History WhatCouldHaveBeen / VideoGamesAToF

* ''VideoGame/DeathStranding2OnTheBeach'': Creator/HideoKojima [[WordOfGod claims]] that after experiencing the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, he took the creative decision to chuck the completed script for the sequel out the window and start from scratch.

** There was an entire PlayerCharacter option that was removed from the final product; Helia, a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot halfling werewolf bard]]. If not picked as the player she could then be rescued from the goblin camp, but instead players received TheSixthRanger Halsin and a wealth of equipment tailored for bards that goes unused in the vast majority of playthroughs. Halsin himself was supposed to receive a subplot regarding his druid circle, but this was cut and since he has no more role in the story by the time he joins the party he ends up OutOfFocus.
** In Early Access it was possible to make a PlayerCharacter who was a cleric for [[GodOfEvil one of the Dead Three]], but because of the [[HijackedByGanon massive ramifications this would have on the story]] it was cut for time constraints.

** There was an entire PlayerCharacter option that was removed from the final product; Helia, a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot halfling werewolf bard]]. If not picked as the player she could then be rescued from the goblin camp, but instead players received TheSixthRanger Halsin and a wealth of equipment tailored for bards that goes unused in the vast majority of playthroughs.

** Elven LovableRogue Astarion was originally imagined as a tiefling, but since Karlach already filled that niche the idea was abandoned.

** ''Throne of Bhaal'' was originally supposed to act as the third full game in the series, but was later turned into an ExpansionPack. It is unknown whether the game would have sold better if it was a full game or not, but various interviews by the game's designers have indicated that there were a number of elements that were never implemented in the game, including bounty hunters following and attacking the player's party throughout the storyline, Melissan possibly turning the player's party members against them, Saemon disguising the party as monks to get into Balthazar's chambers, and more. David Gaider's ''Ascension'' mod was an attempt to put some of the unused elements back into the game, including extended epilogues that make clear that the protagonist and their love interest would have SpinoffBabies.

* ''VideoGame/DeathStranding2'': [[WordOfGod Hideo Kojima claims]] that after experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, he took the creative decision to chuck the completed script for the sequel out the window and start from scratch.

* Franchise/{{Fallout}}:

** The UsefulNotes/PlayStation game ''VideoGame/AirCombat'' was meant to be a home port of the original arcade game of the same name, before being reworked into its own game with the arcade original's core mechanics.

** ''VideoGame/BanjoPilot'' on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance was originally conceived as ''Diddy Kong Pilot'', a flying race game featuring Diddy Kong and a spiritual successor to ''VideoGame/DiddyKongRacing'' featuring pseudo-3D graphics. When Rare was bought out by Microsoft, the project was canned due to their loss of rights to the Donkey Kong characters and was re-tooled as ''Banjo-Pilot''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bionicle}}'': There were plans to release the game onto UsefulNotes/PlayStation, and the game would have had levels featuring the six Toa in both their original Mata and updated Nuva forms, adding up to a total of 13 levels. A lot of these had to be scrapped due to the rushed development, even though the canceled levels were still heavily advertised in promotions. The released game only has 8 levels, and Tahu's the only one playable in both of his forms.

*** ''[=BioShock Vita=]'', a cancelled game on the UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita, was going to be a turn based strategy game similar to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', set in pre-fall Rapture.

* ''VideoGame/ElementalGimmickGear'' was originally in development for the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, but due to the decline of that system wound up on the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast. This explains why the cutscenes and 3D battles have higher resolution graphics than the basic gameplay mode.

* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness: Sanity's Requiem'' was originally planned to be a Nintendo 64 game, but promoted to the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube GameCube]], which allowed it to go from pre-rendered backdrops to real-time ones while not sacrificing any detail. Also, a few characters who were planned to be playable were relegated to NPC roles in other characters' stories, notably the temple guard in Ellia's and the templar knight in the cutscene before Roberto's. After Silicon Knights' buyout by Microsoft, they were going to make a sequel to ''Eternal Darkness'' for the Xbox 360 sometime after the release of ''Too Human 2'', but the sequel was cancelled when SK went under due to a lawsuit with Creator/EpicGames and use of the Unreal Engine. A SpiritualSuccessor, Shadow of the Eternals, did not reach its crowdfunding goals, and may not be released.

