According to Takaya Imamura in a 2002 interview with Nintendo Dream, a lot of time was spent between Rare and Nintendo brainstorming on what kind of equipment and weaponry Fox should have during the transition from Dinosaur Planet to Star Fox Adventures. Imamura wanted Fox to use a gun, similar to his original EAD-created prototype of Star Fox Adventures before it was merged with Dinosaur Planet. However, this was not well suited for the Zelda-esque framework established by Dinosaur Planet, so this was abandoned and they embarked on a long period of trial-and-error to determine what weapon Fox should use.

After experimenting with ideas such as a whip, or a gun and sword combo (possibly based on how Fox was already using Sabre's sword in the leaked Dinosaur Planet build), Rare and Nintendo finally settled on Krystal's staff. Imamura claims that this was decided upon because it was a weapon that doesn't require the player to slash the enemy, as he felt uncomfortable with the idea of an animal character like Fox being able to decapitate opponents.

There's a fairly common misconception that the character of Krystal was originally meant to be a cat in Dinosaur Planet, prior to being redesigned as a vixen when the project was transformed into Star Fox Adventures.

The reality is that despite having a somewhat feline look, Krystal was always intended to be a fox as early as Dinosaur Planet, her original backstory even claiming that she belonged to the "Vixon Tribe" on planet Animus (Sabre and Randorn on the other hand belonged to the "Wolven Tribe", as they were both wolves). Former Rare artist Kevin Bayliss has stated multiple times that she was meant to represent a stylized arctic fox in particular.

In the original Dinosaur Planet, Krystal would come across a pachycephalosaurid dinosaur at CloudRunner Fortress, who is revealed to be one of the SpellStone guardians, who also gives Krystal the Illusion spellpage to bypass the SharpClaw guards within the dungeon. In-game hints and task summaries reveal him to be of the "BoneHead" tribe.

This individual would appear in the final Star Fox Adventures, with his role slightly rewritten as the chief engineer at CloudRunner Fortress (The Queen CloudRunner took over his original role as the SpellStone Gatekeeper for this area). Talking to him in a cutscene will reveal his name to be "Gradabug". While not mentioned anywhere in-game, the Star Fox Adventures Nintendo Power guidebook reaffirms him belonging to the BoneHead tribe.

The floating planetoid representing CloudRunner Fortress on the world map screen in Star Fox Adventures very clearly resembles its original, rockier iteration from the Nintendo 64 version of Dinosaur Planet, as opposed to its remodeled look in the final Star Fox Adventures.

The life bar icons for the SnowHorn and HighTop in Star Fox Adventures sport different, more cartoony designs from their respective in-game models. The reason for this is because they're clearly based upon their original N64 Dinosaur Planet models, which too are much more cartoonier than the final SFA models that go for a more semi-realistic look.

Found within the files of Star Fox Adventures is an unused audio track for the WarpStone's introduction cutscene, which also includes verbal dialogue. This was clearly an earlier version before Rare had done a voice-acting retake.

Most notably, the music that plays in the background is a remnant from Dinosaur Planet, from the scene where Krystal first arrives in SwapStone Circle and thus meets her respective SwapStone, Rubble. In the final Star Fox Adventures, music performed by bagpipes is played instead in this particular cutscene.

Contrary to popular belief, Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo did not singlehandedly force Rare (who was never even fully owned by Nintendo) to convert Dinosaur Planet into Star Fox Adventures. It was merely an offer and suggestion Miyamoto gave to Rare, and at the very least, the higher ups such as the Stamper Bros. and Kevin Bayliss were on board with it. An October 2004 edition of Rare's Scribes says as such:

One of the enemies Sabre and Krystal would encounter in Dinosaur Planet were these robotic Scorpion-like automatons, typically found in Krazoa-build strongholds such as the Force Point Temples and Cape Claw. While removed in the final Star Fox Adventures, they could still be found hidden within the E3 2002 kiosk version via hacking.

