Action RPG

Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Gimmick Land [GBC – Unreleased]

monokoma
24-10-2009
3 Comments

After AlphaDream (the team behind the Mario & Luigi RPGs) developed and released their very first video game title, Koto Battle: Tengai no Moribito for the Nintendo Game Boy Color only in Japan, Nintendo wanted AlphaDream’s permission to develop an entirely new RPG with them, titled Gimmick Land. It was finished and almost ready to be released for the Game Boy Color in Japan, until Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance to make the Game Boy Color obsolete. After noticing that, AlphaDream decided to redevelop and rename Gimmick Land as Tomato Adventure for the Game Boy Advance. Only two screenshots of Gimmick Land were released to the public by the developers. [Info from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images: 

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Ascendant (Dungeons) [PS3/X360/PC – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors
22-10-2009
No Comments

As reported before, Big Huge Games was working on a new, THQ-published RPG for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. When THQ was hit by financial troubles, Big Huge Games was sold to 38 Studios where it seems that they still work on Ken Rolston’s new “masterpiece”. It’s currently unknown if this game will ever be released. 

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Fallout 3 [X360/PS3/PC – Beta & Unused Stuff]

U64 Staff & Contributors
19-10-2009
3 Comments

Fallout 3 is a action RPG developed by Bethesda Game Studios in 2008, for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. As we can read on Wikipedia, the F3 project was initially under development by Black Isle Studios, a studio owned by Interplay Entertainment, under the working title Fallout 3: Van Buren.

When Interplay went bankrupt and closed down Black Isle Studios before the game could be completed, the license to develop Fallout 3 was sold for a $1,175,000 minimum guaranteed advance against royalties to Bethesda Softworks, a studio primarily known for the The Elder Scrolls series.

Bethesda’s Fallout 3 however, was developed from scratch, using neither Van Buren code, nor any other materials created by Black Isle Studios.

In the released game there are still many unused items, weapons and perks, while in some early videos we can notice various beta locations and characters. You can find the full list of unused items at Fallout Wikia!

The following YouTube videos show cut content and development content from when fallout 3 and its DLC was in development. Very interesting stuff; almost all of the cut content can be accessed on the PC version and the beta tesla cannon can be found in the broken steel DLC and used on all ports of fallout 3 too.

Thanks to DCodes7 for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

 

Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

Kingdom Hearts 2 [PS2 – Beta]

monokoma
24-09-2009
10 Comments

Kingdom Hearts 2 is an action RPG developed by Square Enix and published by Buena Vista Games and Square Enix in 2005 for the PlayStation 2. Superfun64 has noticed a beta screenshot from an old magazine article, in which we can see Donald and Goofy in the scene with the huge Heartless war battle, but they are not in there in the final game.

Also, in a beta video from Tokyo Game Show 2003 we can see a different Twilight Town, the removed Hollow Bastion Tower and various removed scenes, like one in which Donald freeze himself.

Yaz0r found out that there is a Woddy & Buzz (from Toy Story) model in the KH2 data. They are unfinished/untextured but it looks like they were planned as summons. They are in the middle of the other summons models, that’s why we can assume that they were planned as summons. During KH2 production, there were an issues between Disney & Pixar (especialy around Toy Story 3 and the deal they had signed together). It’s possible that Square scraped the Pixar stuff to prevent from beeing involved.

There are even more early screens at KH2 website, if you can find other beta images, let us know!

Thanks to Superfun64 and Yaz0r for the contributions!

Images:

Videos:

 

Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

Kingdom Hearts [PS2 – Beta]

monokoma
21-09-2009
3 Comments

Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG developed and published by Square in 2002 for the PlayStation 2. The idea for Kingdom Hearts came about when producer Shinji Hashimoto met with a Disney executive in an elevator;  Square and Disney had previously worked in the same building in Japan. The game began development in February 2000 and originally the beta focused more on the gameplay with a simple story to appeal to Disney’s target age range.

After executive producer Hironobu Sakaguchi told director Tetsuya Nomura the game would be a failure if it did not aim for the same level as the Final Fantasy series, Nomura began to develop the story further. Some content that did not make it into Kingdom Hearts was later added into Kingdom Hearts II.

The “Pride Land” from The Lion King, for instance, was infeasible because an additional program was required to process movement on four legs—a necessity since Sora would become a lion in that world. Due to time constraints, the developers left out an optional boss battle, similar to the Sephiroth battle, against Tifa Lockhart. She was later included in Kingdom Hearts II as a more developed character. [Info from Wikipedia]

In a beta trailer from 2001 you can see many differences between the beta build and the final build. Such as Sora roaming around Disney Castle. In the final build, you do not go to Disney Castle, but there is an image of it on the world map, but it is never selectable.

More differences, as spotted by YT users:

  • The logo’s different
  • Goofy’s cloth is different
  • Sora’s beta hair color
  • removed scene with Riku on the Clock Tower

In an interview with Nomura, we can read that:

“Actually,” he continues, “the first weapon I showed Disney was a chainsaw. It was this chainsaw-like weapon that I had a rough sketch of when I first showed my concepts to Disney. Everyone got this scrunched-up look on their face and nobody said a word in the entire room. Dead silence. And I thought ‘No, I guess this wouldn’t work, huh?'”

Shadowdorothy also noticed:

  • In the beta Riku didn’t have his black gloves he does in the final release
  • Kairi’s skirt is longer in the official release.
  • The opening monologue by Sora went through a major change, as in the commercial it appears that Sora is having a conversation with someone.
  • The magic system was changed dramatically, as the magic system sub-menu originally opened on top of the action menu.
  • The door was also removed, and by “the door” I mean that strange door on Destiny Island that you can’t see until Sora has a flash back that involves Riku and him being kids.
  • It also appears that Sora, not Kairi, was the one that needed saving, as per some dailouge seen at the end of the com.

Some more info on the beta can be found on X-Cult!

Thanks a lot to Brad and Shadowdorothy for the contributions!

Images:

Video: