Arcana

Arcana
Also known as: Card Master: Rimusaria no Fuuin (JP) Developer: HAL Laboratory Publishers: HAL Laboratory (JP), HAL America (US) Platform: SNES Released in JP: March 27, 1992 Released in US: May 1992 This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select. This game has a Data Crystal page

Arcana is a first-person dungeon crawler RPG by HAL Laboratory. Though you battle through dungeons in a first-person view, the game has the feel of more traditional console RPGs due to the preset characters and storyline.

Unused Items

Arcana has a large number of unused equipment in the ROM.

Equipment

This weapon's description is unavailable outside of modifying the inventory, since it's only available in the final battle.

• Giant Sword: Very powerful but heavy and hard to control by the inexperienced. (Rooks only)

Cursed Items

These unavailable items have very poor stats, except the Cursed Sword which has decent attack power but a very low critical hit rate.

• Cursed Sword: This sword is possessed by powers of darkness that will inhabit your body if you are touched by it. (RDAST)
• Cursed Shield: A shield that carries the curse of a deceased magician. (Axs/Salah/Rooks)
• Cursed Gauntlet: A Gauntlet made from the spells of the departed. (Darwin/Teefa)

Placeholders

All of these numbered items appear to be placeholders to allow for more weapons and armor had the developers wanted to add more. They can be hacked into the Equipment menu, but they cannot be equipped by anyone and they have no descriptions.

• Sword 1-4: Placeholders for undefined weapons.
• Armor 1-15: Placeholders for undefined armor.
• Amulet 1-2: Placeholders for undefined amulets.
• Ring 1-3: Placeholders for undefined rings (see below).

Rings

These rings were probably supposed to boost stats, prevent status effects, or grant other special abilities. They can be hacked into the Equipment menu, and anyone can equip them, but they have no apparent effects. These offer a glimpse into a system that didn't make it into the final game.

Example screenshot showing the Secret Ring and Life Ring in the Equipment menu.

• Secret Ring: A ring that will give travelers peace of mind and security when traveling.
• Life Ring: This will refresh your body when you are weary of traveling.
• Euhancer Ring: Will enhance the wearer's mental powers.
• Ring Inspiration: Each time you fight, this ring will give you inspiration.
• Peace Ring: When wearing this ring no calamity will be able to upset your concentration.
• Ancient Ring: A ring that will prevent the bearer from becoming paralyzed with fear.
• Ring of Life: A ring with special powers that will protect the bearer from calamities.
• Ring of Valor: A ring of courage, it will help fight off threats both large and small.
• Ring of Hope: A ring that will protect your confidence in your abilities and physical strength.
• Sparkling Ring: This ring will sharpen your reasoning powers and thinking skills.
• Shining Ring: This ring will improve your concentration and strength of will.
• Ring Amazement: You will amaze yourself with your abilities when you are wearing this ring.
• RingAstonishment: When wearing this ring the appearance of an enemy will make you move quickly.
• Crooked Ring: Will increase your physical abilities and stamina.
• Twisted Ring: Will bring to you powers you've never experienced before.
• Grand Ring: This ring will bring to mind memories of great pleasure.
• Charm Ring: This ring will tempt you with promises of evil pleasures.

Unused Spells

Petrify and Revitalize work as intended, if edited in with a RAM editor. (Rooks' spells start at hexadecimal address $1459.) Stop and Stop All cast properly, but have no visible effect; there is no Silenced condition although the game confirms that the target "has been sllenced." (spelled with 2 L's)

The rest of these spells are dummied, and have no effect when cast. Oddly in Japanese, several spells have reused names; Requiem appears twice and both claim to reduce random encounters.

• Petrify: Turns the selected enemy to stone. (15 MP)
• Revitalize: Reverses the effects of a Paralysis spell. (6 MP)
• Stop: Silences the selected enemy. (6 MP)
• Stop All: Silences all of your enemies. (6 MP)
• Drain Spell: Takes Hit Points from enemy. (1 MP)
• Psych Spell: Takes Magic Points from enemy. (0 MP)
• Repel: Gives you the power to repel attacks. (4 MP)
• Mirror: Gives you the power to repel magic. (6 MP)
• Requiem: Liberates the selected Undead from this plane. (4 MP)
• Emancipation: Liberates all Undead from the Earthly plane. (8 MP)
• Final Liberation: All Undead cease to exist in their present form. (1 MP)
• Way Point: Mentally mark a spot on the map where you want to go. (0 MP)
• Way Point Warp: Instantly warp to the Way Point selected. (8 MP)
• Diminish Encounters: Fewer enemies are encountered. (4 MP)
• Diminish Encounters 2: Fewer enemies are encountered. (8 MP)

Unused Consumables

Cards

• Mirror Card: This card's name was removed from the game, but its description is still intact. When used by Rooks, it randomly acts like one of the 4 elemental cards. Using more than 1 will softlock the game, however. It may have been removed after not being able to fix that issue.

