I worked in a games shop at the time… and this was Segas answer to Mario 64.
I remember the Saturn was already dying but people were playing Nights on the strength of the box artwork… which I had never seen before.
On the game itself, well you needed to give it a good 10 hours before you understood it. It wasn’t a pick up and play like Sonic and Mario… so did NOT do its intended job of selling the Segq console, however it was actually a masterpiece & I would say its concept / music and gameplay is more original than pretty much anything else Sega has ever made inc Sonic.