What Could Have Been/Video Games: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Video game development is a long, hard, and convoluted process, and often things are cancelled, removed or [[Dummied Out]]. Maybe something just didn't work in practice, or they didn't have time to implement it in the way they wanted. Whatever the reasons, we can only wonder [[What Could Have Been]].

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* ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'''s NES version would have had an English release, but in the end it was canceled as the 16-bit era drew nearer, ''IV'' was brought over instead, and ''II'' wouldn't see the light of day in the western hemisphere until ''[[Compilation Rerelease|Final Fantasy Origins]]''. A prototype of the ROM exists, although with a hilariously awful translation.

* In the originally planned ending of ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', Terra would have been a male character in his twenties and died with the other Espers. In the ending of the final version, she receives instructions on how to specifically avoid this fate and does.

** Jenova is a ''massive'' change from it's original concept, as explained in "Another Hypothesis". Initially, Jenova was supposed to be a [[A Worldwide Punomenon|gene]] that was a part of every person, and that Aeris could use this power naturally because she's a Cetra. Shinra's methods for creating SOLDIER are the same as the final product, but they, along with Sephiroth, were [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|"awakened" beings]] with the gene. The Turks would be the people who were able to ''sense'' the usage of Jenova, and they would bring the subjects back to Shinra for experimentation.

* [[Final Fantasy VIII|Edea]] was originally conceived as a ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' character; most likely a humanoid version of Jenova given her personality in the final game.

** The concept art for the "Rat Knight" ended up becoming Fratley and Freya, with genders changed and motivations split down the middle.

*** It's also kind of hard to not think of Amarant when looking at the Elementalist guy.

* ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' was originally going to offer online elements but this plan was scrapped early in development.

 

* [http://www.unseen64.net/wp-content/gallery/wind-waker-beta/tetraoriginaldesigng.jpg This is Tetra] as depicted in her prerelease artwork for ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]''. Even though it was not outright stated, this design seem to indicate that she was originally meant to be an inhabitant of Windfall island, rather than a pirate. It is also questionable if she was already meant {{spoiler|to be Princess Zelda}} in this stage of development.

* Screenshots of beta ''Ocarina of Time'' showed that the game went through plenty of changes. Originally, there were two extra dungeons - Wind and Ice - which were scrapped (the ice temple was turned into the Ice Caverns and the Wind Temple was reused in ''The Wind Waker''). Screenshots show Link with the Medallions equipped to the C buttons, indicating that they were at one point designed to actually serve as weapons. A screenshot of octoroks showed that they were originally designed to look much more like their 2D versions (like largeish tick-things on the ground, rather than being aquatic like their namesake animals). Finally, there's the infamous picture of Link finding the Triforce in a cave, which is a pretty good indicator that at one point the player ''could'' find the Triforce but it was eventually removed. [[Urban Legend of Zelda|Not that that's stopped people from still looking]]…

 

 

* Francis and Zoey were originally going to have an interest in each other, but the idea was scrapped due to complaints that it was too distracting.

* Zoey's voice actor during the beta stages of the game was slightly different compared to the current voice actor (beta Zoey has a somewhat deeper voice compared to the current Zoey voice). The sound files for the beta voice actor is still used if Zoey triggers the start of a finale. Zoey's screams when she falls to her death are also from the voice actor in the beta stages, but this one was [[Throw It In|intentionally kept in the game]] because Valve liked how well the screams sounded.

 

 

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' had several gameplay elements and sequences deleted from the game before it's release. By hacking the PC version, it's possible to discover deleted files and voiceovers that reference these deleted elements. Chief among them was the ability to go for any of the recruitment missions at any time after you received the Normandy SR2 (including Legion, who only shows up in the final game on the mission just before the endgame begins).

** The original tutorial mission would have featured Legion and Liara retrieving Shepard's body from Cerberus.

 

 

* Gameplay-wise, ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' originally had a lot of the improvements that Sons of Liberty had such as dragging bodies and hiding in lockers but weren't implemented in the final version.

