Rance 4.1 & 4.2:Game mechanics

Adventure
Rance 4.1 and Rance 4.2 are two parts of the same storyline, and use the same mechanics and artstyle. Part of the game involves navigating the surface, speaking with people, and investigating the surroundings through an adventure game menu.

The other part is a dungeon-crawler taking place in the monster-infested underground cave. Within the cave, there are specific rooms where the player can interact with the environment, use healing items, and load/save. The rooms are connected to each other by thin routes, where the only available actions are "Advance" and "Retreat", to take a step forwards or backward. (Most routes are about 3-5 steps long). These paths are the spots where random encounters can occur. When the game starts, the cave is unmapped, and paths are marked on menus as "???". Each time the player crosses a path and enters a new room, Athena 2.0 will draw the room on the map (with a short dialogue with Rance about how to name and illustrate it; sometimes giving comical or non-indicative names). The "???" option will change to reflect the room name. Some paths are hidden or trapped, and can only be crossed later in the game.

Combat
In battles, Rance is the only controllable party member, with all other teammates auto-battling. A maximum of four party members and enemies can appear, represented by stat blocks across the bottom and top of the screen, respectively. Three statistics are visible in these stat blocks; Hit Points (represented by circles) show health overall, Stamina shows energy in the current fight, and Power is spent each time they perform an attack, refilled a little each turn. Attacking can reduce both an enemy's hit points and stamina. The more damage you do to stamina, the more likely you are to cause damage to hit points. Battlers are represented as cards showing names and side-views, with only the attacker and target's cards visible onscreen at a given time (and usually using a different card for different techniques). Combatants who lose all their stamina are knocked out, and can't fight - but they can still be attacked to reduce HP. Combatants who lose all their HP are dead. If any player character dies, it's an automatic game over.

Rance requires Power to use his techniques. He will gradually accumulate Power if he uses the "Standby" command. Full attacks are listed below.

The player wins a battle when all enemies are either knocked out or dead. Rance is awarded with EXP at the end of the battle; unlike previous games, Rance levels-up automatically when they have enough EXP, with no need to summon a level goddess. The supporting characters cannot level-up. In Alice's Mansion, the developers state that the random encounters are mostly there as obstacles, and that low-level runs aren't difficult.

Like with old adventure games, some actions (ex: walking into a trap or attacking the President) can lead to an instant game over. These "Bad Ends" are just a few lines long and are mostly played as jokes.

Rance
Rance is the only character you can directly control. His attacks are as follows:
 * Iceberg Sword: Standard attack, strength 30. Costs 10 Power.
 * Rance Attack: Standard attack damage x3. Costs 30 Power.
 * Summon Feliss: Rance 4.1 only. Summons Feliss into the party for the current combat. Only works 10 times across the course of the game. Costs 10 power.
 * Items: Use Seirogan 2 or 3. Costs 14 Power.

Athena 2.0
Fights with a crossbow, and can heal her own Life.
 * Giga Bow: Standard attack, strength 20. Cannot cause Life damage unless the target is unconscious. Costs 10 Power.
 * Vital Attack: Causes 1-6 Life damage. Costs 20 Power.
 * Rapid Fire: Causes a standard attack to all enemies. Costs 30 Power. More likely to be used in boss battles.
 * Items: Use a Seirogan 2 if Stamina is extremely low. Cannot use Seirogan 3. Costs 14 Power.

Genri
Uses status debuffs. Has a bad habit of attacking downed targets, killing them.
 * Iron Kakkhara: Standard attack, strength 8. Costs 10 Power.
 * KATSU! Slow: Enemy Power reduced to 0, forcing them to restart their turn and lose all gains. Costs 20 Power.
 * KATSU! Nervous: Enemy evasion down by 10. Costs 20 Power.
 * KATSU! Soft: Enemy defence down by 10 (affects Stamina damage, only impacts Life damage indirectly). Costs 20 Power.
 * Items: Use a Seirogan 2 if Stamina is extremely low. Cannot use Seirogan 3. Costs 14 Power.
 * More likely to pass his turn to accumulate Power.

