Key Rough Sketches, Initial Designs and Scrapped Ideas

[Hirato]

In creative process, sometimes artists came up with a lot of ideas. But in the final product, some of the ideas might be scrapped and stashed into “pile of junk”.
This, of course also happened to the people behind Key. Whether it’s the writer, the musician, the character designers, etc.

This topic is to discuss about the unused ideas and sketches and “what could have been” of Key. Feel free to discuss about whatever you know around these scrapped ideas.

DISCUSSION START!

Personally I have a lot of collection around "Key rough sketches" but for now, I'll just post one image to open discussion. Guess who is this beloved lady!

[Aspirety]

Sanae-san, right? I think I recognise that one

[EisenKoubu]

That’s definitely Sanae-san. She looks a lot mellower than she does in the finished product.

[Hirato]

Right. That was rather easy to guess, but can you imagine a CLANNAD with this version of Sanae-san???

[EisenKoubu]

I could, but she definitely wouldn’t be voiced by Kikuko Inoue. And Nagisa would probably be a bit more bulky. And she’d probably run funny, which would make those moments where she’s running out of the shop and being chased by Akio even more hilarious. XD

[Pepe]

Everything except the her masquerading as Sunohara’s girlfriend

[Tsukari]

oh perfect, well here’s all the early LB designs I mentioned in the other thread.

I really like the early Kud and Mio designs, the CGs all looked pretty cool too honestly, probably prefer a few of them to those used in game.

[Kanon]

Don’t you remember? Mio wore Glasses.

[HeliosAlpha]

From Rewrite Artbook The biggest difference has to Shizuru’s design in the lower left on the second picture. Until I read the name I was certain that was Lucia but it seems Shizuru was planned to have an appearance more fitting her OPness. Sakuya is pretty much a palette swap of Kotarou and the comment says something about him coming strait from a shoujo manga. My favorite part is the monster designs. I didn’t get what Kilimanjaro was until I saw the full body design.

[Yerian]

@Tsukari Those LB sketches are incredible :o

Don’t you guys think we need some kind of spoiler warning here though, either on the whole topic or on posts themselves?

[Hirato]

Right, that never occurred to me about spoiler warning. Really sorry if anyone’s bothered by spoilerific images.

@Tsukari
I really like Na-Ga’s unused CG plans. Like those Rin confession CGs and her playing with cat, and her landing, and her singing in the classroom. It’s a pity they didn’t get selected for the final product. The Little Busters! discussing in baseball game, and childhood Masato too, were great.
In LB! PVB it’s shown how dedicated Na-Ga was. He seemed to throw a lot more of alternatives than Hinoue

@HeliosAlpha
I thought the biggest difference is on Kotori’s initial design and her final design. The prototypes don’t look like Kotori at all. But…
Whoa that was Shizuru’s prototype? I thought it was Lucia’s but after reading the name, you’re right. She looks like Misae.
Akane’s prototype looks so docile. Alternate color Chihaya seems great too.
Sakuya prototype’s fashion sense is terrible XD

The rough CG plans could look awesome if they were realized. My favorite would be:
From the left column: 1st, 4th, and 13th.
From the right column: It seems the 1st one is Rewrite title screen, but I prefer the angle like the second one.
The monsters CG were awesome too. Really like handless tyrannosaur.

[Pepe]

Woah, yeah o_O It’s like Shizuru and Lucia switched bodies somehow

And Kotori prototype looks sooooo different

[HeliosAlpha]

Yeah I’m trying to imagine how it would be to switch the designs if the story was the same. Shizuru’s impression would be really different if she was older but still had the saury obsession and such. Lucia might not change too much just less boob jokes. The different design for Lucia’s uniform would be way better suited for moving and fighting for Guardian.

@Hirato
Even though Kotori’s design is way different I think it gives the same impression as the one we got. She looks a lot more like a normal girl and not a flower magician. I like the current design better though so I’m glad we have that one.

The rough CGs seems to be focused on several girls which would be nice if those were made real in future releases. Excluding HF there are only two CGs that show all the girls. Is it just or does Yoshino with a ponytail look like 10 years older?

[Hirato]

I guess hairstyle really can change your whole look…

Honestly I think Key VNs need moar CGs. Their CG count is comparably low to VNs by other company.
Even in Rewrite true route There’s only so few CGs and worse, most of the CG is almost the same - That Kagari CGs on the center with only different backgrounds. It’s like Hinoue didn’t even try

In Little Busters! too, I wished they had more group pictures like the few scrapped CG sketches. LB! main focus is to the childhood friends yet they only get, like one or two CGs per person. Hopefully Angel Beats! VN will add more. So far they’ve shown a lot of CG samples but I hope that’s not all they have.

[Hirato]

More rough sketches here!
Guess who is this supposed to be.

[JimRaynor_2001]

Fuko, am I right?

[Pepe]

My vote is on Yukine? XD

[EisenKoubu]

That ribbon is really throwing me off…It could be Fuko, or Yukine, or maybe even Tomoyo, but that’s a bit of a stretch. I really don’t remember anybody wearing a ribbon other than Kyou, but this girl looks nothing like her. X(

[Tsukari]

@Hirato I feel na-ga as a lead did an incredible job as his first game I really prefer a few of those to the ones used, such as the original meeting kud CG too, I feel the one they winded up using looks a bit odd as it’s meant to be her turning to riki and it just sort of looks odd like the top of her isn’t on the rest of her body properly.

Completely agree on this about more CGs too, key’s biggest weakness in a lot of the games has been the lack of art, Rewrite suffered from this more than any other but LB really could have used more there were a lot of big scenes that didn’t have anything that in most VNs you’d have seen something for. Too many black backgrounds too.

[Yerian]

I’d also say Yukine for that sketch

[quote=“Tsukari, post:19, topic:848”]
Too many black backgrounds too.
[/quote]But both the black and the white backgrounds fit some of the scenes really well, and convey a different feeling from if there was art. But I agree, it would be nice if Key had more CGs