From: Drakneau@msn.com (Jason Ruler of all the world)
Subject: NIGHTS FAQ
Date: 2 Sep 96 01:28:34 -0700

NiGHTS

This Document contains the following topics.

#1  The differences between the U.S. and the Japanese versions of this game.
#2 The object of the game.
#3 How to defeat the bosses in the game.
#4 The A-Life system
#5 The different endings you can receive.
#6 How to receive an A
#7 Some Hints and Tips.

#1      There is no difference between the two versions of nights.  Some 
may want you to beleive that there is less fallout and pop up in the 
american version, but this is not true.  In any game that takes place 
in a 3-D world, there will be certian angles that the camera view 
simply cannot show.  When there is a "Solid" object in the way of the 
camera, the camera simply hollows it out so that the charecter can 
still be seen.  Though Nights seems to have alot of fallout and pop 
up, for the amount of colours and 3D land scapes, and considering 
that technicaly Saturn isnt supposed to be able to display these 
types of graphics, I beleive that Nights is a fun to play, and 
visualy pleasing.  Nights probably could have looked even better if 
it was not rushed out like it was.  Even Super Mario 64, witch was 2 
years in the making has some pop up and fallout.  Also the two 
versions are both in english, in the Import version and the American 
version all of the text, music and hint screens are in english.  The 
only noteable difference between the two is the packageing and the 
controll.  The import version comes in a clear jewel case witch has a 
beautiful image of nights under the actual disk (this is a very nice 
effect), where the American version is in a standard Saturn box, with 
typical bad American box art.  The import version has a white 
controll, with multi coloured buttons, and the american version is 
entirely black.

#2      The object of Nights is simple, you must retreive 5 dreams, then 
defeat a boss.  To do this, you start the game, and you will see the 
enemies steal all but your red orb.  With the red orb, you can enter 
the chamber where NiGHTS is and become him.  Once you are Nights, you 
will see a timer on the top of the screen.  You must collect 20 blue 
chips (the little blue balls) and then retreive the orb from the 
Jelly fish like monster witch holds it, before the timer runs out.  
If the timer runs out, you will lose all youre points and have to 
finish off the round as youre human charecter.  While a human, you 
must watch out for the alarm clock.  If it hits you, you will wake 
up, and the game will end.  Once you retreive the five orbs, you will 
have to fight a boss.  After the boss is defeated they figure out 
youre score, and judging on how high you scored you receive a letter 
grade A-F.  The only way to access the final stage is to receive all 
C's or higher.

#3      Here are some tips on how to defeat the bosses.

PUFFY- You have to grab a hold of her, and throw her towards the 
right side of the screen.  There will be walls in the way, but each 
will have a visible weak spot that you will have to aim for.  When 
you reach the final room, there is a mouse trap type deveice.  Toss 
her into it and it will defeat her.

GULWING - You have to grab hold of his head then throw him.  This is 
not always easy, because he is in constant motion and the rest of his 
body is covered with spikes.  It is best to try to get him just below 
the mouth.  After he is thrown his head will fall off and then 
regrow.  You have to hit him a couple of times, so be patient.  
Eventualy, though, he just floats into the back ground.

GULPO - To defeat the fish, you have to use the little fish that are 
positioned around the cylinder.  You have to find a fish witch is in 
line with GULPO, then hold it and launch youre self at the fish.  It 
doesnt take much to defeat him, but if you take to long in attacking 
him the fish will emit a red beam witch will surround them for a few 
seconds.  If you touch the beam, you will lose 5 seconds.

REELA - To defeat Reela, you have to do a paraloop directly in front 
of him.  If he flies into it three times Nights wins. It is difficult 
to get in front of him sometimes, but if you use the drill dash, and 
charge him head on, then you should be able to catch him.

CLAWZ - The cat will zoom around the room, lighiting the mice.  Once 
the mice are lit, in a few seconds they will fly up in the air and 
hit Nights.  Once the cat lights the Mice, Nights has to drill dash 
it to explode it.  Be careful not to get caught on un lit mice.  As 
you destroy the mice the cat will hop to the next one.  Eventualy, he 
will be caught with no mice to hop to.  If there are no other mice on 
the screen at that time he simply dies, if there are still mice, and 
he is just trapped, then you have to drill dash him.

JACKLE - Jackle flies around the room and throws playing cards at 
you.  He is also wearing a cape.  You have to fly at him head on and 
dodge the cards.  Once you grab hold of him, toss him and his cape 
will fall off.  Once his cape is off he can not throw cards, and he 
is open to attack.  Just continue to grab and throw him untilll he is 
dead.  If he manages to get his cape simply repeat the procedure to 
get it off again.