** It was also going to have music that would change throughout different areas.

** For a while, the BB Corp would have been naked when shedding their suits, but Hideo realized he'd get slapped with an AO rating, no ifs, ands, or buts (no pun intended). And there would have been two male BB-like characters who served a similar, [[Gender Flip|Gender Flipped]] [[Fan Disservice]] role - "Snake-Man", a beautiful young man with tentacles coming out of his body, and "ADAM", a handsome Russian soldier. Maybe female fans would have felt less alienated by the B&B Corps if the men had been in it...

** In terms of play mechanics, ''MGS4'' was supposed to be more complex and have less Metal Gear-isms. Kojima talked in early interview that Snake could choose sides if he wanted in any of the conflicts (think ''[[Mercenaries]]'') even mentioning times when Gekkos would ignore you or help you. There were supposed to be less visual cues like the exclamation point over an enemies head as you were supposed to be able to tell from their facial expressions and mannerisms. Elements of psychological warfare such as enemies who spotted you would threaten you instead of always trying to kill you.

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'''s [[The End]] fight would have been a much longer cat-and-mouse, track-over-several days ordeal, as Kojima was inspired by an author's series of novels in which two snipers try to track each other. This was changed when it got too long and the staff ''literally booed him.''

** In terms of play mechanics, Snake Eater was to be an open-ended game in a huge connected jungle, with a night and day cycle and dynamic weather.

 

 

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]'' is rather famous for the number of levels that were planned for inclusion but ultimately cancelled, particularly the Hidden Palace Zone, of which there are traces scattered throughout the final game.

** One of the planned stages is still in the game... sort of. The third act of Metropolis Zone is a modified version of a scrapped one-act zone called Genocide City Zone.

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball]]'' had its own version of the early Sonic theme before the switch with ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles]].'' However the music development team found out that [[Mastao Nakamura]] had owned the rights and not SEGA as they assumed. Howard Drossin quickly whipped up a new jingle.

** Early Beta Version shows possible cut scenes or at least stills of Eggman viewing Sonic's progress through the Vego Fortress. The Machine stage also had a different tune.

 

* ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' for the SNES had several elements that were deleted early on in its production. Originally released as a launch title for the system, the game was a starting point for the design team of ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]'' to adapt their work to a new system (and indeed, the game had the subtitle "Super Mario Bros. 4" up until very late in the development process, as evidenced by television commercials promoting the game). It would have originally taken place in a much smaller world (two islands, which looked to be similar versions of Donut Plains and Chocolate Island), and Lakitu and/or a blue sparrow would appear periodically and fly around Mario (though their purpose is still unknown). There would have been several areas where the player would have to dismount Yoshi (or have the dinosaur disappear); in the final version Mario only dismounts Yoshi before going through a ghost house, fortress, or castle, and Yoshi returns for the next normal level after that. The beta of SMW also had sprites taken from the previous game (screenshots show that you could play as Raccoon Mario).

** Hell, the game was originally supposed to be released on the NES with a graphics enhancing chip in the cartridge (like Super FX in ''[[Star Fox]]'' and Super FX 2 in ''Yoshi's Island''), before ultimately moving onto the new system.

** Miyamoto got his chance to make a Popeye game shortly after making Donkey Kong. The Popeye game was a modest arcade hit and got ported to several platforms while "Jumpman" went on to be the core character of the Super Mario mega-franchise.

* For [[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|the original]] ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20130511080135/http://www.1up.com/news/super-mario-bros-25th-miyamoto Mario originally was meant to shoot bullets] rather than fireballs. Also, Miyamoto originally planned the controls to be A to shoot, B to run, and up on the control pad to jump, but it was decided that being able to run and shoot at the same time was too much of a [[Game Breaker]], so it was changed to put both shooting and running on the B button, meaning the jump could be moved to A.

