Shiren 1 SFC:Prototype Content

Promo page of unknown origin.

Prototype Content of Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer as seen in pre-release screenshots, videos and magazines.

Main Menu

The Main Menu background art of Table Mountain looks different in the prototype image. Table Mountain is shorter in the prototype screenshot, and the final release is darker overall. Table Mountain and the clouds are much less detailed and the position of the sun is also different.

Prototype	Final
	File:Shiren 1 SFC - Main Menu.png

Locations

Earlier Builds

Town

A town with some vague similarities to Mountaintop Town can be seen. Unlike Summit Town, it lacks a bridge over a cliff or the wood building on the right side. The building appears similar to Torneko's Shop from Torneko's Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon. In another image of the same location, the building isn't seen. The game mechanics related to the restaurant in Mountaintop Town in the final game work similarly to Torneko's Shop in Torneko 1, which may explain why the building appears in one image and not another, although this is speculation, and it's just as likely that the two screenshots were taken from different builds of the game. This town is marked as Floor 1, suggesting it came before the forest dungeon floors.

Torneko 1	Shiren 1 SFC Prototype

Dungeon

The earliest floors of the main dungeon were originally set in a forest dungeon area with rectangular rooms, called Lost Forest (Japanese: 迷いの森). A forest is present in the final build, however the graphics are completely different and the rooms aren't rectangular. Mecharoid and Fluffy Bunny monsters appeared in the prototype forest floors.

In a 1994 interview, it was said that Kobami Valley was set deep in a jungle.^{[Citation needed]}

The game was developed in parallel with the Game Boy game Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer GB - Monster of Moonlight Village, which used modified source code from the Super Famicom game. While the final release of Shiren 1 SFC doesn't feature any rectangular forest locations, Moonlight Village GB does, and just like the Shiren 1 SFC prototype, it's the first area of the main dungeon. It's possible the GB game uses scrapped Shiren 1 SFC ideas, or is based on an early version of Shiren 1 SFC.

Shiren 1 SFC - Lost Forest	Shiren 1 SFC - Mountaintop Forest
	File:Shiren 1 SFC - Summit Forest.png

Shiren 1 SFC - Lost Forest	Moonlight Village GB

Later floors are also significantly different from the released game, and only use rectangular rooms. It is possible that the Fifth Dungeon is what remains of this prototype dungeon due to the similar monster spawns.

Jizo Valley mostly looks the same as the final version, however it is marked as floor 5.

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  Unknown town.

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  Unknown town, without building (Floor 1).

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  Lost Forest area.

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  Lost Forest area (Floor 1).

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  Lost Forest area (Floor 1).

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  Second area (Floor 3).

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  Second area (Floor 3).

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  Third area (Floor 4).

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  Third area (Floor 4).

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  Jizo Valley (Floor 5).

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  Fifth area (Floor 7).

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  Sixth area (Floor 8).

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  Seventh area (Floor 9).

Later Builds

The dungeon looks like Table Mountain in the released game, and there is a town that strongly resembles Canyon Hamlet. There is also an unknown dungeon location marked as floor 3.

Characters

In a video of a later build:

• In what looks like a prototype Canyon Hamlet, a character called Master (Japanese: マスター) asks Shiren for his name. The player could select from a menu whether or not to say it.
• A lost boy character on the first floor who is looking for his parents and he follows Shiren. He may have eventually become Surala.

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  Master.

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  Lost boy.

Items and Traps

• Rice Balls were initially Bread, like in Torneko 1. Scrolls and Armbands also still used sprites from that game.
• There was a trap that turned Shiren into bread, which has no equivalent in the released game.
• There was an item called Jar of Increase (Japanese: 増加の壺), which may have been a counterpart to the Jar of Division (Japanese: 分裂の壺).
• Items called Sword of Amteca (Japanese: アムテカの剣) and Shield of Amteca (Japanese: アムテカの盾) are seen in a magazine.
  • These may have been cut versions of the Golden Blade and Gold Shield respectively, which were added to the Nintendo DS release.
  • Amteca is known as the City of Gold, thus the connection.
• Scrolls and armbands had different sprites.
  • A later build that is much closer to the final version also has its own sprite for armbands, different both from the early sprite that resembles Torneko 1, and from the final version.

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  Shiren transformed into Bread by a trap.

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  Early prototype scroll sprite.

Monsters

Army Ants standing in formation.

Instead of Soldier Ants (Japanese: 兵隊アリ) who walk alone and dig in the walls, the game had Army Ants (Japanese: 軍隊アリ), which walk in a group and block the way in rooms by forming a wall. Despite showing their digging behavior, the Character Debut Book makes a reference their original behavior.. Fay's Puzzle 001 in Moonlight Village GB features a similar situation, where the player needs to walk in a corridor to get past a wall of monsters.

Names

• Fluffy Bunny (Japanese: いやしウサギ) was referred to as Carbuncle (Japanese: カーバンクル) during development, the name of the legendary animal it is inspired by.
• Sheriff (Japanese: 盗賊番) was referred to as Police Officer (Japanese: 警官).
• Guard Dog (Japanese: 番犬) was referred to as Police Dog (Japanese: 警察犬).
• Death Reaper (Japanese: 死の使い) was referred to as Death Ghost (Japanese: デスゴースト).
• Bufu's Cleaver (Japanese: ブフーの包丁) was referred to as Oni Knife (Japanese: 鬼包丁).
• Herb of Sight (Japanese: めぐすり草) was spelled in kanji only (Japanese: 目薬草), like in Torneko 1.
• Gitan (Japanese: ギタン) was referred to as Gold (Japanese: ゴールド), a name used in Torneko 1.

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  Carbuncle.

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  Oni Knife.

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  Herb of Sight.

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  Gold.

Shops

• Menus for items in shops were slightly different.
• A different type of in-dungeon shops, called Grab and Go Store (Japanese: つかみ取りの店) is seen in a magazine. Unlike normal shops, the player has 10 turns to grab items in a room full of traps. It requires 1,000 Gitan per attempt.

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  Prototype shop menu.

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  Prototype minigame shop.

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  Prototype minigame shop.

Gallery

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  Promo flyer for Shiren 1 for the Super Famicom (front).

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  Promo flyer for Shiren 1 for the Super Famicom (back).