WIZEMAN - To defeat Wizeman, you first have to navigate the obstacle 
courses he throws against you.  The first one, you have to fly 
towards him while avoiding the balls he throws at you.  Then you have 
to navagite through a moving asteroid feild, dodge snowballs, and 
tornadoes.  The trick is figureing out the pattern of the objects, 
then avoiding their paths.  Weaving up and down alot usualy helps.  
Once you reach Wizeman, you and the other nights have to keep drill 
dashing his head untill the barrier breaks and you get a hit.  It 
takes three hits to defeat Wizeman.

#4      The A-Life system is a set of variables contained in the game, 
that constantly change as to make the game more interesting for 
people who chose to play it more than once. For starts, the music is 
always a little diferent.  If you listen closely, it is not always 
that noteceiable, but it is always a little diferent.  Another thing 
is some of the objects in the background, if you look on Elliots 
first stage, there is a large clock grown out of flowers.  This clock 
always displays the correct time.  The most noticable thing however 
are the Pians.  The Pians are the little angels, with the saturn 
rings around their heads.  These creatures fly, sing, throw snoballs 
at eachother, use jackhammers, and reproduce.  When two of the pians 
touch eachother an egg will eventually form.  Depending on what the 
parents do, (Whistle, fly, etc...) they will get an occupation.  Some 
of these creatures can also have variations on jobs.  Like sometimes 
the offspring of two fliers decides to fly upside down.  You can also 
make mutations.  By hitting a Nightmaren, it turns into a ball.  If 
the ball hits a egg, or a Pian, there will be a mutation.  Depending 
on what the Pians occupation was, and what creature hit it, changes 
the type of mutant.  They can get pretty weird however.  The Pians 
will also sleep.  Sometimes, you will notice that none of them are 
doing anything.  If you look at them closely, you will notice that 
tiny Z's are coming out of their mouths.  Ive also heard that the 
Pians do things on certian holidays, but I have never seen this.  Be 
careful though, because you can kill the Pians.  If you do a paraloop 
near one, it will be gone forever.  You can also make them fearfull 
of you.  If you do a drill dash too close to them, when you try to go 
near them again, they will fly away.  Keep in mind also, that the 
same A-life is used for all the different diaries.  If you have more 
than one game saved, whatever happens to the Pians in one game, will 
be the same in all games.

#5      There are three different endings in Nights.  The first is when 
you beat it with just Elliot or Claris.  If you have only beaten the 
game with one charecter, you will only see the first half of the 
ending.  If you beat it with both, you see the whole ending.  I have 
heard people say that you get different endings depending on who you 
beat the game with first.  As far as I know this is not true.  If you 
beat the game with both charecters, you see the part of the ending 
that involve them meeting.  It doesnt matter who you beat it with 
first.  The third ending is when you get all A's.  If you beat every 
round with an A, the ending theme song is sung by adults as opposed 
to children.  

#6      To get an A, you have to get a score on each round between 22,000 
and 25,000.  The total after you beat the boss has to add up to over 
150,000.  A good way to get high scores is to understand how the game 
keeps score.  When you start as Nights, you get very little points 
for links, etc...  Once you have an orb, the screen says, Bonus Time 
Start.  This is when the points start to add up.  Get as many links 
and chips as you can before the clock runs out, then return the orb.  
Some people  think you get points for finishing the stage early.  
This is not true, you can take youre time.  Just dont run out of 
time, because turning into a human will almost defenitly get you an F.

#7      Here are a few tricks to help you on youre way to getting straight A's.
In the forest stage, if you lead the red car into the garage, you 
will get a bonus
In the forest stage you can fly in to the crypt in the middle of the 
stage for lots of stars.
In Elliots first stage, fly into the fountain to be pushed to an area 
to get a ball cage and some rings.
In the ice world there are balls in the trees and inside the Igloos
Jumping on the clock will turn it off for a while
On the last stage hit the switches to get showered with stars.
Paraloop items to gather a large number of them at once.
When you have the ribbion, use the trigger buttons to do tricks, 
these are worth alot of points. 
If you loop certian areas, an emblem will appear.  These power up 
youre loop and Drill dash.  
On the canyon board, there is a machine that causes things to stick 
to Nights, things will stick to you as long as you dont bump into 
anything.  At the end, the machine counts how much is stuck to you 
and adds up youre points.

I hope this helps some people out there understand Nights better and 
makes the game more enjoyable.  If you have any questions or 
comments, please feel free to E-mail me.  Also, I still am looking 
for any information on the Lunar game that was released on Game Gear 
in Japan.  I am also looking for Virtua Cop with the gun.  If any one 
can help me out with those, it would be appreaicated.  :)

DRAKNEAU@MSN.COM