Rance 02:Cut Content

This page covers changes made to Rance 2 over the series of its numerous ports, as well as dummied or otherwise excluded content found in the games.

Overview
Rance II was originally released on numerous computer systems of the day: the PC-88, PC-98, MSX2, FM TOWNS, and the X68000. The was later ported to Windows 95 via System 3.5. Finally, the game was remade as Rance 02 as the first of several Rance remakes. Unlike later remakes, Rance 02 is a very similar game to the original, and can be easily compared to preceding releases.

Original Versions
Rance II was originally released in May of 1990, and presumably saw simultaneous release on PC-88, PC-98, MSX2, FM TOWNS, and X68000, although this is conjecture. An entry in Alice's Mansion suggests that Alicesoft only intended to support the FM-TOWNS version of Rance 2 for two years (until July 15, 1992). No reason for this special exception is given.

This release was followed by a Rance II Hint Disk, which began release on July 1. The disk was available only via mail order for 1000 yen using a mail order card included with the game itself. This hint disk included a walkthrough, a partial hint feature, as well as a completed CG Gallery, BGM Test, and developer commentary. The disk also included a "Mini ADV" entitled SD Ranpu (SDらんす). Distribution of the hint disk lasted only a little over one year, scheduled to end on July 15, 1991.

Windows 95
The Windows 95 version of Rance II was remade from the original in a similar fashion to Rance 1: it was ported to System 3.5 by WAO, and released in 1997.

Windows 95 Changes

 * Remastered music by Shade.
 * The Xspec testing system was brought over from Kichikuou Rance.

Rance 02
The most recent version of Rance II is Rance 02, released in 2009 as part of the limited-release Alice2010 collection. The game proved so popular that it was followed by other remakes (Rance 01, Rance 03), and was later given a public release in digital formats only.

General Changes

 * Remade art. This includes a switch-over to full portrait sprites of all characters, including Rance and Sill, who were largely unseen outside of battle or CGs, except for small portraits in the corner of the screen.
 * Remastered soundtrack.
 * CG Gallery (was originally included in Rance II Hint Disk)
 * BGM Gallery (was originally included in Rance II Hint Disk)
 * Removed the "Key" feature - details forthcoming.
 * Auto battle feature removed.

Content Changes
Rance 02 is a very strict remake of the original, typically using the same Japanese text and sometimes even the same code structure as the original (despite using entirely different programming languages). Nevertheless, some content changes are present above and beyond the above general changes.
 * The remake's opening sequence was expanded with bios for the four witches - the original game only gave their names. The witches are not shown as adults until the time skip to their rebellion. In the original game, they were shown as adults as part of their profile.
 * The group shot of the four witches together as children now shows Mill Yorks as noticably shorter than the other girls (slightly disgused by putting her in the background). The original game mistakenly depicted them at around the same size in the equivalent CG, misleading the player to believe they were all the same age.
 * A running gag in the game is Rance's supposed "Conscience" stat dropping as he behaves in his typical manner. In the original game, Conscience was a real stat that starts at 20 and could be seen on the status subscreen, although it does nothing. In the remake, the value is never displayed and is essentially just a joke, but because the code is identical, Conscience is still tracked behind the scenes (although since the developers never bothered to give it a default value, it starts at 0). Conscience was originally listed to the right of Attack on the subscreen, leaving a gap there for other characters. As a remnant of this feature, that gap remains (now even for Rance) in the remake.
 * Can Cans in the original were depicted in a puddle of water, regardless of their location in-game, a distinction not even given to enemies exclusive to the Underground Lake. This puddle was removed on the remake.

HGTP Translation
Rance 02 was translated by HGTP Translations, who chose to translate the remake instead of the original game. It is the version most commonly played by English fans today.

Windows 95 Version - Cut Content
This section concerns cut content found in the Windows 95 version of Rance II.

Alice's Mansion
Like in the previous game, there are several missing entries from the Alice's Mansion section, likely leftovers from previous versions. This includes an advertisement for the Hint Disk (likely never made available for Windows), and another for the Alicesoft's online support helpline. The cut text explains that the helpline did not accept game hint questions - the ad redirects the player back to the hint disk for such purposes.

Alice's Mansion is also missing a section where Alicesoft urges the player to make backup copies of all their software, Alicesoft or otherwise, for safety's sake. Many developers of the time would consider this to be piracy, which may have been why the message was removed, although Alicesoft may also have removed the message for the Windows release due to the switch over to slightly more reliable 3.5" floppies during the 90s.

Debug Mode
A debug mode exists in the game, activated if VAR0187 is set to any value but 0. Like with Rance 1's, this debug mode is not player-accessible, so the code must be decompiled or hacked to activate it. If activated, debug mode reveals two features.

Firstly, a Debug menu available in the Camp screen. Much of the text in this menu suggests the menu was either changed at some stage or was planned to be much more ambitious than ultimately implemented. This menu has two submenus.


 * Character Data: Despite its name, this is an EXP cheat that gives a character of the player's choice 1000 EXP. Shizuka cannot be selected.
 * Variable: Displays the status of variables the game calls A01-A20 (Sys3Decompiler will rename these to VAR0041-VAR0060). Text used in this section calls the section Variable EDIT (変数のＥＤＩＴ), but it is not possible to edit any of the variables. The editing code does exist, but it has been dummied out (if it was ever accessible). Dummied controls exist to increase or decrease the variable by 1, or to directly edit the variable via pop-up box. (To Do: must test to see what these are, at least one is a key item. Since at least one variable is a bool, it may be that they all are, and so there was no real need for such a wide array of tools? and probably no incentive to swap all the code over to toggles?)

Debug Mode also allows access to a submenu in the in-game Settings menu to adjust "Small Fry Treatment." This menu is supposed to adjust what you do when you encounter "Small Fry" monsters: automatically fight or automatically run away. Testing and examination is required to see exactly how it works in practice, what qualifies as a "small fry" (every minor enemy? would cause problems with Stone Guardians!) etc..

Shock Traps
In the final game, there are only two shock traps on level one: one east of the lake, and one beyond the carrot key door. The code reveals that there were supposed to be eight, but the remaining six shock traps were incorrectly programmed, accidentally checking to see if the player was in one trapped room and another (impossible) instead of one room or another. The traps that survived only did so because they were the only traps in their section of the maze, and so there was no need for an "or" statement, correct or otherwise. When the game was remade, the code for these "lost" traps was outright removed.

(To Do: would like to show their exact locations with images: rooms 7, 11, 32, 38, 52, 54)

Ending Sequence
After the ending, Rance II will return a Completion Code to the user, which presumably would have been used for a contest. Generally, these codes applied only during the original release and were removed from remakes (as in Rance 3) so this may imply an unlisted contest for the Windows 95 release.

The programming of this section is highly unusual. The code is assembled via a state machine that tests a single variable in only two states across seven stages, and the whole process is irrelevant because the variable is always set to "1" before processing begins. As a result, the game can only return the code "4427," but if the variable in question were set to "2," it would instead return "345645646SM7879845123SEX." Given the mention of a text dump below, It may be that these dummy entries were prepared to combat text dumps from spoiling the real code, or else there was a change to the code at some stage in development.

After the code orders the game to shut down during the ending, a single line of output text can be found that reads: '－－－－－－こらーー、誰だダンプを読んでいる奴は！！' ('--Hey--, who's reading the dump?').