Removed content

In the process of developing a video game, many ideas are discarded as unworkable for one reason or another. However, if the idea makes it far enough into the development process, aspects of it can be still be found within the code of the released games, or it may show up in trailers or interviews with the developers.

The following list covers much of this removed content. It is not comprehensive, and focuses on the more interesting elements.

Prominently removed content

Kingdom Hearts

Bahamut summon

Bahamut was originally planned to appear as a summon in Kingdom Hearts, but was removed before the game was released. Through cheat codes, a "Bahamut" option can appear in the Summons menu and can be selected. However, since there is nothing on the game disc to execute, the game will crash when chosen.

Disney Castle

As seen in the game's beta trailer, Disney Castle was originally set to appear as a playable World in Kingdom Hearts. Removed for currently unknown reasons, the world can still be accessed via cheat codes, as areas of the world exist from the game's opening cutscenes.

Crumbling Island

An area known as the Crumbling Island was meant to appear in the End of the World as the setting for the final battle between Sora and Riku before the climactic battle with Ansem. It appears as a remnant of Destiny Islands, consumed by the darkness.

Alternate logo

At the end of the beta trailer, an alternate Kingdom Hearts logo is shown, the word "Kingdom" in standard golden text on top, the crown just above it, while "Hearts" is displayed in a toned down version of the standard logo's spiked font below. The trademark heart is absent.

Assault Rider

The Assault Rider was going to appear in Kingdom Hearts, but was removed because it "didn't fit" in any of the worlds, possibly due to its style. It later appears in The Land of Dragons in Kingdom Hearts II.

Deleted scenes

In the E3 2001 trailer, the scene where Destiny Islands is destroyed plays out slightly differently from the final game. At the end of the trailer, Sora also manually inserts the Keyblade into Destiny Islands's Keyhole in the Secret Place; in the final version of the game, the Keyblade would shoot a beam to lock or unlock objects.

Disney Castle, as it appears in Kingdom Hearts's beta trailer
Crumbling Island
The game's early logo design

E3 2001 trailer (Kingdom Hearts)

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Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Dive to the Heart

A screenshot from an early magazine scan shows the Dive to the Heart was set to appear in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, likely as a memory-fabricated floor in Castle Oblivion, but was discarded.

Deep Jungle and Jungle King

Deep Jungle was set to appear in the game—as an early screenshot of the game testifies—as was its Keyblade, Jungle King, as a Card, but was removed due to Disney being unable to secure the rights to use Tarzan in future works.

Dive to the Heart (Early Screenshot) KHCOM.png

Early screenshot of Sora's Dive to the Heart in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Deep Jungle in an early concept of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
The Jungle King attack card

Kingdom Hearts II

Edge of Ultima and Detection Saber

Through the use of a cheating device, two palette swaps of the Ultima Weapon can be obtained in Kingdom Hearts II. These are the "Edge of Ultima", a version of the original Ultima Weapon with a glitched appearance, and the "Detection Saber", a palette swap of the original as well, except slightly larger. When these Keychains are accessed in Sora's Items menu, no picture of the Keyblades are shown, only map icons.

Alternate Xemnas forms

In his final battle, Xemnas was originally intended to use two "super-gigantic Nobodies" other than the World of Nothingness; King (キング, Kingu^?), which is humanoid and fittingly has a crown adorned with Nobody sigils, and Kentauros (ケンタロウス, Kentarousu^?), a humanoid upper body fused with a quadrupedal lower body. Both of them appear to be created from Dark City, similar to the World of Nothingness.

Coliseum Fights

For Kingdom Hearts II, Tetsuya Nomura intended to allow players to fight all of the Organization XIII members again at the Coliseum. This idea, however, was dropped due to time constraints. Instead, the characters were included in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, along with the rest of the members as data-based versions in separate optional boss fights and in a new location.[citation needed]

Deleted Scenes

The E3 2005 trailer for Kingdom Hearts II shows scenes that were ultimately removed from the final release of the game:

The scene where Roxas chases the thief is altered.
Axel walks closer to the far wall in the scene before his fight with Roxas; as he approaches it, he looks back at Roxas and grins.
Donald and Goofy are released from the Memory Pods in the Old Mansion's basement; Donald fires a Blizzard spell which ricochets off the walls and hits himself instead, freezing himself in a block of ice.
The Kingdom Hearts version of Hollow Bastion, specifically the Great Crest, appears as the place where Sora first met the surviving members of the Organization, after the trio slays a horde of Neoshadows.
Sora meets King Mickey in his Kingdom Hearts II attire before visiting the Mysterious Tower.
Sora was shown on the Dark Margin and holding his Keyblade up to something like he was getting ready to seal a keyhole.

