The game files of Yume Nikki contain some unused content, which is listed here. A lot of these are unused parts of the tilesets found in-game, extracted from RPG Maker itself.
Note: Please visit Yume Nikki's article on The Cutting Room Floor for more images and information related to the game's unused content.
See also: Neon Statues and Wrapi
Unused CharSet Elements
The CharSet files are where the sprites of various objects and characters can be found. Within them, there are several unused graphics:
Objects
- There are graphics for the chair in Madotsuki's Room turning to the left and right without Madotsuki sitting in it. However, the chair is only seem from the back in-game and does not turn unless Madotsuki sits in it.
- Another item from Madotsuki's Room, the trash can, has a graphic for being filled with trash. However, it appears empty throughout the entire game.
- A pole with and without the Hat & Scarf. It's possible this would have been in Block World, substituting the normal Hat & Scarf item that lays on the ground.
- A graphic for the Umbrella leaning on a surface as well as open without a handle. It may have been leaning on one of the lampposts in Puddle World.
- Tiles for a dark river or water. They may have been intended for the Sewers or the Dense Woods.
- Two elevator door variants, one which has a slightly different frame and another which is a more brownish-gray color. Both have opening sprites, but are still unused.
- One of the floor patterns in Neon World has a fully constructed variant rather than the normally chopped-up variants that are used in its CharSet. This was possibly to make the color-changing animation for it easier to animate.
Characters
- Unused colorations for Kinoko-san that come in full-gray, purple, and red. There is a bug in the FC Demon's Room where, upon using the Cat effect, the Kinoko-san inside the room will show the unused graphics while being pulled towards Madotsuki, though only one frame of the unused variants appears.
- A graphic for Medamaude facing to the left. It only faces to the right in-game. It's possible it could change the direction it was looking based on Madotsuki's position.
- The Toriningen in the Mall has sprites for facing backward, left, and right. It only faces forward in-game. It's possible it moved around like other "lunatic" Toriningen.
- The Submarine Fish has frames for its head poking out of the water. It could have possibly had an animation where it rose from the water instead of randomly appearing when Madotsuki enters its room. There is also a variant of the Submarine Fish that is blue rather than green and has a normal-looking eye.
- The unused blue Submarine Fish variant also has sprites for an unused rising animation.
- There is an unused Train Passenger that is gray with red eyes. It may have sat on the traincar while heading to Witch's Island, considering the fact that the black passenger is alone while the purple and maroon passengers are together, and the unused gray passenger has a similar appearance to the black one.
Unused Effects
These are effects that exist in the sprite sheets and have limited handling in the game's coding, but are not accessible in the game.
Blindfold
Appearance: Madotsuki wears a black blindfold.
Speculation: A type of effect that affects what Madotsuki can (or can't) see.
The sprites for this effect were added in 0.04 along with FC World sprites, and cheek-pinching sprites were also added in 0.07. This suggests it was planned for a while before being scrapped.
Grayscale
Appearance: Madotsuki appears in monochrome.
Speculation: It's possible this was not intended as an actual effect, but to be the appearance Madotsuki takes on in the White Desert, as there is no counterpart FC World sprite. If this is the case, then it's likely that it was dropped since it could cause confusion as to whether the White Desert was really white, or whether the effect was a result of a problem with the player's perception of it (as is the case with old monochrome photos). Allowing Madotsuki to retain her hues makes it clear that the player's vision is normal and that the world is white.
Interestingly, the sprites have been in the game since 0.04, perhaps suggesting that the White Desert was planned for a long while. The White Desert was added in 0.07, along with the cheek pinch sprites. This could also be taken as evidence that the effect had nothing to do with the White Desert, but is nonetheless consistent with the monochrome imagery of the game.
Madotsuki's Ghost uses the standing sprites while immobile in Mini Hell.
Will o' the Wisp
Appearance: Madotsuki transforms into a flame-like spirit wearing the Triangle Kerchief.
Speculation: A possible alternate form considered for the 'ghost form' of the Triangle Kerchief, as spirits are commonly depicted as blue wisps in Japanese folklore known as "Hitodama" (人魂, ひとだま). It may have been scrapped because it was too similar to the Neon and Triangle Kerchief effects, or it may have been an earlier concept for the latter.
Note that the sprites below the mugshot have (to date) only been found in version 0.04, but are still unused in that version. It appears that it would have been able to change colors between blue, purple, red, green, and gray.
Miscellaneous
- A 16x16 square frame, which is found in the FC World CharSets. It was likely just used for measuring sprites.
- Despite appearing to be tiles for a location rather than an object or character, there are tiles for Mars and the Spaceship in the CharSet folder. The most notable of these tiles are several floor tiles that appear to be intended for the underground area of Mars.
- A strange design that, when its frames are reconstructed, appears to pulsate or breath. Some have speculated it to be the original exterior of the Spaceship during the crashing cutscene.
Unused ChipSet Elements
The ChipSet files are where graphics for tiles and map building are found. Within them, there are several unused graphics:
Objects
- An unused pillow for Madotsuki's Room that stands out from the rest due to it being round.
