“ | In a dream I could see you are not far away... | „ |
~ Claris, NiGHTS Archie Comics. |
Claris Sinclair (クラリス・シンクレア Kurarisu Shinkurea) is one of the two deuteragonists in NiGHTS into Dreams. She is a young teenager from Twin Seeds whose favorite hobby is singing. She is one of the two Visitors that possesses the Red Ideya of Courage.
Character Information[]
Physical Appearance[]
Claris has fair skin, pink hair that is tied into a ponytail and pink eyes. She generally wears a orange t-shirt with pink trim, red shorts and orange shoes with red soles and pink trim around the top of the shoes.
Personality[]
Very little of Claris's personality is shown in the games. However, her Japanese bio states that Claris is creative[1] and being a singer is a dream she has since her childhood.[1] However, she is very shy.[1] Her English bio also states that Claris believes the Judges will laugh at her voice during the performance,[1] which means that Claris is very insecure and may be paranoid.
Abilities[]
Jumping
Claris is capable of doing a jump which stuns the Alarm Egg.
Flight
In the Twin Seeds level, Claris learns how to fly.
Drill Dash
In the Twin Seeds level, Claris also learns how to Drill Dash.
History[]
NiGHTS into Dreams[]
Story
Claris comes from a family of artists and she wants to prove them she inherited their talents. Claris wants to audition for the headlining musical for the Twin Seeds centennial commemoration celebrations, but she is feeling very insecure about it as she heard a voice inside, saying everybody is going to laugh at her.
That night, Claris had a dream where she was in the audition, when the judges started laughing at her and turned into monsters. Frightened, Claris runs from the stage trying to find an escape from her tormentors until she reaches a light at the end of a tunnel. According to the game's manual, a Nightopian meets up with Claris and begs her to help saving the dream world[2] (that's is never shown on-screen though), the Nightopian introduces NiGHTS to Claris and together they head off on a journey to stop Wizeman the Wicked.
Gameplay
The player can select Claris and play her story before Elliot, Claris' levels are considered to be easier than Elliot's and it's recommended for newcomers to chose her first to gain experience.
After selecting one of Claris' dreams, Spring Valley, Mystic Forest or Soft Museum, she'll fall into that selected world. Upon arriving, she'll be attacked by Nightmaren minions who'll take all her Ideya away except the Red Ideya of Courage. The player shall process further in the game by using the Red Ideya to merge with NiGHTS and complete the level.
The player also has the option to complete the level without NiGHTS at all. This opens up possible level exploring that is otherwise not reachable when playing as NiGHTS, such as special chips platforms in Mystic Forest or the bouncy ground in Soft Museum. However, the player should take note that an Alarm Egg will be sent out after Claris and if it catches her, it will cause a game over.
Twin Seeds
In Claris' last dream, she falls down onto a cloud that floats around the Twin Seeds Tower. NiGHTS can be seen flailing for attention but if the player tries to help NiGHTS, Wizeman will send a powerful wave, sending Claris flying off into the sky. She'll land onto a broken floating piece of asphalt and from here she jumps off the side into the city lights below. Claris overcomes her fears and shoots back up with her red Ideya following her, enabling her to rescue NiGHTS. The only difference is that there is no Alarm Egg and if the player runs out of time before collecting Claris' Ideya and freeing NiGHTS, then it is instant Night Over.
Once Claris recovers her four lost Ideyas, she will try to rescue NiGHTS, who is imprisoned at the top of the Twin Seeds tower. However, an invisible force shield will prevent her from doing this. At this moment, Elliot will appear and together, the visitors are capable of saving NiGHTS. As the trio is reunited, NiGHTS, Elliot and Claris, merge together into two NiGHTS and fight against Wizeman. After defeating their creator, NiGHTS mysteriously disappears, leaving Elliot and Claris alone in the dream worlds.