Lazy Afternoons alternate

An alternate version of Twilight Town's theme, Lazy Afternoons, is present in the game data.

Behemoth and Wyvern

In the cutscene leading up to the Battle of the 1000 Heartless, the Final Mix Wyvern and a new type of Behemoth appear among the army of Heartless. They do not appear in actual gameplay, and were removed from the cutscene in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix.Template:Section-stub

The Edge of Ultima, a palette swap of the original Ultima Weapon
The Detection Saber, another palette swap of the original Ultima Weapon
King.png

One of Xemnas's original boss forms, King
The room of the first battle against the Armored Controller resembles the crown of the King.
Kentauros.png

Another of Xemnas's original boss forms, Kentauros
The removed Behemoth from the Battle of 1000 Heartless

*E3 2005 trailer (Kingdom Hearts II)*	Lazy Afternoons alternate	Kingdom Hearts II - TGS 2003 trailer
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Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix

Buzz Lightyear and Woody summons

Buzz Lightyear and Woody, characters from Pixar's Toy Story series, were at one point planned to appear as new summons in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix. Their models appear within the game coding, albeit without textures.

The unused Woody model
The unused Buzz model

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Profile sprites and Pinocchio's World

Pinocchio's World was originally set to appear in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but was eventually removed due to space restrictions. Tetsuya Nomura explained that the planned plot for the world was,

Set in a circus and playing off the story of Pinocchio, a puppet with a heart, and the Nobodies who possess no heart, we planned for a sad episode with Roxas and Xion looking for hope for themselves.^[1]

The world would have included Pinocchio (as a human) and Gepetto, as well as the villains, Honest John and Gideon from the original film. The profile sprites for the characters still appear within the final game's code.

Hades and Megara were also planned to appear in Olympus Coliseum, and Tinker Bell was apparently planned to have lines, before she was made mute. These characters' profile sprites also appear within the final game's code.

Weapon palette swaps

Palette swaps of Midnight Roar and Twilight exist in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days's game data, but do not appear as formal weapons.

Altered enemy

A Darkside was set to appear in Beast's Castle instead of a Dark Follower.

Wing Gear and Wind Maker

The Wind Maker (ウィンドメイカー, Windo Meikā^?) was to be an aerial attack Keyblade when the Wing Gear (ウィングギア, Wingu Gia^?) was equipped. However both the Keyblade and Gear were ultimately cut and the Wind Maker's appearance given to Leviathan.

PinocchioDaysSprite.png

Pinocchio's profile sprite
GeppettoDaysSprite.png

Gepetto's profile sprite
HonestJohnDaysSprite.png

Honest John's profile sprite
GideonDaysSprite.png

Gideon's profile sprite
MegaraDaysSprite.png

Megara's profile sprite
HadesDaysSprite.png

Hades's profile sprite
TinkerBellDaysSprite.png

Tinker Bell's profile sprite
MidnightRoarAlt.png

Recolored version of Midnight Roar
TwilightAlt.png

Recolored version of Twilight
Darkside days.png

A Darkside in Beast's Castle
Windmaker (Early Screenshot) KHD.png

Pre-release screenshot of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days showing the Keyblade's Wind Maker form.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Light Seeker

A version of the Kingdom Key D, the Light Seeker (ライトシーカー, Raito Shīkā^?), was set to be an equipable Keyblade for Ventus. It can still be equipped through the use of a cheat device on the Japanese version.

The Jungle Book World

The Jungle Book was originally set to appear as a playable world in the game, but was removed. The world can still be accessed by the use of cheat codes. A number of areas are accessible, including Louie's Throne Room.

Pleakley

Pleakley from the original Lilo & Stitch movie was set to make an appearance in Deep Space, but removed for unknown reasons. His model is still in the game's coding, albeit without textures.

