Rance 02:Cut Content

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?').

Rance02 Debug Mode
Rance02 is built in Alicesoft's System 4 on top of the Asra framework API. The Asra framework provides a debug mode that is inaccessible in the finished game. Debug mode is tied to the built-in system variable system.IsDebugMode. There is no way to modify this variable, even in code, and it is presumably exclusive to the System 4 IDE. That said, code can be modified to circumvent or change checks to system.IsDebugMode.

If debug mode is active, the following will occur:


 * The original Rance02 will normally force the player to watch the opening movie if they have not yet created a save. If debug mode is active, the movie can always be skipped. In Kai, the opening movie can always be skipped.
 * If debug mode is NOT active, Asra handle (1, 1) is registered on startup. I have no idea what this means.
 * The following buttons are added to the title screen:
 * To Resume Menu: The player can begin any chapter of their choice, with the following starting conditions.
 * Stage 1 (without prologue): The player begins in town square. In Rance02, Rance has already asked Chisa and the mayor about the town and Ragisis about all topics, but the code was not properly updated for Kai and you will still have to ask them in that version. Rance has 20 Return Woods.
 * Stage 2: Go to the start of Chapter 2 with 20 Return Woods.
 * Stage 3: Go to the start of Chapter 3 with 20 Return Woods, 1000 GOLD and 10 Sweets.
 * "Stage 4" through "Stage 6": Go to the start of the given chapter with 20 Return Woods and 1000 GOLD. Return Woods cannot be accessed in Stage 6 as normal.
 * Shizuka Battle: Begin at the scene directly after Rance and Sill teleport to the past.
 * Pyramid Check: Go to the start of Stage 4, as in the To Resume Menu above (including 20 Return Woods and 1000 GOLD), but with a few changes described below. Again, the code was not updated for Kai and several of the changes will not apply in that version.
 * The green slime is still intact, even though it would be required to reach Milli and end Chapter 2.
 * The chapter is nearly in its end state. The warp points are active, the player has the ruby, and the trap is disabled. Several interim steps are not completed or required. The player only needs to collect the Eidolon Blade.
 * Auto Win is active, as described below.
 * Battle Test: Displays a list of all enemies. The player can fight the enemy of their choice. In the original Rance02, the fight is conducted against a black background, while in Kai, the enemy's designated background appears. The player's party is based on the enemy's designated chapter:
 * Chapter 1: Rance and Sill at Level 15.
 * Chapter 2 or 4: Rance, Maria and Milli at Level 20. Rance has the Dragon Slayer and Destruction Armor, Maria has a loaded Tulip.
 * Chapter 3 or 5: Sill and Bird at Level 20. Sill has Sill's Clothes+ (the upgraded version of her starting armor from Mr. Liver). Note that Sill does not have Fire Laser, and will never gain it in any of the other test modes, even though it is required to progress past Chapter 5.
 * Chapter 6: Rance and Sill at Level 25. Rance has the Buster Sword and the World War Armor. Sill has Sill's Armor.
 * Final Boss: Rance and Sill at Level 30, Shizuka. Rance has the Holy Sword and the World War Armor, even though this combination is impossible in the finished game. Sill has Sill's Armor.
 * In addition, there is a faulty enemy listing, which appears on the list after the final boss fight with Ragisis. The programmer intended to create a gap in the list, which is usually done by assigning a button with a single space for its label (" "), but this does not seem to work with the multi-column setup used here, and the game creates an entry called "@" instead. Selecting this button will pit the player against an enemy with no name and no HP (in Kai, it is fought against the background of the previously tested enemy, or a black background if it is selected first). A level 1 Rance and Sill are present. Only Rance acts during battle, but only Sill's HP is visible. The "enemy" dies in one hit, rewards no EXP or GOLD, and does nothing if allowed to take its turn.
 * Effect Test: Complex system designed to test any visual battle special effects. Can change party layout, enemy, background, etc. Unfortunately not translated.
 * Credits: Play the entire end credits sequence.
 * Fake Credits: Unlike "Credits," this only plays the side bar of the fake-out credits screen from after the fight with Shizuka. In other words, only the actual credits are shown: no CG is displayed (the title screen background remains) and no music is played.
 * Buttons called "Normal > Auto Win" and "Auto Win > Normal" are added to the camp's System menu. While Auto Win is enabled, battles end in victory immediately after the monster's introductory text.
 * A "Win" command appears in Rance's action set: select it to automatically win the battle. No equivalent option is available for Sill's chapters.
 * If the player gets a Game Over, the game will say, in Rance02: "It's a real Game Over, but we'll keep on trucking." or, in Kai: "It's really a Game Over, but we'll keep going." It then returns the player to the game as though they had won the battle. This is especially useful in To Resume Menu -> Shizuka Battle, which would otherwise be an immediate dead end at Level 10!
 * Kai adds another debug cheat to camp's System menu, "Debug: Money and stuff." This will give the player 1000 GOLD, and depending on the player's position in the game, can either instantly reward the player with 5 Sweets in Chapter 3, or can instantly play the Ralga Cat Aphrodisiac scene during the appropriate plot segment.

