Nights Into Dreams... - Gameplay

Gameplay

Nights into Dreams... is split into seven levels, referred to as "Dreams". The levels are distributed equally between the two child characters; three are unique to Claris, three to Elliot, and each play through an identical final seventh level, "Twin Seeds". Initially, only Claris' Spring Valley and Elliot's Splash Garden are available, and successful completion of one of these unlocks the next level in that child's path. Previously completed stages may be revisited to improve the player's high scores; a "C" grade in all the selected child's levels must be achieved to unlock the relevant Twin Seeds stage for that character.

Each level is split up into four "Mares" set in Nightopia and a boss fight which takes place in Nightmare. In each level, players initially control Claris or Elliot, who immediately have their Ideyas of hope, growth, intelligence and purity stolen from them by Wizeman's minions, leaving behind only their Ideya of courage. The goal of each Mare is to recover one of the stolen Ideya by collecting 20 blue chips and delivering them to the cage holding the Ideya, which will overload and release the orb it holds. It is possible to complete some of the levels' goals by wandering around the landscape of Nightopia as Claris or Elliot (pursued by an egg-shaped alarm clock which will wake up the child and end the level if it catches the player), but the majority of the gameplay centers on Nights' flying sequences, triggered by walking into the Ideya Palace near the start of each level so that the child merges with the imprisoned Nights.

In the flying sections, the player controls Nights' flight along a particular predetermined route through each Mare. Players can only fly in the 2D plane of the screen, with their actual motion through the level determined by the automatic camera angle at that point in the Mare. The player has only a limited period available before Nights falls to the ground and turns back into Claris or Elliot, and each collision with an enemy subtracts five seconds from the time remaining. After retrieving the Ideya in a Mare, the player can either return to the Ideya Palace to progress to the next Mare, or continue flying more laps of the Mare (with replenished items).

Whilst flying, Nights can use a boost to travel faster, as well as defeat certain enemies littered across the field. Grabbing onto certain enemies will cause Nights to spin around, launching Nights and the enemy in the direction the boost is pressed. Various acrobatic maneuvers can be performed, including the "Paraloop", whereby flying around in a complete circle and connecting the trail of stars left in Nights' wake will cause any items within the loop to be attracted towards Nights. The game features a combo system known as "Linking", whereby actions such as collecting items and flying through rings are worth more points when performed in quick succession than they are individually. Flying through certain special rings activates a short period of time in which extra points can be earned through the performance of various aerobatic stunts.

At the end of each Mare, players are given a rank (between A and F) based on their score, and after all four Mares are cleared an overall rank for the level is displayed. Nights is then transported to Nightmare for a boss fight against one of Wizeman's Nightmarens. Each boss fight has a time limit, and the game will end if the player runs out of time during the battle. Upon winning the boss fight, the player is awarded a score multiplier based on how quickly the boss was defeated, which is then applied to the score earned in the Nightopia section in order to produce the player's final score for that Dream.