Maken X is an obscure game about one demonic sword's quest to slay an ancient Chinese god.
Notable for being Atlus' first fully-3D game, as well as the plethora of regional differences to make the game appeal more to the western market. It was later ported to the PlayStation 2 as Maken Shao: Demon Sword.
Unused Animations#
Brainjack Animations#
Kay and Kou have unique animations for performing a Brainjack. These animations go unused as they are both only playable for one stage with no characters available for Brainjacking. The alternate version of Kay controlled during the Sacrifice route has a different Brainjack animation, which appears to either be glitchy or unfinished.
Hit Animations#
Fei Shan, Gou Inaba, Samuel Smith and Bianca have unused animations for being hit, which go unused as Fei Shan's health is set to 1 and she'll be instantly defeated by any attack, and the latter three cannot be engaged by the player during normal gameplay.
Unused Areas#
There exists several duplicates of the Forbidden City stage which are almost identical to the regular stage but replace the mini boss fight with the two Sangyokai Dancers in the arena before the path leading to Geist's room with a rematch against one of the Hakke. Every Hakke except Andrey and Brown has a corresponding rematch stage. The Hakke in these unused stages do not leave behind a body that can be Brainjacked upon being defeated and fade away like other enemies in the game.
A pair of unused and unnamed stages, internally identified as STAGE_17 and STAGE_20, with incomplete data can also be found in the game. Neither can be loaded as they lack a .MAP file and result in the game resetting if the player tries to access them through the Debug Menu's Stage Select. Of note is that STAGE_20 is located between Lisbon and the Lisbon boss arena.
Unseen Stage Geometry#
Moscow#
A small cluster of four white triangles can be found underneath the Moscow stage, they might have been used as reference markers as they point in the same direction that the truck at the beginning of the stage moves.
Oil Palace#
Only a very small portion of the outside of the Oil Palace is seen in the game during the short introductory cutscene which shows the Maken entering through the front door, leaving most of the Palace's exterior, the desert and the skybox unseen in normal gameplay. This area has full collision.
Unused Character#
An unused character slot internally identified as body_02 exists located between Kay Sagami and Gou Inaba. No name, stats, or first-person model for this character slot exist, and attempting to change the currently-controlled character to body_02 will crash the game.
Unseen Enemy Behavior#
While "boss" versions of Gou Inaba, Bianca, and Samuel Smith are used in-game, they have unique actions that they take when the player is near them which can never be seen in normal gameplay as they are defeated once you fufill certain requirements. All three can be defeated in a single hit and will back away if the player tries to jump over them.
- In the Rhincodon stage, Inaba can be seen entering a battle stance before the door leading to the escape guppy closes on him and is not loaded back into the stage until the Sangyokai in the hangar are defeated. If he's engaged in his boss state, he'll attempt to strike the player with his electrical baton if they get close to him.
- Bianca's idle animation can be partially seen when looking through the window of her cell in the Istanbul stage if the player hasn't yet visited Athens. If the player somehow gets into her cell while the door is closed by moonjumping or clipping through the walls, uses the debug menu to change her health to a value higher than 1 and hits her with a non-lethal attack she'll start trembling and occasionally cough up a harmless green cloud. Defeating her will allow the player to see her otherwise unused defeated animation.
- Samuel Smith can be seen in the London stage sat on the ground. In normal gameplay, the player cannot open his cell unless they are controlling Tyrus and interact with the data extraction point next to the cell, during which the game instantly kills whoever is in the cell putting them in their defeated state. Like Bianca, if the player manages to get into Smith's cell without using the data extraction point he won't react to their presence, but by using the debug menu to change his health to a value higher than 1 and hitting him with a non-lethal attack he'll get up and back away from the player whenever they approach. If Smith is loaded in place of another stage's boss, he'll stand up when the player approaches but won't move until the player attacks regardless of if they hit him or not, which causes him to jump and begin backing away from the player.
Unused Graphics#
Placeholder Kitty#
A placeholder image featuring a portion of Kitty's model sheet can be found within ALLMODEL.PAC and is used as a placeholder for the image of the Maken's weapon form.
Placeholder Info Card#
A placeholder illustration card for the Info section. The text translates to "Information Retrieval Image Under Construction".
Early Menu#
Placeholder graphics for the game's menu UI.
Stage Preview Placeholders#
Kanazawa Research Institute
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Unused |
Final |
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An alternate version of the Japanese Kanazawa Research Institute preview with a slightly different font, this is used as a error handler for when the game cannot find a stage's preview image.
Shaja's Palace
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Unused |
Final |
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A placeholder stage preview image depicting Shaja's Palace. It features several differences from the previews in the final, such as being a less saturated green, the points of interest and start/exit markers being completely different and the exit being placed in Shaja's room instead of the hallway that precedes it.
Unused Models#
Fei Shan, Gou Inaba, Samuel Smith and Bianca have unused models for being frozen by Devon's Ice Blade attack, which go unused during normal gameplay as Smith and Inaba are inaccessible to the player as Devon and none of them have enough health to survive the attack.
Unused Music#
This song is located after Moscow's background music and might have been intended to play after passing a certain point in the stage similar to the tracks MIST and RISKY.
Unused Text#
Early Build Date#
AIP Ver 1.07 Build:Apr 27 1999 14:00:30A timestamp for an "AIP" (alpha in progress) build from about seven months before the game's Japanese release can be found in IP.BIN.
Unused Kay Dialogue#
Devon
Why did you fight him?
Were you upset with the way
Devon was talking to you?
Or... did you just want to absorb
more psi?
Think about why
we're here right now.
Please...
Please cooperate
with the Blademasters.
If you defeat Geist,
we can rescue my father...So why did you fight him anyway?
Were you upset with the
way Devon talked to you?
Or did you just want to absorb
more psi?
Think... about why we came here.
Please... Please cooperate
with the Blademasters.
If you defeat Geist,
we can rescue my father...Tyrus
Why did you fight with him?
Was it because you couldn't
accept what Tyrus said?
Or did you just want to absorb
someone else's psi?
It's important to think
about why we're here.
Please...
Please cooperate
with the Blademasters.
If we defeat Geist,
we can rescue my father.So tell me.
Why did you fight him?
Was it because you couldn't
accept what Tyrus said?
Or did you just want to absorb
someone else's psi?
You know that it's important to think
about why we came down here.
Please... Please cooperate
with the Blademasters.
If we can just defeat Geist,
we can rescue my father..Alys
Why did you fight her?
Did you have a problem
with what Alys said?
Or did you just want to absorb
someone else's psi ?
It's very vital to think
about why we're here.
Please... Please
cooperate with the Blademasters.
The thing is... if we defeat Geist,
we can rescue my father.Tell me.
Why did you fight her?
Be straight with me. Did you have
a problem with what Alys said?
Or was it that you just want
to absorb someone else's psi ?
I want you to think about something, OK?
Like why we are here?
Please...Please cooperate with
the Blademasters, OK?
The good thing is... if we defeat
Geist, we can rescue my father...Dialogue intended for Kay confronting the Maken over fighting with but not killing the Blademasters exists, but goes unused. This dialogue is nearly identical to the dialogue used when the Maken kills a Blademaster, but with "fight" in place of "kill". No dialogue for Kay scolding the Maken for fighting with Fei Shan exists.
Oddities#
Fei Chao#
The texture bank for the cutscene where the Maken meets up with Kitty and Kou in Lisbon contains Fei Chao's textures despite him never appearing in the cutscene and being long dead by this point in the game.
Boat in the Amazon#
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Early 1999 Build |
Stage Preview |
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In early screenshots of the game dating to early 1999, a boat can be seen in the Amazon stage. While this boat was completely removed from the final game, it can still be seen in the preview image of the stage near the starting area.