Feliss
Rance 4.1 only, must be summoned into battle by Rance.
 * Shinigami Scythe: Standard attack. Strength 38. Costs 10 Power.
 * Devil Beam: Causes 16-95 points of Stamina damage, ignoring enemy Defence. Cannot cause Life damage unless the target is unconscious (in which case it will cause a paltry 1). Costs 25 Power.
 * Cannot use items, but doesn't particularly need them, either.

Kisara
Rance 4.2 only. Uses a variety of magical attacks, but has low Life.
 * Attack: Standard attack. Costs 10 Power.
 * Flame Card: Costs 20 Power.
 * Lightning Card: Costs 20 Power.
 * Items: Use a Seirogan 2 if Stamina is extremely low. Cannot use Seirogan 3. Costs 14 Power.

Damage Calculation
An attack hits if Accuracy minus Evasion is greater than a roll from 1-10.

Stamina damage starts by calculating your max possible damage, which is equal to Attack minus Defence. If this comes out to 0, you'll get a compensation maximum of 1-2. Your actual damage is then set to 50-100% of that value.

Next, Life damage is calculated. Enemies have a seperate Life Damage defence that is added to their standard Defence for this stage. Extremely strong hits cause Life damage automatically. If your Stamina damage is more than double the target's combined resistance, you will cause 1 damage automatically. If it is triple, 1-2 damage. Quadruple, 1-3 damage.

If you fail to cause Life damage in the above fashion, there are additional, but somewhat random odds of causing Life damage. If your Stamina damage is higher than the enemy's combined defence, there is a 50% chance you will cause 1 point of Life damage. If your Stamina damage is higher than half your enemy's combined defences, there is a 90% chance of causing 1 point of Life damage. There is also a purely random, 1 in 100 chance of causing 1 point of Life damage without question.

Athena's Vital Attack overrides Life Damage calculation and instead causes 1-6 points of Life Damage directly.

If a target is unconscious (0 Stamina), you will cause an additional point of Life damage and no points of Stamina damage.

Athena's regular attack and Rapid Fire attacks cannot cause Life damage unless the target is unconscious, in which case they will cause 1.

Feliss' Demon Beam ignores most of the above. It causes from (1 to 80) + 15 Stamina damage, ignoring defence. It will not cause Life damage unless the enemy is unconscious, in which case it causes a mere 1.

Rance's Attacks
Rance has two attacks: his regular strike (Attack Strength: 30 + Attack Stat, which starts at 2), and Rance Attack (triple regular Attack Strength). The True Iceberg Sword sets his base attack to 50, accidentally overwriting gains from level-ups. The 32-bit port corrects this by increasing Rance's attack by 18 instead.

Rance gains 1 point of Attack Strength per level, with a 50% chance of gaining either Accuracy or Evasion.

Ally AI
Allies select their attacks as below.

If a party member other than Feliss begins the turn below 15 Stamina, they have a 2 in 6 chance of using a Seirogan 2 if the party has one. They cannot use Seirogan 3s in this fashion.

If they choose not to use an item or can't (either because they don't have Seirogan 2s or because they have 10-13 stamina instead of the required 14), they will select an attack as follows. If they select an attack that they don't have the Power to use, they will pass their turn. Note that this doesn't guarentee they actually use the attack again the next turn, and they may easily waste their stamina in this process.
 * Feliss' AI is the simplest: she has a 50% chance of using either her regular attack (38 Attack Strength) or Devil Beam. She will never use healing items.
 * Athena 2.0 has a 2 in 3 chance of using a regular attack, a 1 in 6 chance of using Vital Strike, a 1 in 6 of using Rapid Fire, or a 1 in 6 of using Recover if her Life is below 6.
 * In the fights against Arnie and Partie in 4.1, Athena adjusts her AI, using regular attacks only on a 1 in 2, in exchange for using Rapid Fire on a 1 in 3.
 * Genri has a 1 in 5 chance of attacking, and a 1 in 5 chance each of using his three debuff techniques, KATSU! Slow (eliminates accumulated Power), KATSU! Nervous (reduces agility by 10), and KATSU! Soft (reduces defence by 10). Because his attacks are so reliant on Power, Genri also has a 1 in 5 chance of simply passing his turn without trying to act.
 * In the fight against Partie in 4.1, if the AI chooses to attack Partie after she has been reduced below 0 Stamina, Genri will pass his turn to avoid killing her.
 * Kisara [incomplete]