Note: for my own convenience, I’ll be addressing NiGHTS with feminine pronouns. In Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka’s words, the “impressions of the character with regards to gender are totally up to the player,” meaning however you choose to interpret NiGHTS—male, female, both, or neither—is perfectly valid.
Thanks to Wolfman for helping with edits.
NiGHTS into Dreams is one of my favorite games, one I try to celebrate at least once a year. Question is, though, which character should I tackle this year? Well, I wrote about NiGHTS herself a while back, so she’s out. Sinister sibling Reala was my subject two years ago, and last year I grappled with Gillwing, one of the game’s introductory bosses. And I’m unwilling to endure another run through Journey of Dreams, NiGHTS’ middling Wii sequel, so out goes its cast. I was left with one “obvious” option: Wizeman the Wicked. He’s NiGHTS’ primary villain, a character I like, but… I wasn’t enchanted, I guess. Two other characters, however, caught my eye instead.
Claris Sinclair, NiGHTS, and Elliot Edwards, respectively, seen in 1996’s NiGHTS into Dreams (Image: SEGA)
Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair are our guides through NiGHTS’ surreal setting, so surely one of them would be a suitable subject, right? Well, covering only one of the teenagers felt… off, even inappropriate. That was technically an option, but the characters are intrinsically linked and separating them would be unsatisfying. If I, say, wrote about Claris now and Elliot down the road, I’d ultimately wind up with two articles that largely tread the same ground. The answer was obvious, then—we’re doing a twofer! First, though, let’s get some sleep…
Elliot and Claris’ History
When developing NiGHTS into Dreams, Sonic Team diligently researched dream theory. Sigmund Freud’s dream archetypes became one source of inspiration, with NiGHTS drawing from the “Shadow” archetype and human heroes Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair the “Animus and Anima” (Selph, a boss who was cut during development, would have fittingly represented the concept of “Self”). Actually, Claris wasn’t initially part of the game, but Sonic Team created her because 1) they wanted women to enjoy NiGHTS, and 2) since the game’s meant to limn everyone’s dreams, complementing Elliot with a heroine only made sense.
Distancing NiGHTS from Sonic the Hedgehog, the studio’s iconic, nature-loving namesake, was important, and highlighting two unassuming teenagers helped facilitate that. Unsurprisingly, the game’s cast saw heavy revision. (Image: SEGA)
When someone falls asleep, they enter the dream land of Nightopia. Their Ideya, color-coded, ethereal orbs that represent their innate qualities, also becomes tangible. White detonates one’s purity, blue’s intelligence, green’s wisdom, yellow’s hope, and rarest of all is red Ideya, which represents courage. Wizeman is stealing Ideya, requiring it to seize Nightopia—and, now, he’s set his sights on troubled high schoolers Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair of Twin Seeds. Without hesitation, Wizeman sics his army of spooks, the Nightmaren, on them. But one of his two right hand officers, NiGHTS, refuses to help, forcing him to imprison her. However, by merging with Claris and Elliot, NiGHTS can escape Wizeman’s traps and retaliate—and, ultimately, the trio purge the “real” and dream dimensions of his influence.
Elliot and Claris return in Christmas NiGHTS, a short campaign where they restore Twin Seeds’ holiday spirit. Archie Comics’ NiGHTS adaptation and the game’s LCD approximation feature them, while the NiGHTS: Flying Through the Sky Without Wings storybook is an Elliot-only affair. Some merchandise honors the pair. The kids cameo in Burning Rangers, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Pinball Party, and the Game Gag 1P Comic Sega-hen manga. SEGA Superstars, Sonic Runners, and SEGA EARTH UFO CATCHER allude to them, too. While NiGHTS’ decade-later sequel, Journey of Dreams, focuses on newcomers William Taylor and Helen Cartwright, their predecessors appear as unlockable skins. Balan Wonderworld, a spiritual successor of sorts to NiGHTS, features counterparts to the Saturn duo, too.
So, what’re my thoughts on Elliot and Claris?
This pinball board was my first and, for many years, only glimpse of NiGHTS’ realm. (Image: SEGA)
I was introduced to NiGHTS through Sonic Adventure. Nearly everything about her pinball table grabbed my imagination: there was a fun, flamboyant purple jester, a demonic red one, a wealth of weird grotesqueries, potato fairies, a lush wonderland, and a scenic, moonlit city! Soon, I discovered the character and series’ name, and though I neither owned a SEGA Saturn nor knew anyone who did, I vowed to play NiGHTS into Dreams someday. Thankfully, I got a taste of it a few years later through a minigame in Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. It left me even more intrigued!
