Rance I:Cut Content

This page covers changes made to Rance 1 over the series of its numerous ports, as well as dummied or otherwise excluded content found in the games.

Overview
Rance 1 was originally released on the PC-98, followed quickly by releases for the older PC-88 and the contemporary Sharp X68000. The game was later ported to Windows 95, and that version in turn was translated into English by HGTP Translations. The game's development history is covered in rough by the in-game Alice's Mansion section.

In 2013, the game was remade as Rance 01, covered on its own page.

PC-98
According to the developer interviews in Alice's Mansion, Rance 1 was conceived by TADA and ANCHOKU in April of 1989, and development began in May and continued for two and a half months. While the game was originally being developed for PC-98, 88, and Sharp X68000, the latter two systems were dropped as development went overlong. The decision was made to focus on the PC-98 game, since its CGs were looking the best at the time. The game saw release on July 15, 1989.

The PC-98 version of Rance 1 was patched several times between release and July 26th, which saw the release of version 1.04. This was the final version for the platform.

Soundtrack
Of the game's 16 tracks, only five are original to this game. Most of the others come from the company's older titles back when they were ChampionSoft, with two from AliceSoft's Crescent Moon Girl. The tracks are identified in the game's sound test by a short abbreviation indicating their original game, i.e. "R" for Rance 1, "T" for Tawheed, etc.


 * 1) Town Theme: Original (R)
 * 2) Thieves' Cave: Original
 * 3) Lia's Theme: Original
 * 4) Haunted Mansion: Original
 * 5) Alice's Mansion: Original
 * 6) Combat: Tawhid (T) track 7, "Vermillion Flame."
 * 7) Level Goddess: Josei Shain o Ikasu Hou (JO) track 2.
 * Inn: Josei Shain o Ikasu Hou track 3.
 * 1) Escape tunnel (Kanami): Chotto Meitantei (MUS) track 1.
 * 2) Shop theme: Tawhid track 2, "Ali's Theme."
 * 3) Lavender's theme: Tawhid track 4.
 * 4) Escape tunnel (monster gauntlet): Heavily modified from Tawhid track 12.
 * 5) Colosseum: Crescent Moon Girl (N) track 4.
 * 6) Leazas' Prison: Crescent Moon Girl track 5.
 * 7) Casino: Chotto Meitantei track 8.
 * 8) Miki's Theme: Appropriately from Little Vampire (LV), track 4.

PC-88 and Sharp X68000
After completing version 1.04, Alicesoft shifted development back to the PC-98VA and Sharp X68000 versions. These versions are presumably based on 1.04 and have the same changes. The development diary in Rance 1 notes that they were "close to completion" on October 31, 1989.

PC-88 Changes
The PC-88 is a unique version of Rance I with many changes that never appeared in other versions.


 * Wildly divergent enemies and occasional new scenarios. See the enemies page for more details.
 * Cut text from the Windows 95 Alice's Mansion (below) mention a feature added to the PC-88 version whereby the user can hide the text box using Caps Lock or Shift to speed up image display.
 * Images use a distinct color palette. Some dynamic image changes are conveyed differently by version: sometimes one version will use a transparent version and the other a full replacement image, and so on. Only the Win95 System 3.5 version is able to use inset images.
 * Image Changes:
 * Minor changes abound as art was redrawn in a new palette and slightly higher resolution.
 * The only true animation in the PC-88 game is the opening Alicesoft logo. The following scenes, which are animations in PC-98, are all static in PC-88: Willis levelling Rance up, Sill and her picnic basket, the coliseum fighters, Klean Bew dusting, Kanami in disguise blinking, Cement Guy crying.
 * During the animated opening sequence, "The Quest for Hikari" is already on the title banner instead of fading in. The lightning flashes behind the Rance I logo are created via clever palette work rather than true animation: one lightning bolt is drawn as magenta and the other green, and they are dynamically changed to black or yellow by the code to look like flashing, lightning as the sequence runs its course. See PC-88 GC0079 for the true image.
 * When Kanami breaks into Hikari's room, a foreground layer of glass was removed from the PC-88 version. Also, a flash of Kanami's red uniform (or possibly a wound?) can be seen on her shoulder in the PC-98 version. This is not there on PC-88.
 * In later versions, Alice is seen at a table with a computer monitor. In the PC-98 version, portraits for Alicesoft developers appear on the screen when talking. On PC-88, there is no computer screen or portraits: Alice has a cocktail instead, complete with a Hanny shoved on the rim like a lime, apparently still alive and bleeding.
 * Rance's stats are displayed in an empty black box instead of a box with lines in it.
 * The bartender is smirking instead of frowning. The bottles behind him have distinct designs.
 * While not an art change per se, the art of Koushin Hazuki's strip game has been reorganized in the archive: the PC-88 art goes from CG94 to 96 to 95, instead of in linear order.
 * Yuki Dei has the remains of a meal next to her in her cell (including plate, bowl, chopsticks).
 * After Rance adjusts the clock on PC-88, the hour hand is positioned more accurately for the given time: the PC-98 version has the hour hand pointing nearly at 12, despite it being 12:25.
 * The background for the secret escape tunnel (the final gauntlet) goes further into the vanishing point. The PC-88 may be more reflective of the original source art, as the PC-98 version actually seems to have just slapped a black square on top of a more complete picture, complete with "cut off" bricks visible on the left, and then drawn some water droplets on top.

