In an interview with the game's designer and writer Yuji Horii published in the 1987 GSLA, he discussed the memory limitations that his team faced during the development of the Famicom version of Dragon Quest II, leading them to remove some elements from the final game, including:
• Large, kamishibai-esque pictures meant for cutscenes. Horii noted that one of these images was quietly preserved in the story section of the Dragon Quest II instruction manual, appearing in black and white instead of color. • An expanded scenario involving a full-size image of Rhone’s landscape, visible from the top of a lighthouse. This image would have featured a single sparkling point of light in the sea, marking the location of the sunken treasure required to get the Echo Flute. However, due to memory constraints, the image had to be cut, and the scenario was subsequently changed. • A more humorous idea they had to abandon was the "Abunai Mizugi" (Scandalous Swimsuit). This piece of armor, intended to be as strong as the Mink Coat and extremely expensive, would have caused the Princess of Moonbrooke's character sprite to change to reflect her wearing it. While it was cut from the Famicom version of the game, it was included as equippable armor for the Princess in the MSX version. It was slightly modified from the original idea, where every enemy has a 1/8th chance to be stunned by her beauty while she wears it.
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After getting Whisper's Love, a Rumrom called the Haunted Stone can be found in the Haunted House cellar. Its description refers to flying the Rocket to the Moon, but it's engraved with pictures of four arches leading up towards the Dragon. This depicts a cut area called "Dragon's Tail" that would have been used in a dream sequence triggered by Florence in the middle of the game, and revisited in a cut ending by reflecting two mirrors at a gate to create a tunnel to it. The area can be accessed through the debug menu, and was not removed before release as the developers never expected players to find it. They considered adding it to the 2019 re-release in either a reworked form or as a DLC ending, but decided against it.
Designer Yoshiro Kimura and artist Kazuyuki Kurashima envisioned it as a purgatory where souls from real life and the game world meet before going to Heaven or Hell. It was inspired by books Kimura read that made him feel there were "other layers to humanity than what we normally experience in reality", as well as a one-man stage play he put on while working at Squaresoft called "Mononoke", about a bullied boy who enters a similar purgatory. Dragon's Tail was cut when Kimura designed the Monster Catch system and thought the ideas that came from it were more interesting and fitting with the game's themes, and because he found the area too similar to a chapter from the Osamu Tezuka manga "Phoenix". He recalled this as a stressful change as all the assets for the new ending had to be built out of clay and then imported into the game.
Dragon's Tail adds more backstory to a minor item in the final game called the White-Feathered Arrow. By interacting with Bilby, the Minister, and two papers in his bedroom, it's learned that this item Spoiler:was shot in the air as a ritual to randomly select a citizen to seal inside the cursed armor of the Hero and slay the Dragon. That person will endlessly chase and fight monsters until they die of old age. Since the game parodies contemporary RPGs like Dragon Quest, it's theorized that the White-Feathered Arrow is based on the cursor used to name player characters in that series. In the dream sequence, the Boy finds a crying naked boy who will follow him through the arches into a house at the end of the area. Inside is Spoiler:Gramby, where it's revealed that the naked boy is not only Gramby's presumed dead grandson, but also the Hero chosen by the White-Feathered Arrow who is destined to atone for killing monsters by healing them all. A long line of monsters and people from across history forms outside; talking to Florence and Tao at the end of the line will end the dream. In unused cutscenes and the cut ending, Spoiler:the naked boy evolves into the Dragon as he heals more monsters, and is eventually killed by the Hero, who he acknowledges is himself.
The E3 2007 build of the Xbox 360 release revealed that the home console versions were originally meant to have cutscenes fully animated in 3D. A workprint containing these cutscenes shows a mix of finished and unfinished 3D renders and storyboards with placeholder voice acting, with the final game having cutscenes primarily animated in the same 2D digital animation as the show. The Nintendo DS version of the game is the only version that exclusively uses 3D cutscenes.
This build also reveals that the identity of the "sleazy video game producer" featured in Level 5: Mob Rules is Larry Probst, the former CEO of Electronic Arts from 1991-2007 whose name was censored from the script in the final game.