* [[Retro Studios]] wanted to do a [http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=267&page=6 Mario football game.] As the company was formed mainly for games viewing mature audiences (its founder and many employees worked on ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]''), Nintendo instead suggested to make a realistic football sim. That game had some development, but got canned as development of ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' progressed (and that game itself earns its entry below).

* ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]'' was originally going to be the '''first Mario game ever to be rated T'''. It was going to feature a much darker story with much more horrifying monsters and a much creepier mansion. The biggest change was, if the game was not completed by the conclusion of one in-game day, Luigi would turn into a freakin' zombie!

** Kristoph's early designs included a kimono getup that made him look he'd fit right in with the [[Bleach|Gotei 13]].

** Additionally, ''[[Ace Attorney]] [[Gaiden Game|Investigations]]'' was originally concieved as starring Ema Skye rather than [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Edgeworth]].

* The collector's edition of ''[[Age of Empires III]]'' came with a hardcover artbook. The [http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/55677518_25f950ab1a.jpg last page] of the book shows Roman numerals extending from I to V. The "IV" is underneath a picture of [[The Vietnam War|Vietnam-era]] American soldier and the "V" is underneath what looks like an [[Halo|ODST]] [[Expy]].

* Originally, ''[[Anachronox]]'' was going to be an utterly huge, vast RPG spanning numerous worlds and dimensions, featuring epic Japanese RPG-style combat with Western storytelling and characterisation. The concept was so vast that it was decided to split the game into two installments, with the first ending on a gargantuan cliffhanger of epic proportions. Unfortunately, despite rating high on the scale of awesome, the game did not preorder very well and the development team was canned mere weeks before the game's release date. This angered the devs so much that one went on record '''encouraging people to pirate the game''', while others ended up developing some unofficial patches (such as adding a taxi service to the titular planet, saving on travel time)

* ''[[Bayonetta]]'' has a few examples of this: the unlockable art gallery has several conceptual versions of Bayonetta, as well as a design proposal where Bayonetta's costume would subtly change depending on which weapon she had equipped, instead implemented as perfumes you could equip that would do the subtle changes for a few weapons. Rodin was also originally called Mephisto at one point.

* Michel Ancel has stated before that the game that eventually ended up being released as ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' is, in fact, ''Beyond Good and Evil 2'' due to the sheer volume of things that were cut and/or changed. Protagonist Jade was originally named Sally, and was much younger-looking--her name changed due to "Sally" having unusual connotations, and her looks changed because she ''did'' look too young for a serious woman in her early 20's. The game was supposed to span multiple planets in an intergalactic chase, and the duel partner mechanic (used only at the very end of the game) was supposed to see a lot more use. The sequel, trapped in [[Development Hell]], already seems to be seeing this--after two incredibly realistic-looking trailers, interviews with Ancel suggest it's going back to something closer to its original look, and will be done by a small team as opposed to the big-budget production the first two trailers suggested.

* ''[[Bionicle]]: Legend Of Mata Nui'' would have been a 3rd person exploration/platform game for PC, based on the popular [[LEGO]] brand. Players would have had the opportunity to play as each of the six original Toa characters, meet the islanders personally, and fight their way to confront [[Big Bad|Makuta]] himself. And the entire thing would have been canon, standing as the most complete and most official telling of the 2001 storyline. Nearing completion, with loads of promo material having been released, the game was scrapped, and is now seen as a Holy Grail for ''BIONICLE''. Beta copies do exist, which reveal several flaws that might have caused its cancellation. The motion controls are clunky -- there is no transition between standing still and jutting forward with great speed. The fights are either boring (you can defeat bigger foes without having to near them) or annoying (as it's hard to aim at smaller enemies). The environments, while vast and pretty, barely have any challenges or minigames to offer, as the developers were notoriously inexperienced at making these. At the very end of the first level, there is an impassable glitch. And the story presentation was so cheesy, the Story Team would have de-canonized great chunks of it. These factors and the tight deadline are what probably lead to the game never getting finished. LEGO [[Word of God|simply states]] it wasn't up to their standard of quality. Thankfully, fans got to play a truly great on-line game for compensation, which was originally intended to be a mere side-note to the PC game.