One aspect of NiGHTS—namely, Elliot and Claris—didn’t appeal to me yet, though. Now, I didn’t dislike them. I did appreciate how well their designs sync together, even if they’re stuck in the uncanny space that is Nineties CG. Claris’ hair, irises, undershirt, and part of her shoes are pink; Elliot’s are blue. Associating the girl and boy characters with those colors is passé, but it works and invokes two of Naoto Ohshima’s earlier creations, Amy and Sonic. Elliot’s sweater is a darker shade of blue, starkly contrasting Claris’ orange one—this complementary color pairing channels Sonic and his sidekick, Tails, suggesting the kids aren’t just romantic partners: they’re also capable heroes. Elliot’s green garments, likewise, balance Claris’ bright pink accruements, and their undershirts sport yellow accents, linking them together and to NiGHTS (who also has yellow accents). Overall, Elliot’s rocking cool colors to match the warm Claris; they’re made for each other.
Space Channel 5 idol Ulala seemingly took inspiration from Claris’ color scheme. (Image: SEGA)
I also respected that Claris and Elliot were necessary. Undergirding NiGHTS’ dreamscapes and denizens with two relatively normal people underscores just how bizarre Nightopia really is. Everyone dreams, so including boy and girl avatars to complement the androgynous NiGHTS makes perfect sense. Teleporting ordinary outsiders into an imperiled wonderland is also a timeless concept, but importantly, Elliot and Claris have a personal stake in this crusade: Wizeman is invading their subconsciouses.
Still, I dunno. I guess they just looked unexciting, overshadowed by the wonderfully weird stuff surrounding them. I think I also just assumed that Elliot and Claris would merely be vehicles for Sonic Team to tell another “follow your dreams!” type of story. Not that there’s anything wrong with that message, but it’s one a litany of childrens’ media employs. It was old hat long before Sonic Adventure.
This scene really conveys how it feels to perform in front of people! You can just feel the heat of the spotlights on poor Claris. (Image: SEGA)
Thankfully, when I finally bought a Saturn and copy of NiGHTS, I was pleasantly surprised by the teenagers. Now, shades of that “follow your dreams!” theme is part of the package, which is fair and good and was probably unavoidable. But that’s not the crux of their stories. Instead, they’re about overcoming anxiety by finding their inner strength. By this point, I was in college, but high school was a fresh memory—and high school sucked. While I have plenty of happy memories and made dear friends during those four years, it was overall an uncomfortable, anxious period of my life, and seeing that seep into NiGHTS was validating.
The youngins’ campaigns start with three unique stages each and close with Twin Seeds. And both start the game in the middle of a nightmare, ones where the kids relive tragic, embarrassing memories. For Elliot, we witness the cool, “faultless” athlete happily shooting hoops with his buddies only for a group of bullies to show him up. Then Elliot just… blankly stands there, defeated and emasculated. The basketball poster in Elliot’s bedroom is even torn, suggesting a violent outburst transpired after he arrived home. Since he’s presumably never been in this position before, he probably has little to no experience processing such emotions.
He even threw his basketball into the garbage; Elliot’s confidence was crushed. (Image: SEGA)
Meanwhile, the shy, insecure Claris is a gifted singer, but stage freight overcame her during an audition. She clenches her fists to regain composure, subtly implying she has more experience regulating anxiety, but it’s insufficient; Claris runs away. Both openings close with the kids’ stressors contorting into hideous hellspawns, foreshadowing their looming adventure. What’s attention-grabbing about these cinematics isn’t that, though—it’s that they depict relatable stuff. We’ve all been bullied or flunked a test, right?
Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Iizuka’s previous game, successfully told two separate campaigns (Knuckles’ happens after Sonic and Tails’) without any spoken dialogue. Smartly, NiGHTS evolves that approach; characters never speak during gameplay (occasional grunts notwithstanding), making Elliot and Claris easy avatars to project yourself onto. NiGHTS’ cutscenes convey their insecurities through their body language, expressions, camera work, and other visual tricks, like showing the screen distort during Claris’ ending. But there’s another boon: if you’re disinterested in or don’t understand NiGHTS’ deeper layers, Sonic Team never punishes you. The game’s admittedly obtuse, but you don’t need to ruminate on its symbolism or watch either introductory cinematic (which requires sitting idle on the title screen) to savor NiGHTS’ gameplay.
