Dark Cloud is an Action RPG developed for the Playstation 2 by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2000 and 2001 for Japan and American/PAL regions respectively. As we can read in Wikipedia, Dark Cloud was the first game of the Japanese developer Level-5, headed by designer Akihiro Hino. When the PlayStation 2 was announced on March 2, 1999, Sony president and CEO Ken Kutaragi used a demo of Dark Cloud to showcase the capabilities of the platform. However, many elements of the demo were not used in the release version of the game.
In 1999, Sony had an early playable version of Dark Cloud at the Tokyo Game Show. This version focused on a character who needed to return a floating piece of land back to where it originally came from but its location had been replaced with an evil kingdom. The world building parts where demonstrated in this version. At the Tokyo Game Show in 2000 a more complete demo was available far more similar to the final version.
CallingCard noticed various differences in the early video:
The main character, Toan, had a fair redesign between this demo and the final release.
The magic carpet never appears in game as far as I’m aware.
The ability to jump in and out of the water as seen around the 1:00 mark was removed.
The world map is pretty much the same, can’t see anything new aside from the floating island town area which I don’t recall being in the game. Given that it’s just a large blank area, it might’ve been used for demonstration purposes only.
Georama system looks almost identical in-game as it does in beta, though the volcanoes never made it in to the final product.
Okami in its beta version was much different from the final one. The game was originally planned to be rendered in a more photorealistic 3D style. However, Clover Studios determined that the more colorful sumi-e style allowed them to better convey Amaterasu’s association with nature and the task of restoring it. This change did not increase the game’s performance. You can play a video clip of Amaterasu in her original realistic style after beating the game. – [info from Wikipedia]
Also, on 1UP we can read an interview with Kamiya that talks about the early prototype of Okami:
“When I first started talking about it with [producer Atsushi] Inaba, the only starting point we had for Okami was a game that depicted a lot of nature,” he said. “I couldn’t say ‘I don’t know if this’ll be fun or not’ because than nobody on the dev team would be enthusiastic about it, so instead I was like ‘This is gonna be great! I know it will!’ So eventually the discussion shifted to a wolf running around, and we made this minute-long video depicting a wolf running through a field and trees sprouting up behind him and I told the team ‘See, isn’t that neat?'”
Eventually Okami made it to the prototyping stage, but Kamiya’s problems didn’t end there. “Our first test run was incredibly boring to play,” he recalled. “I was grinding my teeth at night, I was so worried. At one point, we were so far off-track that it had turned into a simulation game — you had hexes and trees sprouted on them. It was total garbage. A couple of devs said to me afterwards ‘Something was definitely wrong with you around that time, Kamiya!'”
The PlayStation 2 was first revealed in 1999. Many beloved game developer that released their games for the original Sony PlayStation 1 such as SquareSoft, Namco, or even SCE themshelve, shown a series on interesting tech demos for the PS2. Namco tech demo was the leather tech demo, then the Ridge Racer tech demo shows the facial animation CGI in-game, Tekken tech demo also shown too, it show the texture smooth feature, both Ridge Racer and Tekken was released for PS2 except for leather tech demo never found in any game, and it presumed to be unreleased.
SquareSoft shown a fighting tech demo that could later known as “The Bouncer“, also a face of a old man character from a FF series with the same as Ridge Racer purpose, a dancing scene from FFVI also get it debut, showing the power of PS2, in-engine CGI animation without a pre-rendered animation video cutscene. Sony was shown a Gran Turismo tech demo that showing a Reflection effect, also ducky with water demo.
Originally, the main character was an ostrich suffering from mental imbalance and multiple personalities. Tim Schafer killed the idea because he strongly believes in games being “wish fulfillments,” guessing that not many people fantasize about being an insane ostrich. Raz was originally named Dart and it had many different design before the final one. Even the Censors were different, with a more “green monsters” look. The HUD, the Menù, the Psi Challenge Markers and the Telekinesis style were changed too. Some “brains” were in different positions in the beta version, as the one at the top of the wall in front of the asylum. The Milla’s Lab does not exist in the final game.
Tim Schafer first conceived the idea for Psychonauts while working on Full Throttle, which originally was to have an interactive peyote trip sequence. The idea was deemed unsuitable for a family-friendly game, but it led to Schafer’s desire to do a game featuring psychological trips or interactive dream sequences. – [Info from Wikipedia]
Fear Effect 3 Inferno is the unreleased third title in the Fear Effect series of video games developed by Kronos Digital Entertainment for the original PlayStation. Inferno was originally announced as a PlayStation 2 sequel in 2001, and the first trailer was released during the 2002 E3 event. The trailer depicted some of the only known footage of the game. The game’s status changed rapidly towards the end of 2002 and was finally canceled in 2003. However, between the announcement and the cancellation, information was scarce.
Reports varied as to the status of the game between 2002 and 2003. While an early report by GameSpot in May of 2003 described the game as simply “on hold“, IGN broke the news during their “Missing in Action” series of articles that the game had been canceled. According to IGN’s report, the game “was the first of EIDOS’ victims to its more stringent quality assurance program.”
Due to the game’s poor progress, it was either given more development time or canceled. Unfortunately, only the development staff knew of the game’s status following this condemnation. According to IGN, “at some point in late 2002 or early 2003, Kronos did indeed shop it to various publishers. Nobody, however, bit”.
Images:
Only a few screen shots exist that hint at the gameplay style of Fear Effect Inferno. Based on these images, it was concluded that the gameplay would have been nearly identical to the previous two games. However, a new weapon system would have allowed players to map a firearm to the “X” (Cross) button and another to the “O” (Circle) button on the Dual Shock 2 controller. This would have allowed numerous weapon combinations.
In addition, updated diving moves could be executed to quickly evade enemy fire. The environment itself would have allowed players to hide from hazards, such as bullets, and function as a way to avoid detection. It was rumored that players could control certain actions during scripted in-game fight scenes, requiring the player to execute timed button combinations to fight certain opponents. Fear Effect Inferno would have introduced the separation of the “Health” and “Fear” Meters. However, it is not known how the “Fear” Meter would have affected gameplay since the “Health” Meter functioned as both in the previous two titles.
News of the cancellation did not come to fans until 2004, years after the game’s initial announcement and quiet absence. Even Sandy Abe, Chief Operating Officer of Kronos, hinted that EIDOS might give the series a second chance under a new developer, such as Crystal Dynamics, but this was only true for the Tomb Raider franchise. According to an e-mail by Sandy Abe, “Unfortunately Fear Effect probably will not get picked up.“
Many fans continued to go to Kronos’, GameSpot’s, and related message boards to keep the memory alive until interest in a resurrection finally waned in late 2005. The announcement of the movie, has given hope to a new game from an existing EIDOS subsidiary. This potential title would be a video game-adaptation of the movie’s plot. Rumors of a “true sequel” involving any of the original development staff members have been dissolved.
Opinions of the thought of a sequel from one of EIDOS’ remaining studios have been mixed. Devoted fans of the first two PlayStation titles predict that, if a new game is developed, it will not follow Kronos’ storyline for Fear Effect Inferno. Early reports suggest that, if a game is released, it will follow the movie plot, which has already promised to have little relation plot-wise to the situations introduced by the video games. Therefore, only the first two games, which were developed by Kronos, are considered “canon” among fans. [Info from Wikipedia]
Thanks a lot to Takashi Morishima and to Wei Wiharjo for the help in preserving more video and screens from this lost project!
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