Documentation of all cut content from X-Men Legends I

Started by Enigma, December 27, 2021, 07:30PM

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I update this as I find more stuff. Please let me know if I forgot anything or if you find anything to add to the list.

Cut Playable Characters:
-Angel (BaconWizard17 said about Angel being cut: "It was specifically to do with the wings. The wings were a separate model with their own animations and they were attached to Angel, and having that full extra set of animations made it more difficult to make him." He was then replaced with Jubilee, as Raven knew she would be a character they wouldn't have any trouble with. Angel was cut after Act 4 was, hence why Jubilee has no X-treme Gear costume.)
-Marrow
-Xavier (would've likely been a full playable character. In the Prototype, he has full level up powers and has a comic cover listed in review_paths. )
-Havok (Act 4 only)
-Bishop (Act 4 only)
-Kitty Pryde: wasn't used because her phasing ability made the team feel like they couldn't do her justice, and also because the game is very linear and the developers didn't know what to do if they wanted the player to go a certain path and the player chose not to.
-Originally, the main character would have been an create-a-character type of thing but Marvel vetoed this idea. After this, an original character called Strata was planned to be the main character. She would have a rock monster form called Atlas. This character was later replaced with the existing character Magma. The 3rd version of Magma's lava form is called Atlas. This all might explain why Magma's origin is so much different and more generic/ordinary in XML1 versus the comics.
-Magneto (only during the Sentinel attack on the X-Mansion section)
-Forge? (The only source for this is a single IGN article. Unlike all other cut characters, there's no proof in the prototype or in any development materials I've found to corroborate this. IGN referenced an article that said only mentioned Forge selling items in-game, so I think this was merely a mistake on IGN's part and Forge was never planned to be playable.)


Cut Items:
-Random items have various different levels of quality (common, rare, etc) but there was a cut one called "Broken"
-Angel's unique item would have been called "Wings of the Cheyarafim." Here is its item entry from the Prototype:

    <item name="CHEYARAFIM_WINGS" displayname="@DATA@WINGS_OF_THE_CHEYARAFIM" description="@DATA@20_DAMAGE_TO_ARCHANGELS" type="equipment" group="-1" class="0" model="pickups/equip_character">
        <require cat="character" item="Archangel" />
        <activepowerup powerup="damage" level="1.2" affect_type="scale" scope_damage="dmg_cold" life="-1" />
        <activepowerup powerup="mind" level="2" life="-1" />
    </item>


Cut Act 4 Boss Battles (And any alternate Act 4 names they had):
-Gladiator Toad (aka Hermes)
-Gladiator Archangel
-Gladiator Juggernaut (aka Ajax)
-Gladiator Wolverine (aka Ultimate Predator aka Ultimate Hunter aka Ultimate Weapon. Raven had many name ideas for him. He would've been fought in a labyrinth and had unique sounds)
-Gladiator Magneto (aka Titan)
-Gladiator Mystique (aka Pandora. She likely would have had either 3 stages or 3 different boss battles, judging by Pandora having 3 different skins, with the 2nd and 3rd having long claw arms and wing boltons repectively.)
-Gladiator Marrow (maybe, it's hard to tell, but it's a possibility)
-Gladiator Phoenix
-Gladiator Xavier (There's an unused unfinished alternate version of his skin that features grayish skin and the same "Gladiator eyes" that some Brotherhood Gladiator skins have. It's hard to tell for sure, but this would explain Xavier's unknown role in Act 4.)


Other Cut Boss Battles:
-The Act 1 boss battle featuring Blob originally also had Avalanche. Blob has a cut line of dialogue for this. It would've used the unused Avalanche Lite NPC.
-Cut boss battles with Sabretooth in the Ice Tunnels during the HAARP mission and NYC riots (they may have been optional side quests)
-The Pyro boss battle during the HAARP mission would've originally featured both him and Avalanche.
-Cut solo boss battle against Mystique right after you talk to her on Asteroid M.
-The Asteroid M boss battle against Magneto wouldn't have had Mystique and Sabretooth as part of it. It's unknown if other Brotherhood members would've been there instead or not.
-The Avalanche and Sabretooth boss battle would've originally been Avalanche and Pyro.
-Toad never reappears after Magneto rescues him from the X-Men and Avalanche never reappears after fleeing to Asteroid M, so perhaps they were meant to reappear.
-Blob never reappears after being seen in the USS Arbiter mission so perhaps he was meant to be fought here or at Asteroid M. There is also an unused stronger Blob NPC.
-The boss battle at the Mount with Avalanche and Sabretooth would've originally been Avalanche and Pyro. The unused Avalanche and Pyro loading screen would've also been used here. When Sabretooth's boss battles were cut, Pyro was replaced with Sabretooth and Pyro was edited out of the loading screen.