Before settling on Pac-Man's family, the friends Pac-Man rescued in Pac-Man World were going to be characters from other 1980s Namco games:
• Dig Dug (also known as Taizo Hori) from Dig Dug, who Chomp-Chomp took the place of. A remnant of this choice can be seen in the opening cutscene where Chomp-Chomp is kidnapped by being dragged underground, where Dig Dug's gameplay takes place. • Valkyrie and Whirlo from the Valkyrie series, who were replaced with Pac-Baby and Pooka. There is also a thematic remnant of this choice in Pac-Baby and Pooka's kidnapping, where they are anchored into the sky, as Valkyrie lives in the heavens. • Mappy from Mappy, who was replaced by Jr. Pac-Man.
Gil from The Tower of Druaga and Miru from Pac & Pal were also intended to appear, while Professor Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man were part of the original concept and remained.
It was ultimately decided to focus on Pac-Man characters instead of crossover characters, but when it was discovered that there weren't enough "pac-people" to make rescuable for each world, Pooka from Dig Dug was added to fill out the cast, being the same spherical shape as Pac-Man's family and a favorite of the development team. It is unknown why Miru, who was already a Pac-Man character, went unused.
There is an unused death cutscene in the files of Bubsy 3D of Bubsy falling through a floor. This may have been an animation for falling through pits, or suggest that fall-damage was at one point going to return as a mechanic from Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind.
An unused cutscene in the game has the character Stumbler O'Hare openly mock Harley Mullins (the wife of Mark Mullins) and her situation. This was scrapped both for being "WAY too on the nose", and because Stumbler's personality was altered during development. The cutscene would be replaced with a YouTube video titled "How to say Goodbye", in which Stumbler, despite knowing about Mark's crimes, tries to help him grieve over the loss of Harley. Despite the cutscene's removal, Stumbler's statue in The Dam still has him wearing a nurse's cap like in the cutscene.
The game's files cointains data of multiple unused alternate endings for various characters such as Maya and Jago. These endings weren't properly implemented due to time constraints.
The prototype for Virtual Bart shows an ending screen at the end of the credits instead of just the player's score. It is a crudely written "THE END" in cursive with the nonsensical text "You are a true Bart Simpson" alongside the score. The "You are a true Bart Simpson" text is in the final game's code.
In a prototype for Virtual Bart, an early version of the cutscene that plays before the tomato-throwing minigame can be seen. This cutscene shows Bart with a devious smirk, which was likely redrawn for going against Simpsons style guide rules against "demonic expressions"
Found within the game's data is an unused room depicting a modern-day bedroom, suggesting that there was supposed to be a cutscene showing the player before getting transported to the past.
Found within the E3 2002 kiosk version of Star Fox Adventures is an unused cutscene of Fox talking with Tricky, Peppy and Slippy after placing presumably the final SpellStone. Various unused SFA voice clips sync up perfectly with this sequence, revealing the dialogue exchange to be:
Tricky: You did it, Fox! You saved Dinosaur Planet! Fox: Don't get too excited, Tricky. We haven't delt with General Scales yet. Slippy: Fox, Fox! Where are you going? You've completed the mission so let's go home! Peppy: He's right, Fox. We don't need the extra bonus. I can finally retire with what we got. Fox: It's not the bonus or even General Scales that I'm worried about... Peppy and Tricky: Krystal! Peppy: Ha! It's always the girls that get him! Fox: Look guys, I promised I saved her. You wouldn't want her to die, would you? So I'm going to the Walled City, to find the final Krazoa spirit!
This presents bit of a different story from what is presented in the final game. In the retail release, it's discovered that returning all of the SpellStones to the Force Point Temples does not single handily restore Dinosaur Planet to its original state, and that Fox also needs to return all of the Krazoa spirits to Krazoa Palace to fully stabilize the planet, in addition to freeing Krystal from Krazoa Palace.
Here, it does seem returning the SpellStones restores the planet, and collecting the Krazoa spirits is for a separate task, that being merely freeing Krystal.
According to an Electronic Gaming Monthly preview article, Cool Spot was originally a Reversi clone like Spot: The Video Game, titled Spot II - the graphics used in Cool Spot seem to have been reused from cutscenes in the cancelled game.
