Written by @marek1shtar

Voice Cast:

@johnnygalaxy - Kyle

@girziggler - Narrator

Transcript:

This document is a Recorded Recount from a data miner attempting to find more information regarding the deleted boss character Self from the videogame “Nights into Dreams”. His experiences in the process of finding the character were wrought by seemingly paranormal occurrences which ultimately ended with him halting his attempts to document information regarding the character. His accounts about the phenomena involved with his attempt were to research at your own risk.

Hello... My name is Kyle and… I was trying to find Self. Well it’s a… Look, long story short Self or Selph with like a “ph” is a character that got deleted from a game right. There has been an over twenty year search for anything about him and I thought I could try to throw my hat in the ring. Basically… Over the years of the search very little has been found about him. Like the closest we had for the longest time turned out to be a stretched texture for a finger, anyway I wanted to help out. There is like a whole collection of data miners trying to find him. I wasn't affiliated with the group but I still thought I might as well try. If you can’t tell I’m a fan or was a fan I’m not sure about any of that anymore… So I got experience in data mining right. I mined out a few things from… Other games like stuff that was already found right but I still did it like for fun you know or at least to learn… After watching a couple of videos on YouTube about this I went on the search for an older build like older then the current ones that have been dug through. I don’t know if you could believe how many sites or auctions that I had to browse to find one let alone if anything existed but there it was. I… F-found the disk I ripped. in a lot of old games, and on disk emulators. It was blank except for that old DVD disc logo and Nights written in blue marker. It was apparently from… February 96 which was written near the center disk. I bought the whole lot from a… japanese auction site for a steal. And once I got the disk I got right to cracking it. It was actually kind of cool because I… actually found a few things that were just speculation. Claris’ Spiral was real in the build. It was almost exactly like… Twinseeds with a different background, it looked like the concert hall that, Claris sings in at the… ending right. Wizeman for Claris was even different. I found a hand animation where he… Kinda clasps two together in front of him and models of a small Gillwing and Clawz. I think he was meant to like shoot them in the fight or something?

Like this was awesome I think I found something no one else had, but the… real reason I wanted to rip this was to Find Self as I said. And I found something. I had to force access to the level but I found Files ... Playable ones. I could’ve pulled them out right there models, textures but it didn’t feel right. I wanted to play it for myself before I ripped everything. So I went searching, found an emulator and I got nothing. It wouldn’t load, I needed the… hardware and I tried to get the cheapest saturn I could find. It was a bit of a wait but it came and… I got right to it. Hooked it all up to the TV in my bedroom and as I said before, I modified the files and brute forced my way into the level. This just felt right… I don’t know why. A-anyway the.., setting of the level was like a starry night over a lake. The sky was… reflecting in the lake even Nights had a low poly reflection. They even had the music made for this… Know Thyself right, so I was anticipating this. The counter on the screen began to count down with no sign of Self or anything then after ten seconds passed there was a flash of light and he was there. He had this… intricate human-like design. Like It’s… hard to… d-describe but I… think it’s for the best… Its reflection was different. Inky black and like a blob it looked nothing like the boss model. The battle was interesting. You have to… paraloop Self then fly into him and throw him at his reflection which would damage him. He actually had like a lot of… Health from what I remember. B-before the game stopped I had run out most of the… t-timer. So eventually he just stopped reacting to the paraloops and just jittered in place. I… thought he was like, glitching out or something. That's when he just zoomed towards the camera and my Tv just freaked out. Like the screen went to static and the speakers sounded like they were dying. I saw… smoke coming from behind the TV and I went to pull the plugs, but they weren’t popping out of the outlet. I… Almost got shocked but after I put more force in they came right out and my house blacked out. I thought there was going to be a fire. I went down to check the… breaker and nothing came on. It was all shot and I had to call an electrician in the morning. After I went back upstairs nothing felt right. I kept getting… Chills and when I was in my bedroom I felt like I was being watched. My dog was even on edge. Staring at the… corners of rooms and electrical outlets. I thought it was the… Dark right. Try and sleep it off but I couldn’t even sleep well. I had waking Nightmares. I still felt like I was being watched and I… s-saw him again and again… It was like flashes. He was somewhere one second, then somewhere else another. I would keep waking up and like fall back asleep but even when my dreams were normal. They just became…

I saw a lot of things I’m not certain were true. Naoto Oshima the… director and artist for Nights. He was waking up in the dream and sketched out a… rough drawing of something that looked like Self. There was another he was… talking with someone and they went down to the development department and got to work. It felt off watching this… Eventually it changed and the two were with Yuji Naka and they were trying to cover this up. Hide files in the game, remove the Key art for Self and lock away a folder in an… old filing cabinet. I-I woke up again and thankfully it was morning and after I called to have my breaker looked at. I… Just I-I got this … Urge to go through the files again, rip the files for Self and show them to the internet. It… Didn’t feel right. Once my power came back and the electrician left I went back in and I… I just couldn’t do it… I didn’t want to. But the thoughts kept coming. I trashed the console. The Saturn’s plug had been burned out by the event and the internals were fried… The TV had to go too. The guy said I was lucky my house didn’t burn down. I deleted all of the files I ripped, even the Spiral and alternate Wizeman Boss. I… Didn’t want to risk anything. I stored the Disk in the jewel case it came in, put it in a strongbox and locked it in a safe. I just want to put this all behind me but it’s just strange how I keep trying to go back. I still get urges to go and… and just try and find more about it. Release the data. But I'm not going to. I’m stronger than what Self thinks. I’m getting this off my chest. Research Self at your own risk, don’t if you know what’s better for you. I can’t keep the thoughts of him out. He wants to be found. I don't know what will happen if he is.

After the interview was concluded. In the weeks to follow the subject Kyle had reported only minor attempts to go back into researching the Character Self. He would browse wiki’s and forums in the event he would find more information regarding the character or individuals with similar experiences to him. It should be noted that he is still mentally stable enough to live on his own, and that the beta build he had ripped is still in his possession. He has stated plans to hide it away somewhere else in the instance he has an urge to rip the files again. Once again as per the subjects warning Research at your own risk.