You would need a version older than the August version. You need the passphrase. I'm in a similar situation, I have some NXT that are in a wallet that my password doesn't work on.
You don't need an older version. In fact, you can't use any version older than 1.10.1 any more. Use only 1.10.1 or higher, to recover Ardor you need the passphrase.
Oops, I couldn't remember the version number, and so I meant to say a version that's not older than the August version.