Video gamVideo games have evolved by leaps and bounds over the past few generations, and today are practically on the level of cinema when it comes to narrative, graphical sophistication, budget, and emotional impact. However, some of the game scenes that made us look at the art form in a brand new way almost...weren't!es have evolved by leaps and bounds over the past few generations, and today are practically on the level of cinema when it comes to narrative, graphical sophistication, budget, and emotional impact. However, some of the game scenes that made us look at the art form in a brand new way almost...weren't! That's right, whether we're talking about Chaos Blades, the Last of Us, Fire Emblem Warriors, or Psychonauts 2, there are certain scenes much beloved today that almost littered the cutting room floor, or never even created in the first place! These are iconic game scenes that were never supposed to happen.
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00:00Video games may be a lot of fun, but they can also make their players feel something.
00:04But what if some truly memorable video game moments were left on the cutting room floor?
00:09Would these games still pack the same punch without these iconic characters and scenes?
00:14Psychonauts 2, the sequel to the popular platform game Psychonauts,
00:18was met with favorable reviews following its release in August 2021. Like its predecessor,
00:23the game features some fascinating and bizarre bosses against enemies like Lady Luctopus,
00:28the Gluttonous Goats, and the Dibrarian.
00:31"...get ready for the shushing of your life!"
00:34However, these captivating fights were almost left on the cutting room floor.
00:37Double Fine boss Tim Schafer revealed in an interview with G4 that, had the studio not
00:42been bought by Microsoft, the game would have been very different from the version
00:46that eventually released. Concerned about financial resources and scheduling troubles,
00:50Double Fine initially made the decision to remove the boss battles from the game,
00:55mainly because they'd be the easiest to trim. However, due to the symbolic meanings of the
00:59bosses and the battles themselves in the world of Psychonauts, Schafer did not want to cut the
01:03battles. So when Microsoft asked what he would do with the game if resources were not a concern,
01:08he opted to put the boss fights back in.
01:11The 2013 action-adventure survival horror game The Last of Us was met with universal
01:15acclaim upon release. Players were captivated by Naughty Dog's story of smuggler Joel escorting
01:20teenage girl Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States landscape filled with zombie-like
01:26monsters. Eurogamer editor-in-chief Olly Welsh called it a beacon of hope for the survival
01:31horror genre, and specifically praised the game's brave ending. The ending is not a happy one,
01:37leaving the main characters in a sad and uncertain place.
01:40"'Swear to me that everything that you've said about the Fireflies is true.'"
01:44Olly Welsh, and likely many of the game's other fans, would have been sorely disappointed if The
01:48Last of Us had stuck with the original plan for the game's ending. The game's director,
01:52Neil Druckmann, revealed in an interview with Game Informer that the game's original ending was much
01:57more hopeful, concluding with Ellie and Joel ready to start a new life in San Francisco.
02:02However, as the game's development progressed, Druckmann realized that this type of ending did
02:07not feel honest anymore, and would be too easy on Joel. Though the new ending was a point of
02:11contention among Naughty Dog staff, as discussed in a Reddit AMA with Druckmann, it is the
02:16conclusion the team went with, and the emotional resonance of that darker ending speaks for itself.
02:22Fire Emblem Warriors is a musou hack-and-slash action role-playing game featuring characters
02:27from several of the Fire Emblem games, including Lucina and her father, Krom. The game includes a
02:33heartfelt scene in which Lucina reveals her identity to Krom, introducing herself to him,
02:37much to his shock, as his daughter. This tender and memorable father-daughter reunion almost didn't
02:43take place, however, as Lucina was nearly left out of the game. In an interview with Nintendo
02:48Dream Translation by Nintendo Everything, producer Yosuke Hayashi and director Hiroya Usuda explained
02:54that they initially planned to exclude Lucina from the game out of a concern that adding her
02:59in would give the game too many sword-wielding characters, as well as an uncertainty about
03:03whether any characters of the franchise's so-called children generation would be included.
03:08However, after deciding that her role in the event would make the story more interesting,
03:12the devs added Lucina to the final roster of characters.
03:16God of War is a game full of powerful, impactful moments, but one of the most iconic is the scene
03:21where Kratos returns to his home to fetch the Blades of Chaos, bringing his journey full circle.
03:26In an interview with GameSpot, director Cory Barlog shared that this scene almost didn't happen,
03:31as the Blades of Chaos posed several potential problems that could hamper development.
03:35"...you will always be a monster."
03:41First, there was concern there would not be enough time to tweak the weapon for an optimal
03:45player experience, as it was added during the game's last year of development. In comparison,
03:50the Leviathan Axe took nearly four years of development time to perfect.
03:54Another potential issue stemmed from the game's new camera angle, which was now framed over the
03:59protagonist's shoulder and might make it difficult to get the Blades to look and feel like previous
04:03games. However, Barlog considered the Blades of Chaos to be a necessary story inclusion,
04:09and so their triumphant return made it into the final game.
04:12The sci-fi survival horror title Dead Space features a slew of terrifying creatures,
04:17all ready to terrorize boar protagonist Isaac Clarke and rip him to shreds if given the chance.
