Valkyria Chronicles (aka Battlefield Valkyria: Gallian Chronicles in Japan) is a tactical j-rpg developed by SEGA and released for Playstation 3 in 2008. In the screens below,we can see a beta version of the map and of the HUD.
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The Incredible Shrinking Character [Cancelled – PSX SAT PC]
The Incredible Shrinking Character is a cancelled action adventure game that was in development by Go-Go Interactive Studios and that would have been published by Cyberdreams for the Playstation, Saturn and PC in 1996. The plot involved a crazy doctor that shrinked the main character with an experimental potion. Players would had to explore the (now) huge laboratory resolving puzzles, to find a way to return to normal. As we can read at Bill Narum’website, former owner of Go Go Studios:
The year is 1959. You are a Private Investigator hired to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Julie Caldwell, daughter of a wealthy east-coast industrialist family. The subject, in her early twenties, was last reported heading to visit the home and laboratory of Dr. Warren Franklin. […]
On the afternoon of January 30th, you head off to the doctor’s castle for the interview of a lifetime. Unknown to you, Dr. Franklin has laid a trap, and you awaken in a stupor to find yourself only 3 feet tall and gradually shrinking. You realize now that finding Julie will be no simple task. […]
Another reoccurring sound you can’t help but notice is that of a female screaming, most likely the victimized Julie. The volume and intensity increases as you approach the dungeon. You must find the antidote and save Julie soon, but first you must evade becoming dinner for the doctor’s house cat, and numerous other deadly creatures, bats, rats, roaches and ants, etc. that inhabit the mysterious castle.
They planned at least 10 levels in the game, in which the main character would have shrinked more and more each hour, leaving us to deal with big ants and size-based puzzles. A short preview of The Incredible Shrinking Character with some screens were published in NextGeneration magazine issue 14 and some more info on the project can be found at Bill Narum’website. You can even download a playable beta demo for PC! Huge props to Bill for preserving some documents of this lost game!
Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Thanks to Ari for a backup of the demo!
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Urban Smash (MotorStorm Apocalypse) [PS3 – Proto / Beta]
Developed by Evolution Studios for the Playstation 3, Urban Smash was going to be an original IP driving game set in real-life locations, but was put on hold during development of MotorStorm Pacific Rift. As revealed during a developer session at the Eurogamer Expo 2010 however, the project later evolved into MotorStorm Apocalypse and a prototype video that was shown during the presentation can be found below. You can read a preview of Apocalypse with more info about the final game at Gamer Limit.
Thanks to Martin Bigg for the contribution!
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Brains in Planes [PSX PC – Cancelled]
Brains in Planes is a cancelled racing game that was in development by Millennium Interactive, planned to be released for PC and the original Playstation. Only a single image taken from the Alias environment was found by pcloadletter and Celine in Edge magazine 35, from August 1996. Brain in Planes was probably going to play similar to Mario Kart, but with futuristic cartoon craft and the speed of Wipeout, promising more freedom to explore the tracks.
When Sony bought Millennium Interactive in 1997, they became SCE Studios Cambridge and the project vanished forever, maybe because they decided to shift development time and resource to Medievil and Creatures. Its interesting to notice that Brains in Planes was to ship first but only the other two games made it.
Thanks to pcloadletter and Celine for the contributions!
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Breath of Fire 3 [Beta Concept – Playstation]
Breath of Fire 3 (III) is a RPG developed by Capcom Production Studio 3 and published in September 1997 (Japan) for the PlayStation. The project went through a lengthy development phase with numerous delays, mostly due to several writing and design changes mid-progress.
Character artist Tatsuya Yoshikawa went through numerous preliminary beta designs for each character, only settling on a finalized set of drawings after many character sprites and portraits were already completed. As a result, some character’s in-game appearances differ from official promotional material, such as child Ryu having a different hairstyle and wardrobe than his final design. [Info from Wikipedia]
In EGM #83 (from June 1996) there was a small article about the initial development of Breath of Fire 3, in which they shown some of the earliest character designs for Ryu and Nina, with a style more similar to Breath of Fire 2’s one.
Early Beta Concept Art:
Final Design:
More concept arts can be found in the Breath of Fire III Memorial Book and other Capcom’s official Art books. Some of these can be seen in the Dragon Tear gallery!
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