Self: A Review of the Evidence
12/13/2021
Though I've been a NiGHTS fan for a few months now, I was never too interested in the lore behind Self, the game's most famous and enigmatic scrapped character (Due to evidence we have recently discovered, I will stick to referring to this character as Self rather than Selph in the interest of accuracy). I believed there was simply too little left of the character for us to possibly discover Self's true appearance and purpose in the game. However, with the discoveries that several talented dataminers have recently uncovered related to Self, I began to change my mind. Today, I decided to do some research on this character to gather all the facts, myths, and speculation I could find.
NiGHTS into Dreams' Internal Level Order
I don't have a concrete source for this first section, but in my research, I found that the first evidence of Self seems to have been discovered in an internal list of level and boss names for Saturn NiGHTS into Dreams. This list can be found in the 0NIGHTS file of the rom, and reads
P1:ALPS-WINDS
P2:SNOW-WAY
P3:WOODS-FOREST
P4:SEA-PARK
P5:RUBBER-PALACE
P6:MAGNETIC-MINE
P7:ELIOT'S-CITY
P8:SPIRAL-CLARIS
M1:FROGED-DRAGON
M2:MRS.FATTY
M3:FIRE-CAT'S
M4:THE-REALA
M5:MANTLE-MAN
M6:MONSTER-FISH
M7:SELPH
M8:WIZED-MAN
As the other boss names such as "Froged-Dragon" show, "Selph" was very likely a code name rather than the developers' intended name for the character. However, as it was the first version of Self's name to be discovered, this became the character's most popular name among fans.
Aside from Self's codename, the list reveals some interesting details about level order as well. Although NiGHTS into Dreams has no definite level order due to the ability to switch between Elliot and Claris' levels at any time, the order of the final game's levels is typically described as
1. Spring Valley
2. Splash Garden
3. Mystic Forest
4. Frozen Bell
5. Soft Museum
6. Stick Canyon
7. Twin Seeds
In the game's internal list, however, the original level order seems to have been
1. Spring Valley
2. Frozen Bell
3. Mystic Forest
4. Splash Garden
5. Soft Museum
6. Stick Canyon
7. Twin Seeds
8. "Spiral Claris"
Red: Level changed places
Green: Additional level
With Frozen Bell and Splash Garden interchanged and the addition of an 8th level, codenamed "Spiral Claris."
Interestingly, the two levels available for play in the E3 demo are Spring Valley and Frozen Bell, supporting the idea that Frozen Bell was intended to be Elliot's first level rather than Splash Garden. Also curious is that fact that Sonic Pinball Party for the Game Boy Advance features NiGHTS levels in which the Frozen Bell table plays Splash Garden's music and vice versa. Of course, this may be an unrelated oversight as Pinball Party was released in 2003, 7 years after NiGHTS into Dreams, but it does suggest that Pinball Party's developers may have taken a glance at this internal list.
What "Spiral Claris" would have been is almost as enigmatic as Self is, so I will leave that discussion for another day, but in short, Claris may have been intended to use a different final level than Elliot.
Looking at the boss order reveals some other oddities. Going by the level order listed above, the final game's boss order goes as follows:
1. Spring Valley Gillwing
2. Splash Garden Puffy
3. Mystic Forest Gulpo
4. Frozen Bell Clawz
5. Soft Museum Jackle
6. Stick Canyon Reala
7. Twin Seeds Wizeman
According To the internal boss and level list, however, the bosses would instead have been
1. Spring Valley Gillwing
2. Frozen Bell Puffy
3. Mystic Forest Clawz
4. Splash Garden Reala
5. Soft Museum Jackle
6. Stick Canyon Gulpo
7. Twin Seeds Self *
8. "Spiral Claris" Wizeman *
*Yuji Naka mentioned in an interview that Self was meant to be a secret boss, suggesting that Wizeman may have been intended as the boss of both Twin Seeds and "Spiral Claris."
Red: Level changed places
Green: Additional level or boss
Blue: Boss switched levels and changed places
Purple: Boss switched levels
Interestingly, Clawz and Gulpo seem to have switched from one visitor's levels to the other's. Not much of this original boss list seems to have made it into the final game or even the E3 beta, as the beta has Puffy as Spring Valley's boss and Gillwing as Frozen Bell's. However, when accessing Splash Garden from the hidden debug mode menu, it is possible to encounter Reala as the boss similarly to the boss order found in this file. As for Wizeman and Self's position in the list, not much is known about how these should be interpreted. It is uncertain whether it means Self was originally a specific level's boss or whether Elliot's and Claris' final levels were meant to have different bosses at all.
