Unproduced Rance V Drafts

About
Prior to the release of Rance 5D: The Lonely Girl in 2002, three unsuccessful attempts were made at producing a title in the Rance Series to follow 1996's Kichikuou Rance. While each project went by the name "Rance V" during their respective development periods, they were retroactively given the titles of Rance 5A, Rance 5B, and Rance 5C following the release of Rance 5D to commemorate the the three failures that came before the fifth canonical Rance game could be completed. TADA, the director of the Rance Series, has stated that he considers Rance 5D to be distinct from the Rance V that he failed to develop and has deliberately avoided revealing the subtitles used for the three failed drafts so that he may be able to use them again in the future. Notably, the manual of Rance X: Showdown lists Rance V separately from Rance 5D, places it chronologically before it in the series' timeline, and marks it as "unreleased" (未発表, mi happyō)

History
The first effort to create Rance V began in 1997. It was described by TADA as a large-scale RPG with a sizable development team consisting of four artists and three scenario writers. While the identities of the scenario writers currently remain unknown, the artists included Mucchi, who had been chosen to succeed the retired YUKIMI as the main artist of the Rance series, MIN-NARAKEN, Onigiri-kun, and Orion, who provided supplementary artwork.

The project lasted throughout the year but was plagued by various setbacks that caused work on it to be repeatedly stopped and restarted. While the exact causes of these problems have never been disclosed, TADA stated in an interview following his retirement from game development that he had difficulty finding common ground with Mucchi, whose preference for conventional fantasy clashed with his own unorthodox sensibilities. In winter of 1997, TADA canceled all further work on the game after determining that it had become too steeped in complications to recover from. He described the process as emotionally devastating and admitted that he feared he had jeopardized the future of Alicesoft by wasting a year's worth of time and resources on a failed idea.

Considerably more information is known about Rance 5A's story compared to its counterparts. When the subject was brought up in an interview, TADA claimed that parts of its story were incorporated into Rance VI: The Collapse of Zeth while some of its artwork was used in the game Mamatoto: A Record of War. This statement was corroborated by Orion in his commemorative artbook ORION SCRIBBLES WITH CROQUIS, where he asserted that "Yes, 5A was the Collapse of Zeth" and revealed many previously unknown scenario details supporting this. The most notable of these was that the game would have focused on the Dark Lords Camilla, Sieg, and La Seizel leading a portion of the Monster Army in an invasion of the Magic Kingdom of Zeth, the plotline which serves as the climax of Rance VI. No mention is made of either the Ice Flame or Pentagon resistance groups, the two other primary focuses of Rance VI's story in Orion's notes, leaving it unclear if either was present in the scenario at the time of Rance 5A's development.

The opening cinematic of Rance 5D includes a screenshot depicting what appears to be gameplay from Rance 5A that features Rance and Sill Plain battling a group of enemies. From what can be gleaned from the image, Rance 5A seemed to feature turn-based combat reminiscent of the system seen in Rance VI but with a maximum of four combatants on both the player and enemy sides rather than six. Notably, Rance and Sill are joined in the battle by two others characters: a large muscular man wielding a pair of maces known as Sudou (須藤, sudō) and an unseen character known as Rocky (ロッキー, rokkī) presumed to be an early version of Rocky Bank.

Ruffians
Among the first pieces of artwork drawn by Orion for the project were portraits of the four men collectively known as "Ruffians" (ならず者, narazumono) that recurred throughout Kichikuou Rance as minor antagonists. While the extent of their role in the story is unknown, Orion stated in his commentary that he had forgotten about them by the time he had started work on Rance VI but that this was likely for the best as they would have had little to do even if they had been included, suggesting that they were to be similarly as inconsequential to the plot as they were in Kichikuou Rance. Interestingly, one of the four, the junkie, is drawn as an angel in a much more simplistic style than his counterparts, possibly indicating that he was not intended to appear among them.

The Ruffians would eventually make a reappearance in the game Persiom but would never be seen again in the Rance series.

Dark Lords
Orion maintained his position as La Seizel's character designer from Kichikuou Rance's development. Compared to her appearance in future Rance games, Seizel's design in Rance 5A was largely unchanged from what it was in Kichikuou Rance. Orion also drew an erotic CG featuring the Dark Lord Kesselring biting into the neck of an unknown maid, but clarified that the scene was intended to be viewed on a collectible Rarerare Stone and that Kesselring otherwise made no appearances in the game. The image would later be incorporated into Persiom as one of the Secret Photo items.

Apostle Yuki
As in Rance VI, La Saizel was to be accompanied by her Apostle Yuki, an original character who did not appear in Kichikuou Rance. Though still depicted as a former Frozen Gal Monster, the character otherwise did not in any way resemble how she would come to be known and was instead a demure young woman. Her central character trait at this time was an ironic dislike of the cold which she would fruitlessly attempt to overcome by wrapping herself in several layers of clothing, oblivious to the fact that she herself was the source of the freezing temperature she constantly found herself in.

The characterization that Yuki would go on to have in her appearance in Rance VI was derived from an unused idea for the character Lil' Avenger that Orion thought of during the development of Rance 5D.

Dolhan
Dolhan Cricket, the Insect User fought at multiple points in Rance VI, was present in Rance 5A's story. Rather than Emi Alphorne, Orion believes that the character was to accompany Chizuko Yamada, though he admits that he may be misremembering. At this time, he was designed by MIN-NARAKEN, with Orion designing the various Insect mutations he would utilize during combat. While the central concept of his body gradually degrading each time he is fought was the same, Orion's sketches only accounted for four encounters with him as an enemy compared to the five seen in Rance VI and only one of the many potential mutations depicted, a biological cannon emerging from his back, was ultimately used. Likewise, his final form was to be a strange floating orb made up of various body parts only vaguely resembling the melted mass of flesh seen in Rance VI.