Phil Tossell, the lead software engineer for Star Fox Adventures, had mentioned that Dinosaur Planet had begun development before The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had released, and thus the development team didn't start taking inspiration from it until afterwards. He also talked about how understaffed the development team was in comparison to most Zelda games, specifically mentioning how they initially had only five programmers, only adding in more later on. This resulted in the team facing many technical and design problems during the development of Dinosaur Planet/Star Fox Adventures:

What exists as LightFoot Village in Star Fox Adventures was originally merely a subarea in a greater location known as SwapStone Circle in Dinosaur Planet. This was essentially Krystal's equivalent to Sabre's SwapStone Hollow, acting as a hub for her adventure and thus connecting together her stages such as Cape Claw, BlackWater Canyon, Discovery Falls, Golden Plains and Moon Mountain Pass. It was also where she'd utilize her namesake SwapStone, Rubble, to transport to Warlock Mountain to deposit Krazoa spirits.

In the transition to Star Fox Adventures, when it was decided to scrap Krystal's co-protagonist role, thus leaving Fox as the only playable character outside of the prologue, Krystal's stages were either removed entirely or given to and reworked for Fox. SwapStone Circle as such would be heavily revamped, expunging the SwapStone element and heavily expanding the LightFoot Village mini-area into its own full distinct location. Similarly to Dinosaur Planet, the area would link to Cape Claw. It's worth noting that within the game files, LightFoot Village is internally called "SwapCircle", as ThornTail Hollow is similarly internally called "SwapHol", referencing their original names.

In Dinosaur Planet, Krystal and Kyte were tasked by the LightFoot to lit their ancient beacons that had gone out. Doing this in turn would reward them access to Discovery Falls. This quest would appear in the final Star Fox Adventures, but re-contextualized as the ThornTails in ThornTail Hollow asking for Fox and Tricky for help in reigniting their beacons, and doing so rewards them a key that let them access Moon Mountain Pass, as well as the Volcano Force Point Temple.

What exists as ThornTail Hollow in Star Fox Adventures was originally called SwapStone Hollow in Dinosaur Planet. It more or less functioned the same as it does in SFA, serving as the hub for Sabre's adventure, connecting his stages such as SnowHorn Wastes, Walled City, Diamond Bay, Willow Grove and Dragon Rock. It was where he'd utilize his namesake SwapStone, Rocky, to transport to Warlock Mountain to deposit Krazoa spirits.

ThornTail Hollow retains most of the same layout, but has noticeable differences: the shop that was originally situated underneath the SwapStone (now WarpStone, as the character swapping mechanic was dropped with Krystal's co-protagonist role scrapped) is now its own distinct establishment settled in the middle of the map. The winding series of tunnels right by the Swap/WarpStone has been replaced by the Mother ThornTail egg mini-game. The areas it was originally connected to such as Willow Grove, Walled City, Diamond Bay and Dragon Rock were either entirely removed or split off the mainland Dinosaur Planet in orbit. ThornTail Hollow also now leads into Moon Mountain Pass on the right side of the area, and what originally led to Willow Grove in the bottom left now leads into LightFoot Village.

Golden Plains was another of Krystal's stages in Dinosaur Planet that was cut in the transition to Star Fox Adventures. It was an open desert area that Krystal and Kyte would have to trek through in order to reach the Desert Force Point Temple. It would be home to other interests, such as the spell page for the Portal ability required to open the way into the Desert Force Point, another jetbike race, and as well as Krystal's final Krazoa shrine test, the Test of Knowledge.

Golden Plains featured a unique mechanic in that Krystal would take damage by vising this area during the day because of the extreme heat, hence why the SpellStone guardian previously encountered at CloudRunner Fortress (who appears in Star Fox Adventures under the name of "Gradabug") warns her to instead travel at night when the sun is gone.

Golden Plains was removed in the final Star Fox Adventures, but some of its elements would remain: the Desert Force Point Temple was reworked into the Ocean Force Point Temple and would be now accessed through Cape Claw. The Ocean Force Point would even inherent Golden Plain's original background music. The Test of Knowledge would be moved over to the top of the temple in the Walled City and fittingly enough would be Fox's final true Krazoa test, although one more was planned in place of the General Scales "boss fight" in Krazoa Palace.