* The original ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' underwent many, many changes from the time it was pitched to the final product. The original pitch still had the [[Zeerust]] idea; they wanted it to take place on land, in a series of interconnected controlled environment chambers created by 1940's Germany. The laboratories would be full of mysteriously dead human bodies, being overrun by strange, insectoid life forms called Gatherers, who collected genetic material and body parts, the Protectors for the Gatherers, and predatory Aggressors. These eventually developed into, respectively, the Little Sisters, Big Daddies and Splicers when the developers decided they wanted a more "human" angle. The concept art book for ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' shows off some of these life-forms; particularly striking is one insectoid being half-fused into a human body using its arms and legs to walk and fire a pistol. Among other things promised was the ability to alter the controlled environment, such as raising the temperature in an area and giving yourself a plasmid that protected you from heat exhaustion. One of the insectoids nearly made it to the sequel - the concept art shows Splicers turning into things that made [[Resident Evil|G-Virus mutants]] look cute.

** ''BioShock 2'' went through several ''huge'' shifts in storyline and themes during development. Originally, the Big Sister was intended as a single [[Big Bad]] or [[The Dragon]], a former Little Sister incapable of adapting to life on the surface who had returned to Rapture to try and rebuild the city of her childhood. She kidnapped girls to do so, and Tennenbaum returned to try and clean up the mess. This entire plot was more or less scrapped in exchange for a [[Perspective Flip]] with a religious collectivist villain in contrast to the first game's atheist Objectivist [[Big Bad]].

** At one point, the sequel was to have [[Dirty Communists|Soviet Russia invade Rapture]], with the Soviet troops replacing splicers. (It was even in some demos shown to reviewers.)

* ''[[Borderlands]]'' was originally going to have randomly generated vehicles that could be collected like guns, as well as a way to hijack a vehicle from a bandit. The dungeons would also have random elements as well (a cave where a blank wall was previously, for example). However, most of this got scrapped when they decided to change the whole game's art style.

* ''[[Brütal Legend|Brutal Legend]]'' was rushed, leaving the campaign only half as long as it was meant to be. Supposedly there was even a fourth faction, but that never saw the light of day.

** After John Carmack designed the Doom 1 engine, ID Software wanted to use it to adapt the movie '[[Aliens]]'. They decided against this rather quickly fearing [[Executive Meddling]] in their creative process.

** Similarly, early versions of ''[[Quake (series)|Quake]]'' were based around it being a very different hack-and-slash RPG set in Aztec temples (eventually changed to medieval European castles), starring a barbarian demigod named Quake who beats people up with his giant hammer. It was an eleventh hour decision to abandon this concept and turn it into a Doom-like run-and-gun shooter, which is why the finished game has a muddled and inconsequential plot that tries to explain why you're running around medieval castles wielding a hand-held rocket launcher.

** ''[[Quake III Arena]]'' began life as an idea for a single player game called ''Trinity'', which was abandoned very early in the game design process in favour of a game focusing more on the deathmatch experience and online gaming.

** And ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]'' started as a much more ''Metal Gear Solid''-style stealth combat game, with features like switching uniforms with guards, dragging bodies to avoid discovery, and using the knife to silently attack enemies instead of alerting them with gunfire. The game's pace was slow because of all this complexity, so they dropped it to speed up the game, in doing so basically invented the frantic first person shooter gameplay style we all know and love.

