The final boss, the helicopter Warhawk, has an unused character select portrait in the game files, clearly indicating that it was a considered addition during development. The nature of the vehicular game design was likely too incompatible with a flight-based character.
Interestingly, as with all characters in the game, the vehicle name is separate from the driver of said vehicle. While the helicopter is only known as Warhawk, the pilot is referred to as Black Razer, while in the final game, nothing is known about the identity of Warhawk's pilot.
In a 2001 interview with the game's designer Takatsuna Senba published in the CONTINUE magazine, when asked how long the game took to make, he stated that he was told to make the game in 3 months, but it ultimately took 6 months to make on top of having hardly any time to playtest and finetune the game. Senba thought it couldn't be helped, so when people pointed out to him various shortcomings about the game, he believed there was nothing he could say as he knew about them when the game was released. Despite this, he commented that there's more than one way to enjoy a game, and he believed its commercial value wasn't ruined by those flaws either.
According to former former Capcom artist Katsuya Akitomo, sometime around the late 90's/early 2000's, DC Comics approached Capcom to make a Justice League fighting game. Capcom asked for Mr. Akimoto's opinion and he rejected it. He rejected the idea for three reasons:
1. The power gap between DC characters was bigger compared to that of Marvel.
2. The 90's were a difficult time for the American comic book industry in general, DC in particular was "floundering" outside of the success of Batman.
3. Capcom's development process and the arcade business were in transition at the time, meaning that there were doubts as to whether investing in licensed games would have continued to be a smart investment. For instance, he cited how 2D games were becoming more and more expensive and how they were falling behind when it comes to 3D technologies.
According to former Capcom artist Katsuya Akitomo, the game's final boss Kingpin was originally so big he filled half the screen. This was shot down by Capcom who said that "he's a regular human, he can't be that big", and so he was made smaller.
When the game's general planner and visual designer Akira "Akiman" Nishitani told Katsuya Akitomo about this, he pointed out that there have been times where the Kingpin has been drawn as an incredibly large figure in the comics, citing examples such as 1986's Daredevil: Love & War. This bummed Akira Nishitani out.
According to former Capcom artist Katsuya Akitomo, Q-Bee's design is a ripoff of Chika, a character from Yoshitoh Asari's manga Space Family Carlvinson. Like Q-Bee, Chika was fully an insect, and only imitated humans through mimicry and by wearing a disguise. Katsuya Akimoto made the original character creppier and removed the original comedic parts.
In a 2001 interview with the game's character designer Tetsuya Nomura published in the V-Jump magazine, he stated that he used the same approach to making character designs from Final Fantasy VIII for this game. The first thing he did was draw just the character's face, and then he discusses with the team on how "realistic" the design should be. After that he'd asked about the backstories for each character and use that to figure out the details of their designs; for example asking if they were an athletic, sportsy type, or are they are a summoner type of character. Nomura also stated that a big consideration for the game was that the world has an "Asian" vibe to it, so he tried to be conscious of that style while at the same time making sure the main characters didn't look too familiar between each other. The team asked Nomura that he only made the main protagonist Tidus stand apart somewhat from the overall world, so Tidus' design is very distinct from the Asian aesthetic.
According to the game's producer Xavier Manzanares, the decision to have nine playable heroes was made so that each character would fit an archetype in terms of strategy and tactics in battle. This choice was made even before they knew what the game's roster of heroes was going to be.
In a 2016 Famitsu interview, Capcom's Kouichi Sugiyama confirmed that Sodom from Final Fight was considered as a potential playable character for Street Fighter V. However, this never happened in the game's lifespan because the developers didn't know how to introduce the character into the story.
Eventually Sodom made a background cameo in the 2019 Capcom Pro Tour DLC stage Ring of Justice.
In the 2012 Toaplan STG Chronicle interview (released as a bundle alongside the Toaplan STG Chronicle music collection), the game's composer Tatsuya Uemura confirmed that Zero Wing was originally just a test project for new hires and that it wasn't meant to be released commercially. Mr. Uemura stated:
"This title was created as a training project for our new hires. At that time we didn’t have any plans to release it commercially. But the decision to release it commercially made it a much more practical learning experience for the new developers, I think. On the other hand, the stage design and characters were rather cobbled together, so the world of the game was kind of a mess."
In the Japanese version's commentary with the game's composer Masaharu Iwata, he stated in the description for "Under the Stars" that he figures “‘I should write a normal song’, but when I do, oh my!” He also commented that the frequency range on the song’s instrumentation was “a little overstuffed”.