** The game's digital artbook showcases various details that were changed before the final release; character designs that went unused, areas that had vastly different looks, and AnimalMecha encountered as bosses.

** As shown in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X20MeoJFTwY early]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj9eHE69eP0 trailers]], [[spoiler:the game was originally going to be part of the [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-verse]] complete with their original names; the SCP Foundation (now the Circle Consortium), and SCP-682 (now known as Varanus).]] However, according to [[https://www.gematsu.com/2020/06/anno-mutationem-30-minutes-of-gameplay Gematsu]] the developers had to change it in order to avoid issues.

** Imoen [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/12/23/baldurs-gate-memories?page=2 did not exist]] in the original concept Baldur's Gate. Her character was a late addition to fill a non-psychotic-thief gap in the early levels. There was no recording budget left, so her lines were assemblied together from voice-over left from a scrapped demo. That's why she has no standalone confrontations / interactions with other party members. A trace is in the game files, showing that actually two characters representing Imoen are used before and after leaving Candlekeep. Imoen(1) was a filler whose only purpose was to inform the main character to look for Gorion, her skills being random and her class being a mage. Imoen2 is used after the main character leaves Candlekeep, as a fully joinable thief companion built from scratch. She was added because testers complained that there were only evil or crazy thieves during early chapters. Developers thought that good alignement parties would have faced difficulties. The original idea for the first hour companion was instead of a guard named Pique. After Imoen was added in, Pique was thrown out, but some of his lost dialogues were found and reconnected by [[https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909943/#Comment_909943 mods]].

* VideoGame/{{Fallout}}:

** The entire series may have ran on the ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' system. Fortunately, that What Could Have Been can be experienced if you have a good GM who's willing to let you play Fallout with GURPS.

** ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Fallout: New Vegas]]'' originally allowed you to continue playing after the main quest, with some new sidequests and dialogue even being opened up. This was unfortunately ditched for the final product, as the wide variation in potential endings, coupled with the limited development time, made it an unrealistic proposition for Obsidian.
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' was developed by Creator/ObsidianEntertainment (primarily made up of former Black Isle staff), who incorporated elements of ''Van Buren's'' plot into the game's backstory and setting. The group called Caesar's Legion in particular is inspired by a similarly named group of slavers from ''Van Buren''.

* Originally, ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'' was going to be an utterly huge, vast RPG spanning numerous worlds and dimensions, featuring epic Japanese RPG-style combat with Western storytelling and characterisation. The concept was so vast that it was decided to split the game into two installments, with the first ending on a gargantuan cliffhanger of epic proportions. Unfortunately, despite rating high on the scale of awesome, the game did not pre-order very well and the development team, having already suffered from the disastrous launches of ''Dominions'' and ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'', was canned mere weeks before the game's release date. This angered the devs so much that one went on record '''encouraging''' people to pirate the game, while others ended up developing some unofficial patches (such as adding a taxi service to the titular planet, saving on travel time).

* Originally, ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'' was going to be an utterly huge, vast RPG spanning numerous worlds and dimensions, featuring epic Japanese RPG-style combat with Western storytelling and characterisation. The concept was so vast that it was decided to split the game into two installments, with the first ending on a gargantuan cliffhanger of epic proportions. Unfortunately, despite rating high on the scale of awesome, the game did not pre-order very well and the development team was canned mere weeks before the game's release date. This angered the devs so much that one went on record '''encouraging''' people to pirate the game, while others ended up developing some unofficial patches (such as adding a taxi service to the titular planet, saving on travel time).

