RPG

Mega Man X Command Mission [GC PS2 – Beta / Unused Stuff]

Mega Man X Command Mission (Rock Man X Command Mission in Japan) was released only a few months before Mega Man X8, yet it takes place arround 100 years AFTER the events of X8. Also of note, is that it’s the first Mega Man X Game NOT to follow the standard style, due to the fact of it being an RPG adventure. Below, you will see what appears to be a prototype build, and two beta builds, along with a few videos.

Demo Videos

There’s some unused dialoge between the characters, namely what Cinnamon says to you… that, and the fact that she’s even where she is doesn’t make much sense. The fight with Wild Jango starts VERY differently in the final, and although the battle area is right, how you get there, is WAY off.

Also, you go into battle with X, Zero, and Axl. In the final version, all you have at your side is Spider, but then, in this demo, almost everything is out of order, so I just assume it’s a demo from E3 or something, which would make sense. In the final, the voices and text are in english, instead of like in the videos. Also, these were uploaded to IGN on august 6th i think, at least a month before american release, and just after japanese release.

Here are a couple of Trailers of the game. One of which shows X using a slightly altered version of his Action Trigger, Charge Shot. The screen goes black upon firing, and the camera is behind the enemy. In the final, the charge shot attacks more than just one enemy, doesn’t go behind enemy/enemies, and the screen DOESN’T go dark.

Pictures

Prototype (?) version

In these, the most notable difference is that X is in his standard form. No special colors, just standard X. In the final, he looks MUCH different. And to those that have played the game themselves, notice the vendor for the shop just to the right of X? Vendor my eye, that’s an enemy!Also, the attack seen in the In Battle picture, is currently unknown. It appears to be a Final Strike. Also of note, the Battle HUD is different from next version’s, and also different from the final. And, take notice and compare the Battle HUD in this version, the the one in the next version. Something odd going on here.

Version 2 (beta)

Here can be seen a few differences from the final. Dialoge is different, battle HUD is different, and so is the map.

NOTICE THESE!

I wanted to do a special point out for the above pictures. Character mugshots are in the “turn” lineup, that aren’t even in the battle at the moment. Also, I could be wrong, but, I don’t think you can switch characters mid battle, and even if you could, how could it predict something that hasn’t been set yet?

My personal guess is that there was more to the battle system planned at this stage of development. Also of note, is that the Battle HUD is the EXACT SAME in all three pics, so at this point, it’s just as possible that the HUD is just an overlaying image. Look at the numbers used for the character stats even. they go in almost perfect sequence. I mean, X’s life energy and weapon energy put together, read 1234567, then zero’s reads 7890234, axl’s reads 3456456.

Version 3 (near final)

There’s not alot here that’s different from the final, but still of note, is the fact that the beta map is still in use. The final map, isn’t too much different than the beta map in either version, but one very noticable difference is the white lines on the right and bottom sides are gone in the final.

Now then. Like I said, if there’s something I missed, please let me know, or if there’s something i’m calling beta and isn’t, let me know that too. 

Dragon Quest 7 (VII) [PSX – Beta]

Dragon Quest VII (Dragon Warrior 7 in USA) was originally announced for the 64DD in 1996, but one year later the development switched to Playstation and the game was finally released in 2000. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the beta versions of DQ7, but thanks to a video from the V Jump festival in 1998  (check below), uploaded by Carnivol in his YT Channel, we can see that originally Keifer (the blonde character) had a different dress.

Also, in the V Jump 1999 Festival video the monsters (especially their animations), seem to look better than their counterparts in the final version. What do you think?

Videos:

Compare the beta battles to the final ones (video below @ 3:36)

 

The Witcher Outcast [PC – Cancelled]

The Witcher is RPG for the PC developed by CD Projekt RED STUDIO and originally  released in 2007. The game tells the story of Geralt of Rivia, who at the opening of the game is tasked to cure the daughter of King Foltest of a curse which causes her to transform into a feral monster. [Info from Wikipedia]

The Witcher Outcast was a planned add-on that was in development by roXidy, a Canadian group which previously created the Neverwinter Nights: Wyvern Crown of Cormyr premium module for BioWare.

Outcast was going to be released as DLC in most countries and have a disc release in some countries, like Poland and Russia. It was in development from late 2007 until around mid-2008, when it was canceled by CD Projekt.

