List of Paper Mario: The Origami King pre-release and unused content

This is a list of pre-release and unused content for the game Paper Mario: The Origami King.

Concept art
As with the art gallery at the Prisma Museum in Paper Mario: Color Splash, there is an art gallery in the Musée Champignon dedicated to concept art showing various original designs for characters and locations.

The Red Streamer section shows early ideas such as:

Unused graphics
Before entering Peach's Castle for the first time, the player was originally going to have a 360-degree view of the castle as well as some models of Princess Peach, which appear unused in the game's files with different hair and jewels on her crown.

Leftovers from Paper Mario: Color Splash in the game's graphic include Mario swinging his hammer (which is 2D rather than 3D), the host of Snifit or Whiffit (P_MUCL.Default.bntx.zst, although with incomplete graphics), red paper Koopa Troopas, red, blue, yellow, and green Whistle Snifits (although the red one only appears in an ending screenshot), Princess Peach with her parasol (which is only seen in title screen screenshots), blue, green, yellow, and pink Shy Guys (although the green one only appears in an ending screenshot), Toads with silverware (which are only seen in an ending screenshot), a Spiny Egg, and Bowser's shell.

The accessory-selling Monty Mole has walking animations, as seen in P_CRP_Shop.Default.bntx.zst.

The Big Thwomp has back graphics, seen in P_DSN.Default.bntx.zst

Captain T. Ode (P_KNPC.Default.bntx.zst) has many unused sprites, all of them showing his eyes open, paired with different poses.

Some graphics depict Bowser and Bowser Jr. in the Koopa Clown Car (P_KPA_Crown.Default.bntx.zst).

Bowser Jr. has a glitched back sprite that depicts his leg mislayered and placed far above his body. It exists as Pera_Albedo.0066_Back in P_KPAJ.Default.bntx.zst.

The Rescue Squad captains (palettes of P_KNPRL.bfres.zst and P_KNPRL_E.bfres.zst</tt>) have unused graphics including them blowing a whistle, pulling an object, and carrying an object. These are leftovers from Paper Mario: Color Splash.

Multiple characters, including the Toad and Snifit Accessory Shop owners (palettes of P_KNP_Shop.bfres.zst</tt> and P_MUC_Shop.bfres.zst</tt>), the Toad Researchers (palettes of P_KNPASS.bfres.zst</tt>), the ninja Toad (palettes of P_KNPNIN.bfres.zst</tt>), the inked Toad at the Princess Peach (palettes of P_KNP_Sumi.bfres.zst</tt>), and the faceless Toads (P_KNP_HoleBundle.bfres.zst</tt>), have unused color swaps.

Love Toad has back sprites in P_KNP_Unique.Red.bntx.zst</tt>. In-game, he remains in one place after being rescued, and does not turn around.

The P_KNP_L.Default.bntx.zst</tt> file contains graphics for lime-capped Toads with neon blue vests. This Toad is not used in the game. P_KNP_LL.Default.bntx.zst</tt> contains Toads of the same coloring, except in a group of three and sometimes placed at different heights.

In the Snifit's graphics, sprite 66 is a purple crosshair. Sprite 67 is a slightly wider version of the crosshair. This is present for all colors except red (P_MUC.Default.bntx.zst</tt> and P_MUC.Red.bntx.zst</tt>), which have the sprites removed.

Graphics for the Black Shy Guy can be found in P_HEI.Black.bntx.zst</tt>, despite the character not appearing in this game. While some of the graphics are recycled from Paper Mario: Color Splash, there are some new sprites added.

Some Toads, such as Professor Toad (P_KNPP.Default.bntx.zst</tt>) and the Origami Craftsman (P_KNPOLI.Default.bntx.zst</tt>), have unused relaxing poses.

On Overlook Tower, Mario can look into a telescope to see a Toad's face covering the viewpoint. A full, unobscured graphic shows that this Toad is depicted with a very large head; it exists in red, blue, green, yellow, and purple, with screaming animations. It is found in P_KNP_Telescope.bntx.zst</tt> and its palette swaps.

