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 prominent 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.
Dive to the Heart
In the game proposal folder that was prepared by Square to present the game's visual style, gameplay and plot elements to Buena Vista, a Station featuring Alice is shown, which was later omitted in favor of the pink Princesses of Heart Station.
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
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Alice's removed station
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.
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
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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 non-textured 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, additionally, they use the effects of the Oblivion Keychain. Using the same method Goofy and Donald can achieve similar weapons called "Staff of Detection" and "Detection Shield" respectively. These weapons were most likely used as colission models to check if battles or cutscenes could glitch.
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.
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.
Hi-Ether
The Hi-Ether was planned for Kingdom Hearts II at some point but was never implemented, only the sprite remained in the game files.
Lazy Afternoons alternate
An alternate version of Twilight Town's theme, Lazy Afternoons, is present in the game data.
Munny
The old Munny sprite was used in earlier trailers, but was removed in favor of a new sprite.
Behemoth and Wyvern
The promotional trailers for Kingdom Hearts II depicted Sora, Donald, and Goofy running towards the horde of Heartless, which included a new kind of Behemoth and several Final Mix-design Wyvern. The Behemoths and Wyverns were excluded from the final game, although this version of the cutscene appears in the opening of Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.
The Edge of Ultima, a palette swap of the original Ultima Weapon
The Detection Saber, another palette swap of the original Ultima Weapon
The room of the first battle against the Armored Controller resembles the King's crown
One of Xemnas's original boss forms, King
Another of Xemnas's original boss forms, Kentauros
The sprite of the Hi-Ether
The battle at Hollow Bastion as it appears in early trailers and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
The new kind of Behemoth from the battle at Hollow Bastion
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| E3 2005 trailer (Kingdom Hearts II) | Lazy Afternoons alternate | Kingdom Hearts II - TGS 2003 trailer |
| <youtube width="320" height="240">veo0UOuUyvM</youtube> | <youtube width="320" height="240">fZZbsmn4bR0</youtube> | <youtube width="320" height="240">kdZAOtcuvBc</youtube> |
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
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 was eventually recycled for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance as "Prankster's Paradise".
Crooked Chariot
The Crooked Chariot (ローディチャリオット Rōdi Chariotto) is a Heartless that, judging by its pegasus-like appearance, was set to appear in Olympus Coliseum but was ultimately cut from the game. It would have utilized lightning as its weapon.
Profile sprites
Pinocchio's 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
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Gideon's profile sprite
- MegaraDaysSprite.png
Megara's profile sprite
- HadesDaysSprite.png
Hades's profile sprite
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Tinker Bell's profile sprite
Crooked Chariot
- MidnightRoarAlt.png
Recolored version of Midnight Roar
- TwilightAlt.png
Recolored version of Twilight
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A Darkside in Beast's Castle
Pre-release screenshot of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days showing the Keyblade's Wind Maker form.
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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.
Large Land of Departure chest
A texture for a large Treasure Chest for the Land of Departure appears in the game files, but does not appear in-game.
The Light Seeker
Model for Pleakley in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Ventus confronts Master Xehanort in Olympus Coliseum
Ventus telling Aqua to erase him.
Ventus in the courtyard of Castle of Dreams.
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.
A large Land of Departure chest.
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| 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: Dream Drop Distance 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.
The logo from Kingdom Hearts 3D Demo in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix's data.
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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.
Early screenshot showing Shadow Sora
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Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days-style 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.
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Early Drop gauge
In the first trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3D, the Drop gauge originally had a gradient from violet to magenta to cream.
Alternate Dual Link icon
In early screenshots for Kingdom Hearts 3D, the icon on the touchscreen for activating Dual Link was represented as a purple rounded rectangle with "Dual Link" in orange text. This icon was later replaced with a white circle containing the Spirit sigil.
Queen Buzzerfly as a common enemy
The Queen Buzzerfly was originally created as a much smaller common Dream Eater before being reintroduced as a Dive Mode boss. During battle, the Queen Buzzerfly would have sat in the eye of a needle and spun like a top.[3]
Cut World Stories=
Originally, Space Paranoids was set to return as a Sleeping World for Sora's side of The Grid, as well as having Fantasia 2000 elements/worlds appearing in Riku's side of Symphony of Sorcery. Tetsuya Nomura found that they "had a lot to work with in the original Fantasia", so the latter was dropped. The former was likely dropped due to timing constraints, and to keep the promise that all Disney Worlds in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance would be new, avoiding the negative reaction towards recycled worlds in the other recently released games.
Rabbit-type Dream Eater
A lapine Dream Eater concept was planned for inclusion at one point, and is depicted in the Ultimania. It would have fought using carrots plucked from the ground.
The Drop gauge, as seen in the first trailer for the game.
The Dual Link icon, first seen in early screenshots.
Concept art of a rabbit Dream Eater.
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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."
- ^ Kingdom Hearts 3D Ultimania: Mamoru Ohashi: "Of course, halfway through development many Dream Eaters were cut to my extreme sadness. Among them was Queen Buzzerfly, which began designed as a normal small-fry enemy and cut but made a miraculous recovery as a Dive Mode boss, which is rare to have happen. By the way, when it was small-fry it attacked by sitting in the eye of a needle and spinning like a top."