** The biggest instance of all is the fact that originally, the [[Karma Meter]] for the game would alter Mickey's appearance as you used Paint or Thinner more, or balanced both. This was changed as Scrapper Mickey (who looked more ratlike and with a nasty grin), who was the result of using Thinner a lot more, was too drastic-looking for fans of [[Mickey Mouse]].

** Not to mention that a level based on Alice's Curious Labyrinth (from Disneyland Paris) was scrapped due to the [[Tim Burton]] film, ''[[Alice in Wonderland (film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'', coming out at the time.

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' was originally planned to be an Nintendo64 game, but promoted to the [[Game Cube]], which allowed it to go from prerendered backdrops to realtime ones while not sacrificing any detail. Also, a few characters who were planned to be playable were relegated to NPC roles in other characters' stories, notably the temple guard in Ellia's and the templar knight in the cutscene before Roberto's.

* Supposedly, the person first considered for the role of ''[[Fallout 3]]'''s [[President Evil|President John Henry Eden]] was none other than [[Bill Clinton]].

** Several ideas from Van Buren would eventually be implemented in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]''.

* ''[[Final Fight]] Streetwise'' was originally intended to have Sodom and Poison appear. They were abandoned later in development.

* ''[[Freedom Fighters (video game)|Freedom Fighters]]''. Despite a clear ending with a sequel clearly brought up, and even an announcement of a sequel, developer Io never really gained any ground.

* ''[[Freedom Force]]'' originally was planned as a series where each game would be a different decade of comics history, leading up to the present. Instead they made a time-traveling second game with a few golden age heroes and one later-styled character with death powers, and then they hit it big with ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' with no indication they'll ever go back to the IP.

** An interview with GamePro had the director of God of War III reveal how the directors of GOW I and II (David Jaffe and Cory Balrog respectively) would have ended the franchise. The latter would have Kratos become [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] while the former would have Kratos set his sights on the Norse pantheon after slaughtering the Greek one.

** Another plot element cut from the first game was a puppy for Kratos to act as a literal [[Morality Pet]], eventually turning into a massive Cerberus-like beast and forcing Kratos to [[Shoot the Dog]]. They decided it was just too cruel to put it in.

* ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|GoldenEye 64]]'' went through several different ideas that were scrapped prior to its release. Chief among these were its transfer from the SNES (where it was first announced for) to the Nintendo 64. Aside from a host of [[Dummied Out]] mission objectives and modes, the game was originally intended to be an on-rails shooter (in the style of ''[[Virtua Cop]]''), and several levels (like Frigate and Silo) were designed with this style in mind - which also explains why they are so linear. Remnants of a planned "Casino" level also exist in the game code (with items like sticky cameras, playing cards and chips), suggesting that there were plans to have a casino-themed stealth level in the game.

** There was also a planned HD port of the game for the Xbox 360. The only problem was that Microsoft, Activision and Nintendo couldn't work out the licensing rights for the game. The worst part, though? ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXWls4S_qu8&feature=player_embedded#! The port was already finished!]''

** Both ''[[Golden Sun]]'' games on the GBA were supposed to be one complete game instead of two parts, but due to cartridge space limits, the story of the game had to be told over two games.

* One of the designers of ''[[Gradius]] V'' had the idea of having your ship have multiple missile, double, and laser types, which you would cycle through by selecting the respective slot multiple times.

** The ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' mission "Saint Mark's Bistro" was originally going to have the player chase the target through the streets of Portland Island.

** ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' was originally supposed to have areas based on [[New York State|upstate New York and Long Island]]. This was scrapped early in development, though references to an area called "[[Shout-Out|the]] [[The Great Gatsby|Carraways]]" (presumably based on the Hamptons) still exist in the final product and in the [[Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned|expansion]] [[Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony|packs]].

* In the original plot for ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'', Cortana was to go mad with power and try to use Halo to take over the galaxy. Thank God this never happened.