04:22The game's monsters are the Necromorphs, corpses mutated into heart-pounding,
04:26stomach-churning new forms by an alien infection. One of the deadliest of these monstrosities
04:31is the Dragtentacles, which reach through holes to, you guessed it, drag Isaac to his death.
04:44A particularly memorable and harrowing encounter with the Dragtentacle
04:48occurs in the game's third chapter, and it's a moment that nearly didn't happen.
04:52Glenn Schofield, the creator of Dead Space, delved into the process behind the game's
04:56development with Ars Technica and revealed how difficult it was to get the sequence right.
05:01The developers struggled with the animation, resorting to animating each part of the scene
05:06layer by layer. The team almost had to sacrifice the interactive element of the scene,
05:10which involves shooting at the tentacle to try to free Isaac, in order to make it work.
05:14However, it finally came together after quite a bit of trial and error,
05:18and the scariest Dragtentacle sequence made it into the game after all.
05:23"...I'm going to kill you, and all the cake is gone."
05:26Even people who have never played a Portal game in their lives have probably heard a
05:30reference to the famous line, "'The cake is a lie.'" This line refers to the reveal that the
05:34game's protagonist is being led through the action and completing deadly tests in service
05:39of a reward that she will never receive. The cake was promised to her by GLaDOS,
05:43the deadpan, super-intelligent, evil computer antagonist of the game.
05:47But what if there was never a promise of cake? What if that meme-to-death,
05:51famous phrase never had a place in the game, because GLaDOS never existed?
05:55There would certainly be a lot fewer novelty t-shirts, that's for sure.
05:58Cake, or lack thereof, aside, GLaDOS is one of the most vital components of Portal,
06:03and a truly iconic video game villain. So it's shocking to learn that Portal almost
06:08didn't include the robot-voiced sardonic narrator in the first place. According to a TechRadar
06:13interview with game designer Robin Walker, the original version of the game had no antagonist
06:17at all, focusing entirely on the puzzles themselves. However, after playtester feedback
06:23indicating that the game felt incomplete, Walker realized that the puzzles alone were
06:27not enough to hold attention, without a force to drive them. In an interview with game developer
06:32writer Eric Wolpaw described how he came up with the idea for GLaDOS after using text-to-speech
06:37software to record temporary dialogue for Psychonauts. Using the same technology to
06:41play around with temporary dialogue for Portal, the team came up with the idea for GLaDOS' speech
06:46patterns. Thankfully, they did, so she could rise to the status of being a famous and beloved video
06:51game villain.
06:52I had a pretty good life, and then you showed up. You dangerous, mute lunatic."
07:002007's Bioshock opens with a series of visually stunning and surprising events. The player
07:05character begins on an airplane, having a cigarette and looking at a photograph. He remarks to himself,
07:10They told me. Son, you're special. You were born to do great things.
07:18then the plane crashes. In the midst of the wreckage, confusion, and mad scramble for
07:23survival, the protagonist finds himself being taken through a beautiful and terrifying underwater city
07:28called Rapture. He is plunged into a strange art deco world of mystery and danger and cannot turn
07:34back no matter how badly he might want to. Business Insider called it the best video game opening
07:39scene of all time, and yet it almost didn't happen in the way players know and love. Bioshock series
07:45creator Ken Levine opened up about the hurdles of making this intro to Rolling Stone.
07:50With the game nearly finished, a focus test came back with negative responses.
07:54Following this feedback, Levine realized that the players would need to feel more connected
07:58to the game's protagonist to care about the events that followed. The developers added
08:02the plane crash scene, incorporating things like the cigarette as a way to indicate the time period,
08:07and giving the protagonist a sympathetic line of dialogue to humanize him.
08:11One of the most heartbreaking scenes in Marvel's Spider-Man features Peter Parker at the side of
08:15Aunt May's hospital bed, wrestling with the reality that she is probably going to die.
08:21Take off your mask. I want to see my nephew."
08:26As Spider-Man voice actor Yuri Lowenthal explained to the Game Zone podcast,
08:30this scene almost did not make it into the game, with Marvel Comics originally pushing back on the
08:35idea. As if that's not bad enough, Aunt May was almost left out of the game entirely.
08:40Spider-Man without Aunt May? Say it isn't so. She's Peter's guardian, the shoulder he can cry
08:45on, and the only person who can understand what it felt like to lose Uncle Ben. But yes,
08:50her presence as a physical character in the game nearly wasn't included.
08:53Comics writer Dan Slott explained in an interview with GamesRadar that the original
08:57plan was to have Aunt May only show up as a voice, speaking to Peter on the phone
09:01or heard over the radio. Insomniac allegedly told Slott, who worked on the game's narrative,
09:06that animating older characters with wrinkles was too difficult and would require too many
09:11resources. Luckily, Slott convinced Insomniac that Aunt May was integral to the story,
09:16allowing players to see this familiar face and have their hearts torn out from their
09:20chest by her storyline, too.
09:22I am so proud of you. And Ben would be too.