The Fallen Angels/Bitmap Dump

This is a sub-page of The Fallen Angels.

During the development of The Fallen Angels, The Steel Hearts team had intended each character to have a detailed story that played as you went through the game. Every character would face the same characters from start to finish and there would be story interludes between each fight to explain their story. Due to time constraints during the development cycle, none of this would make in into the final game. Team member Hajime Ito wrote a lengthy post about this and the game's cut features on his website shortly after the game's release, which is now only viewable via the Wayback Machine.

Unused Lapis Scene

This image is not colored in like some of the unused ending sequences, but depicts Carlos examining a tablet. This is likely the same scene mentioned in Lapis's storyboards where Carlos says he needs to find her to unlock its power. Since Lapis didn't make it into the game there's no dialogue between characters or any references at all to this tablet or what it was for.

Maya

According to Steel Hearts team member Hajime Ito's old blog, this character's name is Maya and she was the unused character Jimmy's older sister, and was intended to be a sister to Yuiren as well. She's not mentioned in the final game, but Yuiren does have a sister named Yuiran, who is a playable character. Carlos's win quote against Yuiran in the Japanese version implies he wishes to do experiments on her. Given that originally Maya's story arc involved her, Jimmy, Yuiran, and Carlos's attempts to weaponize the two siblings it's likely Yuiran's story line was adopted from what they had intended for Maya.

Torao Ending Scene

A picture showing the docks, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. This was an unused image from Torao Onigawara's ending, where he apparently returned to America after the defeat of Carlos. In the game's story, Torao once worked with the United States Army to train soldiers and during that time trained Harry Ness, another one of the playable characters.

Scene from Jimmy's Story

Since the other images from Lapis's storyboards were in pencil, this was likely going to be something from Jimmy's storyboards had he not been cut from development. It depicts him holding what appears to be a wine glass.

Ash Children

Haiji's official bio states he was part of "Case Class" program undertaken by Carlos known as the Ash Children Project, and was the only one that survived. Hajime Ito's blog mentions that other members of the program were supposed to appear as supporting characters in the game. Haiji's bio also states that he was number 8 in this program, and since these characters are all numbered they are likely early sketches of the other members. None of these characters are named, but the one on the far left shows up in several other images from the bitmap dump, but never fully fleshed out, meaning he was likely dropped early in development.

Ruccio Roche Story Scenes

Ruccio's official bio states that he once worked for the Italian mafia under a man named Don Corneo. These images are found sketched in his storyboards and these would have been shown in his story. Two of them show a character (presumably Don Corneo) harassing an underling, while another panel shows someone grabbing Coreno by the neck. The red coat sleeve seen grabbing Corneo by the neck appears to be that of Trigger, who is a rival assassin to Ruccio. At some point in the story, Trigger may have killed, Coreno leading to Ruccio and Trigger fighting.

Yuiren/Yuiran

The first two images seem to be Yuiren and Yuiran, but as two men rather than brother and sister (Yuiren in the final game is a cross dresser). The line drawn near Yuiran's mouth matches up with the line in the corner of the picture of the man with white pants, so these images likely were on the same sheet of paper before being scanned into the game. Given that originally the developers had planned for an arc involving Yuiren and two cut characters (Maya and Jimmy) but had to scrap it, it's possible they considered changing them into two brothers, but settled making Yuiran a twin of Yuiren with different moves. In the final game, Yuiran/Yuiren share a sprite and animations, but Yuiran has had the dress part removed leaving only the black body suit underneath that Yuiren has.

Haiji Story Scenes

Haiji's storyboards are the most complete, only missing one page and all of these images are found in his storyboards. Haiji would have fought Trigger as a mid-boss and Carlos as his final boss. The first image depicts Haiji defeating Trigger, the second is Haiji having cornered Carlos in the elevator and forcing him to the roof, and the third is after defeating Carlos. Haiji's stage in the final game is the roof of the building you fight Carlos in so this makes sense in context.

Cool Story Scenes

In the final game, Cool's stage is a prison and his official bio describes him as a freelance thief type. Dialogue in the final game also shows he has a vendetta against Carlos and has clashed with Yuiran in the past. Fittingly the story image that made it into the image dump is Cool still in his cell, which likely would have been from the intro. The other two images are of Carlos and Cool, but appear to be early sketches of a confrontation between them. In the final game, Cool and Carlos have a specific intro with each other.

Human Taro

An image of what is obviously Taro, but as a human. Ito's website states that Carlos performed experiments on Taro, and Carlos also makes reference to Taro being a failed experiment. Given that he has the cat he has in the final game after becoming a victim, this was likely an ending scenario image where he became normal again.

Misc Images

Lapis

An image of the cut character, Lapis. You can see a whip on her side. Hajime Ito said on his website that she was intended to fight like Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones by using the whip for ranged attacks. The character Whip from King of Fighters bears a strong resemblance in style and appearance to Lapis, and also fights with a whip. Much of the staff from Daraku Tenshi went on to work for SNK, with several characters from the series besides Whip pulling inspiration from Daraku's characters.

Fighter Location Map

Many fighting games of the era would show a map screen to show where the next match was taking place and it's likely this game would have had one too, since each character has a dedicated stage in the final game. In the top corner is a sketch of the early suspenders version of Yuiren.

Sid Render

Given the kickboxing shorts, this image is most likely the cut kickboxer Sid.