Ending
After waking up, Claris goes to the audition. She spies from the curtains the judges who are all disappointed with all of the candidates so far. When it's Claris's turn, she finds the courage within herself to sing, impressing all of the judges with her beautiful voice.
Secret Ending
In the secret ending, an extra cutscene plays after the Wizeman's boss battle. The cutscene shows Claris waking up in Spring Valley, with Elliot disappearing right in front of her. Claris looks around and notices Nightopians coming to her. Claris smiles and starts playing with the Nightopians for a while.
The normal ending cutscene will then replay, showing Claris waking up and impressing the judges with her voice at the auditions. Then, an extra cutscene will play, showing what happened after this scene. As Claris won the audition, she went to sing at the Twin Seeds centennial commemoration celebrations. Meanwhile, Elliot is walking downtown where the 100th anniversary of Twin Seeds was being held. Elliot watches the parade for a moment before walking up to the famous Twin Seeds tower. The sun bounces off a sign for a musical being help and the glare catches Elliot's eye and for a moment he could have sworn he saw NiGHTS' face. He takes it as a sign and decides to take a peek at the Musical taking place inside. Immediately, Elliot recognizes their star singer, Claris Sinclair, from his dreams. Her eyes meet his and the game ends with Elliot and Claris being inexplicably transported back to Spring Valley.
After the credits, Claris is shown at her home, where she is about to sleep. At her windown, it is possible to see a familiar purple figure posing on the spire of the city's famous building.
Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams[]
Claris and Elliot were walking around Twin Seeds during christmas, wondering why the people in the crowd look so rushed, when they noticed that the star from the Twin Seeds christmas tree is missing. This leads them to go into a quest to find the missing star.
Gameplay
Spring Valley returns from NiGHTS into Dreams as Claris' only level in the game. The path and items and enemies placement remains unchanged. The only difference is that in this game, Spring Valley has christmas decorations. Once Claris arrives into the Nightopia, she'll be attacked by Nightmaren minions, who'll take all her Ideya away except the Red Ideya of Courage. The player shall process further in the game by using the Red Ideya to merge with NiGHTS and recover all of the Ideyas. Once the player beats the level, it will be revealed that Gillwing is with the missing star and the player will need to defeat him in order to recover it.
Ending
Claris and Elliot, with the help of NiGHTS, recover the missing star, but they soon discover that the whole story was just a dream and wake up, not understanding what was that star. In the waking world, Claris and Elliot prefer to not talk about the dream, but they do know something amazing is bound to happen.
The next day, Claris and Elliot meet each other in town. However, Elliot slipped on some ice and bumped into Claris. The crowd watches this as Elliot helps Claris up and laughs. The game later ends with Claris and Elliot looking at the gigantic christmas tree in the middle of the city.
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams[]
In NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, one of Helen's friends looks similar to Claris.
Claris also appears as an unlockable skin for Helen.[3] To unlock her, the player shall collect all 60 dream drops. However, this does not change the cutscenes.
Other Media Appearances[]
NiGHTS Flying Through the Sky Without Wings[]
Claris makes a cameo in the last page.
NiGHTS Archie Comics[]
Claris starred in the NiGHTS Archie Comics series where her story in the first three issue is identical to her story in the game. In the first Issue, Elliot and Claris are the perfect dreamers of the century. Claris was practicing her singing at her school and her song attracted Elliot, who climbed the wall and started observing her through a window. Claris notices him and got distracted, making her tutor Madame Puffilla really angry. Later that night, Claris is having nightmares where Madame Puffilla appears in her dream and transforms into Puffy. NiGHTS arrives to help her after hearing her cry for help and together, they defeat Puffy.
