Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door/Early Graphics

Mario
Very early graphics of Mario appear in the c_hune files. The earlier graphics have a thinner outline, much softer colors, and a black mustache. They are clearly based on the first game.

Admiral Bobbery
Admiral Bobbery started out with a completely different design -- as a soldier!

Vivian


File Name: tst_vivi

This design of Vivian is almost identical but for the flame on the tip of her hat.

Koopa Troopa
Another very early design. Like the Mario graphics above, this has duller colors and a thinner outline.  This shell is stored as a separate image, though it seems to have been corrupted a bit.  These wings are present as well. These look like the wings used in the first Paper Mario.

Smorg
These early Smorg graphics look a lot less fuzzy.

Items
All early item graphics are found in the test_item file.

Key Items
The Sun and Moon Stone items use a rocky texture that was removed in the final version. Strangely, when the stones are put into the rock columns in the final game, they use the early graphics!

A similar rocky texture is present in the Star Key too. This item also lost its eyes in the final game. This key doesn't directly correspond to any key used in the final game. The color and design make it resemble Hooktail's head.

Thrown Items
The can uses duller colors and is slightly bigger.

This painful brick was changed to a harmless stone. Wait.

Battle Icons
Larger, more cartoonish versions of the battle menu icons. These icons were shrunk from 64x64 to 48x48.

Same as above. The early cursor graphics only have one frame of animation. Cartoonish graphics? Yes. Does this description even need to be here? Probably not.

Slightly earlier graphics for the switch icon. The earlier graphic resembles the actual GameCube controller more.

An even earlier version can be found in audience.tpl. Switching was done with the L Button in an earlier version.

Character Icons
More test_item graphics. Early graphics for the icons used on the Partner Switch menu. The early version just seems to have shrunk down character sprites, while the final version's graphics are custom made for this screen. Bobbery is still using his early soldier design.

As before, the final version uses unique graphics for health icons. These early icons are facing left and don't have hearts.

Action Commands
The earlier buttons here are larger and are more based on the the first game's button designs.

Like the buttons above, the control stick graphics are a bit larger. They were also updated to more closely resemble the controller's analog stick.

The shines on the three action lights were turned from yellow to white, and the shading was changed on the action command prompt.

The run bar was reshaded and the run meter was made a bit brighter in the final version.

Ability Icons
Also found in the test_item file. The ability icons were redone for the final version. The paper is yellow in the early graphics but white in the final game.

Glitzville
Some early graphics can be found in file tou_00 (used for when Bowser is trying to fly to Glitzville). That room was not updated like the rest of the Glitzville rooms.

Early design of the Fire Flower used to mark shops. The older design does make an appearance at Westside Goods.

A different romanization of ウーロン街, the town's Japanese name. The older textures use the Japanese interpretation "Uron" rather than the Chinese "Oolong".

Starman
An earlier, more animated version of the message prompt. The final version leans left and right.