Cut Loading Screens:
-They would have originally been their fullsize and not letterboxed.
-Found: Olympus, Olympus Colosseum Exterior, Angel, X-Treme Gear (Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Magma, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Storm, Wolverine), Gladiator Jean Grey/Phoenix, Gladiator Magneto, Gladiator Mystique, Gladiator Juggernaut,
-Confirmed to Exist But Not Found: Cyclops Nuclear Plant
-Not Confirmed to Exist, But Likely Did: Gladiator Toad, Gladiator Marrow, Gladiator Archangel, Magneto's Palace, Havok X-Treme Gear, Emma X-Treme Gear, Gambit X-treme Gear, Bishop, Muir Island Exterior (if the Muir Island Com Core had it's own loading screen, this map probably would've had something unique as well), something for Act 4's X-Mansion, Future Morlocks, Olympian Guards, Mutant Police


Cut Act 4:
-Originally, the X-Men were unable to stop Asteroid M from hitting the Earth. The X-Men (or perhaps the Brotherhood) would have likely escaped Asteroid M in an escape pod. The escape pod leaving would've been a cutscene. A cutscene would have played featuring the news anchor panicking over the asteroid hitting New York. After that, a cutscene showing the Asteroid hitting NYC would have played.
-After this there would have been a large time jump, large enough for Bishop to now be an adult and join the X-Men.
-At least some of the X-Men and Brotherhood would have been transformed in some way. Beast would no longer be blue and hairy, Cyclops would no longer need his visor, Sabretooth would've lost his right arm and both legs and become emaciated, Pyro would've been a sort of red skinned bald elf, and Jean would've become the Phoenix (and worn a Gladiator costume). At some point, Angel would've become Archangel and had a Gladiator costume. At some point, Wolverine would've become a skeleton and would have been an enemy you fought in a labyrinth.
-Magneto would have founded a new civilization called Olympus, which would have been on Asteroid M, which would have floated above the ruins of NYC.
-The Colosseum wouldn't have been on Olympus, but instead would've been located on the ruins of Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey.
-The Brotherhood would have re-imagined themselves as Roman/Greek gods, with new names and costumes. Magneto=Titan. Mystique=Pandora. Pyro=Vulcan. Juggernaut=Ajax. Toad=Hermes. We don't know the new names of Avalanche, Marrow, or Blob.
-Magneto would've had a son named Charles Lensherr, who would've been the Emperor of Olympus. He seemingly would've had the power to become a giant and would've been a boss battle.
-There would've been Olympian Guard enemies of various types that dressed similar to Roman Praetorian guards.
-The Olympian civilians would've worn togas and sandals.
-Gladiator Blob would've torn off chunks of his fat and thrown them at you as an attack.
-You would've fought lions in the Colosseum.
-The following NPCs would've also gotten new costumes: Moira, Multiple Man, Forge, the Healer.
-There would've been future versions of the Morlocks.
-There would've been green and black versions of the Danger Room robots which the game calls "Future X-Mansion Robots." Their sound file would've been called xrobot_m. Perhaps the X-Mansion was abandoned and these robots sort of took it over and went wild and attacked any who came to it.
-A character named Ashkani would've showed up, in a costume very similar to Rachel Summers' Mother Ashkani costume from the comics. The skin in-game has Jean's eyes and a Phoenix belt buckle and so was possibly her or Rachel.
-A character named Janus would've showed up.
-It's unknown what would've happened to Rogue in this act, as she has no X-treme Gear costume and there's no indication as to her fate.
-Xavier's fate during this act is also unknown.
-Cyclops, Wolverine, and Storm would've worn winter parkas at some point.
-A character called "Future Thrall" would have appeared. He's also referred to as "Inmate Human."
-There's concept art titled "Phoenix Cage Purple Setup." This is a cut map from the game. Since Phoenix would've appeared in Act 4, it's possible that the X-Men would've gone into either her mind or the Astral Plane to put the Phoenix back in her cage so that they could get Jean back.
-Havok's power effects would've been white
-Havok would've been able to fly
-Sabretooth had a cut boss battle during the New York Riots and since he was in New York when Asteroid M would've hit New York at the end of Act 3/the start of the cut Act 4, that explains how he ended up mutilated/missing limbs, emaciated, and wearing the same rags as the humans would've in Act 4.
-Forge's unused Act 4 skin appears to have 2 artificial legs and some sort of box on his box that was possibly meant to be attached to something.
-In all likelihood, the unused Mutant Police were the future versions of the Brotherhood Thugs and the unused Olympian Guards were the future versions of the Acolytes.