** The changes were much bigger than that. ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' started development internally as a real time strategy game (essentially ''[[Myth]]'' [[Recycled in Space|Recycled]] {{smallcaps|[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]]}},) but by the time it was publicly announced, it had become a third-person shooter with vast and seamless open environments, a [[Wide Open Sandbox]] campaign set in a persistent world, and a far stronger emphasis on vehicle combat and [[Co-Op Multiplayer]] with dozens of players; also, it was to be a simultaneous Mac and Windows release. Rumors at the time said its final form was vastly downgraded from the ambitious original design because the Xbox simply could not handle it.

** It was also stated, by Bungie, that the game was originally going to contain twenty-five missions rather than the ten that were shipped. One has to wonder why the ''Halo'' series as a whole was cut down so much.

*** Of course, the RTS concept was resurrected for ''[[Halo Wars]]''.

* Many ''[[King's Quest]]'' fans feel that ''Mask of Eternity'' was an unsatisfactory conclusion to the series, both because of its radical ''[[Genre Shift]]'' and the fact that it had little to nothing to do with the rest of the series. The end product turned out to be radically different from original designs. The main character would have been a statue that had come to life rather than a village tanner, some characters (such as the swamp witch) had much larger or entirely different roles, and the game world was a lot lighter and cheerier, matching the rest of the series more than the darker final product. And one can only imagine what could have happened if the game had stayed as a lighthearted point and click adventure like the rest of the series rather than the [[Darker and Edgier]] hack and slash RPG it ended up as.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'': According to Tetsuya Nomura in a [[No Export for You|Japan-only book]], Axel was originally supposed to die in the Prologue of ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]''. However, his popularity [[Saved by the Fans|with both fans]] and the staff caused him to stick around for most of the game [[Breakout Character|and beyond.]]

** Some other ideas were that worlds like [[The Lion King|the Pride Lands]] were originally supposed to appear in the first game but they didn't have the tech to make it, some unused sprites for ''358/2 Days'' show that a [[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]] world had been planned, but removed for unknown reasons, and ''Birth By Sleep'' has remnants of a world based on ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' [[Dummied Out]].

** Also, the ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]] Final Mix Ultimania'' (Japanese guidebook), shows that Nomura originally planned for the final boss fights to be alot different than how they turned out: Xemnas, after absorbing power from Kingdom Hearts, was to meld into a [http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/File:King.png giant Transformer-esque creature]{{Dead link}} and, upon defeat, transform into a more [[Nightmare Fuel|distorted]] [http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/File:Kentauros.png version.]{{Dead link}} This idea was nixed and instead we got the dragon-fortress/armored Xemnas and black-and-white coat Xemnas battles.

** ''Corruption'' would have used Samus' gunship a lot more. The final game is still full of Gunship Missile Capacity Upgrades and Gunship Missile Refills, but due to the rarity of doing bombing runs in the game, they're very nearly useless.

* To this day, ''[[Monkey Island]]'' fans still want to know what Ron Gilbert's original plan for ''MI3'' was. The plans still haven't been revealed, although Gilbert's involvement in the brainstorming of ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'' still made most fans at least a little happy.

** Before that, in Chapter 1, there was going to be a puzzle that would take place in Club 41 entirely in the dark for both the PC and Wiiware versions; but unfortunately, the latter version could only hold 40 megabytes, which the game already was (no wonder [[Development Gag|the place was called "Club 41" after the 41st megabyte]]).

** Also, there was going to be a different ending to Chapter 4 {{spoiler|1=[http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18698 in which Guybrush would absorb the Pox of LeChuck after curing everyone and become "Demonbrush Threepwood"] according to the [http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=404806&postcount=24 DVD concept art], but Telltale didn't want to do a good job in making him too epic-looking; otherwise, Chapter 4 wouldn't have been called "[[Wham! Episode|The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood]]"}}.

