This page details one or more prototype versions of Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand.



"E3 Version" demo of Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand, playable through the end of Bloodrust Mansion. Leaked a couple months prior to US release, it likely comes from one of the carts given out to the press at E3.





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Text Differences

Sunflowers monologuing into infinity. (Intro to Sunwishing Plaza)

Text Differences 3

Blatant palette swap evil twin. (Re: Sunwishing Plaza to Dark Castle)

Text Differences 4

No sane person has ever 100 percented this game. (New Game+, Azure Sky Tower, Etc.)





General Differences

Still uses Japanese voice clips.

Does not play a second sound clip after "Bokura no Taiyou!" on title screen.

Text has an additional pixel between characters.

Many line breaks are in different places.

Uses way more text boxes.

Text also displays much slower in this version.

(x) Button and (x) Key consistently have an extra space after the special character.

Has a small selection of American and European locations to choose from. The Sunrise/Sunset times programmed in for them differ somewhat from the ones used in the NA and EU finals:

City Sunrise Sunset Los Angeles 1 min late 1 min late Chicago 1 min late 1 min late New York 2 min early 2 min early Madrid same as final same as final London 1 min early 1 min early Paris 1 min early same as final Frankfurt same as final same as final Rome 1 min late 1 min late





Menu Differences

The changes noted here are of text graphics, rather than of text text.

First Startup

Prototype Final

Whoops! Looks like someone hadn't read up on their Official Nintendo nomenclature™.

Solar Sensor Setup

Prototype Final

And again. Tightened up the spacing on "A Button" even in graphics.

Time Settings

Prototype Final

Hadn't put in Daylight Savings Time yet.

The default date is set to July 11th, 2003, six days earlier than the JP final. Unlikely to be a build date, given that the defaults in the final versions are on the release date or within a few days of them.

Options

Prototype Final

Demo has "CONFIRM" rather than "OK" in all menus.

No tutorial demos, trying to access them via memory hacking just resets the game.

Sound Test

Prototype Final

You can access the sound test in the demo by, at the title screen menu, changing the value at 0200351A to 03 and pressing A.

The demo has an extra BGM track. The 22nd track is the little "Da-da-da-dan!" that plays when you enter a miniboss room. This is used ingame in all versions, but is only in the sound test of the demo. Unfortunately, the track titles are not included in the demo's text, so it goes unnamed.

Apparently the tracks "Azure Sky Tower 1, 2 and 3" weren't finished yet, as their slots just have the track "Remains" as a placeholder.

Also:

They added more space for the track titles in the NA Version.

There is no sound effect played when moving through the menu.

More sound effects, and many of them are quite different.

More slots for voice clips, but most of the samples do not seem to have been included in the rom.

Creating New Game

Prototype Final

Localization change, Japanese style ellipses to English style. Looks fine here but...

Prototype Final

Looked pretty awkward here.

Prototype Final

Changed from Region to City, region being a more direct translation (The JP version has you choose your prefecture), city for localization (NA and EU have you choose the nearest city).

Prototype Final

Cartridge to Game Pak again. Ends up looking a little out of place.





Ingame Differences

Starting Screen

Prototype Final

Different chest placement on the first screen.

Fog Castle

Prototype Final

The camera drifts a good bit further down during the first Pile Driver creation cutscene.

Also note that Otenko's position is a bit off when he's below the text box during daytime. The positioning is the same as final at night, aside from one case (see below).

Exiting Fog Castle

Prototype Final

Django runs into place for the lecture about overheating, then... nothing happens. The text for it isn't anywhere in the rom.

Undead Dungeons

Prototype Final

The wipe when you enter an Undead dungeon is a lighter color than in the final, because the darkest entries in many of the background palettes are a bit lighter in the demo. Doesn't seem to be noticeable anywhere else, though.

Inventory

Prototype Final

One more bit of text graphic. Very thorough with the symbol spacing change.

Bloodrust Mansion

Prototype Final

Doesn't move the camera to highlight the lattice door during the explanation of weight switches. Also Otenko's position is way off here for some reason at night.

Prototype Final

The reward chests don't spawn after you Pile Drive the Count (makes sense since you don't get the opportunity to collect them), and the music track "Victory" plays instead of "Bloodrust Mansion".

Audio Differences

Prototype Final

The little jingle when you save your game is completely different.