Why Act 4 Was Cut:
It was cut for two reasons:
-1, Marvel wasn't a fan of this post-apocalyptic act and apparently wanted them to do Onslaught instead.
-2, Raven thought that the game was so ambitious and the act wasn't finished so they cut it to make the rest of the game easier to get done.

After Act 4 was cut:
-The 2nd Astral Plane section was added to reused some of this content
-The hub map that was also the entrance to Magneto's Palace was reused, as was the Colosseum.
-The following loading screens were kept and reused here: Colosseum Interior, Gladiator Blob, Gladiator Pyro, Gladiator Avalanche
-The future costumes were used as bonus costumes you unlocked when finishing the game and were called "X-treme Gear."
-Magneto's Gladiator costume's armor (shoulder harness, waist/hipguards, and kneepads) and weapons were given to Shadow King to create his Gladiator costume. Magneto's model itself was reskinned (made the chest bare and possible changing his skin color) but kept the helmet and put on a Colossus body model and used for the 2nd Astral Plane section.
-Cyclops possibly didn't have a Gladiator costume in Act 4 and it may have been added for the 2nd Astral Plane section after that act was cut.
-Gladiator boss battles for Blob, Pyro, and Avalanche were reused for the 2nd Astral Plane secton, but likely changed to be repeats of the existing boss battles for those characters, as Blob's fat throw attack isn't there.
-Gladiator Mystique/Pandora was reused as the Astral Fury enemy (that's her displayed name. Her internal name is AstralGhost) in Graduation Exam 400. She was reskinned to be pale blue all over, and has only 1 attack: she raises he arms up and fires a pinkish beam. She has unique effects and a powerstyle.
-Storm's winter parka skin was reused for XML2. Cyclops and Wolverine's, however, were reskinned to be different colors before being put in XML2.


Cut NPC Stuff:
-At some point in development, Zeitgeist would've been behind everything.
-There would've been 2 more boss battles between Wolverine and Sabretooth: 1 in the Ice Tunnels, and 1 on rooftops during the NYC riots.
-Stan Lee would've had a cameo.
-Dr. Cornelius would've made an appearance.
-The Arbiter exterior would've had Brotherhood thugs to fight there.
-The Sentinel Spider originally had a skin that was much more accurate to its loading screen.
-The Flashback Sentinels originally had a chrome overlay on their skin.
-Juggernaut would've originally been bigger in size. Also, BaconWizard17 says "My guess is that they were planning to just give Juggernaut a unique animation set/skeleton and make him bigger without a scale factor rather than giving him the shared skeleton/animation set and giving him a scale factor."
-Sabretooth originally used his classic skin back when the playable characters used their New X-Men costumes but his was switched to his Ultimate skin when they were. This skin was also considered for his default skin for XML2 but was cut there was well and ended up being reused as an alternate skin in the PC version of XML2.
-Mystique's power where she crouches and fires both her guns has 2 names in the Prototype, both unused: Double Gun and Blazing Saddles.
-Mystique's XML1 Retail 3D head's face is different.
-Shadow King's run animation was replaced with a new one.

Cut Powers:
-Angel:
Boost = Blood of the Martyr
Xtreme = Wing Hurricane

-Beast:
Xtreme = Pinball (was switched over to being a normal power. His power that was called Pinball in the Retail version was originally called Bowling Ball)

-Magma:
A beam power. She has unused effects for it in the Prototype.