* ''[[Okami]]'' was originally going to use a standard realistic 3D style before the designers realized sumi-e would be a lot more fitting. Ammy's original realistic design can be seen in the [[Cosmetic Award|video gallery unlocked by beating the game]]. In addition, the video and art gallery showcases an absolutely insane amount of content (locations, characters, monsters) that didn't make it into the final game. If it had, the game probably would have been twice as long.

** Not to mention that the creators revealed in the artbook that they originally wanted to make the game about dinosaurs.

* ''[[Persona 4]]'' had a lot of unused concepts, such as Kanji Tatsumi as a middle-aged man, Rise Kujikawa as a juvenile delinquent, Teddie having a female human form, and Naoto would remain a boy detective. Also, weird little things like Chie and Yukiko having long and short hair, respectively.

** Also, game files were found by intrepid hackers that included character portraits for [[Persona 3|Junpei]], both with and without his hat. It seems he was to make a cameo, but for whatever reason, was [[Dummied Out]].

* ''Rogue Warrior''. Initially developed by Zombie Inc. (subtitled ''Black Razor'') was supposed to be a tactical [[First-Person Shooter]] that featured four player co-op and randomized level layout (somewhat in the vein of ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]''). Then Bethesda in 2009 stated they weren't completely satisfied with the current status and handed the development to Rebellion Developments (who were also making a new ''[[Aliens vs. Predator]]'' game.) One would consider [[What Were You Thinking?|what Bethesda was smoking]], considering how Rebellion's game came out.

** At least they have [[Narm Charm|Mickey]] [[So Bad It's Good|Rourke]] [[Cluster F-Bomb|rapping]] over the end credits.

* Back in 2004, there was supposed to be a sequel to the popular PC game ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam and Max Freelance Police]] Hit The Road'', titled simply ''Sam and Max: Freelance Police!!''. However, [[LucasArts]] cancelled the game, stating that there wasn't a market for its kind of game. This would lead to the creation of Telltale Games, and the would-be game would be referenced as probably one of the ultimate [[Noodle Incident|Noodle Incidents]].

* ''[[Sands of Destruction]]'' originally had an allegedly much more darker story, drafted by Masato Kato, who's responsible for [[Chrono Trigger|the]] ''[[Radical Dreamers|Chrono]]'' [[Chrono Cross|series]], ''[[Xenogears]]'' and ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'', before [[Executive Meddling]] came in and had the game marketed towards a younger audience. It results in the game's strange case of [[Mood Whiplash]].

*** Hacking into the game has revealed placeholder items (the same gems from ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'') for unlocking the sadly-absent UFO ending.

** ''Origins'' changed development teams entirely not long before it was released. The original version was a ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' clone that drew on a great deal more material from the movie. The first previews indicated the game was going to use the [[Over the Shoulder]] camera to deal with the smaller PSP screen.

* An early draft of the first ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' game featured Sly with a more Cockney accent (the comment track mocks this slightly) and Bentley with a more studied one. Sly also had a different name. Also, a slight change between the demo and the production game: in the first, the save points weren't remote beacons, but apparently a girl in a trunk who would pop out and photograph Sly (and remain inside giggling no matter how much you smacked her trunk with your cane).

* In late 2009, ''[[NBA Jam]]'' co-creator Mark Turmell revealed that he was working on a ''[[Smash TV]]'' remake at the time his former employers at Midway Games went bankrupt. The project died, and Turmell was hired by [[Electronic Arts|EA Tiburon]] shortly thereafter.

* "[[Soulcalibur V]]" had a single player campaign that was supposed to be 4 times as long featuring more of the characters but much was cut due to time contrains.

** The story changed as well. Sam was originally supposed to spend the entire game clearing his name (after the events of ''Double Agent'') and trying to find out who killed his daughter. In the final version, {{spoiler|he finds out that his daughter is still alive in the second mission, and he has to stop a terrorist plot that involves members of Third Echelon}}. The beta also had “memento sequences” you would activate at certain points to get flashbacks. In the final version, these sequences are automatically played on walls as you progress through a level.

