Beta Content

Before the release of Little King's Story, there were many planned features during development that never made it to the final game. This unused content can be found in trailers, previews, press pictures, interviews, and in the game's data.

Some contents here are shared with permission on The Cutting Room Floor.

Gameplay

Players had to construct buildings instead of them appearing instantaneously.
Corobo's party were originally shown by a bar at the top of the screen as "TEAM".
The Royal Guard tagged behind Corobo by a short distance.
Howser was once a recruitable party member.
Pots were originally dug up, then destroyed. The design for holes was also different.
All citizens could cling to rocks like Ripped Miners.
The game was originally intended to support a Wii Pro Controller, but was cut due to time constraints.
The game had a multiplayer feature called the "Kaboom Pancho Cannon," also cut for time. The event for this still exist in the game's code, where Corobo is taught how to use it by Howser.
An unused feature has some remnants in the data, which shows that at one point Corobo would have had access to "Project Q", which would allow him to talk to citizens disguised as a citizen. This would likely have yielded different dialogue from the citizens. In the final game, some citizens strangely refer to Corobo in third person when talking to him, which would make sense if he was in disguise and could be a leftover from this idea: the dialogue designed for Project Q could therefore have been given to citizens normally.
Corobo once had an ability to "hit on girls", where he would get continuously rejected by female citizens and could take damage, somewhat similar to Chulip.
According to an unused event, the Typhoony Bunch would have sent storms to the Alpoko Kingdom, which leave multiple fatalities overnight with no control from Corobo. This is hinted at in the final game, when a text box warns of "sudden storms" after meeting the bunch, but was likely removed due to frustration.
Corobo could strafe around enemies, locking his direction to them while moving.
A trailer shows the ability to have up to 48 citizens in the Royal Guard, more than the final limit of 30. However, this could be because the clip uses the debug mode to allow more citizens than necessary.
The Jump Cannon launched at a much slower rate, and citizens landed in a group rather than one by one.
Several miscellaneous events exist, which have varying effects, such as displaying file names or playing cutscenes.
Several unused lines of text suggest that there would be a post-game, where characters would ask Corobo what God was like.

Characters & Citizens

Grunt Soldier Concept Art — Beta Grunt Soldier designs

In the data exists a female character in an apron resembling Corobo, who could have been Corobo's mother at some point in development, potentially related to Chapter 0.
Howser spoke in proper English.
Princess Apricot spoke in proper English.
A character resembling Liam with gray parted hair and red and brown clothes appears in several prerelease screenshots.
Grunt Soldiers were called the Hardworking Peasants.
Hardworking Farmers were called the Common Soldiers.
Originally, each Carpenter could only build a certain type of material: Regular Carpenters for wood, Mega Carpenters for stone, and Giga Carpenters for metal. This was changed very close to release so that each Carpenter was simply a faster upgrade of the previous one. Some tutorials in the final game even incorrectly hint at this material system, such as stating that only Giga Elevators can be built by Giga Carpenters.
The Rainbow Wizard, Steel Knight and Brainy Doctor could be unlocked earlier, and multiple could be in the Royal Guard at once, although this could be due to the use of a possible debug mode for prerelease screenshots.

Five paintings were removed: a watercolour painting of Corobo, Howser and Pancho, Liam, Verde, and the Final Boss.
Sword and axe swings had cartoonish GFX for the swinging motion that were scrapped, likely due to internal resource management.
Some citizens had different designs, such as Grunt Soldiers. Gourmet Cooks had brown hats.

Letters

There are many unused Suggestion Box letters, as well as some miscellaneous ones.

An unused King Letter graphic exists alongside the used King letters in the game's data, suggesting either one of the King's letters was changed, or another King existed but was scrapped.
Several letters from Omelet exist, which hint at a side-plot about his relationship with Shizuka. Despite being unused, these are still referenced by the Alpokian Eggan:
- "After much deliberation, I decided to write this letter. Shizuka, how are you? If you can fathom his mysterious charm, I will present you with a golden egg... I think. -Indecisive Omelet"
- "After much deliberation, I decided to write this letter. Last night, I saw your dog John trying to dig up my golden egg. I'm not mad, because it's a gift for you, Shizuka. -Indecisive Omelet"
A letter from God saying that Corobo and Him are the same, and they should have fun together until they grow old. This was likely removed to make the ending chapter more mysterious and keep the twist hidden from the player.
A letter from Long Sauvage after his defeat, stating that he kidnapped hikers:
- "srekih eht deppandik I .kcab meht tnaw uoy fI .Em ot emoC .enreF kcab eviG .gnidih ni yats ll'I, ton fI .em dnif t'nac uoy erehw .ereh ylenol os sleef tI -Egavuas gnol"