-Marrow:
Bone Shards,
Bone Flail,
Boost = Bone Armor,
Xtreme = Pincushion

Magneto:
-Prototype names:
Magnetic Blast>Magnetic Burst>Legend Blast
Magnetic Telekinesis>Magnetic Mastery>Magnetic Legend
Boost = Magnetic Shield
Xtreme = Electromagnetic Blast

-Promo Trading Card Names:
Shrapnel Blast
Metallic Hammer
Boost = Spheres of Defense
Xtreme = Magnetic Tempest

Magma:
A beam power

Mystique:
She has a cut power that uses an unused animation where she pulls a gun from behind her back and fires once. There are 2 names for it in the Prototype: Single Gun and Howdy Partner.

Havok:
Plasma Beam (Combo text is: UV and Ray)
Plasma Nova (Combo text is: Thermal and Nova)
Boost = Plasma Charge (It would've increased his attack damage and would've possibly featured what appears to be a skin swap unless the skin swap part is a placeholder or something, it's hard to tell honestly.)
(his Xtreme isn't listed)

Xavier:
(In the final version, each of his 3 non-Xtreme powers each only have 1 name)
Psychic Smash>Psychic Hammer>Psychic Legend.  (In the final name, it only has 1 name and it's Hammer Legend)
Psychic Burst>Psychic Blast>Psychic Legend (In the final game, it only has 1 name and it's Blast Legend)
Boost = Psychic Defense1>Psychic Defense2>Psychic Defense3 (In the final game, it only has 1 name and it's Psychic Defense)
Xtreme = Psychic Maelstrom (same name as final)



Has it ever actually been confirmed that Xavier was meant to be a full playable? Digging through the files they clearly built a system specifically to allow players to play as NPCs in specific situations (like the Xavier Gladiator). Just because he's in the herostat doesn't really mean he was cut. I think he was exactly how he was meant to be - fully leveled up and only available on the Astral Plane.

In the Prototype, Xavier's powerstyle is as fleshed out as the playable characters' is, which it isn't in the retail version. It lists how each power will change as that power has points put into it, just like the playable characters' do. His 3 non-Xtreme powers also each have the 3 different unique names like the other playable characters do and unlike he does in the retail version of XML1, and those names are different from the final ones. So that's why I listed him as being intended to be a full playable character.

March 18, 2023, 02:24PM #4 Last Edit: November 26, 2023, 07:35PM by Enigma
First post is full so I've had to start a new one and move some stuff over.