MIN-NARAKEN's unused design for Dolhan would later be deferred to Mamatoto's Sabuz while certain unused mutations, such as an arm whip and a protective "guard bug" would be given to Caloria Cricket of the Rance series and Madaraga Cricket of Toushin Toshi III.

Monsters
Orion's primary duty as an artist for Rance 5A was designing monsters. The majority of his designs would eventually be reincorporated into either Rance 5D or Persiom with a handful of exceptions. These included Kiratouki, Hakuinkyouki, and the Crystal Count from Toushin Toshi II, a parody of the title character of the manga series Babel II known as Gabel II (ガバル2世, gabaru 2-sei) and his three servants Delon (デロン, deron), Lapras (ラプラス, lapurasu), and Neptune (ネプチューン, nepuchūn), a monstrous parody of the Pokémon Pikachu known as a Pika-Beast (ピカ獣, pika kemono), and a group of transforming super heroes based on the Four Mythical Gods of Chinese astrology. Of these five, only Kiratouki would ever make a reappearance, albeit over 20 years later in Rance X: Showdown.

Others
Alongside the above-mentioned drawings, the Rance 5A section of the artbook contains concept artwork of the character Kabachahn the Lightning redesigned to resemble his appearance in Mamatoto and a strange, partially-clothed man wearing a mask with an eye printed on it who somewhat resembles the slaves commanded by the Zethan Slave Generals seen in Kichikuou Rance. While Kabachahn would indeed go on to appear in Rance VI more closely resembling his Mamatoto counterpart, the masked figure has not been seen elsewhere and goes uncommented on in Orion's commentary, leaving his identity a mystery.

History
In Spring of 1998, TADA began a second attempt at producing Rance V. This version of the game was canceled before leaving the development stage and had the shortest overall lifespan of the three projects. As such, it has the least amount of information about it available to the public and is the only one of the three not to have any visuals shown in the Rance 5D opening movie, with TADA's in-game portrait being used instead.

In a 2021 entry on his blog Haniwa Development Office, TADA posted a screenshot while recounting his multiple failures at producing the fifth Rance game that included concept artwork of Sill Plain and a bespectacled girl named Janse (ジャンス, jansu) wielding an enormous sword drawn by Mucchi. TADA did not identify from which draft of the game the designs were from, but the image of Sill is listed as "ランス 5/B /_015.jpg", possibly indicating that it was drawn for Rance 5B.

History
Following on the heels of two failures, the third attempt at creating Rance V was approached with significantly more caution and restraint. Beginning development in 1999, the staff in charge of the project was cut down to half the size of what it was for Rance 5A and the plot and gameplay were changed dramatically. In his commentary in ORION SCRIBBLES WITH CROQUIS, Orion revealed that this version of the game was to be an adventure game in a "retro" style reminscent of Gakuen Hyouryou Senki in which the player would have to click on various objects onscreen in order to progress. The aesthetic of the game was meant to evoke a puppet show, with the characters being drawn simplistically and the environment popping up from the background. Notably, all known visuals from the game were drawn by Orion, suggesting that he had replaced Mucchi as the lead artist for the project. While TADA claimed that this version of the game went along "pretty smoothly", he was eventually made to scrap it in the summer of the year for unknown reasons. The more simplified and cartoonish style of the game would later serve as the template for Rance 5D, which further scaled back its development size to a team of only five people.

The opening cinematic of Rance 5D includes a screenshot of what appears to be gameplay from Rance 5C depicting Rance, Sill Plain, and Athena 2.0 encountering a Hanny and a Dekant in the woods. In ORION SCRIBBLES WITH CROQUIS, Orion clarified that the renders of the characters used in this image were intended to be placeholders and never planned to be used in the game proper.

ORION SCRIBBLES WITH CROQUIS Information
Significantly less information is given about Rance 5C in Orion's artbook than Rance 5A. Along with concept artwork of the early character designs seen in 5D, which included unused designs for both Feliss and an Uppi, various doodles drawn during production meetings were also published. These doodles are assumed to have been for fun and unrelated to the game's story, as they feature surreal imagery such as a design for an Athena 3.0 done in the style of an old-fashioned robot, the character Barres Province transformed into a Catbug, and an old man resembling Kabachahn the Lightning working as a fish monger.

Trivia

 * In a retrospective on the Rance series published by Denfaminicogamer it is claimed that an interview with the production staff stated that Rance 5A was to be set in the nation of Helman. As this is directly contradicted by information on Rance 5A given by Orion, it is unknown whether this information was based on a different draft of Rance V that was merely conflated with Rance 5A or if Rance 5A's story was drastically changed early on in its development.
 * It is widely speculated that the events listed as having taken place during LP0003, the "missing year" in the Rance series timeline that is not depicted in any game, most notably Rance's encounters with the Underground Empire of Buhard, the Holy Gal Monster Bezeleye, and the Hero Arios Theoman, were intended to be a part of Rance V's story. Despite this, no official statements have been made about this theory and what is known about the plot of Rance 5A seems to conflict with it. It is known that Arios was at one point planned to make an appearance in Rance VI early on into its development, however, leaving it possible that the events of the missing year are a combination of various story ideas from the three unused drafts rather than being directly based on any single one of them.