Cut Content
The majority of Baroque's cut content is material that was abandoned during early planning phases, such as the Geo-Spiritual Quantum Interference Train. However, thanks to Spriters Resource user Magma MK-II, several never before seen sprites and animations have been ripped from the PS1 version of the game. Below you will find these images, accompanied by unused text and dialogue I ripped and translated from the Saturn version game disc.
But before we get to the dialogue, there are a couple of notable discoveries in the unused sprites. In the Baroque Report series, the developers mention that it was once possible to graphically injure Eliza: “In early versions, her upper body would explode if the player attacked her. It was pretty ugly and ran the risk of an Adults Only rating.” Surprisingly, remnants of this animation still exist in the files. I may have failed to recombine the sprite elements properly, but the game data doesn't seem to include all the necessary components for finishing the sequence. Some of it may have been achieved through post-processing effects (like the sprite distortion that occurs when shooting a Grotesque with the Angelic Rifle). Furthermore, it is unknown whether Eliza would have vanished or, in line with God being unable to feel pain, continued to speak normally to you after being pulverized. All of these details would require the code for these sequences to still remain on the disc. But if it does, I lack the ability to decode any of it.
The most unusual find is a series of alternate buried Horned Woman sprites, which appear to show her regressing into an infant. Yonemitsu claims that he had worked out a backstory for her, but forgot what it was. The only clue we've ever gotten is in the PS1 Guide where he implies that she is burdened by guilt just like the other NPCs who can sink into the soil. These sprites may be the only other clues we will ever get to solving her mystery.
Aside from graphics, there is a small amount of cut text still present on the game disc, but it isn't terribly exciting. Most of the cut lines have already been translated and included on their respective character dialogue pages. The remaining content takes the form of removed cutscenes and items. The first cutscene is a simpler version of the intro cutscene, which features less medical terminology and a strange alteration to the phrasing of “barbiturate sedative”:
"Wake up."
"It's no good! There's a disturbance in his brain waves. Increase the barbituric acid sedative!"
"Cerebral blood flow has entered normal range."
"Wake up.”
protagonist
The second cutscene appears to have been initially included to help spell things out for confused players. The entire sequence is an internal monologue by Koriel #12:
<Again…? Am I not even allowed to go mad? The world was destroyed, and the Idea Sefirah of the Creator and Preserver birthed a new one. The world is repeatedly distorted through the wheel of reincarnation; it is erased, it is born again, distorts again, and I sin again. I must return the pain. This world that repeats itself like the punishment of Sisyphus… pain in order to preserve itself… in order to break free from this cycle…>
And finally, there are four mysterious lines that read only as “erased”. These lines are located between the Archangel's first post-game line and the Mind Reading Thing's only post-game line.
Most of the cut items involve redundant warping abilities, such as the “Stair Bone” which warps you near a floor exit or the “Flight Box” which, when opened, will either warp you somewhere else on the current floor or move you straight to the next level. Similarly, “Treasure Bones” will (usually) warp you to a room containing one or more items. There are several more movement-based items which only affect Grotesques, like the “Chaos Torturer” which shuffles the positions of all enemies on the current floor or the “Alignment Torturer” which lines them all up in a single file (probably intended for use with Arrow Bones). The “Box Worm” (which “inspects the contents of boxes and traps”) and “Emission Wings” (which “keep you from feeling weird and aroused”) appear to reference mechanics no longer in the game. Finally, there are the “Wings of the Holy Ghost”, imitation wings which raise your max HP, VT, ATK, and DEF by 2.
It is currently unknown if the Saturn version disc could contain any further content. But considering how early on concepts like Eliza's mutilation were removed from development, I'm led to believe that all of the game data was probably dumped straight into the PS1 port, cut content included. But if any new discoveries are made, I'll be sure to update this article with them.