One of Krystal's many areas from Dinosaur Planet that got scrapped in the transition to Star Fox Adventures was Discovery Falls, which consisted of a massive series of waterfalls and hidden caves. This was the first area that Krystal was meant to visit after rescuing Princess Kyte from the SharpClaw within Cape Claw, and was also home to her first Krazoa shrine test, the Test of Combat. Other notable characters encountered here include a member of the HighTop tribe (a race of sauropods), a friendly SharpClaw that teaches Krystal the Foodbag mechanic, and a mysterious mole creature that Krystal must feed in order to to help her dig additional tunnels within one of the caverns. This mole creature, internally referred to as "DFmole" in the game files, has been affectionately named "Capy" (short for "capybara") by some within the Dinosaur Planet community. This area was also where Krystal would eventually acquire an artifact of the Krazoa that would let her access more areas previously barred off in Cape Claw.

As mentioned before, this area would be scrapped entirely in the final Star Fox Adventures game, but some elements of it would live on elsewhere, namely the Test of Combat (which now exists in Moon Mountain Pass, fittingly as Fox's first test) and its background music, which now plays in Cape Claw, and was also remixed in romantic saxophone form as Krystal's theme.

Found within the files of the E3 2002 kiosk of Star Fox Adventures is a file called STORYBOARD.bin which reveals a set of storyboard images pertaining to a cut subplot in Dinosaur Planet's CloudRunner Fortress that would have dealt with Princess Kyte's traitorous uncle.

It seemed for two centuries, Kyte's uncle had been cast out by his tribe and now was seeking vengeance by allying himself with General Scales and the SharpClaw. It appears that Krystal and Kyte would combat and defeat this evil uncle, resulting in General Scales betraying him, and in retaliation, Kyte's uncle would attempt to perform a kamikaze attack on Scales and thus sacrifice himself.

While the storyboards otherwise are mostly similar to what is presented in the Dinosaur Planet condensed story and also leaked December 2000 build, there are some notable differences, just to name a few: as Krystal and Kyte enter CloudRunner Fortress, they witness a CloudRunner soldier get killed by one of the SharpClaw's spaceships (presumably provided to them by Drakor). The imprisoned SpellStone guardian, presented as a pachycephalosaurid type dinosaur from the BoneHead tribe in the leaked Dinosaur Planet build (who also appears in Star Fox Adventures with the name "Gradabug") is illustrated as more of a strange stegosaurid type of dinosaur here.

It's rather apparent that these storyboards were meant to pertain to a subarea within CloudRunner Fortress that had already been scrapped by the time of the condensed Dinosaur Planet story and also leaked build: the Trap Rooms, which would of featured an extra set of puzzles and challenges Krystal had to solve before acquiring the area's SpellStone. The storyboards show that the Trap Rooms were to be accessed through the underwater passage in the Fortress' main courtyard, which in the leaked build, instead leads to the jetbike race (in the final Star Fox Adventures, Fox accesses it through the CloudRunner's treasure rooms. Funny enough, Adventures' CloudRunner Fortress also has a scrapped area found beyond the Fortress' flooded courtyard pathway). It is worth pointing out that the March 1999 level list includes "CloudRunner - Treasure", "Dungeon", and "TrapRooms", but doesn't feature "CloudRunner - Race", which makes it all the more apparent the latter replaced the Trap Rooms in the December 2000 build, which would then carry over into Star Fox Adventures.

The original Dinosaur Planet storyline had Sauria, the namesake Dinosaur Planet, a part a group of eight planets dubbed the "Majestic Eight". Said to be the first planets created when the universe began, the seven other were, as described by the Krazoa:

• Animus, the home world of Sabre, Krystal and Randorn
• Aleminach, the home world of the Krazoa
• Eridal, the home world of Drakor's race, the Kamerians
• Nibiru, the home world of the "Nephilim", and "a land of giants"
• Earth, the home world of the "newest universe members, a very evil race, the humans"
• Melqua, a planet of water with rings of gold
• Selaf, the home world of the "Anunnaki"

Interestingly, in place of Animus, the voice lines for the Krazoa in Warlock Mountain instead mention Corneria. Obviously, this was to accommodate the presence of Fox McCloud in the leaked December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet, as it was beginning to transition into Star Fox Adventures.

Some of these reference actual myths and conspiracies, such as the Nibiru Cataclysm, a doomsday theory that states that Earth will catastrophically collide with another planet, typically believed to be an object known as "Planet X" or Nibiru. The "Annunaki" are a group of deities in ancient Sumerian myths that are theorized by some as aliens from a planet called Nibiru that came to Earth to harvest gold, and also were reptilian humanoids. The myths surrounding the "Nephilim" tend to vary: some say they were giants (as mentioned by the Krazoa in DP) while others say that they were fallen angels or the offspring of humans and angels.