Other Cut Content and Oddities:
-Muir Island would've had an outside map. The ambience file is still in the final game, and textures from this map were reused for the cut X-Mansion exterior main menu background.
-Moira would've given you a sidequest where Multiple Man overextended himself defending Muir Island from the Brotherhood and some of his duplicates went wild. You'd need to take them down in a boss battle. A boss battle with Multiple Man is still in the N-Gage version.
-During the tour Jean gives Magma, there was dialogue about Jean showing Magma Psylocke's room.
-The TV at the mansion that has a game console hooked up to it would've had a game on the screen that looked like an Atari 2600 game.
-The flashback missions would've been Danger Room missions.
-Several different UI designs were tried out before Raven settled on the final one.
-At one point, instead of 3D hud heads, MUA1-style huds were used. These were later reused for the conversation huds, although many of them were redesigned (like Toad,  Xavier, and Cyclops) or removed entirely (like Ultimate Phoenix Jean and X-treme Gear Cyclops). When a character died, they had a special "dead" hud that was black and white. Some, like Wolverine's, were different designs.
-Professor X's unused character select portrait features an unused Ultimate costume that is similar to Cyclops's Ultimate costume.
-Xavier also had a cut all-black version of the costume he uses in the final game in the Astral missions. This costume is on his power icons in the Retail version and is in the unfinished test versions of the Astral Plane cutscenes in the Prototype.
-Originally, instead of Ultimate-style uniforms, New X-Men-style uniforms were used. There would've been matching winter costumes in this style for at least Cyclops and Storm. These were cut for 2 reasons. 1, Raven thought the Ultimate uniforms made it easier to tell characters apart. 2, the Ultimate X-Men comics were popular at the time.
-The original idea was a turn-based RPG but the developers decided to make it an action RPG instead.
-The interface kept changing up until about 6 months before the game released.
-At one point, there would have been a combo button that would have activated a 2 character combo. But this was scrapped to the player causing it by themselves and giving a bonus for doing so. The combo button evolved into the call ally over button.
-Marvel censored Emma's costume and the artist of her loading screen, Glen Angus, had to redo it. Her comic cover, which had a similar design, was also changed. But her in-game costume wasn't censored.
-Emma original comic cover was X-Treme X-Men #23
-Angel's comic cover would have been Ultimate X-Men #40
-Psylocke has an unused comic cover in the retail version's files. It's Ultimate X-Men #19
-There is a listing for Xavier having a comic in the Prototype, but it's not in the files.
-There would have been an Angel NPC at the X-Mansion after the HAARP mission.
-A lot of the early story ideas revolved around SHIELD and Nick Fury, but Marvel wouldn't let them use those characters because they didn't count as X-Men characters, and Marvel was very strict about that sort of thing. Apparently this happened with other unspecified characters as well.
-There was a cut main menu background of the X-Mansion's backyard at night with the X-Jet in front of it. There was also a cut Arbiter one.
-The game's textures were originally the same quality as the ones in XML2 but were downgraded.
-MK Productions made the opening cutscene (and the unused alternate opening in all likelihood), Creat Studios's old website says they made 9.5 minutes of cutscenes, Blur Studios (who did the cutscenes for XML2 and MUA1) made a trailer containing exclusive fight scenes, and the rest were made in-house at Raven. Most likely, Raven made the ones with the characters in them, which are more realistic and look like a higher resolution version of the game itself (ex: Astral Plane cutscenes) and Creat made the establishing shot/transition cutscenes (ex: X-Mansion establishing shot/transition cutscenes.)
-There was a removed cutscene of the Blackbird leaving the X-Mansion.
-The following characters had 2 additional lines each about low power in the prototype that were cut from the game: Cyclops, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine
-A object of Wolverine's hatstand with his cowboy hat and leather jacket was cut.
-The game originally had a different opening cutscene. It starts with various brief clips of audio from later in the game, then a bit of the newscaster over an establishing shot of NYC. Then Alison argues with a female and male friend, then freaks out and her powers activate. Then it turns out the male kid is Mystique, and then the X-Men show up. The cutscene at the end of the game where the newscaster talks about the X-Men features a reused in a smaller form of the unused opening featuring Cyclops, Jean, and Wolverine standing together in the street. It's possible that since the cutscene unfolds with those 3 X-Men together rescuing Magma right away, that maybe the NYC opening mission was not originally in the game and was added in later. The skin used for Magma's female friend is in the Prototype. Considering how the opening ends, it's possible XML1 originally started with a Mystique boss battle.
-There was another unused cutscene featuring Professor X hosts a brief overview of the story and explains how the game works. This cutscene features the old, MUA1 style huds. It also features a few clips from the unused opening, as well as a shot showing Havok was originally part of the Brotherhood from the start of the game instead of joining later on like he does in the retail game. This image was reused in a smaller form for the newscast about the Arbiter mission. This appears to have been used for a demo of some sort, as it leads into the Arbiter mission, which is where the XML1 prototype starts.
