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[Oni Jazar]

Ultima 9 had an awsome day/night cycle. Both moons even had their own lunar cycles which you could see each night. One of the few things that the game did really well.

 

[borghe]

I place another vote for Ultima 7....

For the record, Ultima 7 in retrospect is one of the greatest games ever made.. talk about being ahead of its time... Fully realized world, very broad range of open endedness to your actions, epic story, etc. A straight up graphical overhaul of all of Ultima 7 (both parts and both expansions) I feel would sell like gangbusters today, considering most of the target demographic (18-25) was only 6-13 when the game first came out....

 

[Razoric]

I personally like the idea of World of Warcraft's 24 cycle. I know there is a lot of controversy behind it but I think the effect over time would/will be awesome.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

Brave Fencer Musashi. You actually had to sleep, otherwise your character would be sluggish and ineffective. Plus, you could speed up time any time you wanted. The game was brilliant for that since you didn't have to always wait to talk to a person in town who was only home during a certain hour. Plus, the night theme in Grillin' Village was beautiful.

I agree!

And Dark Cloud 2!

 

[gblues]

If we're talking about best day -> night transitions, I think it's a tie between Morrowind on the PC and Shenmue/Shenmue 2 on DC/Xbox. Absolutely gorgeous transitions (and I like how you get a little mini-cutscene in Shenmue when the streetlights come on).

Now if we're talking about best use of day/night cycles in gameplay...

Dragon Warrior 3 was one of the first console RPGs to implement a day/night cycle. Not only do you get new dialog in the towns, but harder monsters show up in the middle of the night to encourage you to sleep.

Shenmue loses the "use of day/night cycles" contest because it doesn't specifically use night cycles in the gameplay--the game forces you to retire at a certain time, but everything else is clock-driven. It's not specific to nighttime.

Most games, I think, just use day/night cycles to enhance the realism. Few games actually make night-dependent gameplay.

Nathan

 

[Deku Tree]

I don't know whether or not it was the best.
But I really loved the day night cycle on the seas of wind waker.

 

[jcjimher]

Shenmue I without a doubt, but not the sequel. In Shenmue II the transition was not as smooth, because the lighting was much different at 18:59 than at 19:01, they cheated changing the envirnoment too much after the cutscene.

And, gameplay and environment-wise, there was not that much of a difference between night and day in Shenmue II, as most (if not all) of the stores remained open until 22:00, and the people wandering the streets was about the same. Nothing compared to the empty streets of Yokosuka in the first game, only populated by workers going home, and drunken guys in the bars zone (a zone that incidentally was quite and depressing during the day).

 

[ElyrionX]

Nobody mentioned Baldur's Gate 2: The Shadows of Amn?

 

[ge-man]

I definately like the way the cylce is tied to gameplay in the 3D Zelda's, with more Majora's being the most fleshed out. WW had the moon phase, but lack the realtime change on islands. I hope the best of the recent Zelda's comes together in the new one--the new lighting should make the changes look spectacular.

Shenmue definately deserves a nod for it's changes. I'm also going to pick up the Tribunal expansion for Morrowind and try out those lighting mods tonight.

One game I haven't seen mentioned yet is the new Harvest Moon. The lighting changes work very well because of the shadow implementation. The shadows are almost too good for a game that has such a simple art design.

 

[XS+]

The transition in Shenmue I wasn't great, I could literally set my watch to when the lighting was going to change. I'm not impressed with Shenmue's night and day system and I would say the system in both Shenmue games are overrated, except I can't come up with a game that does it better.