Each of the eight spirits Sabre and Krystal were told to collect by the Krazoa during their adventures were meant to represent these eight planets. The ultimate endgame of the Krazoa in Dinosaur Planet's original narrative was to align these Majestic Eight worlds by reuniting the eight spirits of Quan Ata Lachu (a deity the Krazoa worship) at Warlock Mountain in order to revive their people and bring "peace" to the universe. In reality, as Drakor describes it, this will result in the most deadly weapon in the universe, as the alignment of the Majestic Eight gives the Quan Ata Lachu (described by Drakor as being "a rare lifeform of pure evil") the opportunity to utilize the immense powerful energy that this will produce, and it will be focused through Warlock Mountain, creating the ultimate weapon of destruction that will allow the Krazoa to remold the universe into their image/liking, spreading disease, terror and chaos as they please. This is why Drakor has come to Sauria to revive the Kamerian war dragon that fell in battle against the Krazoa at the beginning of the universe, to prevent this from happening and exact revenge against the Krazoa.

This plotline would be revised and ultimately dropped in the final Star Fox Adventures game, as Dinosaur Planet is said to just simply exist in the Lylat System, and Krystal's home planet was renamed to Cerinia and was said to be mysteriously destroyed, hence why she's searching the galaxy for the truth of the death of her family (though this was omitted in the Japanese version). The plotline of Fox collecting the Krazoa spirits in promise of something good (in this case, saving Krystal from the top of Krazoa Palace and ultimately putting Dinosaur Planet back together) would in someway remain, but would instead result in Andross reviving himself as the true final boss of Star Fox Adventures.

Cape Claw is another area that was considerably larger and more complex in Dinosaur Planet than it was in the final Star Fox Adventures.

Both versions of the stage include the same starting point, a beach/cliff area with a giant Krazoa head structure, but unlike in Star Fox Adventures, the gas room puzzle in the cave was blocked by a BribeClaw (called "GuardClaw" in Adventures) that Krystal needed to bypass by giving him shiny nuggets, which allowed her to partake in the aforementioned Poison Chamber puzzle. This would actually unlock the way to a massive SharpClaw fortress area, featuring a wide cliffside and a mountable cannon, which was to be used to blast away the metal doors on the left and right of its placement, allowing Krystal to enter Cape Claw's courtyard. This is where Krystal would free Princess Kyte, who would then accompany her for the rest of her campaign. By having Kyte perch on a series of levers, the towers surrounding the Courtyard would reveal a pair of torches which would need to be lit by Kyte's Flame command, which would open the way back to the entry way, letting Krystal and Kyte leave Cape Claw only to have a run in with the LightFoot tribe in SwapStone Circle.

Krystal and Kyte would have to later revisit Cape Claw after acquiring an artifact of the Krazoa found in Discovery Falls (another of Krystal's areas that was removed in Star Fox Adventures), which would allow them to access even more areas, such as Cape Claw's Village section. They'd first need to collect three Fire Gems hidden around the area, one of which requires defeating a mini-boss encounter with the Sand Snake enemy. They would also encounter a pair of robot scorpion enemies hidden within a cave in the Village area, discovered by detonating explosive barrels, where they would be rewarded with another Krazoa tablet after defeating them. Afterwards, they would place the Fire Gems they've found inside their Lighthouse Beacon counterparts, and once they've been lit, or a Krazoa tablet has been placed, the Courtyard Well will reflect this change and unlock further areas of CapeClaw.

This was where Krystal would come across another Krazoa shrine, which housed the Test of Character, which would pit her against an apparition of Sabre (or Fox in the leaked December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet), who taunted her by claiming he never trust her and that Randorn should have left her to die with her tribe when he found her, and that now he must finish her off, perhaps as a way to foreshadow the truth about Randorn and her parents, while hinting at Krystal's inner fears of abandonment or betrayal. Krystal would have to fight this illusion and then be given the choice to spare or finish him off, and the former was the only way to pass the test and acquire the spirit.