The draft of the story for this add-on can be read below:

The story takes place in the early part of Geralt’s life, before he is established as a Witcher, during the reign of King Videmont of Aedirn (around 1190). It takes place in the Skellige Isles off the west coast, on an island ruled by jarl Harald. Many years ago, a monster attacked Harald’s pregnant wife Morganna. In return, Harald went out to slay the monster, with the help of the gnome Shiltzen. As payment, Shiltzen demanded Harald’s firstborn, but when Morganna gave birth, she bore twins. Seeing that the second child was monstrous, Harald gave that child to Shiltzen instead of the firstborn Astrid.

The full design doc can be downloaded from GameBanshee!

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Talisman [X360 PS3 – Cancelled]

Talisman was a digital recreation of Workshop’s classic board game, basically a multiplayer turn-based fantasy RPG that was in development in 2007 by Big Rooster & Capcom for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.  Players were able to explore dungeons to combat various enemies with weapons, spells and magic items. The project was officially cancelled in 2008, as reported by IGN:

“Rather recently we have finally stopped development completely. After a misfire at the start, the details of which I won’t get into, we evaluated several options for moving the project to new developers, but the costs of moving forward outweighted the potential revenue. I realize this will be disappointing for the fans of the game.

The rights have reverted back to Games Workshop where I hope someone will pick them up and try again. I too still would like to play a Talisman videogame.”

Thanks to Userdante for the contribution!

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Little King’s Story [Wii – Beta]

Little King’s Story​ (originally known as “Project O”) is a simulation / strategic RPG co-developed by Town Factory and Cing, released for the Wii in 2009. The game was first shown at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007 and in the early screens we can notice some interesting differences:

  • Some enemies were never implemented in the game, as a papercraft bird that could have been able to transform itself into a paper airplane.
  • The beta city had a completely different layout than the final one, with buildings and rivers in different places.
  • It seems that the king was able to guide more than 30 people at once.
  • In the beta the edifices were build by the town folks and you were able to see them work on their new houses while they were in development (as it happens with bridges in the final). In the final game, you just chose which new building you want to create from your throne, and when you came out from the castle, the new building is already finished.
  • In one of the screens we can notice the king at the top of an house’s roof, from where he talks to his crowd. You can’t go over roof in the final game.
  • There are a couple of images with Verde and a weird character (with a yellow head) that seem to be from a cutscene that was removed from the final game (or did i miss it?).
  • A red dragon was  on the beach too, but it’s never in there in the final version.
  • In the final game every Animal Hunter has a “cat cap” on their heads, but in a beta screen we can see one of them that doesnt wear any cap.
  • In one of the screenshots there are 2 “wooden-totem” enemies, but in the final we meet just one of them in a quest (or did i miss them in some other quest?)
  • Howser was able to join the king army too, to battle along the other people.
  • In the first trailer from Tokyo Game Show, the intro of the game was different.

Also, from a postmortem  article on Gamasutra we can read about a removed chapter that was planned for the beginning of the game and other unseen features:

In the original code, there was an introduction chapter where you could play Corobo (Little King’s Story protagonist) in pajamas looking for the crown. It took you around 40 minutes before you could find the crown, and it actually hindered the tempo. That’s why we decided to cut this and replace it with the opening you can see in the final game.

We had to scrap the multiplayer feature: A local two-player feature was implemented in the code but had to be removed. I also had to abandon the idea of having a network feature.

In the original concept, we were considering having a system in which the NPCs would develop automatically through their life simulation in the kingdom without requiring the user to grind. However, we started to realize that by using such a development system, the NPCs couldn’t keep up with the later enemies or became far too strong, ruining all the level design created to that point.

In an interview by Cubed3 with Marvelous Entertainment’s Yoshiro Kimura we can find some more info on the removed Multiplayer mode:

There were interesting multiplayer modes where the player could shoot cannons and control Pancho, but unfortunately due to time constraints we weren’t able to implement them into the game. I’m really sad we couldn’t have that in the game.

Milestones:

2006 June: Game Concept
2006 November: Evaluation of the prototype
2007 March: Full development start
End of February 2009: European master submission
End of April 2009: US and Japanese master submission
April 26, 2009, European release
July 21st, 2009, US release
September 3rd, 2009, Japanese release

Thanks to JulianCJ for the contribution!

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