January 25

This is a sub-page of Proto:Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II.

The earlier of the two known prototypes, the January 25, 2003 ROM is highly prone to crashing due to many unfinished elements. It is currently not possible to beat this version as it crashes during certain critical story events, even when using the debug menu to skip ahead.

Debug Menu#

Can be accessed from the title screen using the following button combo: L, L, R, R, ↑, ↓, ←, →. Functions the same as the final game. Be careful when using the map select, as you are given control of Gohan at level 1 and will instantly die to enemies found in the more advanced areas of the story.

Unused Enemies#

There are three enemies in the prototype that didn't make it into the final game.

Green Dinosaur#

An enemy found in the Southern Continent that will bite you at close range. In the January 31 prototype, a boulder was added to it that sits on its tail. Sprites for throwing the boulder are present in the ROM but there doesn't appear to be a way to trigger this behaviour. While its true name is unknown, the game stores the sprites in alphabetical order, putting it between Puar and the Saber-Toothed Tiger enemy. Theoretically it's name could begin with a P, Q, R or S.

Red Dragon#

A dragon-type enemy that is supposed to attack using some kind of acid barrage, and it can burrow underground to hide if the player gets too close. Its programming is very glitchy in the January 25 prototype, and it often just stares at the player without attacking. In the January 31 prototype however, its AI is much more fleshed out to the point where the acid attack can quickly overwhelm you if you're not careful due to its high rate of fire. The sprites for this enemy are stored between Piccolo and the Pterodactyl enemy, therefore it's likely that its true name begins with a P.

Spiked Armadillo#

This enemy has a very interesting concept, where hitting it with melee attacks will actually hurt the player, necessitating the use of energy attacks. Seems to be the more complete enemy out of the three in terms of implementation. Its sprites are stored between the Snake enemy and the squirrel NPC, therefore it's likely that its true name begins with an S.

Differences#

Gameplay#

• You must press A to use the food and energy pickups
• The scouter doesn't seem to have been implemented yet, and the conversation with Bulma implies that you were originally supposed to access it from the inventory.
• You cannot move side to side while running; pressing another direction key will immediately cause the player character to start walking instead.
• The melee attacks learned from Master Roshi have a much longer charge time compared to the final game, making them impractical to use.
• The only energy attack that you have access to is the basic ki blast.
• No transformations, but Trunks and Goku are able to transform in their cutscenes against Frieza and Android 19, respectively.
• You can attack in places you normally shouldn't, such as West City and inside Capsule Corp.
• Ki blasts do not cause enemies to flinch, but they do take damage.
• Enemies do not bounce off walls when hit, meaning you can corner and defeat them very easily.
• The King Triceratops fight hasn’t been programmed in yet, and you can simply walk up to him and punch him to instantly win.
• Androids 19 and 20’s energy absorption works differently; instead of absorbing ki attacks to heal, every hit they land absorbs energy points and ki attacks simply do 0 damage to them.

Levels#

• The world map is unfinished and has numbers where the locations are supposed to be.
• New Namek is completely devoid of Nameks, the save icon is missing, and the cave where you fight Cooler doesn't exist yet.
• The Ninja Hideout is completely empty and the switches are non-functional.
• Master Roshi’s Island doesn’t have a save icon.
• The layout of Gingertown is different as it has a road going east.
• The area in the Southern Continent past Gohan’s level 15 door is missing enemy data and doesn’t have a sandstorm.
• Triceratops Jungle actually had Triceratops enemies before reaching the farm, as well as the spiky armadillo and burrowing dragon.
• Speaking of the farm area, the stampeding triceratops mechanic in the cornfield maze hasn’t been implemented at this point, and instead you fight them as normal enemies.
• Packs of wolves spawn out of thin air when travelling through the tunnel on the West City Highway.
• The dino eggs in the Northern Mountains are non-functional, and you can simply punch through them to destroy the generator.

Enemies#

• Many areas use completely different enemies and have different placements.
• An interesting mechanic that was ultimately scrapped was that certain spiked enemies hurt the player if punched, forcing the player to use energy attacks.
• Yamcha is the only opponent available to fight in the Sparring Arena.
• There are a few enemies in the prototype that were cut from the final game (listed at the top of this page).
• Cooler doesn’t appear to exist yet, as he does not confront the player after exiting the Triceratops Jungle, and his cave can't be selected from the debug menu.