Interviews with Developers
After these internal names were discovered, some fans managed to get ahold of NiGHTS' developers to ask them about Self.
In 2007, Kevin Eva from Sega Europe attended an interview with Takashi Iizuka to ask him about the deleted character on behalf of NiD.com. A transcript of the interview can be found in this article, from which I copied the following section:
NiGHTSintoDreams.com: "The second biggest mystery of NiGHTS! What did the deleted boss Selph look like? Apparently there was a deleted boss from the original game called Selph."
Takashi Iizuka: "[LAUGHS] How do you know about Selph?"
NiGHTSintoDreams.com: "‘They’ know."
Takashi Iizuka: "[LAUGHS] They, who is they?"
NiGHTSintoDreams.com: "Fans."
Takashi Iizuka: "[LAUGHS] Ah, ok. Well the idea for the character existed, but he was never actually created."
According to the same article, Iizuka also discussed the matter with his translator before giving his answer, with their conversation reading as follows:
Translator to Iizuka- "What is it? Such a boss was in the plan of original NiGHTS?"
Takashi Iizuka to translator- "Yeah, it's true. I had thought I wanna add a boss called Selph to original NiGHTS."
Translator to Iizuka- "Well, is it ok if I tell it (in English)?"
Takashi Iizuka to translator- "OK. Maybe Naka had already told it before."
Translator to Iizuka- "Ah, so they know… But why was it deleted?"
Takashi Iizuka- "Because… The original story of NiGHTS already had been made perfectly. So I thought the boss isn't needed anymore. So I deleted Selph."
In addition to confirming that Self was indeed present in NiGHTS into Dreams at some point, Iizuka also states that Self was removed due to being unnecessary for the game's story. As the NiD wiki notes, fans speculate this means Self was originally significant in the game's narrative.
Later, in 2010, DiGi Valentine and TRiPPY conducted an interview with Yuji Naka in which they also asked about Self. The question and answer read as follows:
Nidcom: "It is now well known that there was an idea for a boss called Selph. What became of this boss, why did it not make it in to the final game and what did the boss look like?"
Yuji Naka: "Selph is one of the original types of Jung's theory. This idea was omitted since the production period was short on time. It was thought that it would be introduced as a concealed boss, as the one defined as 'Myself I could never be exceeded'. Visualization of this character was made to some degree."
Naka's answer reveals a few important things.
First, Naka shows that Self was based on a Jungian archetype like other characters in the game such as NiGHTS (shadow archetype) and Claris and Elliot (anima and animus), the latter of which Naka revealed in response to another interview question.
Second, he reveals that Self was cut due to time constraints, adding to what Takashi Iizuka had said about Self being cut for the story.
Third, Naka describes Self's role in the game as a "concealed boss," suggesting that Self may have been a secret boss rather than one encountered normally at the end of a stage. Still, the word "concealed" is somewhat ambiguous in meaning, so it is difficult to say how exactly Self would have been hidden or secret.
Finally, he states that "visualization of this character was made to some degree." This raises the possibility that remnants of Self's design could still exist in the game.
Audio Remnants
Despite the character's removal, a couple of seemingly Self-related audio tracks remain in the final game. The less certain of these is a short voice clip found in this thread which says something like "sora!." This has led to speculation that the sound clip belonged to Self. Still, there is no definite confirmation that it does. In my opinion, the voice sounds similar to Elliot's, though it is not exactly the same.
The other track is a theme titled "Know Thyself!," which is available for listening in the NiGHTS into Dreams Perfect Album as well as the game files themselves. The original Japanese NiGHTS into Dreams website features a page explaining the meanings of various song names. The entry for Know Thyself! explains that it is for "a boss that has not appeared in the game," proving that it was intended as Self's boss theme. The song strongly features the Dreams Dreams leitmotif, supporting the idea mentioned by Takashi Iizuka that Self once played a significant role in NiGHTS into Dreams' plot. Overall, the existence of this track proves that Self's boss fight got past the planning stage before it was scrapped.
Graphical Remnants
Along with these audio fragments, several unused graphics related to Self have also been discovered in NiGHTS into Dreams' game data. First, there is a set of 9 boss emblems in the file SELECT.bin that are used on the save select and on the score display at the end of a level. These are shown in order from top to bottom, left to right. One of these designs, however (middle row, right column) goes unused and features a design that matches no existing boss. Because of this, it is likely that the unused emblem represents Self. If so, this would be the only graphic yet discovered that shows Self's appearance.
