Creation and conception
Naoto Ohshima was the original
Nights creator and designer, while
Kazuyuki Hoshino was the character designer for the video game
Nights into Dreams.
[1] The character design incorporated Japanese, European, and American stylistics in order to give Nights as universal an appeal as possible.
[2] In the context of the games, Nights is a part of every human's subconscious, and so was purposely designed to be neither male nor female.[2] By the time of the sequel,
Nights: Journey of Dreams, Ohshima had left Sega, and Kazuyuki Hoshino was placed in charge of character design for the game.
[3] Takashi Iizuka, the lead game designer, felt that, with Hoshino, they captured the style used for the character in the original game.
[4]
Nights' personality is described by Iizuka as "a mirror of the child's personality."
[5] Nights' speaking role in
Journey of Dreams was performed by Julissa Aguirre, who gave the character a British-English accent to suit the style of the game.
In addition, Nights was made genderless, leaving the impression of the character "totally up to the player", according to Iizuka.[6]