Topic: An unused map?

[Phoenix]

Has anyone seen this map before? I was reorganizing my location map graphics data today, and I found a small map that I hadn't come across. It's similar to the grove Cecil wakes up in after the Mist battle, but is a bit smaller. The map is pointer D0 in the graphics pointers, but as far as I know, no map actually uses it.

 

[Dragonsbrethren]

Interesting, it does look similar to the grove. It's possible that this is just an alternate design for it.

[Deathlike2]

I'm pretty convinced there was supposed to be a cut scene with Kain that was never finished/completed.

[JCE3000GT]

Looks like the cut scene map after the Mist event. 

[Dragonsbrethren]

I'm pretty convinced there was supposed to be a cut scene with Kain that was never finished/completed.

That's one possibility I hadn't considered. I was trying to think of some place where it could be located, if it was supposed to be its own playable map, and the only thing I came up with was that useless chocobo forest on the island between Troia and Kaipo. Me, personally though, I kind of assume that was the original location of the chocobo's village, since it's so much larger than any of the other forests, with the exception of the one south of Troia. This place could've been there, too, I suppose.

The After Years has a few forested groves like this scattered about the map, which contain treasure. Maybe something similar was planned for this area, but there is no chest or tall grass in the playable area.

[Deathlike2]

All Chocobo villages look the same, other than the special Black Chocobo forest.

[Dragonsbrethren]

The standard forest is called "Chocobo Forest;" the chocobo shaped one is the village. I'm not saying it was supposed to be a chocobo forest, just that it may have been a map at one of those locations. The island forest doesn't make any sense, and the other one isn't perfectly round like every other chocobo forest. Like I said, I still think it's likely that the island was the original chocobo village; it's isolated from the rest of the world, and there's absolutely no reason to have a normal forest at that location. They may have moved it so you'd be able to return after losing access to the Enterprise (Of course, you could also always return to Troia with a black chocobo, and screw up the location of the event with Kain). This map offers another possible explanation of what was there.

Another possibility is that the island was originally connected to the Damcyan desert via the shoals, so you could access the fat chocobo after getting the hovercraft. The monsters over there would absolutely decimate you at that point in the game, though.

[Deathlike2]

The standard forest is called "Chocobo Forest;" the chocobo shaped one is the village. I'm not saying it was supposed to be a chocobo forest, just that it may have been a map at one of those locations. The island forest doesn't make any sense, and the other one isn't perfectly round like every other chocobo forest. Like I said, I still think it's likely that the island was the original chocobo village; it's isolated from the rest of the world, and there's absolutely no reason to have a normal forest at that location. They may have moved it so you'd be able to return after losing access to the Enterprise (Of course, you could also always return to Troia with a black chocobo, and screw up the location of the event with Kain). This map offers another possible explanation of what was there.

Another possibility is that the island was originally connected to the Damcyan desert via the shoals, so you could access the fat chocobo after getting the hovercraft. The monsters over there would absolutely decimate you at that point in the game, though.

IIRC, the monsters there are exactly those in the desert of Kaipo. You might be thinking of the chocobo-like shaped forest next to Silvera.

[Dragonsbrethren]

No, you fight Troian monsters there. I believe the encounter zone overlaps with the island where the cave manus is located.

[Phoenix]

Given that the map isn't a full one, and that you can see 8 columns to the right of the character when on screen, that makes only the left half of the map useable without visual weirdness. So, it probably wasn't intended to be a playable map, only an event one.

I think an alternate grove map, or a scene with Kain, is a good possibility. It also reminds me of Palom's ending scene map, since that one also cuts off the right, which makes me think that it might have been an ending scene map they didn't use.

[Deathlike2]

No, you fight Troian monsters there. I believe the encounter zone overlaps with the island where the cave manus is located.

It doesn't. I ran tests moments ago. Just to be clear, it's the Chocobo forest that is close to the connecting shallows, but isn't connected at all.

The game made it so that a Chocobo Forest is accessible during any part of the game. The only exception is when you're doing the entire Kaipo to Fabul traveling (once you get Yang, then you finally get access to the next Chocobo Forest). The only other time where this is not true is when you first reach the Underground... you have to do the Calbrena-Golbez event first.

[Dragonsbrethren]

No, you fight Troian monsters there. I believe the encounter zone overlaps with the island where the cave manus is located.

It doesn't. I ran tests moments ago. Just to be clear, it's the Chocobo forest that is close to the connecting shallows, but isn't connected at all.

It doesn't have Troian monsters or it doesn't overlap? I'm guessing the latter, since I was almost certain about the monsters.

[Deathlike2]

No, you fight Troian monsters there. I believe the encounter zone overlaps with the island where the cave manus is located.

It doesn't. I ran tests moments ago. Just to be clear, it's the Chocobo forest that is close to the connecting shallows, but isn't connected at all.

It doesn't have Troian monsters or it doesn't overlap? I'm guessing the latter, since I was almost certain about the monsters.

The only place where this exists in FF4 is north of Mt. Ordeals... otherwise there would have been more to say.

FYI, I remember being scared to death about using a regular Chocobo @ the Black Chocobo forest in fear of being stuck in the southern forests. Only until FF4A where I found the last of the Chocobo Forests.... some of these places would be great for secret hidden treasure.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Heh, I went on a big chocobo forest finding spree after I found the one on the island (I figured there had to be something to that island), and found the one south of Troia that way.

[Paladin]

I'm pretty convinced there was supposed to be a cut scene with Kain that was never finished/completed.

That's one possibility I hadn't considered. I was trying to think of some place where it could be located, if it was supposed to be its own playable map, and the only thing I came up with was that useless chocobo forest on the island between Troia and Kaipo. Me, personally though, I kind of assume that was the original location of the chocobo's village, since it's so much larger than any of the other forests, with the exception of the one south of Troia. This place could could've been there, too, I suppose.

The After Years has a few forested groves like this scattered about the map, which contain treasure. Maybe something similar was planned for this area, but there is no chest or tall grass in the playable area.

I had a theory that that the "useless" village on the island was supposed to be the Chocobo Village with the Black Chocobos so you would have to really search the map looking for it rather than it being north of Troia. It kind of makes sense, only Chocobos that could fly would be capable of making a village there. That and it's close enough to Troia to make sense that they "found" black Chocobos there. My guess would be that it might not have been done and/or removed because play testing found it to be too difficult? Or maybe it's just a canard while you look for the actual Black Chocobo villiage/ I can't prove it but it seems to explain the otherwise useless village as you've aptly dubbed it.

 
That would be a cool hack actually. Move the black chocobo village to that island so that an experienced player would be thrown off by the change and have to actually go looking for it when doing the earth crystal / dark elf / Zot arc... I like it!

 
Yup...works like a champ...
(In v1.0 FFII ROM) Modify world map triggers at (headered) offsets
0xD017E (Island Chocobo Forest) = 564F21081E
0xD0183 (Troia North Chocobo Forest) = 2935D4081B
Then Modify Event #0x75 @ 92CF6 = F00DD8FEFB564F02FF (This is important as the line "FEFB564F" modifies where the Black Chocobo takes off from and sets where it returns too. Failure to change this event will likely strand you w/o a way to get back to your airship!)

And there 'tis... 

...Of course you could just put the black chocobos anywhere including somewhere they shouldn't be early on in the game so you can go places you shouldn't be...