User:TankmanDerz/The Fourth Floor

The Fourth Floor is an anomalous area in Princess Peach's Castle notable for it's high rate of appearance. Functionally, it usually behaves as a new area for the Castle, usually found above the Third Floor, hence it's name. It is one of the most common Anomalous Areas to be found, with almost every heavily personalized copy of the game on record has featured some variation of the floor. The contents of this floor vary wildly due to it's relative frequency, however some notable features appear with a relatively high frequency. A list of the most common phenomenon related to the Fourth Floor have been listed below;

Common Occurrences:

 * Several new Courses are introduced, usually matching the amount found on standard floors.
 * A new Bowser Level is added. Wether Bowser in the Sky is moved up to the Fourth Floor or not is inconsistent.
 * Boos are spawned, and may contain a course similar to Big Boo's Haunt. These courses mainly manifest as other "boo-related" courses such as Hollow Horror Halls.
 * Several Minor Anomalous Locations are reported to appear in the Castle. These commonly include The Internal Garden, Goomba Courtyard and similar locations.
 * Anomalous Entities are reported to appear more frequently in the Fourth Floor.
 * A Negative emotional aura similar to the one found in Wet-Dry World. Players report the Fourth Floor as feeling "eerie", "off-putting", and "isolating", despite frequent NPC appearances and similar structure to other floors.

Geography
Due to it's sheer frequency, consistent details on the geography of the Fourth Floor are hard to find, with reports varying wildly in terms of design, size, and areas. The most common traits of the Fourth Floor appear to be a continuation of the sky-based floor theming of the walls found on the first three floors; the first floor starts on the ground, with the second and Third floors ascending into the Sky, and then into Space. The Fourth Floor has been reported to include dark-blue walls with stars and occasionally even moon iconography. However, other reports say that the Floor simply re-uses existing castle textures, most commonly from the First Floor.

The Geography of the Floor itself is even less consistent. Reports will vary wildly, with mappings of the floor ranging from a simple, singular hallway to a large expansive maze-like area with several Minor Anomalous Locations and Boos roaming the area. Some "landmark traits" have been reported more frequently, however.

Landmark Traits
It should be noted that these, like almost all info regarding the Fourth Floor, are wildly incosistent and may appear differently or even not at all.


 * The Carpet found on the First Floor of the Castle is commonly seen in reports.
 * The Toad Shrine makes a relatively frequent appearance.
 * Locations in the Fourth Floor may appear to loop and repeat, creating a confusing hard to navigate area. The implications this has on Internal Plexus Theory are unclear.
 * A "Labyrinth" area containing enemies and a more literal maze may appear. Occasionally, Castle Secret Stars may be found.
 * A method of unlocking an alternative Playable Character, most frequently Luigi.

The "Infinite Floor" Anomaly
On exceptionally rare occasions, players have reported the Fourth Floor being endless in nature, with there being seemingly no end to the Floor. How this is achieved is unknown, however it seems to be a remnant or perhaps reimplementation of the Infinite Basement found in earlier testing builds of the game. This is notable due to it's implications on the theory that the Castle itself is a form of "body" or "mind" that the A.I. uses. An infinitely stretching floor would imply an infinitely large "mind" to the A.I. What this means is very unclear.

"Infinite Floor" effected copies appear to have very basic Fourth Floor geometry, often including only basic hallways and recycled textures, with few rooms and Minor Anomalous Locations scattered throughought. This is believed to be a method of making the Fourth Floor easier to procedurally generate. Most Notably, geography on an "Infinite Floor" is very inconsistent, with reports of many landmarks and areas being hard, if not impossible to find again once left. This is believed to be due to the A.I deleting parts of the castle behind the player, to allow for more room and memory to generate further. This complicates exploring the floor greatly, as exits and courses may be impossible to find again once left.

This surreal anomaly is often tied to a Negative Emotional Aura, due to the ever-shifting expanse of the Fourth Floor making players report feelings of high discomfort and unease. Players reporting an Infinite Floor anomaly often report that playing for a long enough period of time is a highly uncomfortable experience, and usually have drastically less detailed reports, likely due to the afformentioned unease, sometimes going far enough as to swear the game off altogether.

Courses
New Courses are a frequent encounter in the Fourth Floor, most often for experienced players who may find the standard course selection too easy. Almost all Anomalous Courses have been reported to appear in the Fourth Floor, making an exact list impossible to make. A noteworthy trend is night-time and Space-themed courses such as the The Starry-Night Skies and Starlight Skyrise making an appearance, likely due to the Floor's theming of space.

Research and Theories
Some photographs of supposedly early designs for the fourth floor have risen to the internet during the recent conspiracy craze. one of these photographs is of a early design, relating to the 1995/07/29 build. It appears to be a scrapped concept, and it is written in Japanese, leading to the conclusion this was developed by a design team in Nintendo of Japan's offices or subsidiaries. This document has no formal translation yet on the wiki, but an editor contacted a Japanese friend who read this, confirming that it does indeed show a scrapped 4th floor for the castle.

A common explanation for the high frequency of Fourth Floor appearances in personalized copies has been due to it's relatively simplistic nature; the easiest way the A.I sees to expand upon the pre-existing castle is simply to add another floor. Some alternative theories, however, state that a Fourth Floor of some kind was implemented into the game at one point, and was almost entirely removed. The A.I may be building off of very loose and minimal leftover code pertaining to the Fourth Floor, hence it's highly inconsistent nature. The Fourth Floor may also represent the deepest part of the A.I's mind, assuming Internal Plexus theory is true; the inconsistent nature of the Floor being due to it being the adaptive part of the A.I that is constantly updating and learning from the player.

This theory may explain the Infinite Floor anomaly; walking and playing in the Fourth Floor is constantly making the A.I learn, thus changing it's form, leading to a constantly growing area that deletes old parts and replaces them with new ones.