Cosmetic#

• Characters don't have turning poses while flying on the world map - they either face front or back.
• The map number is displayed in the bottom left of the screen at all times and uses the format Zone.Area.Variation to identify each area.
• Your stat increases are not displayed on screen when you level up, and the player character doesn’t do their level up animation.
• Certain cut scenes are incomplete - this can cause things ranging from minor (the fight between Goku and Android 19 not being animated) to game-breaking (Cell fleeing Gingertown crashes the game).
• Garlic Jr.'s Black Water Mist icon is missing from areas where it is normally present.
• Android 20 doesn’t lose his hat until after fighting him, meaning that you can see his fighting sprites while he is wearing his hat which isn't possible in the final game.
• Breakable rocks don’t have hitting animations.
• The movelist was supposed to have an image for each technique, but everyone uses Gohan’s Super Kick and Masenko as placeholders.
• No cutscene after flipping the switches to access the back room in Vinnie’s house.

Miscellaneous#

• The computer at the Capsule Corp used to access the database is non-functional.
• Character trophies don't exist yet, and their pedestals are missing from the Capsule Corp atrium.
• Very few Golden Capsules are available to be found.
• There is a tab for “Special” items in your inventory, but the only item that is added here are the golden capsules.
• There is a gallery tab in the Journal page of the pause menu, but it doesn’t seem to be functional as no image gets added during the playthrough of the game.

Oddities#

• There is a training dummy of Frieza outside Capsule Corp that you can attack to rapidly level up as it gives a whopping 10,000 experience points per hit. This seems to have been repurposed into the punching bag in the Hermit’s house in the Warlord’s Domain.
• Completing the mission where you return the key to West City will instantly transport you to East District 439 to trigger the cutscene where Goku, Gohan and Piccolo start their training for the arrival of the Androids.
• Upon defeating King Triceratops, you pick up the Ancient Stone Rune of the Dinosaurs which doesn’t seem to have any use. It’s possible you had to show this to the mayor to prove that you stopped the attack at the village.
• The fight with Android 18 doesn’t have a trigger to stop the fight once her health gets low enough, so the only way to advance is to allow her to defeat you.

Known to cause crashes/softlocks#

• Some areas have not been implemented yet despite having their entrances programmed into the game, which can cause a crash if you attempt to use them.
• Piccolo’s surprised/shocked animation causes a crash as it doesn’t have sprites.
• Some enemies can cause crashes as they are missing sprites for certain actions, such as attacking and being hit. This includes:
  • Alligator
  • Warthog (due to their numbers, this makes the Northern Mountains extremely difficult to navigate)
  • Hawk
  • Ninja
  • T-Rex
  • Pterodactyl
  • Cell
• Vegeta doesn’t have a falling/death animation, so dying as him causes a crash. This makes it so that you cannot advance past the fight with Perfect Cell in the Tropical Islands as Vegeta gets knocked out by Cell during a cutscene.
• Taking too long during the Android 17 fight causes some kind of music-related crash.
• Like the fight with his sister, the fight with Android 17 doesn’t have the proper checks to start the next cutscene once his health gets low enough. Unfortunately, there is no workaround so you are stuck in the fight until you die or the game crashes due to the music error.

Portraits#

The character portraits generally differ to the ones seen in the published game.

Playable Characters#

Proto	Final	Notes
		Looks completely different.
		An edit of the Goku portrait, possibly a placeholder. Pose is very similar.
		Nearly identical; only difference here is some unfinished details.
		Looks completely different.
		Same as above.
		Looks very similar. Final looks like it's based on the same reference.
		Uses Gohan's long hair Time Chamber design, although this design is never seen in-game outside this portrait.
		Edit of the sprite above. Very unfinished, most likely used as a placeholder.
		Inaccessible through normal gameplay, as the prototype crashes before Cell blows up the ring. To do: Look if it's present in the build data or files and add it
		Very similar to the final.
		Unseen/unknown To do: Look if it's present in the build data or files and add it
		An edit of Super Saiyan Trunks' portrait.
		To do: Look if it's present in the build data or files and add it

NPCs#

Proto	Final	Notes
		Differ from the final release.

Unused Graphics#

Super Vegeta#

Within the ROM, there is a version of the Super Saiyan Vegeta sprite that differs from the one seen in-game. Based on the design, it's possible that this would have been Vegeta in his buffed up "Super Saiyan Grade 2" form, which he calls "Super Vegeta". In the story, Vegeta uses this transformation when he leaves the Hyperbolic Time Chamber up until his fight with Cell in the Tropical Islands. As the game simply reuses his Super Saiyan sprites for this form, there is no visual indication that he is using it other than a decrease in speed to simulate the increase in muscle mass, as well as a slightly higher stat boost than the normal Super Saiyan transformation.

Super Trunks#

Similarly, there are alternate sprites of "Super Trunks" that go unused. It's likely that these forms were cut early on in development as the only remaining sprites are the downward and side facing poses.