Sharp X68000 Changes

 * Cut text from the Windows 95 Alice's Mansion (below) note that the X68000 version lacks mouse and joystick support.

Windows 95
Rance 1 was ported to Windows 95 by WAO, the game's original, PC-98 sound programmer, using Alicesoft's System 3.5. It uses the art files from the PC-98. WAO added additional pages to the in-game development diary, noting that the game was near completion on September 30 of "Year 9" (presumably Heisei 9, aka 1997, although this could also refer to the 9th year of the development diary, as the end result would be the same).

Windows 95 Changes

 * Remastered music by Shade.
 * Newer sound effects, generally taken from other games (most from Kaeru nyo Panyon and one of the Alice's Cottage collections (TODO: which? Filename just says "yakata")).
 * The computer screen in Alice's Mansion remains, but it does not display portraits for Alicesoft staff members. The portraits themselves are still in the data.
 * Hints were added (specifics unknown).
 * The Xspec testing system was brought over from Kichikuou Rance.
 * Removed the original Sound Test feature. While the sound test can still be purchased, this does absolutely nothing but take your money.
 * The fan-patch for the HGTP translation creates a new sound test with larger menus, but no references to the original titles.

Windows 95 Cut Content

 * In the PC-98 release, Alice's computer monitor actually displayed pictures during the Alice's Mansion and Game Over sequences (albeit not the title screen), including pictures of the developers who had commentary in the manion. All of these visuals were cut in the Win95 port. Curiously, there's even a new graphic (presumably meant to be WAO, who's new to the commentary section in this version) that also went unused.
 * CG067 features what seems to be a warning that the game is saving, which goes unused in this version.

HGTP Translation
The Windows 95 version of Rance 1 was translated into English by HGTP Translations in 2010, which is the version commonly played by English fans today.

HGTP Changes
In Japanese versions, the thief girl's quiz asks a mix of real world and arbitrary questions probably intended as gags. HGTP replaced several of the arbitrary questions (and one real-world question) with questions about the game world, making the quiz a lot more fair.

Here is a list of the changed questions. The "correct" answer is bolded.

Unfortunately, HGTP's questions introduced two new problems. Firstly: The maid and "mandarine" question refers to events from the Castle section of the game, but once the player gets to the castle, they can't take part in the quiz!

Secondly, Rance does not get the straw for sex, as the last question implies - he gets it for handing over the Stone of Inner Peace, which is considered the wrong answer.

HGTP's question about the unnamed girl in the level-room is a trick question designed to snag Rance veterans, since the "girl" is renamed "Willis" in later entries. Mikan is another level goddess.

While HGTP's translation contains numerous minor text changes, one fun fact is that Rance could originally find Doraemon's bamboo coptor (or Takeko (たけこぷた)) as one of the random objects in the Haunted Mansion storeroom. Since this reference would have gone over English fans' heads, HGTP changed it to a "pig." HGTP has deliberately changed Lia's title from "princess" (王女) to "queen." This is incorrect at this point in the timeline, and a handful of references to Lia being a princess were left unchanged.

Cut Content
Rance 1 contains a large amount of cut content. Cut content can be found in the Windows 95 game by decompiling it with a tools such as ALDExplorer and Sys3Decompiler.

Note that all the current cut content on this page comes from the Windows 95 version of the game, using HGTP's translation. Please remove or adjust this disclaimer if you add cut content from the PC-88, PC-98, or Sharp versions of the game, or from some other translation.