- Two types of coral-like stalks that were intended to be used in the Barracks Settlement. One appears as a little bud while another is fully grown, resembling a zigzag.
- A graphic for a manhole surrounded by road appears. It was intended for the Infinite Road in the Dense Woods A, though nothing appears on the road in the final game. It's possible the manhole leading to the White Desert in Dense Woods B was originally supposed to appear here, though no red tentacle appears from the manhole graphic despite it being open.
- There are several unused pyramid graphics for the Neon Tile Path. One is of a normal pyramid, but smaller. The rest are of neon pyramids in neon blue, yellow, and purple colors. It's possible that there were more pyramids in the path or the pyramids would have changed appearance upon using the Neon effect.
- A graphic depicting the light of a streetlight, which is used in the ChipSet for Number World. It may be related to Lamp World, as it is connected to Number World.
- A torii gate is seen in the ChipSet for Puddle World. It could have possibly been used as a gate for entering another world.
- A tree variant for the FC House area, though it is never used.
- A bush for the Sky Garden, though none are placed anywhere.
- The Static Maze has a purple variant for its normally black gate, alongside a single part of said purple gate.
- Scattered confetti and a table with a cup appear in the ChipSet for Forest World. The scattered confetti also appears in the ChipSet for Graffiti World and Shield-Folk World.
- There are tiles that look like vines or chords. A graphic similar to these is used in the very west of the Underground World, though they are untangled and used as wires for a machine.
- Various unused tiles for the White Desert can be seen. They include various dots, an eye, and a plant- or rock-like object.
Floors and Walls
- There are two unused graphics for Madotsuki's screen door. One depicts it with a reflection of a city while another shows it with a cracked window.
- There are also unused floor and wall tiles for Madotsuki's room with different edges.
- Tiles made up of white dot clusters. They bare a resemblance to the Hell floor tiles, so it's likely they were a work-in-progress or reference for them.
- Unused tiles that match the style of the FC World. They are strangely brighter and much more simple than the style the FC House area uses, though it's likely they were intended for the area considering the tree, grass, and brick tiles.
- The FC House also appears to have unused corner tiles for the FC Goblins room, which may mean it had a different layout.
- An unused square-shaped hole appears in the Mall's ChipSet.
- A staircase that would have lead to the underground area of Mars, meaning the Midget effect was originally not needed to access it.
- Another unused aspect of Mars is a small graphic of the floor with a transparent square through it. It is unknown what this would have been used for.
- There are unused doors and lights for the underground area of Mars as well. Alongside the unused floor tiles mentioned in the Unused CharSet Elements section, it's very likely that the Mars underground was intended to be expanded upon, possibly as its own area, though this concept was never implemented into the game.
- There are two unused tiles for Neon World that both depict smiling faces. There also appears to be an unused set of red tiles that was likely used as a placeholder or test while making Neon World's animated floor tiles.
- There are graphics for the water of the Pink Sea, albeit with the water and sparkles separated.
- There is unused graphic for some graffiti that would have appeared on the walls of the Sewers. It resembles an eye alongside an M-shape.
- A variant of the brick building entrance in the Sky Garden, which shows a skinnier doorway.
- Unfinished variants of the blocks on the Wilderness staircase can be seen.
- A fully built block for the Teleport Maze, though the graphics in the maze are all manually put together, rendering this block unused.
- Staircase of Hands has tiles for the stairs facing to the right and a platform that would connect two branching staircases. It's possible this area was originally intended to be much more than a single downward staircase.
- There is an unused floor tile for Windmill World resembling tatami. The world is internally known as "Tatami Den", so this graphic may suggest an original appearance for the location.
Miscellaneous
- An unused autotile. It is somewhat similar to the red bumps on the side of the Hell paths.
- There is another autotile that is simply a recolor of the one used in Madotsuki's Room, though it is assigned to the Mall.
- Another autotile for the Pink Sea exists, though the graphics for it are messy when used.
- An outline of one of the Floyag appears. It was likely just used for reference in drawing the Floyag variants.
Old Version Leftovers
Some elements from older versions of the game have still been left in the game's files as of version 0.10, despite not being used anywhere in-game. Some of them can still be seen when playing older versions of Yume Nikki, considering the graphics are not unused themselves in those versions.
Last used in 0.04
- A graphic of a boombox, which was used for the Toriningen Party in 0.04. It was replaced in 0.06 where it is now smaller and animated.
- There is an unused sound effect consisting of a short two-note plop sound. This was originally the sound that played when a drink was dispensed from one of the game's vending machines.
Last used in 0.06
- Madotsuki's TV but with a red and black pattern on its screen. This was the pattern that appeared on the dream world's TV in 0.06 instead of the eye channel.
- There is a pink gate that was used heavily alongside a purple gate in previous versions in order to connect worlds that did not yet have detailed/specific objects or gates.[1] Unlike the purple gate, which can be seen in Hell in the final version, the pink gate is not used anywhere in 0.10.
- In 0.04 and 0.06, a different light appears at the end of the ladder in the Static Maze. The light's appearance was changed and remained the way it was in 0.07, though it remains in the files of the current version.
