RPG

Unseen Articles, Unseen Features

Translation for the Chrono Trigger prerelease video

monokoma
06-01-2009
No Comments

<< More Articles

chrono-translation

In the 90s the SNES produced some of gaming’s finest RPGS.  Great classics such as Final Fantasy 4 and 6 kept American audiences entertained, while Japanese gamers had greats such as the original Star Ocean. Entertaining both audiences was the timeless classic Chrono Trigger. Now years later the rise of the internet has put fans together and given those interested the ability to search for in game beta. Notable finds have been made, such as the music from the fabled “Singing Mountain,” and the demo rom.  Now thanks to gamers/fans/translators Glitterberri and Gekkahiro we can read in good ole English a translation of this video  that has been floating around the web for some time now.

Play the vid and you can follow along with the following translation. 

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Mother 2 / Earthbound [SNES – Beta / Concept / Unused Stuff]

U64 Staff & Contributors
22-12-2008
No Comments

Development on EarthBound took place as a joint effort between Ape, Inc. and HAL Laboratory, Inc. and was designed by Shigesato Itoi. The total development time for the project was five years, much longer than was initially expected. The first design concepts for the HP boxes were to make them like pachinko balls and have them fall off the screen whenever a character was damaged. However, this was later changed to the “rolling counter” HP boxes because the pachinko balls did not work so well when characters had large amounts of HP. [Infos from Wikipedia]

In the video, subtitled by the lovely Starmen crew, we can see a collection of beta scense, in which Ness has no backpack, and we can read some interesting facts about the development of the game. In the image gallery there are some unused sprites, like Everdred’s ghost, a climbing King, a Starmen Capsule, an unknow flag and a red beating heart. You can read more about these unused sprites in here. From the various concept arts that were in the MOTHER 1+2 Art Book, we can notice some nice differences from the same scenes in the final game, like a fortress on top of Dungeon Man’s head, a giant elephant that keeps up the Dalaam city, early design of Dr. Andonuts’s lab and missing snow in some areas. You can read more about these concept arts in here.

Also, some unused animations from the opening were found in the rom.

Thanks to Gabriele for the contribution! (scans from Japanese magazine ‘Game Peer – vol. 4’)

Images:

Video:

 

Others, PC / MAC

Grandia Online [PC – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors
18-12-2008
No Comments

grandiaonlinelogo.jpg

Grandia Online was a MMORPG being developed by Game Arts and published by GungHo Online Entertainment. It was announced in 2004 with a planned released in 2006, but the project was postponed many times and in the end it was released only 5 years later. In the gallery below you can see some images from the original announcement, with an early graphic and some different world areas, if you played the final game and can write a list of all the differences shown in these beta screens let us know!

Thanks to fishinsoup for the contribution!

Images:

Video:

 

Game Boy Advance (GBA), Leaked, Nintendo

Fire Emblem: the Sacred Stones [Beta / Debug – GBA]

U64 Staff & Contributors
13-12-2008
No Comments

Recently a beta version of Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones has been found. It is a very early version of the Sacred Stones and contains many differences. This pre-alpha ROM uses many things from the previous game as placeholder; even the title and menus from the Blazing Sword are still there. The game opens up with a debug menu that is identical to the one from the Blazing Sword prototypes. Although the game does have some of the stages programmed in it many of these still need much work. Some do not yet have enemies and have a level two Cavalier as the only enemy. The game’s own music has not been implemented and certain moster enemies are missing battle artwork. Many character portraits are absent; those that do exist were changed in the final. These alterations are mostly minor but some characters were changed quite a bit. Also Ephraim’s name was originally Izark.

Alpha on the left. Final on the right.

Alpha on the left. Final on the right.

Debug Title Screen

Debug Title Screen

Additional information from Serenes Forest:

  • Amelia has Tana’s role; her class was planned to be a flying Trainee.
  • L’Arachel has a variation of Tana’s portrait, while Tethys has a variation of Neimi’s portrait.
  • There was a Wyvern Rider called Nate planned Ephraim’s name was planned to be Irzark (seen in the debug menus).

These characters were changed drastically in the final.

These characters were changed drastically in the final.

  • Many of the World Map locations have different names. Some of the battle map layouts are slightly different.
  • In Chapter 6, after Eirika hands over her bracelet, the Grado soldiers kill the civilians in front of her eyes.
  • At the end of Chapter 6, Saleh appears and kills the boss with a critical attack. Chapter 6’s battle map is the same as Chapter 11’s (Eirika’s route) in the retail version.
  • The boss of Chapter 8 is Dyude Rubarth, one of Grado’s Seven Generals, also known as the Black ?-stone.

By using the debug options one can remove an enemy's weapon. By doing this one can find sprites that are not normally viewable.

By using the debug options one can remove an enemy’s weapon. This shows sprites that are not viewable in normal gameplay.

  • Eirika promotes at the beginning of Chapter 17 The Final Chapter is comprised of just one map.
  • The Tower of Valni has two extra stages- seen in Floor 2 and 3.

You can find even more infos at Serenes Forest! Props to them

Below you can see a bunch of scans from Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones beta, before it came out. You can see its earliest scans (first reveal scans) where the first couple chapters are different and there are different animations and mugshots for some characters. The stolen prototypes (they were stolen from Intelligent System’s network) seem to have some content from this earliest version, but also content that wasn’t present in the earliest OR the final version.

Thanks to Iven Allen for the scans!

Images:

Videos:

 
Nintendo, Nintendo DS

Pokemon Platinum [DS – Beta / Unused Stuff]

U64 Staff & Contributors
04-12-2008
No Comments

When Pokèmon Platinum was announced, lots of scans and screens came out on the net and Nintendo also put online a website about the game, with a screen of the battle vs. Giratina Origin. Howerer, the Giratina Origin sprite that we see in this screen is not the same one as the final version.

Beta :

Final :

Also, there was a beta sprite of Shaymin Sky form that was dropped before the release. There are also some beta items in Platinum that are also in D/P:

  • S.S. Ticket = A ticket for sailing with the S.S. Anne (but there’s no S.S. Anne in D/P/P!)
  • Contest pass = A pass for entering the Pokèmon Contest (contests do not need a ticket)
  • Magma Rock = A magma rock from the stark mountain (proupose unknown,maybe has something to do with Hetran)
  • Red Chain = A chain created by the Lake Trio (even if it’s used by Cyrus for awakening Dialga/Palkia in the game,the proupose of this item is unknown)
  • Rule Book = A book that contains the rules of the Wi-Fi mode (the rules in the Wi-Fi mode are writed into the instruction book)
  • Seal Bag = A bag that can contain 10 seals (replaced with the Seal Case)
  • Treasure Sack = A sack that holds the treasures found in the underground (replaced with the Special Selections for the underground)

They have no function in the game but they can be found by hacking the game or cheating.

(Source : Bulbapedia)

Another thing just discovered : Pokèmon Platinum has a test music that’s just a remix of the Pokèmon R/S/E opening. Howerer, the music is unused in the game.

Update: most of the Pokemon Gold and Silver references could be used in the new G/S remakes, since it’s intended to be compatible with Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum.