Following information has been provided by Kartal <karsahyena@protonmail.com> who has used sample cartridge to rip the maps from.

Bucca Sample

The Seashore Cave doesn’t exist yet.

Bucca Cut Caves

There’s an unreachable section of the map with the golden mana statue in the final version. This used to be a dead end, accessed from the Seashore Cave dungeoen. The bottom part of the waterfalls, connecting two sectinos of the Seashore Cave, was cut. This part was planned to lead to that section of the mana statue map.

Bucca Cut Dead End

A large dead area, featuring lilipads and flowers in the water, on the East side was cut. As a result, the water plants never appear with this color palette in the game; their first appearance is in the Mana Holyland.

Bucca Final Blockade 1

Unfinished tree canopy is place on the right side.

Bucca Final Blockade 2

The pathway down is blocked with trees. Disabling a layer, the road still exists but mountain wall tiles block the path down.

Bucca Final Blockade 3

There’s a dead end connecting the entrance of the Seashore Cave with a lower part of the waterfalls, which is just another dead end. This connection was cut, shortening the dead end. (See the right edge of the image. The mountain edge place there messes up the map.)

Cave of Darkness Sample

The bottom and top floors of the cave bear resamblence to the final version, the middle part is completely different.

The bottom floor is almost the same, lacking detail.

The exit leading to the castle and some sections are similar. The light trail room uses the Corridor of the Wind’s palette and is farther ahead in the sample. In the final, this area is right before the staircase leading down to the arena where you fight Jagan (defeating Jagan causes the light trail to appear in the final).

Everything in-between is a mess, either connecting to unfinished/placeholder maps or not connecting at all. Many of the teleports are messed up, leading back to the previous map or to wrong maps (for example, the 4-way crossroads the left exit of which leads to the outside stairway leading to the top floor has the right exit lead to the same stairway instead of right); I had to make out some of the connections based on the sequence of the maps.

Corridor of the Wind Sample Cut

Corridor of the Wind Sample

Outside sections were removed.

Dark Castle Sample Part 1

The dark castle has the player take the same path as in the final, although the floors are less inter-connected. The dark hallways is unused. The basement tileset is used to connect the later areas instead of the general inside tileset.

The outer courtyard and the first inside map (with the skeleton switch) are swapped. The left and right paths leading to the demon miniboss rooms have the entrances facing the wrong direction. Only the right side has a stairwell leading up instead of both. The skeleton switch upstairs is missing and the left side leads further up into a glitched dark hallway dead end (the staircase part of which using the Jad castle inside palette/tileset). The scrolling backgroud of the dark hallway is completely messed up, with some parts of it displaying in the foreground.

Dark Castle Sample Part 2

The basement (accessed from a trap in the throne room) is different. It doesn’t have the boss areas. It leads up to and entirely different rooftop of the castle.

Dark Castle Sample Part 3

The rooftop is much bigger and has more main inside rooms, all of these are glitched unfortunately. The way to Bigeau’s keep is different. The final section can be accessed from 2 stairwells instead of only a left stairwell.

Jungle of Illusions Sample

Jungle of Illusions Sample Pedan Side

The Jungle of Illusions spreads to the North. This section was cut; the cave entrance West to Pedan was blocked. The North features a map (twice) which became the invisible version of Pedan.

Jungle of Illusions Sample Endgame Area

Thematically the same as the final, the maps are smaller and narrower.

Manor of Puppets

A cut dungeon in Byzel used to hold the Chibikko Hammer.
The manor has 4 floors. The connections are quite self-explanatory. There’s a staircase leading down from the first floor to a non-existent basement.

Mirage Palace Sample

The first section with the 6 pathways leads to different areas. Some are thematically the same (NW: waterfall area, SE: invisible path area), some are different. The NE areas is unfinished and has the wind effect from the Corridor of the Wind in the middle. There are unfunctional floor switches scattered throughout the two North areas.

The second section’s outside is the exact same as in the final game, lacking the inside maps. There are two unconnected insides, one of which is just a teleport room, the other is a throne room featuring cut angel statues. The angel statue holding an object is similar to the angel holding a ball in Ys cover arts. The inside tileset was reworked in the final game.

Path to the Heavens Bottom Sample Cut

Path to the Heavens Bottom Sample

A small winding section was cut. The bottom (leading to Palo) is missing the path to the Booskaboo beach.

Rolante Castle Right Wing

The outside of the Rolante dungeon used to continue to the right. This was shortened, some inside maps were removed, and the connection of the outside maps was altered.

Rolante Castle Right Wing Final

Unknown Island

Unnamed in the sample, most likely the Island of Oblivion.