In "The Delicious Last Course" DLC, there is a puzzle on the map for Isle IV involving a trio of contest winners towards the back of the Isle and a set of 9 gravestones towards the front of the Isle. Completing this puzzle will unlockSpoiler:a secret boss fight that takes place in a dream world held up by the skeletal remains of the Devil (seen in claymation), where you fight angel and demon variants of the Devil on both sides of the stage. However, they each switch places back-and-forth every time you turn left or right, presumably due to Cuphead's interactions with the Devil in the main game preventing him from seeing an Angel. This boss fight was originally designed as a second phase for the Devil's fight in the main game, but ultimately went unused until the release of The Delicious Last Course. A primitive version of the phase can be found in the game’s data. This boss cannot be refought after beating it. Beating it will unlock the Cursed Relic as a charm as well as the achievement "A Horrible Night to Have a Curse", a reference to the text box seen during the day-to-night transition from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
In the Japanese version's commentary with the game's composer Masaharu Iwata, he stated that when his older brother Sakimoto heard the "Night Attack" theme, he said to Iwata that the theme sounded like it was done by a foreigner trying to write something that sounds "Japanese". Iwata took it as a harsh comment, but agreed with him, admitting that he was too influenced by playing a lot of Western games at the time. He really wanted the atmosphere to feel like a night raid, but the latter half of the song "sounds like all the soldiers are dancing around or something".
In January 1997 interview with Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima published in the Sega Magazine about their early days working for the company, he was told by an interviewer about the game (specifically talking about the original Japanese version based on Fist of the North Star) being a masterpiece on the Master System. He asked Naka if he was asked to make it? He responded:
"No, I didn’t. To tell the truth, Hokuto no Ken wasn’t really my thing. The reason why is really stupid, but in high school I had good friend who I had a falling out with, and this friend loved Hokuto no Ken… so after that experience, I just couldn’t get into it.
I joined Sega when I was 18, and before long they asked me to make Hokuto no Ken… I was like, "seriously?" But I did the programming all the same, and I also created the bosses and henchmen too. The planner gave me a rough outline of what kind of characters they were, and when I got really lost, I would read the relevant parts of the comic. “Oh, I see now… he’s like this.”
So I understand why people think I must love Hokuto no Ken, but that wasn’t the case."
Ohshima commented on Naka's response, that he had never heard that story before and it made him think "ah hah, so that’s why he wouldn’t let me do the musclemen type characters I’ve wanted to draw for so long."
In a 1999 commentary with the game's composer Koji Kondo published in the GSLA archive, he stated that when "Ocarina" became the game's title, he decided to try and build the music around one central ocarina melody. Given that the ocarina only has five notes to play, he tried to write the various background themes in different genres (bolero, serenade, etc.) where each one would evoke a "catchy, memorable 3-note ocarina melody". This was the motif around which he created various simple, but distinct melodies, and was very careful to make sure he didn't repeat himself. Kondo then commented:
"Game music is different from other genres in that it exists to make the game more enjoyable. In addition, there's a lot of interactive things you can do with game music, which I think is one of its defining traits. A very simple example would be the way the tempo increases when a time limit is running out."
Kondo also stated the Hyrule Field theme is the main central song, and that he wrote it so that each time you play it, the song structure unfolds in a slightly different way. He also stated that when Link stands still for a while, the song will change to a more relaxed melody, and when enemies come close, the song will get tenser. Since it is a very long game, he tried to think of ways to keep the players from getting bored, and how to make the music evolve with what's happening on-screen. He hoped to continue pursuing this idea for interactive music in future games.
In a 1995 interview with the SNK Sound Team published in Neo Geo Freak Magazine, composers Shimizm and Konny stated that the team wanted to change up the patterns and image of each song, as they had to compose a large number of songs for each game they worked on while also adding something new into the image of earlier versions of songs and also relating to what the game was trying to express. By doing this, they set up a distinct identity for each game, always searching to make things more "real":
Shimizm: "Basically, these are fighting games, and their core is a system of gameplay that I endeavor to match with my music. What is the game itself trying to express…? That's where I look for my themes. For sound effects too, for example, with punches, I try to make them as realistic as possible. I place a lot of importance on that."
In the Japanese version's commentary with the game's composer Masaharu Iwata, he stated that the "Decisive Battle" felt out of step with the game's historical period. He felt it was more like "a muscle-bound action hero wielding a gatling gun in one hand", instead of wielding sword and sorcery, and apologized if it sounded a little phoned in, adding "I'd do it differently now".
In the Japanese version's commentary with the game's composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, he joked that he wrote "Bloody Excrement" while he was thinking about the game's protagonist, Mr. Forest Bear, a "pleasant, heartwarming tale of Mr. Bear’s family adventure, that's really never explained", and that his original idea for the song was to make it feel like a pleasant, heartwarming story of Mr. Bear’s family adventure.
In the Japanese version's commentary with the game's composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, he stated that he'd tried to evoke "the feeling that you were fighting in the midst of mother nature all around you" for "A Chapel".
The final boss, the helicopter Warhawk, has an unused character select portrait in the game files, clearly indicating that it was a considered addition during development. The nature of the vehicular game design was likely too incompatible with a flight-based character.
According to former Capcom artist Katsuya Akitomo, Q-Bee's design is a ripoff of Chika, a character from Yoshitoh Asari's manga Space Family Carlvinson. Like Q-Bee, Chika was fully an insect, and only imitated humans through mimicry and by wearing a disguise. Katsuya Akimoto made the original character creppier and removed the original comedic parts.
In a 2016 Famitsu interview, Capcom's Kouichi Sugiyama confirmed that Sodom from Final Fight was considered as a potential playable character for Street Fighter V. However, this never happened in the game's lifespan because the developers didn't know how to introduce the character into the story.