Kai includes code for several debug features that were presumably removed during development. These can only be accessed by modifying the code.


 * The following code still exists in the code for the buttons in the main menu, but with no attached buttons.
 * Button IDs 21 and 22 would set variable Auto Win on or off, respectively, directly from the title screen. This was probably used in tandem with the To Resume Menu or possibly even the Battle Test debug features.
 * Button ID 21 is conspicuously missing from Rance02 (replaced with the Pyramid Check, which is in its expected menu position but has button ID 99), and it is possible this was its original purpose in that version as well.
 * Button 33 would run a combat featuring Rance, Maria and Milli against a Maneater X68. The characters are level 10 and Maria's Tulip is unloaded, which is impossible to pair with Milli in the final game. After defeating the Maneater, another would spawn, and so on until variable D19 equals 99. This will never happen, as D19 is completely unrelated to battle: in Rance02 (but not Kai), it was the variable that tested how the player left the dungeon. D19==99 meant the player left via Return Wood, so perhaps this fight was meant to end by using a Return Wood in battle, impossible in the final game?
 * Button 34 would test the animation from the end credits where Sill pulls a naked and unconscious Rance off-screen.
 * Button 35 would test the function that displays numbers in battle by animating a random, 6-digit value, which stays on screen until you click.
 * An inaccessible debug variable, ◆幸福の指輪, "Happiness Ring," doubles GOLD and EXP earning from battle if the variable is set to 1. It has no in-game method of activation, even in debug mode, and can only be used via code modification. It is named after the recurring, secret/debug item from Toushin Toushi and Rance III.

Rance 02 Cut Content
Some minor segments of cut content are mentioned on the Version History page.


 * Rance II's original main menu text is still present but unused in the Japanese version of Rance02 (in Aﾌﾟﾛﾛｰｸﾞ.jaf), but was removed from Kai and the English version of Rance02.
 * As mentioned on the Version History page, monster hurt messages were removed from Kai. Most of the messages replaced with the filler text "なんかダメージセリフ" ("Damage Line"), but a small handful of Floor 1 monsters were given brand new, unused text. From the official English translation: "Meatball spewed juices." "Fishmonster was injured." and "Can Can 'Ow! Why did you do that?'" The code involved was also slightly changed to remove the automatic dialogue tag attached to the message, since some of the new messages were purely descriptive.
 * An unused Talk menu for Bird can be found in the Rance02 data, alongside the used menu. It features a brief conversation about Arcy, a somewhat longer one about Ran, and an alternate discussion of the Scream Rooms.
 * While there are several rooms in the NW quadrant of Ran's Dungeon, Sill and Bird refuse to stay in any of them. But because the rooms technically exist, the programmer left an fallback message that would play if you somehow searched an invalid room. This message simply reads "This is Stage 3." Since this message is genuinely inaccessible, Kai removes it.
 * As mentioned on the Version History page, Rance02 and Kai use different healing item code in Camp. The code for the old system still exists in Kai's Chapter 6 Camp.
 * A graphic exists for the Stone Guardian floor with the prison capsules destroyed, but it is never used by either version. This alternate graphic is new to the remakes and was not used in Rance II.

