Rance 4.1 & 4.2:Game mechanics

Gameplay
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.

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 [1 to 80] + 15 points of Stamina damage, ignoring enemy Defence. Cannot cause Life damage unless the target is unconscios (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.