Rance 01:Game mechanics

Note: Information in this article is based on the trial version of the game and is subject to change upon the release of the full version on September 27th, 2013.

Overview
The gameplay mechanics in Rance 01 use a "gambling" gimmick, but it's not really related to gambling, "betting" is merely a way of selecting items to use/buy/transfer/throw away. Rance 01 features a dungeon crawling and battle system different from its original, which, while rather simple, is still kind of unique.

Dungeon Crawling


In above image:

1 - Your currently selected lane

2 - The lanes - only cards in your currently selected and immediate left & right lanes are selectable.

3 - Your stats. Self explanatory. Luck might affect critical.

4 - Time.

5 - Items ( or "chips" as the game calls it) available. Consumable items can be used here by clicking the item and selecting the 1st button in the popup.

6 - System menu

7 - Camp - Used to show your current status. Ther are 3 button above your items - view details, sort, and THROW AWAY. REGARDING 3RD BUTTON, SEE WARNING IN NOTES BELOW. The lower left button returns you to the town (not always available).

When in a dungeon, there will be 5 "lanes" that you can proceed through in forward direction. Each "lane" is a series of cards, selecting which can trigger various actions. At the beginning, you will be positioned at the center lane. To move forward, you can either choose the card in the lane you're standing, or you can choose a card to the left and right of your currently lane. Doing so will make you switch to that lane, and the lanes available for you to choose in the next step will depend on which lane you took, that is, the lane you switched to will be the central lane, and you can only choose the cards to the left, right and directly in front of you. When you're at extreme left or right, you'll only have 2 lanes to select from. It may be noted that some lanes will have cards labelled "susumenai", i.e. they're dead ends, you have to select another lane. Typically 2 adjacent lanes will never have this except in the tutorial dungeon.

Once you step on a card, depending on what card it is, something will happen.


 * White card - Nothing happens. "Safe" area.


 * Yellow card - Treasure chest or power up/healing points. Gain loot in form of golds and items if it's a chest, quality depends on rank of the card. Otherwise, Rance will either heal HP or gain a positive status effect from it.


 * Grey card - Dead end. Can't be selected.


 * Blue card - Card that will trigger events and sometimes move you to other locations. Some of them can be boss fights.


 * Red card - Monster encounter, triggers a battle with a mob whose strength depends on the rank mentioned on the card.


 * Green card - Exit cards, lets you move to other locations, change floors in a dungeon or return to town.


 * Purple card - Trap cards that'll either do damage to you or cause status problems. Some of these are VERY dangerous so take care.


 * Face down card - Hidden card, what it is will not be revealed unless you step on it. However, pattern of cards in an area is static and they loop as you keep going forward, so if you've been wandering in an area for a while you can tell what it is anyway.

After you choose a card, the corresponding action will happen and you can then take the next step. This mode ends only when you do return to the town. To do that, do one of the following:
 * Bring up camp screen and choose the lower left yellow button. This button is also available during battle, but costs about 5% of your money to use at that time. If you have the "lost" status problem, this button can't be used.
 * Choose the green card to return to town while outside. This card periodically keeps popping up in a constant pattern, so if you want to return, be mindful of its position so you can select it when it's approaching. There is a "lost" status problem that'll prevent you from immediately returning, at such times this is the only way to go back.

Notes:
 * Healing items for the most part can only be consumed while dungeon crawling and not in battles (exceptions exist).
 * Time will still advance if you keep crawling and if you keep going all day long, the next day will dawn, after which you'll begin to starve. For more information, see the section Passage of Time.
 * Reusable item cooldowns don't expire while you're advancing in a dungeon, only turns during battle count. For more information, see the section Battles.
 * WARNING: In camp mode, if you select an item and click the right most button above the item list, you trash the item for good, and this happens without any confirmation prompt. Watch it when hitting this button. This also applies for other interfaces that have this button, such as shops, item storage and loot drop screen. 
 * The cards that will appear in your path are not random or dynamically generated. In a given dungeon, a definite pattern of cards will appear along the lanes and the order will loop indefinitely if you keep going forward... If you move through a certain area for a while you might even memorize the pattern of cards and paving a path through that dungeon will become a piece of cake!

Battles
When you select a red card, or if a blue card event triggers a boss battle, this mode happens.



1 - Available items to use (healing/non-combat items are generally not usable in battle)

2 - Select All/Select None. This only selects permanent items and not one-time use consumables.

3 - Fight using selected items.

4 - Escape at the cost of some gold, and return to town directly. Some fights can't be escaped from, and certain status problems also prevent it.

5 - Your HP.

6 - Enemy and its selected action. The enemy graphic will start flashing red and white if enemy HP is below 30%.

Here's how it works - the list of your items are for you to use against the enemy. Pink items are permanent ones and can be used repeatedly. Cream colored items are consumables, and are lost after one use. They boost you attack, defense or both on the turn that they are used. Multiple items used in a turn will stack up for a summed effect on attack/defense as applicable.

In general, more of the pink items are useful as they're reusable, but cream colored ones usually offer a higher bonus. Furthermore, all pink items can't be used successively - Most of the stronger weapons and shields have a "cooldown time" - once used, they can't be used for a specified no. of turns, indicated by a number next to a clock icon on the item upon use. The cooldown period of an item can also be checked under item description (クールタイム). It may be noted that these cooldown counts don't reset after a battle and will carry into the next battle if not expired - they stay as you crawl through a dungeon.

