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.

Kingdom Hearts[edit]

Bahamut summon[edit]

Bahamut was originally planned to appear as a summon in Kingdom Hearts, but was removed before the game was released. Cheat codes can enable a selectable "Bahamut" option to appear in the Summons menu. However, summoning it crashes the game, since there is no data for Bahamut in the final release.

Disney Castle[edit]

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. Despite its removal as a playable world, it still appears on the gummi ship map.

Toy Story World[edit]

The proposal folder shown to Buena Vista included plans for a world based on Toy Story.[citation needed]

Dive to the Heart[edit]

The proposal folder shown to Buena Vista included a Station representing Alice, although this was later omitted in favor of the generic pink Princesses of Heart Station.

Unused Agrabah NPC[edit]

Within the game files a model for a fourth Agrabah NPC can be found that is not used in the game.

Crumbling Island[edit]

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. The area itself is reminiscent of the Secret Place, where Ansem is introduced for the very first time.

MP-Cost display[edit]

In earlier builds of the game, the combat menu would display the MP cost of associated spells.

Alternate logo[edit]

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.

Deleted scenes[edit]

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.

There are also several cutscenes with Riku that do not appear in the final game, one of which being when Riku is atop the Big Ben, seen staring out in a crouched position. The other being a moment at the destruction of Destiny Islands where Riku is seen standing in an open armed position staring up and saying something to particularly anger Sora enough to attack him. Donald and Goofy also have different attires all through the game, and the cutscene after the defeat of the Guard Armor is set closer to the world door of Traverse Town than in the final game. There is a scene where Sora is seen running down an alleyway in Traverse Town from something almost falling over before turning around to look behind him.

Unused "To Our Surprise" variants[edit]

There exist two alternate music files for "To Our Surprise" in the game's code. One is nothing but the brass accompaniment, while the other is the entire song with different instrumentation and balance.

Unused animations[edit]

Within the game files there's an idle animation along with a jumping animation for the Fat Bandit Heartless which are absent from the game.

Captain Hook's Ship World Icon[edit]

In the debug version for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX an unused world icon for Captain Hook's ship can be seen.

Gallery[edit]

Disney Castle, as it appears in Kingdom Hearts's beta trailer.
The removed Disney Castle logo as it would appear during the pause screen.
A screenshot of the Kingdom Hearts beta trailer showing MP cost in the Commands menu.
An image of the Toy Story World's concept, alongside early versions of Disney Castle and Destiny Islands.
Alice's removed station.
An unused NPC for Agrabah.
Crumbling Island.
The game's early logo design.
Unused Fat Bandit animation.
Unused Fat Bandit jumping animation.
Unused "To Our Surprise" variant.
Unused "To Our Surprise" variant.
An unused world icon for Captain Hook's ship.

E3 2001 trailer (Kingdom Hearts)

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories[edit]

Dive to the Heart[edit]

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[edit]

Deep Jungle was set to appear in the game, as was an Attack Card of the Jungle King Keyblade. They appeared in early screenshots of the game but were removed from the final version.

Unused Map Cards[edit]

Three Map Cards were present in an early build of the game, but were removed in the final release: One bearing the image of a grassy field, one being a desert, and one showing what appears to be the platforms in Dive to the Heart. All three were Status Map Cards with unknown effects.

Gallery[edit]

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.
Unused Map Cards.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories[edit]

Extreme Mode[edit]

A mode called Extreme Mode can be found within the files of Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. A description can be found in the pause menu, which states that "Both Sora and enemies are at their strongest from the start in this mode". The mode can be activated through an editing program. Enemies in extreme mode use the HP and damage values from standard mode.^[1]

In this mode, Sora begins the game having already learned all of his sleights, as well as High Jump and Superglide. However, he starts without a Moment's Reprieve card, meaning he cannot progress past the first room unless an editing program is used. The second chest in each Room of Rewards will appear, even if the player does not possess game clear data. Cards that are unlocked through rewards rooms or bounty rooms before being added to the random card pool (such as Attack Cards, Magic Cards, or Item Cards) are treated as already unlocked, while cards only available once (such as Organization XIII Enemy Cards) must still be obtained from their original locations.

In Reverse/Rebirth, Riku is unable to upgrade his DP when leveling up. He also cannot use sleights, with the exception of Duel sleights.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Kingdom Hearts II[edit]

Edge of Ultima and Detection Saber[edit]

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, Donald and Goofy can achieve similar weapons called "Staff of Detection" and "Detection Shield" respectively. These weapons were most likely used as collision models to check if battles or cutscenes could glitch. [citation needed]

Woody and Buzz Lightyear summons[edit]

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

Alternate Xemnas forms[edit]

"King" redirects here. You may have been looking for other uses of King.

In his final battle, Xemnas was originally intended to use two "super-gigantic Nobodies" other than his dragon; 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 Dragon Form.

Coliseum Fights[edit]

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.^[5]

Deleted Scenes[edit]

The E3 2004 and the TGS 2003 trailers 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 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. (TGS 2003-only)
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. (TGS 2003-only)

Hi-Ether[edit]

The Hi-Ether was planned for Kingdom Hearts II at some point but was never implemented, only the sprite remained in the game files.

Unused music[edit]

Several unused music tracks can be found in the game data:

A version of "Guardando nel buio" that differs slightly from its appearance in Kingdom Hearts
An arrangement of "He's a Pirate" that differs from the final version
An unnamed, not instrumentalized song that has many similarities to the Final Fantasy IX theme "Melodies of Life"

In addition, the Winnie the Pooh song "Whoop-de-Dooper Bounce", written by the Sherman Brothers for The Tigger Movie, is listed in all versions of the Kingdom Hearts II credits, but does not appear in any form in the game.

Munny[edit]

The old Munny sprite was used in earlier trailers, but was removed in favor of a new sprite.

Unused NPCs[edit]

Within the game files a few models for unused NPCs can be found.

Behemoth and Wyvern[edit]

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.

Gallery[edit]

The Edge of Ultima, a palette swap of the original Ultima Weapon.
The Detection Saber, another palette swap of the original Ultima Weapon.
The unused Woody model.
The unused Buzz model.
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.
Unused boy NPC
Unused female NPC
Another Unused female NPC
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.
Unused "Guardando nel buio" arrangment.
Unused "He's a Pirate" variant.

E3 2004 trailer (Kingdom Hearts II)	Final Fantasy IX inspired theme	Kingdom Hearts II - TGS 2003 trailer

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days[edit]

Pinocchio's World[edit]

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.^[6]

The world was eventually recycled for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance as "Prankster's Paradise".

Crooked Chariot[edit]

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 used lightning as its weapon.

Profile sprites[edit]

Pinocchio's World would have included Pinocchio (as a human) and Geppetto, 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.

Early screenshots shows early versions of the character icon in battle. Unused version of the character sprites also appear within the final game's code. Xion's unused sprite shows her with bluer hair than with black hair.

Weapon palette swaps[edit]

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[edit]

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

Wing Gear and Wind Maker[edit]

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.

MP and LM Gauges[edit]

The 2006-2007 beta build of the game featured an MP gauge to execute magic spells, and an LM gauge to trigger Limit Breaks.[citation needed]

Idle animations[edit]

Originally, it was planned for Roxas and the members of Organization XIII to feature unique animations when they stood idle for extended periods of time.[citation needed]

Magic[edit]

Stop magic was planned for the game at some point, but was ultimately scrapped. It can still be accessed via modifying the games files but crashes the game when used in most cases.