Part 32: Bonus Update - Misc and Cut Content

Today is a bit of mishmash of any remaining content the game has to offer.

First off, now that we are literally at the end of the game, I can finally post the damn trailer for the game as it no longer spoils the hell out of some things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvPThUEI2fE

If there's anything that looks unfamiliar, outside of maybe one image, it's just some cut content that didn't make it into the final product. And boy, was there some cut content! For my example of this, there was a trailer released in 2014 that really highlighted this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXJqi2KmhCw

You can tell that the game was in a primitive state...except at the end it says coming in 2014. As there is a big difference between 2014 and 2017, I thought'd it be a bit interesting to point out some potential cut content where I could find it. Of course, we'll need some music to go through this. So let's play the trailer music that is, sadly, completely missing from the game! It's tragic because it's really dang good and may be my favorite of the tracks Laura did for this game.



Searching My Life

So an easy thing to notice is how many areas got redesigned. The Skyland locations look different and I'm a bit unsure if we even go to a place or two shown. Another notable thing is people following the boy and his mom around. You see a bud and minimori presumably in the party! Was this just more fetch quest stuff like with the pig and Puchi or was more planned? Who know! But speculation is fun

Another thing I mentioned a lot is that I believed the game changed focus more towards the end of the game. That isn't just born out in the final product, if you see the original trailer- Tony's house looks almost the same thing we got in the final version. That we don't see the Monsieur's mansion in this trailer, may have meant Kisaburo got a "dungeon" similar to Tony and Gemma.

There are also a lot of scenes just now here or radically changed, that I assume were just cut for time. Which sucks as some look absolutely adorable, like the mom reading to the boy with all the Forest inhabitants there .

Now let's move on to some interesting things I found while diving into the files for spritework and other various things to help make this LP a lot easier. First up, here's a boy you're quite familiar with- Yami:



He's always had a filter on, so it may have been hard to tell what he looks like. In the files, he's called Child 1. Not important enough to be named I guess. Well, here's Child 1_old



He's still got that distinctive edgy teen look, but now in red! Probably a good change, as red hair would have been a bit silly.

Next up, we've got Puchi_old!



A lot less adorable looking. I'm unsure what type of breed Puchi was based on here, though it's a bit more wolfish and more aggressive looking. If you're crafting sad dog stories, the doggies gotta be cute! So I assume this is something that changed during this years long delay.

Now for an undeniably great change- the root foots. If you don't remember those, let me remind you:




Those adorable little things that also had the upbeat Tiny Planets to accompany them? I'm not sure I would have enjoyed them if they looked like this:



They weren't horrible, just uninspired. They look like walking cucumbers and I'm glad they're now adorable as heck.

Here's a change I'm a bit unsure on what inspired it. As it changes a character design completely! Here's Tony's sprite sheet. I'm sure you will see why I was a bit confused by it.



I guess the other Tony looked a bit more sterotypical old guy, and got changed for that reason? It also looked like he didn't fit the art style, so maybe this guy was here to serve as inspiration.

Speaking of art styles not fitting, here's Winston's Wife full sprite:



Looks a bit... out of place? Well, here's the full sprite sheet for her:



I thought this was interesting how some default sprites were repurposed to fit a theme that was radically different. It's sometimes neat to see how the sausage is made!

There's one more sprite change I want to show off, and it's a big one- Sue. Like her friend Puchi, it seems Sue had gotten a facelift during development. For likely a similar reason as Puchi.





If I had to guess, Sue looked too old in this appearence. The final version has a much more innocent look and gives her a very messy hairdo. Like with Puchi trying to look more cute, Sue being more innocent and younger looking likely helps people get attached easier. Although a preteen or even young teen Sue's story would still be pretty upsetting, but her innocence would have been less endearing and more "naive child". As well, her leeble form was going to be used for the "Build a Little World with me" part.





There's a sprite for leeble Sue doing everything involved with those segments.

And now, some cut content that makes me a bit sad.



You may have forgotten, but the boy does have a little brother! He gets mentioned in the first update, and the dad talks about him in update 28. I'm not sure if this sprite meant there were going to be more flashbacks or a focus on the boy before he got sick. Regardless, it would have been interesting (and likely adorable!) to see the boy and mom interact more with the family.

Finally, this is a consolidation of all of Sue's scenes. I felt that she had a lot of nuance and I discovered a lot of things about her story while replaying the game for this LP. I wanted to make sure people had the chance to easily see them again, with the full context of her story.

Update 31 - Sue's Tiny Planets

That's it for this update! I've squeezed out every last bit of content Rakuen has to offer. I hope people found this interesting! And if not, eh allow me some self-indulgence

Tomorrow is the ending to the game! I hope you've prepared your wish for Morizora...