Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars/Unused Maps and Battle Backgrounds
This is a sub-page of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
There are a number of unused maps in the ROM, from earlier versions of final locales to completely-scrapped areas.
Exterior Maps
Test Map
Nothing more than a single test map, featuring five exits, two raised areas, and what appears to be part of an item shop sign. It more than likely used to be something different earlier in development.
Bowser's Keep
Leftover tile arrangements for the original design of Bowser's Keep, as seen when Mario first accesses it. What this area once looked like can be seen in an early game screenshot.
Grassland Area 1
A typical grassland passageway much like the ones seen early on in the game. This area can be seen in an early game screenshot.
Grassland Area 2
Two grassland dead-ends, or maybe one continuous area, with some slightly messed-up foliage here and there. Either had treasure boxes, or was meant as a trap of some kind.
Mushroom Kingdom 1
An early version of the Mushroom Kingdom, with the most obvious changes involving the slightly broken extra gate in front of the castle, the lack of an exit to Bandit's Way, and the exit to Mushroom Way being in a slightly different spot. The Item Shop is also in the lowermost building in this version, which has two doors for this purpose; the final map instead has the Item Shop in the rightmost building. This area can be seen in an early game screenshot.
Mushroom Kingdom 2
| Physical Map | Collision Map |
|---|---|
 |
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Interestingly, the collision of the final Mushroom Kingdom map turns out to be much larger than what is normally seen in-game. This reveals that the Mushroom Kingdom was once planned to be much larger.
Melody Bay
An early version of the Melody Bay section of Tadpole Pond. The graphics are considerably simpler in design, and there appears to be no way to walk around the pond, although the small island was likely where Toadofsky would have stood.
Mountain Area 1
A mountainous area, perhaps once intended for Booster Pass. A lot of the mountain tileset was changed, moved, or removed altogether, leading to lots of broken tiles. What the upper half of this area once looked like can be seen in an early game screenshot.
Mountain Area 2
Another mountain area, this one lacking a tilemap and only having a collision map. The layout of the upper-right area strongly resembles the one seen during the game's 1995 V-Jump Festival presentation.
Town Area
Another map whose tilemap sadly didn't end up making the cut. This doesn't stop this area from being quite interesting, however, as while it uses the standard grassy town tileset, the layout seems to indicate a town instead located in the mountains, as evidenced with the ground formations. Moreover, the actual layout does bear some resemblance with Moleville, with both of them having flat areas near the center as well as a high rock formation in the upper half of town.
Interior Maps
Bedroom
Messed-up tilemap for what is likely an early iteration of Mario's bedroom.
Town Interiors 1
Removed interiors for Mushroom Kingdom houses. Note also the strange furniture, indicating that the table tiles were changed in the interior tileset.
Town Interiors 2
Another set of areas which only have their collision map left, but are clearly meant to be town interiors. The rightmost map is especially interesting, as it appears to be much larger than a normal interior area. This could mean it was meant to be a basement leading down to a different area, which could also explain the way it snakes down in a way that wouldn't be too out of place underground.
Kero Sewers
Removed areas for Kero Sewers. The lower-left one was most likely intended to hold a treasure box.
Forest Maze
Removed areas for the Forest Maze, with the rightmost ones looking like a question mark and an exclamation mark, though this may have been unintentional. The top-left one was most likely intended to have a treasure box.
Note also the strange ground, revealing that the ground tiles were changed in the forest tileset.
Cave Areas
Removed cave areas which may have been intended for the Forest Maze. Three of these caves have no apparent exits, and probably used springboards to launch the player outwards. The bottom-right one is interesting, featuring four bright ground spots as well as a large hole.
Booster's Tower
A collision map for an earlier iteration of Booster's Tower. What this area once looked like can be seen in an early game screenshot, though the collision map appears to be from a slightly later version of this room, as the area where the bottom-most spring is located has a different layout.
Bowser's Keep 1
A removed area for Bowser's Keep which appears to be a long corridor, with a donut-shaped platform in the middle of a pit. Much like the other scrapped Bowser's Keep maps, the tileset is seriously messed up, revealing how much the cave tileset was changed around during development.
Bowser's Keep 2
Some removed passageways for Bowser's Keep which, aside from the janky tileset, looks to be pretty standard-looking.
Bowser's Keep 3
More removed areas once intended for Bowser's Keep, these ones already way more interesting. They use a different tileset than the previous sets of scrapped Bowser's Keep areas, and may have been intended as some sort of basement. The upper-left area may have been one seen during the game's 1995 V-Jump Festival presentation with the layout and even palette sharing resemblances with each other.
Dungeon Area
A rather intriguing scrapped area whose tilemap, once again, sadly doesn't exist anymore. However, an early game screenshot shows what greatly resembles the top-left area, revealing that this area once was a dungeon of sorts. This screenshot of a completely cut scene also shows Mario and the Princess imprisoned, with early Terrapins walking about and an unknown character taunting Mario.
This suggests that at one point in development, Mario and Peach (and likely the rest of the party) were captured by one of Smithy's goons and promptly imprisoned in some damp dungeon. The player would have then likely had to escape, going out of the dungeon "backwards".
Battle Backgrounds
Two battle backgrounds also didn't make the cut.
Lush Indoors Area
A lush area with a large amount of foliage, large windows from which sunlight pours out, as well as a slightly incorrect tileset. No such environment in the final game would suit this area, with the closest match being Nimbus Castle.
This background is also interesting in that it appears to be directly based on a background type from Yoshi's Island.
Underwater Area
A fully completed underwater background, likely intended for the outside area of the Sea, where the entrance to the Sunken Ship lies.