Buzzy Beetles (<tt>P_MET.Default.bntx.zst</tt>), Goombas (<tt>P_KUR.Default.bntx.zst</tt>), Hammer Bros (<tt>P_BRSH.Default.bntx.zst</tt>), and Shy Guys (palettes of <tt>P_HEI.bfres.zst</tt>) all have unused graphics of them as Shangri-Spa cleaners.

Bob-omb has ghost versions of nearly all of his sprites, located in <tt>P_BOMG.Default.bntx.zst</tt>.

Palettes of <tt>P_KNP_Town.bfres.zst</tt> contain sprites of Toads found in Port Prisma in Paper Mario: Color Splash, including the Guide Toad, Rescue Squad Chief, and Card Connoisseur Toad. These graphics have been redrawn slightly, and include brand new back sprites. The Toadmaster General appears in <tt>P_KNP_E.Yellow.bntx.zst</tt>, as back sprite 231.

Every character has a "Kusya" file that is displayed when Mario hits them with his hammer. Some of these characters have Kusya graphics even though Mario cannot hit them, such as Emcee Shy Guy (<tt>P_HEIL_Kusya.Default.bntx.zst</tt>). If modded into regularly accessible areas, this crumpling functionality works as intended.

Sombrero Guys (<tt>P_HEISOM.Default.bntx.zst</tt>) retain most of their battle graphics from Paper Mario: Color Splash, which cannot be seen in-game as Mario does not battle them.

Various Toads in sunglasses have graphics, although they do not appear in-game (<tt>P_KNPG.bfres.zst</tt>, <tt>P_KNPG_E.bfres.zst</tt>, <tt>P_KNPG_Crampled.bfres.zst</tt>).

Cheep Cheeps have two unused Kusya graphics. While these exist in the texture file, they are not called by the model's animations. The used ones have the Cheep Cheep tilted upwards rather than downwards.

Sea Captain Toad's Kusya graphics (<tt>P_KNPCAP_Kusya.Default.bntx.zst</tt>) also contain two sprites of a regular Toad, one front and one back.

Ninjis (<tt>P_HKN.bntx.zst</tt>) have unused animations. One consists of a Ninji sitting down and sleeping. This is not loaded in their state data in-game, and there is no way to inflict Sleep on characters in Paper Mario: The Origami King. The other is a set of panicking animations, with the Ninji waving its arms in shock.

There is a single file for a character called "KNPF": <tt>P_KNPF_Kusya.bfres.zst</tt>. It has no corresponding textures or a non-Kusya file, so there are no graphics remaining.

An item icon called <tt>Kicon_X_DLAGONPEARL_BLUE</tt> is located within the item preview graphics (<tt>\ui\ItemIcon.bntx.zst</tt>). It is a blue recolor of the Red Gem. It is also referenced in the item file for the Earth and Water Vellumental room of the Sea Tower (<tt>\data\map\W4C3_EarthWater\data_Item.elf.zst</tt>), which contains the text <tt>Item_DragonPearl_Red</tt> and <tt>Item_DragonPearl_Blue</tt>.

<tt>\ui\battle\Accessory.bfres.zst</tt> contains a texture named "Accessory_Dmy." It is a placeholder depicting a blue gradient. A rainbow-colored dummy graphic, called "DummyTexture," is present in <tt>\ui\menu\SheetStatus.bfres.zst</tt>.

Origami Spikes have a 3D model of a spiked roller, similar to the ones they throw in Super Mario 3D World. This does not appear in any of their animations, and they use Spike Balls instead in-game. This was likely done for consistency for Snow Spikes and Stone Spikes, which throw snowballs and spherical rocks. Despite this, both the rollers and spike balls appear in a room in Bowser's Castle.

Origami Shy Guys have six color palettes: red, blue, yellow, green, pink, and black. Red and black appear as regular enemies, and Olly disguises himself as a yellow Shy Guy during the prologue. However, the blue, green, and pink variants do not appear at any point in the game.

Unused data
Among the partner IDs in the save file, there is data for a Sombrero Guy partner for Mario. This partner does not appear in battle or have any special abilities, but was presumably meant to be the one from the Canned-Food Par-tay Trio whom the player is meant to rescue along with the others.

