Deadly Premonition (aka Red Seed Profile in Japan) is a survival horror created by Access Games and released in 2010 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Originally conceived as a PSP adventure game in the vein of “Flower, Sun and Rain”, Deadly premonition became a next-gen title only in 2005. Not surprisingly, SWEARY said in a interview with Destructoid that combat sections were a publisher’s idea added only at the alpha stage of the development cycle. Probably in the earliest builds the player could only hide or escape from enemies, similar to the Clock Tower series. The “useless” garbage containers scattered around which York can use to conceil himself are likely alpha leftovers.
In 2007 a beta version of the game, tentatively called Rainy Woods, was finally showed to the public but, due to the many similarities with the TV series Twin Peaks, notably the dwarf twins and the protagonist, the publisher decided to postpone Deadly Premonition in order to change the appearance of the characters. All the voice acting was completely reworked too. We’ll probably never know how the original story would have unfolded.
York now looks like the main character of a 1970′s exploitation film.
The sheriff hasn’t changed that much.
In the released game “the red room” is located outdoor in the forest.
This pic is strange. It shows beta York without his jacket in the prologue, but in the final version this happens only at the end.
You can also read this topic at Assembler Games for more info and theories about the differences in the beta version of Deadly Premonition!
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U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
5 Responses to Deadly Premonition [Beta - PS3 / Xbox 360]
Yakumo
November 16th, 2011 at 6:25 am
I’ve just started playing the Japanese version of this fantastic game. looks awful but really god to play. It’s nice to see the beta compared to the final.
monokoma
November 16th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Indeed, the controls and graphic have a lot of problems, the “horror parts” are not much fun, but the characters are some of the best of this generation, especially if you loved Twin Peaks. :)
best
November 17th, 2011 at 2:59 am
game ever!!!!!!!
DKinPA
March 22nd, 2012 at 8:39 pm
“Rainy Woods” and “Deadly Premonition” are considered two different games by Swery. Thats how many changes were between those betas and the final. He has also said that effectively Rainy Woods was cancelled and they started working a ‘a whole new game’.
monokoma
March 27th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
It would be awesome to see the “director’s cut” version of Deadly Premonition with bonus playable areas and story from Rainy Woods :P