Items

There are a couple of unused healing items in Arcana's ROM file. They were mistakenly left in the manual, but you can never actually get them anywhere in the game.

• Water of Life: Encounters with enemies decrease. Inflicts damage on the Undead. (Note: This item can be used, but has no effect nor any dialogue confirming it was used.)
• Maiden's Tears: Reverse petrifying spells. One of your party will return to their original condition.
• Moon Oil: Reverse paralyzing spells. One of your party will return to their original condition.

Unused Trap

Treasure chests have a value for what kind of item is inside: items, cards, equipment and GP. Using a hex editor, there is an unused 5th value that causes a battle to start (a "Monster-in-a-box"). This simply recalls the last battle that was fought. Contrary to expectations, running away is possible and there is no reward for winning the fight. This may have been planned but unfinished, and didn't make it into the final game.

• 

  Opening a trapped chest results in a battle.

• 

  Unused Rooks response to a sudden battle.

Unused Enemies

While existing in the ROM with full battle animations, for some reason the Mimic enemy was never implemented into the game. This is the case at least for the US version.

Unused Music

Track #57: "Two Beautiful Princesses"

According to the OST, this 14-second song should have been used in the ending, right before the end credits song, but it isn't there in any version of the game.

Track #83: "Grass Flute"

Judging by its name, this two-second fanfare was likely intended for a dropped "Grass Flute" item.

(Source: Flying Omelette)

Unused Class Descriptions

In the English version, the class descriptions for the 9 party members are unused. They are:

• Card Master = Rooks
• Spirit of Wind = Sylph
• Spirit of Land = Dao
• Spirit of Water = Marid
• Spirit of Fire = Efrite
• Betrayer = Teefa
• Princess = Salah
• Vagabond = Darwin
• Woodcutter = Axs

The descriptions are used in the Japanese version, where some of them are also different:

• 魔法使い = Magician = Teefa
• 僧侶 = Priestess = Salah
• 魔法剣士 = Magic Swordsman = Darwin
• 騎士 = Knight = Axs

Unused Symbols

Symbols to help the player explore

The maps in Arcana are rather simple, drawing out the walls and stairs. Using a memory editor, other tiles can be seen such as "exit", arrows, doors, a skull and crossbones, and tentative symbols. It may be that these light markings "?!X" are pencil marks, and that it was originally planned for the player to draw notes on their maps.

Unused Text

Controls Description There is some untranslated Japanese text left in Arcana, not in ASCII format. Converting the bytes with a table file reveals the following text:

• 決定ボタン = Decision button
• ＡＢＸＹＬＲ ＳＥ
• キャンセルボタン = Cancel button
• ＡＢＸＹＬＲ ＳＥ
• マップボタン = Map button
• ＡＢＸＹＬＲ ＳＥ

This seems to be a dummied button configuration menu. A was default for confirming, B for cancelling, and a shortcut could be set for opening the map.

Battle Text

• "[Enemy]was surprised by his wounds"

The game's code suggests this message appears if a Confused enemy attacks themself and misses. That would be an extremely rare occurrence.

Stage Select

Enter this code at the game's title screen to activate a level select: Down, Select, Select, X, Y, Select, Select, L, R, Select, Select, Left, Right, Up, then...

• A: Chapter 2
• B: Chapter 3
• X: Chapter 4
• Y: Chapter 5

Using this code will start you off at an advanced experience level with various spells, items, cards, equipment, and money.

• 

  Chapter 2: Start in Doraf with Rooks at Level 10 and Salah at Level 7.

• 

  Chapter 3: Start in Doraf with Rooks at Level 20.

• 

  Chapter 4: Start in Elf Village with Rooks and Axs both at Level 30.

• 

  Chapter 5: Start in Bintel Castle with Rooks and Teefa both at Level 40, and Darwin at Level 43.

Sound Room

Hold L+R+B and press Start on the title screen to access the Arcana Sound Room. This allows you to listen to all of the music and sound effects in the game. Tracks #57 and #83 are unused.