Last used in 0.09
- The trees in the FC House area originally looked much more like pine trees. They looked like this as far as 0.04, though their appearance was suddenly changed in 0.10.
- A large funhouse mirror that was located in Hell in all currently available versions up until 0.10. It gave the Fat effect when interacted with, though this was later given to the Strober NPC.
- A full sheet of Buyo Buyo in the game's normal art style. The normal-looking sprites were used in 0.06 and 0.07 when Buyo Buyo was located in the Barracks Settlement.[2] In 0.08, the Seahorse was added and can be seen draining Buyo Buyo, which is where the deflated sprites come from. From this version on, Buyo Buyo appeared in FC World B. The Seahorse continues to drain Buyo Buyo until 0.10, where Buyo Buyo's old body has disappeared.
- An earlier graphic for the red eye found in Lamp World can be found in the files. There are also unused graphics for the eye, one of it looking forward and two of it looking down. It's possible the eye was intended to watch Madotsuki in the enclosed area.
- An earlier look for the Sky Garden lamp posts exists in the files for 0.10.
- The stairs that appear at the end of the game are assembled differently before 0.10. They were initially made up of two tiles (the stairs and the platform), though they were changed to be made up of three tiles (the stairs, the top of the platform, and the side of the platform). There are no visual differences between these stairs despite being constructed differently.
- A taller traffic cone that is substituted for a shorter one in 0.10. It was specifically used in the Mall to block the escalator.
- There are colorful tiles that appeared in Neon World prior to its complete redesign in 0.10.
- CharSet graphics for the playable character in the NASU minigame. They were part of an unused event present in 0.09 known as NASU Link that would take the player to FC World C upon interacting with NASU. NASU would have appeared in Windmill World and Dense Woods A.
Other
This section lists other pieces of unused content that do not apply to the CharSet, ChipSet, and Old Versions categories above.
Neon World Parallax Background
Within the game's files is a parallax background that, although it seems finished, is found nowhere in the game. When adding a party member (mentioned below), this background scrolls by in Neon World, although it is not symmetrical and therefore doesn't display properly.[3]
FC World C
An entire part of the FC World, dubbed FC World C by fans, is unreachable, which makes up a large amount of the FC World map. It would have been accessed through an event known as NASU Link, which is detailed in the Old Version Leftovers section. Considering it reaches close to both FC World A and FC World B, some fans believe it was intended to connect the two worlds.
There is also a room intended for this part of the world, much like the rooms in FC Worlds A and B, containing head statues and a hand-like path. The room, however, can't be entered or exited without hacking, as there are no events linked to this area, making the player unable to leave if they were to somehow normally enter it.
Adding a Party Member
Another party member can be added to your party, but this is not part of the gameplay itself. It is nameless and there are no sprites associated with it. Having it in your party causes several scripts in the game to change. The party member requirement prevents events that should be "called" from being triggered directly. This could have been used for testing.
- All Toriningen disappear. The Toriningen Party and the lunatic in the Mall are not removed.
- The top-left cupboard in the Guillotine World will disappear. If you stand on its former tile and press the action button, then you will end up in front of one of the eight cupboards in the Number World. If you enter the world again, then the cupboard will have returned to its rightful spot. This works in the bigger version of the Guillotine Room, too.
- If you wake up, you will be unable to move. You can still open your menu.
- You can always do the Witch's Flight event, even if you don't have the Witch effect, but only if you walk off the edge of the top tile of the Mall Rooftop.
- An unused background appears in Neon World (explained above).
Unused Thumbnails
In the old versions of the game that have been recovered, low res thumbnail images can be found depicting some unused content.
Notable things found in these files include:
- An unused Famicom game called "Severed Head PK" (生首SC) with a blood-red menu and early art style. Another thumbnail showing the game itself shows a green field, what appears to be a soccer goal and a single monochrome severed head. A screenshot for what could be a player select menu also exists. This could explain why there is a separate menu to play NASU, as more games could have been considered.
- An odd image of two figures facing each other with their hair connected, one red and one blue, again with a slightly different art style.
- Scrapped versions of the waiting room in the Mall, one with an unused picture on the wall.
- Photographs of the ocean, one during the day and the other at night, although these could be test images.
- An unused White Desert background, seemingly to the left of where the Severed Heads appear. Another box can be seen on the left of the screen and in the background is a two-headed creature with tendrils growing from its hair, what appears to be a Japanese character for a face, and also seems to be wearing some sort of collared shirt.
- A second unused White Desert background: on the left, there is a doorway in a wall, and coming from it a path that leads to the right of the screen. An Escher-like 'box' is present in the background, appearing like a doorway or chute. On the left, there is a one-eyed creature of some kind with 2 eyes above it against a red plain.
- In the files for version 0.06 there are various 'card' thumbnails for some effects, consisting of images of each effect in a red border. These may have been intended for a 'portrait' based effect selection system, rather than a traditional RPG Maker menu, but ultimately scrapped.
References
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql-HvEwkPGI
- ↑ YouTube video which includes the old Buyo Buyo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4tY9K7H8Lk
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JibL1VdmAug