** One early draft had Imoen [[http://www.gamejag.net/Attic/Archives/Quiz42/Attic.cgi@read=375 turning into the Slayer while in Suldanesselar]], with the protagonist forced to kill her. This was dropped because it would have toggled centrality of the story from the main character. Furthermore, Haer Dalis, was supposed to comment with awe at the transformation, and oppose the player because he saw the Slayer as a pure chaos form. Since this was tied to his romance, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/jmw2z0/comment/gaz1gqy/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 the latter was entirely removed]].

** Another early version was that the cop was preparing the city for an apocalyptic event known as "the Tequila Sunset". In the finished game, you can still choose to go around telling people TheEndIsNigh, but the Tequila Sunset doesn't appear to be the end the cop's apocalyptic ramblings are aimed towards. Tequila Sunset ends up appearing as a minor thread, as an alias of the protagonist (referred to by Inland Empire as 'your true name').

** The character Curly Brace was nowhere to be seen--instead, Curly Brace was the name of the player character. This led to a bit of ascended {{fanon}}: In the finished game, it's mentioned that the protagonist has something written on his hat, but we never find out what. Artwork from the beta game showed that his name--Curly Brace--was written on his hat, so fanon insisted that, in spite of the name change, his hat still said "Curly Brace" in the finished game. When asked about this, Pixel's response was “Sure Why Not.”

** It's shown in earlier trailers that the game was more than likely going to be much BloodierAndGorier than the final product to compliment how the story is similar to ''VideoGame/GodOfWar''. However, this was when Creator/KeijiInafune was executive producer for the game before he left Capcom, and he had also tried to westernize the game this way. When a game is based on Asian Mythology to begin with. The trailers also showed the game as a ''VideoGame/GodHand''-esque beat 'em up with some QTEs for power-ups and special moves, being able to pick up things like giant stone pillars for weapons, and actual blood spurts.

** [[BarbarianHero Minsc]]: his pet hamster Boo gets kidnapped and Minsc's fighting abilities are affected by this. You have to find Boo or you can [[WhatTheHellHero lie to him and get him another hamster]].
** [[DarkActionGirl Viconia]]: she's been infected by lycanthropy and will turn into a werewolf unless you find a cure. Also, once you reach the Underdark, she betrays you to the Drow, but later reconsiders.
** [[NaiveNewcomer Aerie]]: she finds a magic scroll that will turn her into a bird. She considers using it rather than live forever without her wings. You can convince her otherwise or she'll leave forever.
** [[SpoonyBard Haer'Dalis]]: he and the party gets repeatedly summoned by a unknown mage to fight monsters. Eventually, Haer'Dalis gets pissed and wants to find the summoner.

** ''beatmania IIDX 21 SPADA'' had a lot go unused with its unlock system. Qprogue, the main unlock event, was slated to have four phases; the third never happened and the fourth became Qprogue DX, a revamp of the existing event that added a handful of new songs. There was also a second event that got scrapped entirely, although some residual data remains in the game's files. Additionally, there was supposed to be an eighth [[BonusBoss Spada Leggendaria]] song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3krtqNjegU Broken Sword]], which appeared on the subsequent game.

** The original ''Final Fight'' was originally meant to be a sequel to the first ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' game entitled ''Street Fighter '89'', but reactions from consumers when the game was demonstrated at a trade show led to the game to be a standalone game. Supposedly, the fact that the game had really nothing to do with Street Fighter was the reason behind the change; the intended shared universe remained, however, and from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' on the series has featured Final Fight characters.

* According to the concept art of ''VideoGame/CoffeeTalk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly'', there was originally going to be a new human character named Rhea, who was an "aesthetic wellness and health" social media influencer. [[DecompositeCharacter She was then split into two different characters with each of those aspects]], Lucas the cheerful influencer satyr and Riona the quiet banshee with a dream.

* According to the concept art of ''VideoGame/CoffeeTalk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly'', Riona was originally named Rhea.

** There’s an unused item in the files called Expansion Gel, which would’ve given Catie temporary GagBoobs in exchange for a stat boost. Apparently, this didn’t really fit with the game’s intended tone, so both the gel and its related sidequest were left inaccessible (although both are still fully functional if hacked back in).