There is also an EXP variable, which indicated the game had experience points during development. This can be found in save files as <tt>battle_win_exP</tt>.

Five dummy scripts are present in the game's data:
 * <tt>\script\wld\btl\enemy\btl_enemy_OnMapDummy.bin.zst</tt>
 * <tt>\script\wld\btl\enemy\boss\btl_enemy_boss_Dummy.bin.zst</tt>
 * <tt>\script\wld\fld\map\Fld_DummyScript.bin.zst</tt>
 * <tt>\script\wld\fld\mobj\mobj_dummy.bin.zst</tt>
 * <tt>\script\wld\fld\npc\npc_dummy.bin.zst</tt>

<tt>\script\wld\btl\player\btl_player_Mario.bin.zst</tt> contains a list of Mario's attacks. This includes an entry for an item known as the <tt>ElectricHammer</tt>, placed between the Ice Hammer and Mushroom. The Electric Hammer has no corresponding text or graphics beyond a particle effect for when it is used in battle.

<tt>\data\data_item.elf.zst</tt> contains unused sell prices for each item in the game, equal to the buy price divided by 5. Additionally, the Gold Boots have a price of 800 coins and the Gold Hammer has a price of 920 coins, despite these items not being sold in shops.

There is data for the small box that Bob-omb owns as a Useful Item. It has no description. Its icon is defined as <tt>Kicon_X_SMALLBOX</tt>, although this does not exist in <tt>ItemIcon.bntx.zst</tt>.

Unused text
The <tt>glossary.msbt</tt> file contains multiple item names that cannot be seen in-game: <tt>1-Coin</tt>, <tt>10-Coin</tt>, <tt>100-Coin</tt>, <tt>1000-Coin</tt>, <tt>Healing Heart</tt>, <tt>Shiny Healing Heart</tt>, <tt>Flashy Healing Heart</tt>, <tt>Star</tt>, <tt>small confetti bag</tt>, <tt>medium confetti bag</tt>, and <tt>large confetti bag</tt>. Additionally, an item called the <tt>Dirty Coin</tt> is listed between the Soul Seed and Shriveled Mushroom, suggesting it was another item that has to be thrown into the spring in Whispering Woods. This file contains battle-related text not used in the game: <tt>Arrow Panel</tt>, <tt>Hint Envelope</tt>, <tt>Treasure Chest</tt>, <tt>Magic Circle Switch</tt>, <tt>Magic Circle Panel</tt>, <tt>Action Panel</tt>, <tt>×2 Striking Power</tt>, <tt>Extra Action Panel</tt>, <tt>×1.5 Striking Power</tt>, <tt>Angry Enemy</tt>, and <tt>Damaged Weapon</tt>. Various characters' names, including Slurp Guy, Bony Beetle, Parabones, Poison Blooper, Dino Rhino, are listed despite not being visible in-game. The text string <tt>OVERLOOK</tt> is also present among the "other" section of the glossary.

Unused music
There are two music tracks that go completely unreferenced in the data files: <tt>BGM_EVT_DJ_A_W5_opus.opus</tt> and <tt>BGM_EVT_DJ_B_W5_opus.opus</tt>. They are soundalikes of "" by. The files' naming structure matches the tracks used for the Sudden Death round in Shy Guys Finish Last, with the "A" track being the lyrics and "B" being the instrumental. The "DJ" in the title seems to refer to DJ Toad, who goes by this name in <tt>\data\map\W3C4_DiscoHall\data_npc.elf.zst</tt> and <tt>\script\wld\fld\map\W3C4\W3C4_DiscoHall.bin.zst</tt>. This hints that DJ Toad might have had a song sequence with lyrics, which was cut later in development.

The track "Paper Macho Soccer" is mistakenly duplicated: the version used in-game is <tt>BGM_EVT_Samba_W1G3_opus.opus</tt>, while the unused version is <tt>BGM_EVT_W1G3_Samba_opus.opus</tt>. This is more in-line with the rest of The Origami King's sound files, which have the title first and then the level code. There are no differences between the two versions.