Cutscenes and altered maps

Certain cutscenes which appeared in early trailers - shown at events such as the Tokyo Game Show and Jump Festa - were later altered for the game's final release. For example, the scene in which Master Xehanort reveals his plan to forge the χ-blade to Ventus was originally meant to appear in Olympus Coliseum, rather than the Keyblade Graveyard. A scant few scenes were also omitted, including one where Terra watches a young Sora and Riku partake in a swordfight, as well as individual lines, such as Terra telling Aqua that searching for the light Master Xehanort is after will lead them to him or Ventus at Destiny Island telling Aqua to erase him.

Some worlds had areas that are inaccessible to some of the characters in the game's final version. Examples include Ventus in the Palace Courtyard at Castle of Dreams and Terra at the cottage at Dwarf Woodlands.

Aqua's Design

The rear of Aqua's outfit was left ambiguous for some time due to series creator Tetsuya Nomura being unsure in its finalization. Until mid-2009, the back was left exposed until the game was officially released, where only the upper-back was exposed due to censorship. Also, Aqua's hair and eyes were a dark shade of blue, and lacked the sheen her final model has.

Laguna Loire

Originally, the Mirage Arena was meant to have a slight element of story to it, rather than be completely distant from any auxillary characters. The developers planned for Laguna Loire from Final Fantasy VIII to appear in the Mirage Arena as the head of the arena. However, the team was also planning Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy at the same time, and decided that if Laguna appeared in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, he could not appear in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. The team eventually decided they would rather have Laguna appear in the latter, and so Laguna was ultimately left out of the final product.^[2] As of yet, no data has been found in game of his planned appearance.

Light Seeker.png

The Light Seeker
Model for Pleakley in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Olympus Coliseum-Ven (Early Screenshot) KHBBS.png

Ventus confronts Master Xehanort in Olympus Coliseum
Destiny Islands-Ven (Early Screenshot) KHBBS.png

Ventus telling Aqua to erase him.
Castle of Dreams-Ven (Early Screenshot) KHBBS.png

Ventus in the courtyard of Castle of Dreams.
Enchanted Dominion-Terra (Early Screenshot) KHBBS.png

Terra in Enchanted Dominion, with thorn-damaged bridge.
AquaPrecensor.png

Aqua's outfit before censorship.
AquaOldAlphaModel.png

Aqua in the pre-2009 trailers. Notice the darker hair and eyes.

*Jungle Book World (Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep)*	*Removed Cutscenes (Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep)*
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Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix

Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo renders

The renders for the demo version of Kingdom Hearts 3D were left within the game data of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, including Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, Xemnas, Sora, Riku, Kairi, and the Twilight Thorn along with various elements of the demo's logo.

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness leftover render from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
Xemnas leftover render from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
Sora leftover render from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
Riku leftover render from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
Kairi leftover render from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
Twilight Thorn leftover render from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
Logo2KH3DDemo.png

Background of the logo from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
LogoKH3DDemo.png

Foreground of the logo from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
KH3DmodelKH3DDemo.png

3D render of the logo from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.

Kingdom Hearts coded

Shadow Sora

An early screenshot reveals that Shadow Sora was originally set to appear in Traverse Town, but was removed for unknown reasons.

Debug Mode High-Speed Stage (Early Screenshot) KHC.png

Early screenshot showing Shadow Sora

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days talk sprites

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded was to use talk sprites in the same fashion as Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. The idea was scrapped in the final release, but the talk sprites are still available within the game's coding.

The removed talk sprites found in the game's coding.

Notes and references

^ Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Fan Powered Q&A
^ Interview "The FFVIII hero was actually supposed to have appeared in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Nomura revealed. They'd even partially prepared a scenario where Laguna appears as the head of Mirage Arena. In the end, they decided that if they were to have a new character from FFVIII in Duodecim it would end up being Laguna, so they left him out of BbS."

[1] Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Fan Powered Q&A

[2] Interview "The FFVIII hero was actually supposed to have appeared in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Nomura revealed. They'd even partially prepared a scenario where Laguna appears as the head of Mirage Arena. In the end, they decided that if they were to have a new character from FFVIII in Duodecim it would end up being Laguna, so they left him out of BbS."

[1]

[2]