-Box vesrion as did the DC version . Can work both ways though, God Of War and Dragoon Zwei had many new members added to the team and we able to push the series to the limits of the console
Much in the same way that Naka-san (for example) hasn’t really “created” Sonic games for a while. Or how Miyamoto-san hasn’t “created” Mario/Zelda games for a while. What I’m saying is that just because the same person was in charge of the overall project doesn’t mean that the results will always be the same. People change and staff members change. That has a huge effect on the end product (and it’s a huge part of the reason why a great game idea is only about 5% of game development). It doesn’t do you any good to have a great idea that your programmers can’t realize, or your artists can’t create.
As for Phantom Menace… you have a right to your opinion 
I personally didn’t enjoy it simply because of the inconsistencies, the poor direction, bad characters, etc. I just used it as an example as it is generally considered the worst Star Wars movie.
Sevel Worlds
Three Shape Shifting Masks
I like the masks, they sound like a great way to expand the gameplay without changing it too much. I hope that rocket form keeps the dreamy look consistent though, I don’t want to control some real-lifelike missile. Also, there must be more to the game because I don’t see what kind of items you would be exchanging and there’s also no mention of A-Life yet! What I’m really curious about is… What sort of dragon? 
Edit: The features list seems to have been pulled from the website now. I have no idea why, perhaps they revealed them forgetting they have some sort of exclusive with a magazine or something? Oh well, I wrote them here for you anyway 
Real World Weather sounds good, reminds me of the way Christmas NiGHTS used the Saturn internal clock to change certain things (for example you could play as Reala on 1 April). I could imagine the online Item Exchanging involves trading Nightopians and Mepians, hopefully they will reintroduce A-Life and improve it.
I forgot to write the dragon allows you to fly through strong winds, the dolphin allows you to go underwater and the rocket is for super-sonic speeds, according to C&VG at least, I didn’t see that written on the website even before they pulled the list. Again, I think this is a great way to expand the gameplay in a castlevania-ish style and have you returning to previous levels taking different routes through them thanks to your new powers, while keeping the general feel faithful to the original.
Abadd, can you please convince them to design the dragon in the abstract PD style
thats what i have been eagerly awaiting… time to morph my Chao website i think
While I’m at it, maybe I can have Iizuka-san give me, like, a million dollars or something!
Only if you share! Any idea why the features list was pulled?
It was pulled? Didn’t even realize.
Well the Sega Europe page isn’t even loading for me at the moment but last I checked the features section had been replaced from the full list with only a few basic lines describing the game in a similar way the front page described it… Nothing about the masks, worlds, etc…
Perhaps a botched PR thing? Have no idea, actually…
Strange. Seems like information surrounding this title is being handled quite poorly =\
Sega Europe site is back up now but the NiGHTS features list has not been restored. Anyway, my main worry with the game is that it’s due soon but at the same time they don’t seem to very far with its development… I hope it’s not some rushed 1-year project…
[quote=“Abadd”]Well, consider this: Did you like Empire Strikes Back?
Now ask yourself: Did you like A Phantom Menace?
Did you like The Matrix? How about The Matrix Reloaded?[/quote]
I liked both of those prequels/sequels (although admittedly not as much). The Matrix Reloaded wasn’t actually a bad movie IMO… there were some great ideas, although I felt it was too drawn out and would have worked better if Reloaded/Revolutions had been a single film. I didn’t think it was a bad story though.
Sonic Heroes wasn’t just a lacking Sonic game in comparison, it was a bad game in general (IMO). Poor camera angles and shoddy controls made the game tedious and unenjoyable. I tried to like Sonic Heroes, I really did, but it was a relief to finish it.
As for the Phantom Menace - I’ve noticed that most inconsistencies come down to how people have envisioned the prequel era after seeing episodes IV, V, and VI during their childhood. It can be very hard for fans to accept how a story goes if they’ve had a very different vision in their minds than that of the writer/director. It’s similar scenario to the changes in Orta really… fans don’t necessarily like them, but they are consistent with the timeline.
It would great to see these forms bear some resemblance to Nights himself. Did you ever play that game Vectorman on the Megadrive? You played as a robot who could change into different forms, but they all looked like him still, just “rearranged”.