Krystal and Kyte would make their third and final visit to Cape Claw after Sabre acquired the sixth spirit, which would open the mouth of the giant Krazoa Head. Going by the condensed story, they were to discover hidden caves containing a Krazoa translator, which allows them to read the ancient texts that have seen throughout their adventures and help open the gate into the Krazoa Palace, Krystal's final SpellStone dungeon.

Pretty much all of this would be entirely removed in the final Star Fox Adventures. The initial beach/cliff area with the giant Krazoa head would remain, as would the gas room puzzle, but solving the latter would only free the Queen CloudRunner (filling in for Kyte) from her prison within a nearby cave, and the Krazoa head would now lead into the Ocean Force Point Temple. There also exists a sidequest involving a finding a HighTop's stack of gold.

Curiously, the Dinosaur Planet globe map made for Star Fox Adventures does actually include the SharpClaw fortress area, which possibly indicates that Rare had intended on bringing Cape Claw in its entirety over to SFA before heavily cutting it down.

Diamond Bay, along with Willow Grove, was one of the precious few areas from Sabre's campaign from Dinosaur Planet that ended up being scrapped entirely in the final Star Fox Adventures. A massive coastal area with cascading water falls, Sabre (or Fox in the leaked Dinosaur Planet build) and Tricky would access this area by swimming down the river in SwapStone Hollow.

This was the original home of the Volcano Force Point Temple. It was also home to a single, seemingly last standing member of the PointBack tribe, a race of Stegosaurs. This individual would help Fox/Sabre by providing them the key to access the Volcano Force Point Temple, and would provide them with different tasks every time they returned from Diamond Bay with a SpellStone, such as preventing her eggs and nest from being raided by thieves, or being swept away by a flood. Completing each of these tasks would reward Sabre another key into the Force Point Temple.

It was also home to Sabre's first Krazoa shrine test, the Test of Strength. After depositing his first SpellStone, Sabre would be able to find a pathway that leads to a temple containing this shrine that was being guarded by a group of floating droids.

Diamond Bay was completely removed in the final Star Fox Adventures, and the Volcano Force Point Temple and the Test of Strength would be relocated to Moon Mountain Pass and SnowHorn Wastes respectively. Though absent in the final game, early design documents and concept art indicate that Rare did plan on bringing the PointBack back, but relocated to ThornTail Hollow (originally SwapStone Hollow).

It is worth pointing out that in the final game, there exists a mother ThornTail whose eggs and nest are similarly being raided by thieves and thus requests Fox for help. Bumping the contrast on Kevin Bayliss' early Star Fox Adventures cutscene sequence document reveals "The PointBack's eggs" on the next page, which makes it clear that this role was originally intended for the PointBack before she was dropped entirely in favor of the ThornTail.

In the E3 2002 Kiosk version of Star Fox Adventures, CloudRunner Fortress contains a handful of elements from the Dinosaur Planet version that got scrapped in the final game, some of these being:

• The level is set on a stormy night in this version of the game, just like in Dinosaur Planet. The weather changes to daytime in the later areas of the fortress after Fox is captured.

• Certain sections of the stage use the "Sound Test 09" and "Sound Test 28" music tracks which go unused in the final version of Star Fox Adventures outside of the jukebox. Both music tracks were originally composed for Dinosaur Planet, and one of which is played while Krystal makes her approach into its version of CloudRunner Fortress.

• Interactive Krazoa-pattern-framed info screens appear throughout the fortress, which are also in the N64 version. In Dinosaur Planet, these info screens would provide advice and also occasional lore, one of which mentioning the Kamerian Dragon, which the CloudRunners thank for providing their wealth.

Curiously, the demo contains an unused map of the interior of General Scales' galleon separate from the one used during the intro. Its internal name is "insidegal"; Dinosaur Planet also has this map and it can be visited while the galleon is docked at the back of CloudRunner Frotress, which makes it seem that General Scales' galleon was at one point planned to appear here in Adventures, too. In 2024, an account named
Jeebs' Game Shack was finally able to access "insidegal" (as well as various other older SFA maps that seem to be circa mid-2001), fully confirming this to be the case. Hidden warp zone objects exist floating where the lower deck doors would be positioned if the ship was docked there, even in the retail version.