-There are a lot of unused clips of the Danger Room computer. I have included some of their numbers in x_voice. These include names of cut characters such as (#413) Charles Lensherr, (#423) Pandora, (#431) Future Morlock, (#438) Olympian Guard, and many many generic npcs and generic enemies. There are also clips that say: (#383) "The sparring character is unlocked" (#407) "Welcome to the Danger Room Control System" and (#709) "Welcome. The Danger Room Control System in now active." There are multiple clips about "The Danger Level is rising/receeding." Also (#385) "Extra Credit" and (#384) "Inventory item recovered." There also appears to have been more character bios, more characters available in the sparring mode, and multiple difficulties for the Danger Room. The extra credit awards would also have been voiced.
-Jean was originally going to be called Phoenix in the menus.
-The Xtraction point would've been red, transparent, and not had that blue glow over it.
-In the textures\ui folder of both XML1 and XML2 is a file called "temp_towncenter" that appears to be a loading screen of a rocky area with stormy clouds, a sunset, and what looks like an unused Xtraction point that's black with a black X on it and orange glowing circles between each 2 sides of the X.
-The black and white concept art on the "Monument" page in the XML2 concept art gallery was created for XML1. It's labeled as being from 2002 and is called "Ruins Tunnel." There is also another similar one also from 2002 that called "Temple Ceremony Room (Altar)." Enchlore says: "Didn't that XML1 dev interview say that they wanted to do something with the Age of Apocalypse at first but Marvel wanted them to stray away from the idea? Might have to do with this. XML1 was announced in April 2003. It's possible that this concept art from May 2002 could be from a very early pre-dev period when they were just tossing ideas around"
-Based on there being concept art dated to early 2004 labled "New Weapon X Flashback" and "New Weapon X," it appears that possibly the Weapon X maps were redesigned rather late in development
-On starting up the game, it originally had an elaborate logo animation that was cut.
-The multiplayer/main menu Danger Room menu would've been like the single-player/campaign one with announcer callouts by the Danger Room computer and there are many boss and NPC character select portraits in the Prototype left over from this.
-Beast's Xtreme power was originally Pinball, but this was switched to a normal power.
-All skin textures were originally at least 512x512 and not cel-shaded.
-Marrow originally had a different unknown voice actor doing a much different voice but was replaced for the final version by Nancy Linari.
-The sewers maps were likely used for testing purposes, as shown by the early screenshots featuring Juggernaut and Sabretooth being fought there, which was likely never planned to make it into the final game.
-Angel's Ultimate costume was reused for XML2 and his original and X-Treme Gear costumes are in the XML2 files, again unused.
-Angel's XML2 conversation hud is based on his unused XML1 loading screen
-Colossus had an unused conversation hud with a yellow background.
-The health bar would've been purple while you were in the Astral Plane.
-Instead of the Xtreme system the final game has, it would've something called a "Momentum Bar"
-Psylocke's psychic bolt projectile was originally also her psychic blade bolton.
-Danger Room had a cut grade level, Graduate, which would've been between Senior and X-Man.
-There are scripts for needing to defeat 3 different numbers of Multiple Man duplicates (12, 20, 15).
-ice_sq was a cut map in the HAARP/Ice Tunnels part of the game. Wolverine would mention smelling Sabretooth, then you'd activate an ice driller to make a snowbank that obscured the path to the ice_sq map disappear. Then you'd go to the ice_sq map and fight Sabretooth.
-Psylocke's default costume had unused long hair and short haired variants, as well as a bellyshirt variant like the other female X-Men have.
-Jubilee's default costume had an unused goggles variant and an unused short shorts with a belt-like harness variant.
-There's Master Mold concept art featuring tanks holding Storm and Jean attacked to it's shoulder.
-In the final game, when you first meet Mystique on Asteroid M, you have a conversation with her that ends with her saying "It's payback time." but then she runs away and nothing happens. Based on an objective file from the Prototype, you were supposed to fight her there.
-It's possible weapons were intended to be dropped by enemies and picked up and used by players.
-The Prototype's Xbox menu icon reuses art from the Mutant Academy fighting games as a placeholder.
-Marrow's cut Gladiator costume in the XML1 Prototype is black and she has pink hair. In the concept art for it in XML1 Retail's concept art gallery, this costume and hair are the same colors as her default costume and hair.
-Magma's Danger Room test would've originally required only using specific powers for the first 2 parts.
-The HAARP mission would've involved a stealth aspect of some sort.
-The HAARP mission would've required Cyclops and he has cut intro dialogue. In the final game, you can pick any characters and the first character has a non-voiced cut down version of this dialogue.
-There are 6 main menu Danger Room maps that are set to only be used in campaign Danger Room missions: Astral Courtyard, Astral Gateway, Laboratory, Launching Bay, Snow Garage,  Space Station
-The lines your characters say during combat missions that don't have voiceovers originally said "X-Team" instead of the name of the character you're currently controlling.
-Mystique has unused holstered gun models.
-There is  unused Policeman skin that would've most likely been used during the NYC riots. The model appears solid white even though the texture is a normal finished texture. He also has his own unused skeleton with an unused unique idle animation.