Remember how Chapter 18 of Kid Icarus: Uprising and Episode 12 of Elite Beat Agents start atypically? Yeah, they’re great, and the comfort zone-shattering Twin Seeds is NiGHTS’ equivalent. (Image: SEGA)
Twin Seeds, the final stage for Claris and Elliot, brings us into their perturbed emotional states through gameplay. You’ll start by making a beeline for the trapped NiGHTS like usual, ignoring the unnerving music. Then Wizeman suddenly intervenes, whisking you away. It’s startling! It’s also distressing, since Claris and Elliot are only capable of an unremarkable jump without NiGHTS; they’re vulnerable. Soon, you’ll land on a floating slab of concrete with nowhere to go except… down, off the platform. You might frantically look for something, anything that can help, but alas, it’s futile. The arrow guiding you echoes that message, pointing off the foothold—NiGHTS is beckoning you to take a leap of faith. So you do, and the kids elegantly rise to the occasion in an empowering moment we share with them.
To be clear, they literally rise to the occasion: Elliot and Claris soar across Twin Seeds à la NiGHTS (they lack her Paraloop attack, but the skies are devoid of enemies and items are drawn towards them). “Growing Wings,” an uplifting remix of NiGHTS’ theme, powers the stage: Twin Seeds is tough, but it’s also a victory lap for Elliot, Claris, and us. It proves we’re strong with or without the supernatural spirit. And that’s the relationship Claris and Elliot have with NiGHTS, a symbiotic one. Yes, her asking children for help is morally iffy, but NiGHTS needs them; she’s not busting out of Wizeman’s cages on her own.
Twin Seeds is where our heroes’ paths converge. Since its time limit is fairly strict, it took a few tries to get this far my first time through. (Image: SEGA)
There’s value in childrens’ media depicting characters who face real-world struggles. And there’s another realistic element in how NiGHTS into Dreams depicts anxiety: Claris briefly panics during her second audition. She overcomes it, but NiGHTS shows anxiety is a problem people can continue struggling with (Celeste also tackles this idea). But NiGHTS is idealistic, ending on a triumphant note: our human heroes overcome their hurdles (Elliot even befriends his former bullies), form an unbreakable bond, and NiGHTS, finally, is free.
While it’s impossible to know for sure given how little we concretely know about Selph, I’m inclined to agree with Iizuka: he seems unnecessary narratively. Tossing in a monster who presumably acts as an externalization or reflection of Claris and Elliot could have been interesting, but their Nightopias already reflect their souls and they have inspiring arcs as-is. And when, exactly, would this duel happen? After Wizeman’s wouldn’t work. Dr. Eggman closing Sonic 3 & Knuckles by taking one final, desperate crack at the Master Emerald satisfyingly concludes its story, just as eradicating the dark being who was invading our heroes’ subconsciouses already does for NiGHTS.
NiGHTS into Dreams has three endings, with the true one requiring some dedication to unlock. This is the title that introduced ranking systems to the Sonic Team canon, after all. (Image: SEGA)
Neither of NiGHTS into Dreams’ successors successfully channel Claris and Elliot. Journey of Dreams loses the original’s confidence and intimacy; Helen and William prattling on about their character development during stilted cutscenes kills any emotional and kinetic energy. And Balan’s clichéd “power of friendship” climax unwisely assumes investment in a threadbare cast I mostly associate with lousy levels and power-ups (unless you performed supplemental reading). Sure, Claris and Elliot aren’t deep, but their experimental, weird game did them justice—Sonic Team respected its audience’s intelligence and ability to empathize with two troubled teenagers and fleshed them out as much as the Saturn could allow.
And Elliot and Claris remain pure. Christmas NiGHTS is a welcome, if inessential, coda, while NiGHTS into Dreams endures as an imaginative score attack classic whose whimsical locals are grounded by two surprisingly relatable people. When I caught a glimpse of NiGHTS through Sonic Adventure, I was enthralled and figured I’d probably like the game. When I finally soared through it, I found an artistic achievement I’ll enjoy perennially.
Merry Christmas, Elliot and Claris! The stars above light the way only for you and I!
Unlike most of NiGHTS into Dreams’ cast, we know who voices Elliot: character designer Kazuyuki Hoshino. (Image: SEGA)
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