Demon’s Souls is an action rpg developed by From Software and released for the Ps3 in 2009. The opening cutscene mentions a “Land of Giants” which archstone was destroyed in order to seal the demons that infested it. The broken archstone can still be seen among the others, and many fans of the game thought that this lost / beta scenario was going to be playable in a future DLC, but no additional content was ever made available.
Article translated in Russian thanks to Sergey Tyutin!
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CODE:Inferno is a cancelled action RPG that was in development for the Playstation 2. In mid 2001 From Software announced its software lineup for all the major consoles of the time. Among the titles cited there were some that never seen a commercial release like Gold Star Mountain and Gaia Blade.
Another game that would be cancelled soon was CODE:Inferno for PS2, an action-RPG where players assume the role of a masked warrior named White Demon, who wields a giant cross called the Holy Key as his weapon. Little else is known about this mysterious project but you can see some artworks that appeared back then in a japanese magazine.
Thanks to Susumu for the translation of a Famitsu article.
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Gaia Blade is a cancelled Real Time Strategy Game with RPG elements for the original Xbox console. It was in development around 2001 by FromSoftware, during a time when they worked on many interesting projects for Microsoft, such as Murakumo, Thousand Land, Otogi, Metal Wolf Chaos. Gaia Blade was designed specifically for online multiplayer on Xbox Live and it was planned to be released around 2002.
You could have been able to build traps and other defenses for your base, to protect it from AI enemies (in single player mode) or other humans (in online multiplayer mode). Gaia Blade was set in a fictional fantasy world inspired by Norse and Western literature: each single-player campaign would have put you as the leader of one of 12 different available families.
Characters development would follow classic RPG mechanics, while combat was in real-time: players just had to plan their strategy deciding which character to use for each task and area of the world. You would have been able to see all of your characters at the same time in different parts of the map using a split screen, choosing which one to impersonate when in need. The game was focused on teamwork, with 12 different protagonists, each one with their own skills and troops. Units would learn through their experience during the adventure and react differently to the player’s commands.
It’s not known why the game was cancelled: we can speculate the rather negative ratings of their games released in the early ‘00s made the team rethink their strategy of working on many different games at the same time (such as Code Inferno, ¼ RPG and Goldstar Mountain), to just focus on the few, most promising ones.
Article by The_Phantom_Mask
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1/4 RPG (also know as One Fourth RPG) is a cancelled Action RPG that was in development by FromSoftware for the Playstation 2 (with a rumored Dreamcast version) in 2000. The game was shown at the Tokyo Game Show 2000, as you can see from the video below, but it soon vanished from their release list. As we can read on the (now dead) GIA Website:
The peculiar name is derived from the make-up of the party of heroes. Four different characters (selected from a pool of seven or eight) comprise the team at one time, but you actually play as a fairy guiding the four characters into battle. In a system akin to Valkyrie Profile, each “fourth” of the party (i.e., one character) can be selected via a different controller button, then moved into place with the d-pad. Attacks apparently are used automatically; your goal is just to keep the four heroes in the right place at the right time. Up to twelve enemies can appear on screen at once, so expect some large battles.
According to a report from IGN, 1/4 RPG was placed on “indefinite hold” in 2001 and From Software moved their resources to other projects. The game was never released.
Thanks to Celine for the contribution!
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As it happens with all the new consoles, a lot of interesting titles are initially announced in the first few months, but sometimes those titles never see the light. That exactly what happened with Gold Star Mountain, an action rpg, that was presented officially at the Spaceworld 2001. This game was in development at From Software and it had an interesting feature: the ability to capture, breed and collect lots of monsters to use them as a support in combat.
Sadly the project was never finished, and it soon vanished without traces. In the few screens and video released we can see an early build of the game, where the combat system was not fully implemented yet. Probably this project was cancelled because it was seen as not enough profitable for the company.
[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Come succede per tutte le nuove console, il periodo che ne precede il rilascio è sempre caratterizzato da annunci di titoli interessanti, che però spesso non vengono alla luce. E’ il caso di Gold Star Mountain, action rpg presentato ufficialmente allo spaceworld 2001, proprio a pochi giorni di distanza dall’uscita del Gamecube. Almeno nelle previsioni, il titolo From Software doveva presentare una caratteristica, che lo avrebbe differenziato sensibilmente dai classici del genere: la possibilità di catturare, allevare dei piccoli mostri per utilizzarli in combattimento.
Se vi suona leggermente familiare, direi che è assolutamente normale, visto che siamo nella sezione gamecube di questo sito. Ad ogni modo, la versione beta mostrata (che è possibile vedere anche nel video), sembrava ancora nelle fasi preliminari, con il sistema di combattimento non ancora implementato perfettamente. Il comparto tecnico, animazioni a parte, lascia a desiderare anche per un titolo di prima generazione. Tenendo in considerazione anche le difficoltà, nel creare e nell’integrare la parte dedicata alla crescita dei mostri, non è particolarmente complicato immaginare i motivi della cancellazione, avvenuta pochi mesi dopo.[/spoiler]
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