Rance02 Coding Peculiarities

 * It would seem Kai's changes were meant to be tied to a variable marked バージョン (version). In the final release, Kai uses its own .ain file, so there was no need to constantly check the version number. As a result, the バージョン variable was only used in three places in the game, described below. Version 0 is Rance02, while Version 1 was meant to be Kai, but the variable is never assigned in either version and will always be 0.
 * During initial setup, the game will add either Alice or Dark Alice's CG to the CG menu depending on the status of バージョン (version). This does not happen, because again, the variable is never assigned: instead, Kai overwrites Alice's CG number directly with Dark Alice's in this instance.
 * The broken credit for Yoidore Dragon (mentioned on the Version History page) was also meant to be accessed via the バージョン variable, which is found in the code of both credits.
 * Both versions of the game play music and render the map twice every player action: both before and after processing events, in case the event changes music or location. For whatever reason, Rance02 plays the second music track before the second render, just like in the first pass, but Kai plays the second music track after the second render.
 * On Dungeon Level 3, Rance02 tries to play the music three times, in every possible position, while Kai only plays in the first position in this instance, perhaps realizing that no other themes play on that level.
 * As mentioned in the Cut Content section, variable D19 was used in Rance 02 to check how the player left the dungeon: it is set to 1 if you walk out, 99 if you use a Return Wood. Kai replaces this with a variable called ▲ＲＥ, but still checks for D19==99 in several places, to no effect.
 * Rance02 cleans up the first 20 in-use sprites when entering Camp, but Kai seems to have decided this is unnecessary.
 * Kai makes provisions to prevent more than 7 items appearing in the Use Item menu at once, since there are only room for eight buttons total (seven plus the "Back" item). This cannot happen in regular play and may be a remnant of debugging. The GOLD item is programmed to disappear first, as it cannot actually be "used" from the menu after all.
 * The town square (in every chapter) contains redirect functions called 移動 (moving) that direct the code to the initial event of various locations in town. In the released game, these functions were mostly deemed superflous and the code goes to the the locations directly. The functions are only used for the buildings in the Workplace in Chapter 6, which reveals that they exist to deliver a short, "We went to X" message before entering the location. In spite of these functions going largely unused, both versions preserve the unused functions.
 * For whatever reason, the variable that tracks whether or not you've seen Rose's H-scene is dubbed TADA2. In Rance II, it was VAR0246. During the conversion from Rance II to Rance02, variables from the standard bracket (VAR0000 to VAR0058) generally kept their original, generic names (A01, D03, etc), while later variables like VAR0246 were given descriptive names reflecting their actual purpose in the game. Why TADA gave this one his name instead of something related to Rose or the church is unclear. There is no TADA1.
 * In Rance02, when you rob the warrior at the mouth of hell, the game will check if you have a light before Rance suggests you buy a light with the money. This is pointless, because robbing the warrior is required to get the light and the text will always appear. Kai removes the check.
 * The Info Shop's Chapter 2/4 Ask menu in Kai is programmed to prevent the menu from overflowing with possible conversation topics, but the code is unnecessary: it cuts off if there are more than six conversation topics, but only six exist in either version. Either the programmer was being extra-cautious, or a topic was added and then removed during development.
 * In Rance02, each of the teleporters in Mill's dungeon has its own introductory sequence before all of them are ultimately funneled through the function created for teleporter #3. In Kai, this was cropped to only use the common function, though the function responsible is still named after teleporter #3.
 * When exiting Arcy's room, a forgotten line of code in Kai attempts to change the background tune back to the standard dungeon theme instead of Track 22 as used in Kai. This has no effect (and didn't even in Rance02), because the game immediately returns to the main dungeon loop and resets the track there, instead.
 * The Scream Rooms in Rance02 are designed to give different responses to the Look at Door command, but in all versions (including the unused version of the code in Kai), the responses are identical.
 * When you check the wall blocking the way to the intestines, both versions will check if you've talked to Arcy and, if so, suggest you go back (obviously Sill cannot talk about Arcy if you've never met). In Kai this is redundant, because you must have talked to Arcy to get to this point.
 * Behind the scenes, Rance02 disables the Find Monsters button during Arcy's preview of the liver room (and again when you teleport back), so removing the Find Monsters button a second time has no effect. As this was the only place where the Find Monsters button was disabled in this particular fashion to begin with, Kai disables the feature at the function level.
 * The message where Sill notices the Life Mirror shining on the ground is coded to only appear if you have not collected it. This is unnecessary, because if you have collected the mirror, the code breaks away well before it reaches this check. Unusually, this is true in both versions, but for different reasons.
 * Generally, the game's Chapter 2/4 files are built for Chapter 2 and only apply Chapter 4 changes after the fact. Rance02 determines if you are in Chapter 4 by checking if Milli is in your party. Kai generally leaves these checks untouched, but new changes and a few old ones were changed to reference the new current chapter variable, instead (not to be confused with the STAGE variable, because nothing is allowed to be simple). Kai is also not afraid to check if you are currently in Chapter 2, which Rance02 only does in one instance, below.
 * The event where you fight the Hannies and meet Milli will only play in Chapter 2. This is a rare instance where Rance02 checks if you are in that chapter, and it does so by testing if Milli is NOT in the party. Kai changes this to check the chapter variable instead.
 * Rance02 repeatedly checks to see if Milli is in the party before adding her to menus during the mummy conversation. In the finished game, you must have Milli in the party to speak to the mummy, so Kai removes these checks.
 * Rance02's version of the Chapter 6 info shop continues function naming conventions from previous chapters, naming the Ask and Assault functions after Machiko (e.g. 情報Ｚ_聞く真知子). Since Machiko is the only one present, Kai renames the functions to remove her name. The Talk function was also senselessly renamed, from 情報Ｚ_話す to 情報話す (removing the "Z_").
 * When the game asks if you want to save at the start of Chapter 7, both versions have an unused function called ラス戦_YES, a counterpart to ラス戦_NO, which contains nothing but a call to the save function. The game calls the save function directly instead.
 * The decision to flag certain attacks as magical in Rance02 (see the Version History page) may have been done for display reasons, due to an unnecessary coding decision involving the 能力値表示 function. The English version fixes this by calling 能力値表示 at all times, and was able to correctly flag the given attacks.