Prerelease:Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Arcade)

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Arcade).

The second installment in the Darkstalkers series underwent an extensive location test campaign in the pursuit of creating a well-balanced game. Many differences, some big and some small were present during these early builds compared to the final product, and thanks to the large number of people who played them as well as some official publications from Capcom, many of these differences have been documented.

Aesthetic Differences

Attract Mode Morrigan Palette

Prerelease	Final

Morrigan's scene in the attract mode demo. The location test version was also featured on a Japanese arcade poster advertising the game's upcoming arrival.

• The location test used her regular color scheme. In the final game, it uses her blonde Medium Punch palette. The regular color would later be used in the intro for Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower.
• Her right head wing was missing.

Character Select Screen Colors

The prerelease character select screen had all of the character icons in their original colors rather than the alternate light punch colors seen in the finished release.

Pink Anakaris Palette

Anakaris had an alternate palette in the location test that is not present in the finished game. It featured pink bandages and light yellow garments with gray stripes. According to All About Vampire Hunter, Anakaris also had a Giant Robo-inspired palette during the location test that was not present in the finished product. It's likely that this is what became his 3 Kick Button palette in Vampire Savior. All About also mentions that various other palettes were modified in the transition from location test to finished product.

Alternate Stage Palettes

Several early screenshots seen in magazines show stage palettes different from both the previous installment and this game's finished release. Some of them seem to have made it into the Saturn version's Classic stage option available through its hidden options menu.

Donovan's stage in red.

It appears to match the Saturn version's Classic palette.


Felicia's stage in orange.

It appears to match the Saturn version's Classic palette.


Huitzil's stage in green.

It appears to match the Saturn version's Classic palette.

Gameplay Differences

Note that while many of these have been corroborated, others are based on players' anecdotes and could be inaccurate.

Victor

• While the Great Gerdenheim powerup was active, simply pressing Medium Punch or Hard Punch would fire a screen-traversing lightning bolt much like the ones produced by his Thunder Break attack. Footage of this can be seen in this promotional video starting at 1:45.

Rikuo

• Water Jail was a defensive maneuver rather than an attack. Rather than floating off and attempting to capture the opponent as it does in the finished game, the bubble produced would envelop Rikuo himself and protect him from the opponent's projectiles and throws.

Huitzil

• As noted on the main page, Final Guardian originally involved summoning another robot that would transform into a cannon rather than Huitzil himself transforming. The arrival and departure of the other robot greatly increased the startup and recovery times of the move, presumably making it very hard to use effectively. Footage of this can be seen in this promotional video starting at 2:45.

Pyron

• Cosmo Disruption behaves somewhat differently. The startup is significantly longer, Pyron extends his arm as each "star" appears, and there is no background dimming effect. Footage of this can be seen in this promotional video starting at 2:54.

Hsien-Ko

• Jireitou's blades would continue sprouting indefinitely until they left the screen rather than stopping after six as in the finished game. There was also no pause after the third blade, and it had more juggle potential. Footage of this can be seen in this promotional video starting at 3:03.
• Senpuubu was totally invincible.

Donovan

• As noted on the main page, Blizzard Sword was very different. The projectile, which was an ice-covered sword rather than a snowflake, would come falling in from the top of the screen rather than flying out at a shallow angle.
• Also as noted on the main page, the Kill Shred sword spun end over end rather than horizontally, giving it a much bigger hitbox. It was also able to be launched left, right, or up depending on the button pressed, rather than always flying in the direction Donovan is facing as in the final.
• Forward + Hard Kick command hop kick couldn't be blocked by crouching opponents.
• Down + Kick midair sword dives did not cause Donovan to bounce off upon being blocked as they do in the final.
• Change Immortal would connect multiple times on a blocking opponent causing lots of chip damage. Its flight was also more controllable, and it was prone to glitching, necessitating the game to be reset.