In the second issue, Claris watches Reala talking through Roger's body about the dreamworld and later goes talk with him during her lunch time at the Twin Seeds Museum. As she was about to talk, she felt disgusted over a fish on her meal that looks identical to Gulpo and Reala takes self note of that. Later during a food fight, a Shleep appears at the museum and puts Claris to sleep by spraying a yellow dust on her face. In the dream world, Claris falls into an aquarium where she is attacked by Gulpo. NiGHTS goes to assist her but as they need to help Elliot fighting Jackle, NiGHTS leaves Claris with a message in the aquarium's glass, telling her to sing. When she does that, the aquarium's glass breaks and Gulpo is defeated as there's no more water for him to swim in. Claris later meets up with Wizeman, who promises her biggest dreams will come true but in exchange, she needs to gives him her red ideya. Claris accepts the deal and later wakes up with Roger giving her an invitation to sing in the productions of Twin Seeds.
In the third issue, as Claris gave Wizeman her red ideya, she now has very little interest in her dreams and made a very souless performance during the audition. When she left, the ground around her started breaking and a piece of it carried her up. That is when Napp appears and gives her red ideya back, bringing back her dreams and will, Claris jumps from the floating rock and starts flying by herself. She meets up with Elliot and together, they release NiGHTS and defeat Wizeman once and for all. After the fight, NiGHTS becomes drained of its energy and almost dies. According to Snuze, the only way to save NiGHTS is if Elliot and Claris' dreams come true. As Claris wakes up, she goes back to the audition and surprises the judges, who invite her to sing at the Twin Seeds centennial commemoration celebrations. Claris was still singing in the audition when Elliot, who was at the Twin Seeds Centennial Parade, hears her voice coming from tower and starts following it. Elliot enters the tower and finds out it's Claris, they befriend each other and their energy revives NiGHTS.
In the fourth Issue, NiGHTS comes to the waking world and both Elliot and Claris start receiving visions of it. Claris receives a vision of NiGHTS running down centre street afraid of people while she was at school and decides to go help them. She meets up with Elliot and they start looking for NiGHTS in a parade, when they are caught by a policeman called Officer Oswald for skipping out school. As they are in the car, Elliot and Claris find Roger along with NiGHTS, who's slowly fading away.
In the fifth issue, Elliot and Claris escape from the police headquarters and receive a vision showing NiGHTS exhausted, laying on the ground inside Roger's house. When they arrive at Roger's house, they meet up with Napp and Snuze, who make Roger fall asleep so they can go inside.
In the sixth issue, Elliot and Claris find NiGHTS nearly fading away and they must bring NiGHTS to the Twin Seeds tower, where there's a portal to Nightopia. When they arrive at the tower, NiGHTS tries to reach the portal by themself, but a sudden explosion at the tower combines with the energy of the ruby on NiGHTS chest and opens a portal from which Reala uses to enter the real world. NiGHTS and Reala begin fighting, meanwhile Roger meets up with Elliot and Claris who are watching the fight. At that moment they convince Roger to stop giving Reala his dream energy. With that, NiGHTS manages to escape from Reala and return to Nightopia. Afterwards Elliot, Claris and Roger make one last appearance running away from Officer Oswald who tries to capture them while they were distracted.
Spin-Off Appearances[]
NiGHTS into Dreams (LCD)[]
Claris appears in the LCD adaptation of NiGHTS into Dreams, as a playable character. Just like in NiGHTS into Dreams, the visitor is capable of freeing NiGHTS from their prison for a limited time by dualizing with them.
Other Appearances[]
- Game Gag 1P Comic Sega-hen: Claris is one of the many NiGHTS characters to make a small appearance in the manga.
- Burning Rangers: Claris appeared in Burning Rangers, along with Elliot, as a special side quest.[4][5]
- Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure DX: Claris made a cameo as a card in the NiGHTS thematic pinball table from Casinopolis.
- Sonic Pinball Party: Claris first makes a brief appearance during the game's opening cutscene, being one of the many characters to come out of the present box. Later, Claris makes a cameo in both the Mystic Forest and Twin Seeds tables.