Sunsoft's NES Batman originally had cutscenes using the comic book iteration of Batman, but these had to be scrapped and replaced with digitized renditions of Micheal Keaton's live-action Batman as the game's artist was not aware that the Batman comics and movies were separate licenses. The Joker, however, was always depicted as Jack Nicholson's portrayal, even in prototypes using the comic version of Batman.
Adding "FryFox=BurnBabyBurn" to the game's configuration file will unlock a special in-joke cutscene. By clicking the electric chair in Napoleon's lab, Spy Fox will be sit down and be electrocuted into a pile of dust, before respawning through a tribute to the death animations in Dragon's Lair.
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If you click on the toilet in the Executive Washroom while holding left, right, and up, a joke cutscene will play showing Sam taking off his cape and defecating in the toilet. After he finishes, he briefly wipes up using his cape before putting it back on. This cutscene was added by animator Giancarlo Volpe to apparently blow off steam.
When Sonic Classic Collection was rated by the British Board of Film Classification, they rated three pieces of content not present in the final game: •A trailer for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood •A "history of Sonic" documentary video •An unknown item titled "GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE", which was most likely a video. However, all other non-interactive elements in the game such as the credits and aforementioned videos have a runtime, which GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE does not.
Patrick's Super move was originally going to feature a unique squashed model for each character. These were ultimately scrapped for unknown reasons, with Patrick simply slamming down his rock on the opponent without any transformations or unique animations attached.
Inside the code of Cheggers' Party Quiz and Alan Hansen's Sports Challenge, there are two unused test videos, unusually taken from the 2006 direct-to-DVD movie Bratz: Passion 4 Fashion Diamondz.
In an interview with the game's designer and writer Yuji Horii published in the 1987 GSLA, he discussed the memory limitations that his team faced during the development of the Famicom version of Dragon Quest II, leading them to remove some elements from the final game, including:
The prototype for Virtual Bart shows an ending screen at the end of the credits instead of just the player's score. It is a crudely written "THE END" in cursive with the nonsensical text "You are a true Bart Simpson" alongside the score. The "You are a true Bart Simpson" text is in the final game's code.
In a prototype for Virtual Bart, an early version of the cutscene that plays before the tomato-throwing minigame can be seen. This cutscene shows Bart with a devious smirk, which was likely redrawn for going against Simpsons style guide rules against "demonic expressions"
Found within the game's data is an unused room depicting a modern-day bedroom, suggesting that there was supposed to be a cutscene showing the player before getting transported to the past.
Star Wars: Monopoly contains a set of two unused lyric music videos, which are both in-jokes welcoming new employees to Artech Studios.
Found within the E3 2002 kiosk version of Star Fox Adventures is an unused cutscene of Fox talking with Tricky, Peppy and Slippy after placing presumably the final SpellStone. Various unused SFA voice clips sync up perfectly with this sequence, revealing the dialogue exchange to be:
Maria’s card in Sonic Rivals uses an image from a deleted scene in Shadow the Hedgehog where her death is shown in more detail.
According to an Electronic Gaming Monthly preview article, Cool Spot was originally a Reversi clone like Spot: The Video Game, titled Spot II - the graphics used in Cool Spot seem to have been reused from cutscenes in the cancelled game.
Sunsoft's NES Batman originally had cutscenes using the comic book iteration of Batman, but these had to be scrapped and replaced with digitized renditions of Micheal Keaton's live-action Batman as the game's artist was not aware that the Batman comics and movies were separate licenses. The Joker, however, was always depicted as Jack Nicholson's portrayal, even in prototypes using the comic version of Batman.
Adding "FryFox=BurnBabyBurn" to the game's configuration file will unlock a special in-joke cutscene. By clicking the electric chair in Napoleon's lab, Spy Fox will be sit down and be electrocuted into a pile of dust, before respawning through a tribute to the death animations in Dragon's Lair.
Patrick's Super move was originally going to feature a unique squashed model for each character. These were ultimately scrapped for unknown reasons, with Patrick simply slamming down his rock on the opponent without any transformations or unique animations attached.