Debug Menu
Rance 1 contains a debug menu which can be accessed by setting VAR0149 to anything but 0 at startup (in ｽﾀｰﾄUP.ADV). This adds a "Debug" option to the opening menu which allows you to start the game with one of five special starting conditions. With the exception of the last option, the proper story flags will be set to place Rance in the right part of the game.
 * Beginning: The player starts in front of the pub with 1000 GOLD.
 * Lair of the Thieves: The player starts outside the thieves' den on day 2, but Rance does not know how to lower the barrier (nor has he run into it, which is necessary to unlock the scene in the inn where you learn how to open it for free). This option does not properly change the on-screen map, which will lead to graphical errors until you enter the city or save and reload.
 * Castle: The player starts on day 3, outside the castle gates and carrying the Castle Permit.
 * Haunted Mansion: Despite the name, the player starts in the eastern half of central park with the Stone of Inner Peace, still a few actions away from being able to access to the Haunted Mansion. VAR0113 is set, despite being unused in the final game. VAR0121, a variable related to the dusting maid, is set to 2, a value it never reaches in-game but is tied to a piece of cut content.
 * Ending: Game cuts immediately to the scene where Rance reports to Maris and Lia after finishing the Haunted Mansion. Rance is Level 15, has the Holy Sword Ekk-libur, Armor of God, and Shield of Medusa (the best equipment from the shop, but not in the game), as well as the Magic Missile spell. Note that no story flags are set, but as the player can't escape the end sequence, this doesn't have any consequences.

Alice's Mansion
Alice's Mansion contains several cut sections intended for PC-88 and X68000 players, which were dummied out for the Windows 95 release. These include references to Policewoman VX, which shipped with releases of Rance 1 (also mentioned in the Rance development diary), and to the defunct Alicesoft BBS.

Thieves' Den
The thieves harassing Furara in the Thieves' Den always return when you leave in the final game, but there's a scene in the code that suggests they were supposed to stay away. If you set VAR0127 to 1, the thieves will be gone when you enter the room and the following scene will play:

Furara: "Oh, you're the knight that rescued me that time."

Furara, naked just like that time, answered me..

Rance: "You haven´t escaped yet? And you are still naked?"

Furara: "Well, this cave is quite cool and it feels good."

Rance: "........"

Castle
The dusting maid has a lot of missing dialogue, including her entire "Ask" menu. The menu is still in the code, it's just been dummied out. She was supposed to have alternate Ask dialogue depending on whether you ask her normally or when doing H. While you're doing H, you were also supposed to be able to ask her about "Ecchi," but the check was incorrectly programmed, so the option would never appear even if the menu was in the game.

The maid is also supposed to have a third alternate greeting and a second alternate farewell, both angrier than the ones she already has. The greeting will only trigger if VAR0121 is set to 2, but it never goes higher than 1 in the final game. The farewell will only trigger if VAR0119 is set to 1, but VAR0119 is functionally never used.

There is also a missing line of dialogue related to the closet in the room with the maid. This text is supposed to appear while you're doing H:

I am quite busy right now. I can't keep looking at the closet.

This line never appears, because the programmer made the same mistake as with "Ask" -> "Ecchi," above.

Colosseum
You can't use the Reader spell on Yuran during your duel - the game checks the wrong variable and gives you a blank instead. She's supposed to say: "This Rance guy is quite good."

Entrance
While not cut, per se, there's an extremely obscure alternate way to open the mansion's front door. Instead of finding the key as normal, Rance can force the door at Level 31 or higher! Considering the game starts telling you to "take a break" if you reach Level 15, that's a little much. Examining the code from earlier versions, it becomes clear that this is an error: the programmer intended this alternate route to trigger at Level 21 and simply made a mistake, because the code refers to Rance as 10 levels lower than the game itself (remember that Rance starts at Level 10 - this is level 0 in the code). In all previous versions of the game, you can force the door at Level 21.

If you do use this alternate route, the game will glitch, as the map isn't properly changed to the Haunted Mansion. It's clear no one ever tested this, and who can blame them?

Kitchen
If you freeze to death, you're supposed to get a normal game over followed by special advice from Alice:

Alice: "You froze to death in the mansion, didn't you? Let's pay more attention to our health from now on."

This doesn't happen, because the game accidentally throws you into the middle of the Bad End sequence where Rance joins the thieves. Sill doesn't cry at your grave, and Alice instead admonishes you about not following Sill's advice, which doesn't even apply to this situation.

Library
There are supposed to be four textbooks in the library that appear in rotation, but Rance will only find 3. The game incorrectly resets the loop instead of letting you find book #4: "Unbeatable english."

Camp Menu
Cut Spell Sill can give Rance 5 different spells in the finished game: Healing, Reader, Down, Downlock, and Magic Missile. But the Camp "Status" menu has text for a sixth spell, which HGTP translated to "Eyes of Hanny" (ハニーの目), tied to spell ID 6. Spell ID 6 is never referenced in any other part of the code, so this leftover is either a gag or was removed almost entirely.