The Kamerian Heart was the original intended boss fight for Dragon Rock in Dinosaur Planet. It represented the Frankenstein remains of the last great Kamerian war dragon that fell in battle against the Krazoa over Dinosaur Planet's orbit, and became something of a god figure to the dinosaur inhabitants, who believed that they were spawned from it. One of the dragon's descendants, Drakor, becomes aware of its presence on Dinosaur Planet and seeks the assistance of General Scales and the SharpClaw to take over the planet and begin channeling all of its magical energies into the Kamerian Heart within Dragon Rock using the Force Point Temples, in order to revive it and thus allow Drakor to use its huge destructive powers to destroy the planet and seek vengeance against the Krazoa, as well as conquering the entire universe. Inside the Kamerian Heart was where the area's SpellStone resided, and thus Sabre had to defeat the heart in order to acquire it, and after an encounter with Drakor, would need to escape from within Dragon Rock before he is trapped there forever.

The Kamerian Heart is noticeably the only boss fight present in the leaked December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet to be entirely absent in the final Star Fox Adventures. Drakor, whose role was repurposed as General Scales' mutant bioweapon, would take over its role as Dragon Rock's boss that Fox must defeat in order to obtain the SpellStone. In turn, Andross would take over Drakor's role as the final boss of Star Fox Adventures.

Every time Fox collects a Krazoa spirit from partaking in a Krazoa shrine test, he must use the WarpStone to return to an area called Krazoa Palace, where he can deposit the spirits. Krystal also visits this area in Star Fox Adventures' prologue where she partakes in the Test of Observation, the only time she's ever playable in the story (outside of hacking), as she's soon imprisoned within a crystal by an unknown force. Collecting all of the Krazoa spirits at the end frees her, but also inadvertently resurrects Andross, who had been manipulating Fox the entire time.

In Dinosaur Planet, this area was known as Warlock Mountain, and was the only location that both Sabre (or Fox, in the December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet) and Krystal could visit in their otherwise two completely separate adventures, though it's worth noting that the characters that their own sides of the map that were separated by the main chamber room. Like in SFA, every time they completed a Krazoa trial, they'd have to return to the mountain by using their respective SwapStone to deposit the spirits they've collected. Each trek back to the mountain would result in another encounter with their father and mentor, Randorn, as well as other lore dumps such as the Quan Ata Lachu (the "god" of the Krazoa).

Surprisingly, Krazoa Palace also exists in Dinosaur Planet, but as a completely different location than the one that appears in SFA, in this case being Krystal's final SpellStone dungeon that she could access through the giant Krazoa head structure in Cape Claw, after depositing enough spirits. Unfortunately, just like BlackWater Canyon, there appears to be zero design work done in the leaked December 2000 build.

Going by the unused voice lines and also the Dinosaur Planet condensed story, it is here where Krystal and Kyte, with the help of a Krazoa guard who was awoken by Drakor's activities on Dinosaur Planet, would travel back in time to acquire the area's SpellStone. First, they'd head to the future to see that Drakor had succeeded in his plan in resurrecting the Kamerian Heart and thus has destroyed everything, including Sabre, and the now dying Krazoa would hand them the Mind Read spell page and encourage them to go to the past to prevent this from ever happening. From there, they'd time travel to the past, right when the Krazoa and Kamerians (Drakor's race) were having their universe spanning war, and see the Krazoa for who they really are, an extremely evil warmongering race that started the Great War against the Kamerians. They would retrieve the SpellStone from one of these evil Krazoa (who also seems to be a spy working for the Kamerians) and return to the present with questions for the Krazoa, who claims that they have changed since the Great War and promise to bring peace to the universe with the alignment of the Majestic Eight planets. Of course, the leaked voice clips for the last scenes in Warlock Mountain reveal this to be a lie, as the now revived Krazoa reveal they plan on using the power of Quan Ata Lachu to devastate the universe.

This stage was removed in the final Star Fox Adventures, and its name would be repurposed for the reworked Warlock Mountain. Interestingly, early design documents posted by Kevin Bayliss show that even early on SFA's development on GCN, they had still intended on it's version of Krazoa Palace still being called Warlock Mountain, even after its namesake warlock (Randorn) had been scrapped by this point. An early version of SFA's Dinosaur Planet map would even clearly have what is Warlock Mountain at the south pole, though of course this would be revised in the final map.