* ''[[Spore]]'' originally had a much different interface, procedurally generated content for many more things, an underwater part, more complexity, more animal behaviors. Look at what everyone expected [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQvswZ39vq0 here]. <br />Maxis had two groups of people that wanted to shape ''Spore'': those who wanted it to be scientific, and those who wanted it to be "[[Viewers are Morons|accessible]]". According to [[Word of God|Will Wright himself]], the game had to be retooled, because the first group was winning, and ''it wasn't fun at all''.

* Continuing with ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'', a lack of money forced Banpresto to leave out a video game recreation of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'''s final fight between Gundam Exia and 0 Gundam in ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]] 2-2''

* Continuing with Banpresto, the ''[[Queen's Blade|Queens Blade]]'' Spiral Chaos game was planned originally as a multi-series crossover game Super Robot Wars-style, but using non-mecha series (besides Queen's Blade, other anime series were planned to appear) but it wasn't possible those series to be included, due to the authors and companies being reticent to allow their characters being crossed-over with other characters from other series. The sequel, ''Queen's Gate Spiral Chaos'' is the closest thing to the original idea Banpresto was able to get and still they weren't allowed to use Kasumi from the [[Dead or Alive]] series and she's replaced with [[Wonder Momo]] instead.

** Mewtwo wouldn't have been as much a semi-clone of Lucario (or vice versa) as Roy or Dixie Kong?

** Interestingly, it was said that Sonic and Solid Snake weren't going to be the only characters from their franchises - Shadow and Grey Fox were supposed to join them. However, Sega and Konami vetoed this and they were [[Demoted to Extra|Demoted to Assist Trophy]]

* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]''. Originally meant to be a realistic military FPS subtitled Brotherhood of Arms, it [[Vaporware|vanished off the face of the earth for several years]] and re-emerged as an over-the-top, cartoony game that emphasized [[Rule of Funny]] and [[Rule of Cool]] over any sort of realism, its prerelease coverage spawning numerous class-based team objective games in the meantime. And even then the character designs have been retooled somewhat. (For example, Beta!Scout is much older and more thuggish looking, Beta!Spy and Beta!Medic wore their symbols on arm bands, Beta!Demoman was just Scottish, Beta!Pyro was a bald man whose face was visible through his visor...)

** That's not the start of it. ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' started out as a combination FPS and ''[[Real Time Strategy|RTS]]''.

** Lara was also supposed to have grenades, dual Uzis, and a rocket launcher in the first game, but most of the ideas were scrapped due to technical limitations. The developers gave Lara dual Pistols instead and made the Uzis a late game pickup. Lara would eventually gain the use of a Rocket Launcher in ''Tomb Raider III'' and grenades in ''Tomb Raider: Legend''. Legend was also supposed to have Lara be able to use a Rocket Launcher as show in the concept art, but it was scrapped.

* The people of [[Nasuverse|Type-Moon]] revealed that the original protagonists of ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' were going to be a [[Meganekko]] girl with magical proficiency and her male servant named Saver. Eventually the girl was dropped, and Saver was given a [[Gender Flip]] and revamped as the Saber we all know and love.

** Also, the original design for the main character evolved into Rin, which might explain her prominence in all 3 routes and the fact that she's the POV character for the prologue and one epilogue.

** Likewise, the original design for Saver (likely an [[Engrish]] misspelling of Saber) was recycled into the design for Gilgamesh.

*** Amusingly, and possibly as a [[Mythology Gag]], the video game ''Fate/EXTRA'' does have a Servant of class Saver. It's not Arthur though.

** The original idea in was actually animated as a small short tiled ''Fate/Prototype''.

* The Darcsen ethnic group in [[Valkyria Chronicles]] were originally going to be Beastmen. One must wonder if people would have accused the game of historical revisionism (see page for details) if they had stuck with this plan.