Areas

Beta Map (E3 2008) — Map from a 2008 trailer

An early map of The World is shown in some trailers with much less detail than the final World Map, lacking outlines of cliffs and the like.
After conquering a Kingdom, an event would play where a sweeping camera would show Pancho opening the gates between the Kingdom and Alpoko, while Corobo names the new location (E.g. the Forest Cafeteria) and says "A new location is born!"
The Radar in the top-right of the screen was much more detailed, resembling the chalkboard style from the World Map.
Chapter 0: An entire prologue segment was completed, where Corobo wandered around the dark forest searching for the Magic Crown. Several cutscenes were planned to play here. According to Director and Producer Yoshiro Kimura, this section was entirely scrapped due to being over half an hour long and slowing down the pace of the game, resulting in its events being abbreviated into the opening cutscene. A model of Corobo's body wearing pyjamas can also be found in the data, which is never seen in gameplay.
Skinny Observatory was much smoother, grassier and more hill-like in beta screenshots, whereas in the final game it is a steep, rocky hill, only accessible via a slope. Several other hills and ledges also look smoother, such as the entrance to Wavy Rock Forest.
The entrance to Corobo's Forest was different, with small raised terrain instead of thick trees.
Magical Land is missing from some artwork of Royal City, as is the case on the map, with a river replacing it instead.
The World appears to be much larger in one trailer, with larger hills and bigger forests.
The Ripe Kingdom was called the Gluttonia Kingdom.
The Worrywart Kingdom was called the Kingdom of Troubland.
The Tiptoe Kingdom was called the Land of Overreach.
According to a promotional article from Kotaku, the Kingdom of the Jolly was once called the Kingdom of Drunkards. This information is likely translating the original Japanese name, although is ironically a more accurate translation than the Kingdom of the Jolly.
The Bony Tunnel had much more dynamic lighting.
Skull Plains had a bluer lighting scheme, compared to the greenish-purple used in the final game, although the purple water is also present in beta footage. This change was made within the last month of the game's development.

Quests

There were originally 55 UMA. The two removed are the Onii King and, according to the filename, Onii Onfly - a red version of the Onii King, who still has an existing model in the game files (discussed below).
There were originally fifteen Animals. The one removed is the Mouse, likely due to its significance to the plot.
There were originally ten Kingstone Jewels. The three removed are Oniyx (オニスキ Onisuki), Obnoxopal (オバール Obāru), and Moneyet (オカーネット Okānetto).

UMA & Boss Battles

TV Dinnah Arena Concept Art — Concept art of TV Dinnah's arena without a world map and a different design for the Public Broadcast Tower

Cockadoodledo was called Cockadoodle, a name sometimes mistakenly used in the final game.
Yvonne was called Yiivonne.
Ogre Ergo was originally a regular UMA.
King Duvroc's battle was originally in a larger area and also the color scheme appear to be more yellowish.
King Omelet's quiz battle originally had more red trees.
TV Dinnah's battle may not have featured a geography element, as a world map is missing in concept art of his arena. The same concept art also shows a different design for the Public Broadcast Tower.
Mounties originally do not appear in the King Long Sauvage battle. In addition, concept art and an unused model in the game's data both show that Sobamanjaro would have had a different layout, and the fight would have had a different path, which simply wound upwards to the top and did not go around the back of the mountain or through the Manjaro Cavern. This path more closely resembles the one seen on the God Memo for Long Sauvage.
King Jumbo Champloon was originally the same height as the other Kings, and could move using his wheel. An unused event in the game's data also has him fall from the sky instead of rising from his trash pile.
An unused event which resembles the opening to a Guardian fight introduced a group of Zombies while an unused moaning sound plays, before displaying the words "Dancing Zombies: Thriller!" The Zombies behave normally. This appears to be a Michael Jackson reference, and was likely only used for testing purposes.
Reports from preview events mention a paper bird enemy that does not appear in the final game.

Beta Dragon Concept Art — Unused Dragon enemy concept art

The following are unused enemies whose models appear in the game's data:

Female Eggans, who act identically to regular Eggans found in Omelet's boss fight. They have green bodies and egg bras, and eyelashes.
Unfinished Mounties that walk, with buggy explosion attacks and walking animations.
A green test enemy, which cannot be interacted with, and lacks a proper attack animation. Acts similarly to an Onii.
Several invisible sprites.
A strange Onii with a glowing hand that multiplies upon defeat, which displays the text for when a UMA emerges from a hole.
An unanimated Onii Onfly, who can be attacked and uses the Onii King's defeated animation when its Life reaches 0 (running on the spot).
A crudely modelled blue dragon with buggy collision detection and animations. Strangely, this enemy actually has concept art.

Cutscenes

Nine cutscenes were removed from the Video Archive, they are:
1. No. 01: The opening cutscene of the box theater.
2. No. 02: Liam scaring off the rats and calling himself the king.
3. No. 03: Verde flirting with a training dummy, pretending it was Corobo.
4. No. 04: Corobo chasing the rats into a tree hole where he becomes lost. He would then be greeted by Howser and Pancho in search of the true king.
5. No. 05: Corobo wearing the crown and Howser, Liam, and Verde are bowing before him.
6. No. 22: Skinny Ray done in a cartoonish style.
7. No. 43: Howser tells Corobo that he he receives the divorce papers from the Princesses.
8. No. 44: Corobo meets with the Final Boss.
9. No. 45: Corobo finally meets with God.
Originally, all King intros and defeats would have been done in-game, as opposed to the pre-rendered, watercolour cutscenes in the final game. The only character to have an in-game event cutscene is Onii King, who uses an event for his defeat.

Music

An early trailer has an alternate version of Duvroc's theme, with less instrumentation and a more noticeable usage of MIDI samples.
Full versions of the Drama Channel and Superhero Channel themes found in TV Dinnah's opening cutscene exist, despite both having only a few notes play each. This could suggest that these were both intended to be punishment channels at some point.
Several tracks in the game's files go entirely unused:
- Rossini, Gioachino, "William Tell - Calling to the Cows."
- Strauss, Johann, "The Blue Danube."
- Mendelssohn, Felix "Spring Song"
- Boccherini, Luigi "Minuetto" (two separate remixes)
On a promotional Japanese site which contained six previews of songs from the game, including a version of the Tiptoe Kingdom's theme ("It's a Stretch") with different timing between its sections than the final version.