RPG

Ring Age [Dreamcast – Cancelled]

Ring Age is a cancelled turn-based RPG that was in development by Takuyo Kougyo for the Dreamcast. The project was meant to have an online multiplayer mode along with a traditional single player story mode, but not many info were ever released about the internet features. Ring Age was soon forgotten and vanished from the Dreamcast’s release list.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Ragnarok [GameBoy – Cancelled]

Ragnarok is a cancelled RPG that was in development in 1994 by Imagitec Design for the original Gameboy. This project should not be confused with the Ragnarok Online MMORPG created by GRAVITY, but it’s possible that the scenario of the GameBoy title could have been related to “King’s Table: Legend of Ragnarok”, a fantasy chess game developed by Imagitec for PC in 1993. Only a single screenshot of Ragnarok GameBoy was published in Total Issue magazine 25, but the game was never released.

Thanks to Pentarou Zero for uploading the scan and to Whitestrider for the link!

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Pokemon Emerald [GBA – Beta / Unused]

Pokémon Emerald is an updated version of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, that was released in Japan in September 2004 and in America and Europe in 2005. Even if the game is just an “add-on” to Ruby and Sapphire, it’s possible to find some beta and unused content still hidden in its code. As noted by Bulbapedia:

  • There’s an unused map header into the ROM called “SPECIAL AREA”.It was probably used for the battle frontier back then.
  • All the music tracks found in FireRed and LeafGreen are present in Emerald too, but only few of them are used for special events.

Also, from an early Pokèmon Emerald screenshot by IGN you can clearly see that ROUTE 109 had glitched up tiles!)

In the ROM LucaPM found an unused Prof.B irch sprite, that was probably used for the beta intro sequence. HEX Offset : 557AF0 (varies between ROMS)

Unused sprite:

Final sprite:

Things to notice between the unused and the final sprite:

  • Different stance (of course)
  • Less outlined sprite
  • Shorter shirt
  • Different,bigger belt
  • Different designed and coloured pants
  • Different right leg
  • Slightly different haircut

As noted by Zero7, it’s possible that he was suppose to have his hands in his pockets, go into the now final sprite for throwing out the pokemon, then either stay in the final sprite or back to the unused sprite for the rest of the intro. 

Airs Adventure [SAT – Tech Demo]

Airs Adventure is a RPG developed by Game Studio in 1995 / 1996 for the Saturn. The game use a mix of pre-rendered characters and polygon backgrounds: even if the game is not that good, it has an interesting look at least. Celine was able to find an old news about this game (from Cd Consoles magazine #8), when it was still called “Sega Adventure”, in which they show a pre-rendered dragon that  probably looks much better than anything in the final game.

We can assume that this shot was took from a tech demo or a target render. You can compare the scan with the video below, from the final version of the game.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Chrono Cross [PSX – Beta]

Chrono Cross is a RPG developed and published in 1999 by Squaresoft for the original PlayStation. As we can read on Wikipedia, Square began planning Chrono Cross immediately after the release of Xenogears in 1998. Chrono Trigger’s scenario director Masato Kato had brainstormed ideas for a sequel as early as 1996, following the release of Radical Dreamers.

Developers brainstormed traits and archetypes during the character-creation process, originally planning 64 characters with unique endings that could vary in three different ways per character. As production continued, the length of Cross increased, leading the event team to reduce the number of characters to 45 and scrap most of the alternate endings.

More info about the Chrono Cross beta can be found in the Chrono Compendium:

Before the official release of Chrono Cross, Square Enix marketed a PlayStation release of Chrono Trigger and attached a demo of the game to it and Legend of Mana.[…] This demo has allowed a short look into the late stages of the development of Chrono Cross, offering a few prizes such as a scrapped facial portrait of Kid and missing playable characters.

Serge’s Swallow is tinted green and looks like the Mastermune.

Once the Fort Dragonia sequence is concluded, Serge wakes up in Arni and is instructed to find Leena as usual. Una has no portrait, hampering the suggestion that she was once planned to be a playable character.

The most glaring difference is the presence of a seemingly new character in Pierre’s slot. Since Pierre’s dialogue icon was already in its final state, it’s probable that this was an earlier design for Pierre.

There’s a different Viper Manor Study window.

There’s a different Lucca drawing.

Yasuyuki Honne is the artist of the Chrono series, and made some background art that was never used in the final game.

There’s also an incomplete debug room in the beta demo and some unused characters can be seen in the Chrono Cross artbook.

Also, GlitterBerri translated the Chrono Cross Ultimania interview in which we can read about some ideas that were never used in the final game. You can read the full interview at BerriBlue or in the Chrono Compendium.

Thanks to ace.dark and Megalol for the contributions!

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