In any case, once you've selected the items to use in a turn, hit button #3 and the combat will proceed. But before selection, take a good look at your enemy portrait (#6) - it mentions what your enemy is about to do. If it reads 防御 with a letter, then the enemy is using something to defend himself and will reduce damage from your attacks. The higher the rating, the better the enemy will tank this turn. If it reads 攻撃 with a letter next to it, then the enemy is attacking this turn, and the higher the rating, the harder the attack's gonna land - if you see a particularly heavy incoming attack, use your own defensive items to reduce the damage. Sometimes the enemy may use a combination of attack and defense items just like you can, and do both tanking and hitting in the same turn. Furthermore, the enemy's weaknesses and strengths, if any, are shown - for example, galmons are weak against sexual harassment, and hanny are immune to magic. Keep a keen eye on the pattern of enemy's attacks and defenses and bet your own chips accordingly to win the game: your life is being wagered!

Notes:
 * The "Very Short Swords" don't have any cooldown time and are going to be your basic weapons - they can be used repeatedly.
 * If you attack without using any attack items, you hit the enemy for at best 2-3 HP, or sometimes 0 if the enemy is defending.
 * Healing consumables can't be used in battle for the most part.
 * Your 2 locked item slots unlock as you level up, for a maximum of 7 (in the trial version at least).

If you lose the battle, you suffer a game over, and you can choose the 2nd option under "hand" to resume from last autosave (the game autosaves every time you enter/exit a dungeon, change floors etc.). If you win, you get some exp, gold, sometimes even an item, and after that you either simply proceed to the next step or continue with the events in case of a boss fight.

ADV Mode
When in town, you're free to do everything not dungeon crawling - this is a classic ADV system where there are many actions can be performed, leading to hidden rewards. Depending on the time of the day, you can go to any of the available locations and perform actions categorized as:
 * Eye: "Seeing" things - this can include searching for a clue, ogling a hot girl's body, or taking a peek at the products of a shop.
 * Mouth: Anything you can use your mouth for - talking, eating, drinking. But mostly talking. This is the key action for finding clues about Hikari for continuing the story and for levelling up from Willis.
 * Hand: Anything ranging from grabbing loot, taking money from Sill in Paris College, transferring items between your inventory and storage at the inn, and saving and loading the game at the same inn.
 * Attack: For the most part used for attempting to sexually assault girls or to initiate battle against bosses. Attempting to do this to the innkeeper will get you beaten and take some HP damage.
 * Foot: Mostly for leaving a place. At the inn, you use this to sleep for the day and fully recover yourself.

Key locations:



1 - Inn to stay at. Sleeping here (Foot -> 1st option) ends the day and fully heals you. Also offers saving, loading, and stashing items (from hand).

2 - Consumables shop.

3 - Equipment shop.

4 - Level up location. In the trial version, you cannot level up beyond 14.

5 - Can call Sill to have sex, and rob her of her allowances. Gives 3 gold daily (even if you miss a few days, next time you visit her you can get 3x no. of days passed since last seizure).

6 - Go out for dungeon crawling. Can only return by either taking a green card to town, or by escaping from a battle at the cost of some gold.

Shopping
Only two places allow shopping (see image above). In those places, click eye and choose 2nd option to initiate shopping.


 * The upper pane has items the shopkeeper has. Click an item to show its description. There'll be 3 buttons: Buy (to inventory), buy (to storage), don't buy. First 2 options will buy the item and transfer to your hand directly or to storage (accessible through inn) subject to availability of space - storage has 14 slots. If there's either not enough money or not enough space, the options will be greyed out.
 * The lower pane is your inventory. The wide button to the left switches between your inventory and storage. The next 3 buttons are "show item description", "transfer to storage/inventory", and THROW AWAY . Again, be warned, the last option trashes the item without any confirmation prompt so watch your mouse!
 * Just like in most Rance games, items once bought can't be sold back for any kind of salvaging.
 * Aside from the above shops, certain places like the I.NET building will, after taking certain options, let you buy some items for a limited time.

Passage of Time
On the upper right corner of both the city screen and dungeon screen, a clock (roulette) shows the current time of the day. In Rance 01, time in a day advances according to your actions in both ADV mode and dungeon crawling, kind of like in Galzoo Island. There are 8 "units" of time per day (actually 9, but you can only use 0-7 for actions). In ADV mode, visiting any one location consumes 1 unit. In dungeon, 9 steps make time advance by 1 unit.
 * If it's the 8th unit of the day (dead of night) and you're in the town, you only have the option to return to inn, where you can go to sleep to start the next day at 00 unit.
 * If you're in dungeon while a day is ending, the next day dawns as it is, and you'll be in a crippled state that'll randomly make you fail to land your attack in battles (0 damage dealt regardless of weapons chosen). This will last until you return to the town and sleep at the inn.
 * Different events happen at different places at different times of the day, so you might want to access specific places at specific times to unlock certain events. Some enemies such as Pixie Foxes also strengthen at night.
 * Choosing the structure to the right of the castle walls spends current period of the day (morning, daytime, night) and advances to the beginning of the next period. If selected at night, it simply takes you to 8th unit where you need to go to sleep to start the next day.

Status Changes
There are both good states and bad states obtained from yellow and purple cards.