Next is a set of names, also in SELECT.bin, which are written in a large light green font and show various boss names which are displayed on boss score screens. Among these is the name "Self," as well as "Reala returns," whose purpose is currently unknown. The fact that these show the characters' final names rather than the codenames found in the internal level list proves that the scrapped boss's name was indeed Self rather than Selph.
Another set of names can be found in NAME.bin, which are shown alongside some character artwork in the game's credits sequence. In the data, these names are sorted alphabetically with the exception of Nightopian and Crewle & Pole, which, judging by their position in the list, were likely intended to read "Pian" and "Pole" instead. Crewle alone is present earlier in the list. Once again, this list features the characters' final names, among which is Self. At the time of this writing, it is totally unknown whether Self has corresponding credits artwork or not.
One sprite that is not related to Self, on the other hand, is this pole-like graphic (top left) that was rumored for some time to be part of a "mirror staff" that would presumably be Self's weapon in battle. I have not been able to find a definitive source for this rumor, although it was formerly mentioned on the NiGHTS wiki and on a tumblr blog entry. Thanks to some sleuthing by KDD, we found that this graphic was in fact a distortion and misinterpretation of Wizeman's finger texture (bottom left), which can be seen on his hand model to the right.
Speculation: Unused Head Models
A more recent discovery is the presence of 8 unused models in the E3 beta that seem to depict the faces of two Nightmaren.
Let's begin with the facts: These heads come from the file PCOM.bin, which contains data for common level objects including the Ideya Palace, speed boosters, blue chips, star chips, and nightmaren enemies. The designs come in four color designs each, two with stripes similar to NiGHTS' or Reala's hat stripes and two without. When loaded in game, these appear to use a metallic effect. I have put together a mock up render below, though the mesh isn't totally accurate because it had been subdivided when @andreasscholl09 ripped it.
There also exist some early art renders of an object which is very similar to the heads in the top row. The first one of these appears in a piece of concept art for the game's cover, shown on the left. The second is a small logo reading "MORE NiGHTS," which is present on certain pages of NiD's official Japanese website. This one in particular bears a close resemblance to the head in the top row, second from the left.
It is also true that one of the artworks that can be found in the in-game gallery of Christmas NiGHTS and the remaster shows Reala and NiGHTS with similar, though not quite identical emblems to the above designs. Most notably, the hat design of the "MORE NiGHTS" symbol has just one point on the middle of its forehead, while Reala's design features two points.
Now for the speculation: What if the 8 head models shown above were in some way connected to Self? As they originate from PCOM.bin where other collectible items such as blue chips reside, it's plausible that they could, for instance, be scrapped secret collectible items that would somehow lead the player to the secret boss Self. This wouldn't be too out of line with Sonic Team's previous work, as almost all preceding Sonic games had bonus collectibles (i.e. Chaos Emeralds) that played a similar role. What if they even depicted Self's appearance (or in this case, appearances), explaining why they match neither NiGHTS' or Reala's design?
There is no confirmation either for or against this theory, so more information is needed before it will be possible to draw any conclusions about these models and Self.
Speculation: NiGHTS' Concept Art
Several pieces of official concept art exist for NiGHTS and other NiGHTS into Dreams characters.
The facts: Some concept art for NiGHTS and Reala in particular features radically different designs from those used in the final game. Some of these various designs can be seen below. Most notably, this includes designs that have hats with one point instead of two.
The speculation: The small boss emblem that is presumably Self's seems to depict a character's head facing left. From this angle, it appears to have just one point on its "hat." Perhaps whatever design Self was meant to have would have been inspired by these scrapped concepts for NiGHTS and Reala. Again, the validity of this theory is completely unknown at present, and will require further research.
Conclusion
This year has been an exciting time to be a NiGHTS fan. With more datamining discoveries being made every day, we have come closer than ever to solving the mystery of Self. Not only has the NiGHTS community found internal code references to Self, but developer interviews discussing the character and numerous audio and graphical remnants as well. In addition, there is now mysterious and exciting knowledge of unused objects in NiGHTS into Dreams, which although not quite the answer to our questions, at least provides great fuel for the imagination. Only time will tell if the fans discover Self's true appearance and purpose, but until then, it will be fun to dream of the possibilities.