Claris, like Elliot, Will and Helen, was also considered to make an appearance as a racer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, where she'd drive NiGHTS shapeshifted as the car. [6] However, a Nightopian was selected to be the driver over her and the other visitors. Additionally, a NiGHTS sticker set, which included a Claris' sticker, was made for the game, but it was not used in the final game.[7]
References[]
- Sega Superstars: Claris' name appears on the score board of the NiGHTS into Dreams thematic mini game. She appears in third place.
- Sonic Runners: Claris is indirectly mentioned in the NiGHTS' notification, being addressed by the name "Brave young girl". [8]
- Sega EARTH UFO CATCHER: Claris is indirectly mentioned in the NiGHTS character profile, being addressed by the name "Young girl".
Descriptions and Profiles[]
"A 15-year old girl who lives in the suburb of Twin Seeds city. Since Claris was born and grew up in an artist's home, being creatively gifted was something expected of her. Continuously looking up at her dream of standing on a stage in a musical, it has always been her childhood ambition. However, Claris always stood in the shadows of other spoiled children, far too shy to prove herself on stage. Although one day her big chance to fulfill her dream became more than a dream..."[1]
"Today is Claris' chance to show her family she has stage talent. The stage light flares on, and her heart starts racing. The directors are out there, watching. Claris approaches the microphone, but something's not right. A small voice inside tells her that everyone will laugh. A few seconds pass, and the voice grows louder. No longer able to bear it, Claris runs off the stage."[1]
Gallery[]
Click here to view gallery for Claris Sinclair.
Trivia[]
- In Japan, Claris is listed as 15 years old. However in all other regions of the world, she is listed as 14 years old. The reason for the difference is unknown.
- Takashi Iizuka revealed in an interview that Elliot was originally going to be the only main character in NiGHTS into Dreams. [9]They eventually decided to create Claris to make the game more fun for female players. It was also because they wanted to represent both men and women dreams.
- Fans have noticed that the character Ulala, the main protagonist from the Space Channel 5 series, is similar to Claris both design and concept wise; they both have pink hair, wear orange clothes and they both are releated to music and sing. Space Channel 5 was released three years after NiGHTS into Dreams and is also owned by Sega, however, it is unknown if Claris was an inspiration for Ulala's design.
- Additionally, one of Claris concept arts reveals that she was originally going to wear an orange skirt, making her look even more similar to Ulala. [10]
- Out of the four main visitors, Claris is the one who differs the most.
- Claris is the only visitor who doesn't appear with two friends of the same gender in her opening and/or ending cutscene.
- However, she does have two friends called Tessa and Kelly in the Archie Comics. She also befriends Roger Wilkeah there. Curiously, her friends are the only ones who were named.
- Claris is the only visitor who doesn't have blue eyes.
- Claris never met Reala, at least, not in the game's canon.
- Her name is the only one that might be a play word, being a play word of the name "Clarice".
- Claris is the only visitor who doesn't appear with two friends of the same gender in her opening and/or ending cutscene.
- In Burning Rangers, the NiGHTS into Dreams theme "Sowing Seeds" will play when the player checks Claris's second e-mail.[11]
- Claris is one of the nine NiGHTS characters who has appeared in every NiGHTS game, the others are NiGHTS, Reala, Wizeman, Nightopians, Elliot, Mepians, the King Pian and Shleeps.
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 http://www.nightsintodreams.com/?p=360
- ↑ NiGHTS into Dreams Manual
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD3EAq4nazQ
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKvZJXbwuxw&t=1243s
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra409U0kgI0
- ↑ http://www.nightsintodreams.com/?p=1837
- ↑ https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DhSpzvlXUAIhcyO.jpg
- ↑ http://www.nightsintodreams.com/wp-content/gallery/sonic-runners/screenshot_2015-12-18-20-39-01.png
- ↑ http://shmuplations.com/nights/
- ↑ Claris's artwork
- ↑ https://youtu.be/tKvZJXbwuxw?t=2932