Gaia’s Navel

February 28, 2021

Gaia’s Navel is the clever name for the cave that leads deep into the underground, and it may also refer to the waterfall where the entrance lies. The varying levels of hills that surround it resemble a drain that eventually leads to the water. Inside, the Dwarf Village can be found, along with the adjacent Underground Palace. The cave itself is a treacherous tunnel with lava and water pools, not to mention the axe-wielding goblins and magic-casting bats. Switches control the flow of the pools, as well as the cave’s terrain, indicating mechanical technology that’s likely the work of the dwarves. North of Gaia’s Navel is the Haunted Forest which contains the witch Elinee’s castle. This area features intricate battles with well-placed enemies that play off each other in a way that’s sadly lacking elsewhere.

Fantasy Anime’s in-game maps:

Development

This area went through a lot of changes during development. Transporters that were used to get to the Haunted Forest are missing before World Map III. In these earlier concepts, there may have been a way to walk there from Gaia’s Navel. There’s a clearing that’s out of bounds of the player’s view that may have been a westward exit. This is normally inaccessible as the player can’t reach the highest level of terrain on this map:

Another look at the Haunted Forest during IIa:

The Haunted Forest looks different on the world map than it does on the ground.  There’s an unfinished area at the bottom (open grass area, top right in the below picture) that was covered over with trees and random details between IIb and III.  It can be seen here and in some of the maps posted above:

An early castle concept:

The castle around the IIa era:

Gaia’s Navel itself was very different before III.  Given its simplicity, it was probably a placeholder until the final version was developed:

An overhead view:

A screen that can’t be placed:

Speaking of BahamutArk, this is his best attempt at reconstructing the original idea. This also proves that the screenshots come from two or more builds as it’s not possible to line things up perfectly:

In the IIb era, the area was finished, but there’s details that were removed before III:

This is one of my favorite prerelease shots, which likely came from the interior.  It reminds me of the Phoenix Cave in Final Fantasy VI:

A different entrance graphic:

This shot is from an early version of the first lava room:

Next is an early or test version of the Tropicallo battle, with all three characters and two Bramblers. He did not have his spikes yet. There are two builds. One looks a lot like the room where you have to drain the lava before proceeding to the dwarf village. He actually has two Bramblers in the final game too, but one spawns out of bounds close to 100% of the time. Sometimes, it spawns so far out of bounds that you can’t even cheat and find it behind the wall—it’s way off beyond what the map can register. 

Double doors for the dwarf village:

A nifty looking Haunted Forest transporter with more decorations:

Neko in a lost area of the Haunted Forest:

Darker take on Elinee’s castle, probably unfinished:

Localization Notes

• The Underground Palace at Gaia’s Navel is more literally translated as, “Palace at the Depths of the Earth”, or more simply, “Earthdeep Palace.”
• In Japanese, the dwarves speak in the Tohoku dialect, a sort of rural stereotype.