Unknown Areas

February 28, 2021

There’s some prerelease areas that can’t be placed, and I’ve included them here.

This Japanese magazine article describes one of the islands that was completely cut, or a planned scenario that was possibly going to be part of Gold City or Turtle Island. The fact that the characters could be boiled alive here means that it was partially implemented as the Goblin Village.

Translated by Sevon

Cannibals living on an isolated island?

There's an island floating in the center of the map. It's pretty big as far as islands go. It probably has a village and at least one dungeon. Most likely, you won't be able to get there without Flammie because of the surrounding cliffs. The inhabitants seem to resemble [natives] from the tropics often depicted in photographs.

This castle (or fancy rug?) doesn’t resemble anything on any map.  It almost certainly predates IIa.

Possibly a cannon travel test:

Shops that could be anything though given their source.  Likely from early in the game:

This shop features Sergo and Phanna, and also has a rear door.  The rear door’s frame is still in the ROM, but the rest of the graphics have been removed.  The NPCs were likely being prototyped at this stage.  This location was altered and used as the pub in Potos; it could be an early version of that.  It also resembles the cannon man’s house in Kippo. 

Same place with Pecard:

These two islands from I don’t resemble anything in the final, and I’ve moved them together in this shot:

The one on the right was at least partially coded.  It doesn’t show up on IIa maps so it was a very early cut:

It looks like there’s a volcano on the island.  Some have suggested a possible forerunner to Volcano Island Bucca in Seiken Densetsu 3 (Trials of Mana).  Also note the more intricate map objects.

Early Lighthouse?

The game was possibly supposed to have a means of water travel, as evidenced by beaches throughout the world.  If so, I imagine this was a planned place to launch:

Queue mentions this bird’s resemblance to the Garuda from Final Fantasy Adventure:

Sheexy from the Seikens followed up with this art from the Final Fantasy Adventure manual:

Another animation frame:

This promotional image shows the entire area without sprites and the water overlay:

No idea on these either:

Then there’s a trove of random areas from the Gaia Lowlands.  Some are areas that are appear in the final game in different form:

Probably enemy tests:

Unfinished Cannon Travel screen: