If the Another Story of today (2026) is quite faithful to my overall vision of 2016, there were still many ideas that were deleted or changed along the way.
The purpose of this article will be to keep a trace of these ideas that were not kept for the final version.

However, this will go very deeply into the realm of major spoilers, so read what follows ONLY if you have already finished the game entirely. Otherwise, your perception of certain characters might take a hit.

Satoshi, the IRL love interest

During Another Story, you might have already seen this name somewhere.
But before being recycled into the final game, Kyoko almost had a love interest of her own in the real world: a human who would have accepted her hidden gamer side.

And the game would have alternated between flashbacks of Kyoko’s real life and her blossoming relationship with Satoshi, and moments where Kyoko is stuck in the game realizing she was in love with her colleague all along.

While this story never saw the light of day for fear of creating a deep imbalance between the story of Doki Doki 5 and that of Kyoko, it allowed me to reflect on the concept of “True route” and how to make sure each love interest can stay relevant even if they remain fictional for Kyoko.
Note that the entire secret route storyline was born from this long reflection and I was able to start scattering the different pieces of the puzzle within all the routes.

A stalker Hiromi or a depressed Hiromi?

If there is one route that has nothing to do with its original pitch, it’s Hiromi.

This boy was created because I wanted to remind people that clothes don’t make the man: behind the sunny and cute side of the character, I wanted to tell the story of a slightly yandere stalker.

But I wasn’t convinced I could write a coherent story with these parameters, nor capable of loving this character who would have been much too extreme for my taste. (Even though I kept the idea of the yandere in the game, it’s ultimately more of an easter egg than anything else.)

However, wanting to remove his obsessive side, I ended up taking the opposite trajectory, I almost made Hiromi depressed to the point where Hana would have been involuntarily his only tie to life… It’s very heavy, isn’t it?
Indeed, after gauging the overall tone of the game, this idea would have been much too dark for a scenario.

Once again, from these rejected ideas, I was able to find a better balance for Hiromi within Another Story. The funniest part of this story…? I only finalized Hiromi’s story in 2025.
Before that, it was my little yandere that I had to make cute. Well, I can tell you it was extremely difficult to remove this image after so many years!

Haru: from a relationship playing with fire to a psychological closed-door drama.

I had various and varied puzzles to solve during the design of scenarios and characters of Another Story. Each character created challenges for me to overcome before I could really put their story on paper.

Haru, with his taboo side, offered great dramatic opportunities for the narration.
How to explore the forbidden relationship side? Do they have a good relationship originally? And if Hana and Haru are together, how do they live their idyll? Would they have fun multiplying signs of affection while knowing that Hana’s friends are nearby?

So many cliché situations to exploit with Haru, but in the end, with the years and the morals that can’t really have fun with this “big brother” trope anymore, I opted for something more serious where Haru and Hana’s relationship would develop in their own bubble.
I had to retrace their entire personal history, explore Haru’s psychology inside out, before being able to offer a scenario that manages to satisfy me.
This is also one of the reasons that pushed me to create 2 distinct branches which will allow me to play on both sides without guilt.

Kou and Sayuri, yet another love triangle dynamic.

Before deciding on the name Sumire, Kou’s ex-girlfriend was supposed to be named Sayuri and especially her role could have been very different.

The idea that Kou had dated a doppelganger of Hana was present almost from the beginning.

However, if Sumire acts as a benevolent but eccentric matchmaker… Sayuri did not have this vocation at all.
She was clearly an antagonist who was ready to fight for Kou’s affections.
Alas for Sayuri, from a personal point of view, I wasn’t really interested in the warmed-up love triangle…

That’s how Sumire Yukino was born: a mature free spirit who contrasts with the sweet and inexperienced Hana. A character who has her own agency and who doesn’t hesitate to pursue her dreams, far from being chained to her partner.

I hope this overview of what Another Story could have been won’t make you too sad.
The lesson to remember is that we can always lean on failures to come back stronger. For my part, I’m happy with the path the game took and I hope you still enjoyed the journey.