Rance Series

[Jaedar]

Fixed! I was planning to put 01 between IX and X. Or maybe before Rance Quest but off the top of my head Yulange (oh and Hikari) are the only recruits exclusively from I/01.

I think literally every single character from 01 returns in 03, so not playing 01 before 03 seems weird.

 

[Jason Liang]

Nah. In 6 she's wheelchair bound until the very end at which point she is a medicore unit in a single mission,

In 6 I beat Hanny King before beating the main game, with Uruza, and it was the highest euphoria I got out of any battle outside of Rance X, easily higher than even beating Orochi the first time. I dare you to try beating Hanny King before the main game WITHOUT Uruza :p

in X she has incredibly niche moves and low stat gain so you pretty much never want to field her.

in X, even with how absurdly stacked Zeth is with good cards, there are a few bosses that are much easier if you have Uruza. She has one of the better Heals in the game besides Pope Crook's 6AP Full Heal.

As a character, Rance 6 Uruza is the same character as Sengoku Uruza as Rance X Uruza. She's among a small handful of characters with a real story arc and dramatic change across multiple games, along with Rance himself and Shizuka. Probably second only to Rance.

 

[Jaedar]

in X, even with how absurdly stacked Zeth is with good cards, there are a few bosses that are much easier if you have Uruza. She has one of the better Heals in the game besides Pope Crook's 6AP Full Heal.

Eh, I'd rather use papaya. I don't think zeth has stacked cards (unless you double suppress it), but it also doesn't matter since I think heals don't scale with power, and urzas attacks are bad.

 

[Longes]

Rance 5D OST is crazy (good)

 

[M. AQVILA]

01 is a remake of the original Rance 1: The Quest for Hikari, but it's still very crude in terms of gameplay, puzzles, plot, writing and humor. It has a good chance of turning someone off the series which would be a shame since it doesn't really represent what makes the later games great. 02 on the other hand wont blow anyone's socks off but at least it's very short, simple, easy and actually is kind of essential for the plot of the rest of the games in the series (with the exception of Sengoku Rance which is mostly standalone).

The order I would recommend is
- Sengoku Rance (which is actually an outlier for many reasons in this series but at least it gives you an idea if you'll love, like or hate these games)
- Rance 02 (it's very short and keep in mind this is a 14 year old remaster of a 33 year old game from 1990)
- Rance III - it has a primitive gui but it's also short. if you truly can't stand playing a game this old, skip directly to Kichikuou Rance
- Rance IV, if you could stomach Rance III
- Kichikuou Rance - The first great game of the series and the one closest to Sengoku Rance in concept (and far grander in plot and direction, but not in gameplay). Could play this first or directly following Sengoku, but it is more meaningful if you've played 02 and III beforehand.
- Rance 5D - 5D is short and interesting, and there's no reason not to play 5D before 6, since the characters introduced in 5D are prominent in 6 and later games.
- Rance 6 - The best story of the series and the second of the four must-play masterpieces of the series
- Rance 01
- Rance Quest
- Rance 9 - Probably the most polarizing game of the series. The gameplay is functional but not exceptional and to many fans disappointing.
- Rance X - The last of the masterpiece games. It's the Endgame of the series, and in a way not even Sengoku Rance can compare to the end of the journey.

As for Sengoku Rance I will say that while yes it's pretty much the clear first game of the series to play-
- It's far more rauchy, horny, lewd and rapey than any other game in the series
- It's plot is kind of mediocre compared to the top games of the series (KR, 6, X and even Rance Quest)
- It actually doesn't have many of the best characters in the series
- In case I forget to say it, Sengoku Rance is brilliant and by far the most brilliant game in the series, even compared to the 3 other masterpieces

Kichikuou Rance is the best in the series, better than Sengoku Rance in my opinion. Back in the day I only played until Rance VI (edit: not counting Sengoku), but outside the first 2 games that was the one I disliked the most. Rance III and IV were pretty good as well. That era (3, 4, Kichikuou and 5D) was the best in the series, Sengoku being the exception. I'm talking about the oldies of course, not the remakes.

 

[Endemic]

Speaking of KR...

Spoiler

Rance losing it over Sill's death is quite something:

 

[Nahel]

Rance games have more emotional scenes and well written female characters than most western productions. And they are porn games.

 

[Maxie]

Rance games have more emotional scenes and well written female characters than most western productions. And they are porn games.

name seven of those emotional scenes and well-written female characters

 

[Longes]

Rance games have more emotional scenes and well written female characters than most western productions. And they are porn games.

name seven of those emotional scenes and well-written female characters

1. Copandon Dot
2. Kanami
3. Nobunaga Kouhime
4. Rance's grief if Sill dies in Kichikuou
5. Rance and Sanakia dreaming of the future in Rance VI
6. Copandon swearing to buy the whole world to get Rance
7. Rance reuniting with Sill in Rance IX

 

[Zurbo]

...
- Kichikuou Rance - The first great game of the series and the one closest to Sengoku Rance in concept (and far grander in plot and direction, but not in gameplay). Could play this first or directly following Sengoku, but it is more meaningful if you've played 02 and III beforehand.
...

Kichikuou Rance is the best in the series, better than Sengoku Rance in my opinion. Back in the day I only played until Rance VI (edit: not counting Sengoku), but outside the first 2 games that was the one I disliked the most. Rance III and IV were pretty good as well. That era (3, 4, Kichikuou and 5D) was the best in the series, Sengoku being the exception. I'm talking about the oldies of course, not the remakes.

I'd say Sengoku is more like a complete product and because of that I'd rate it as the best.
Kichikuou had better history and denser, darker atmosphere, especially with some of the character outcomes. However mechanically it can be quite frustrating with for example saving only at a turn beginning or exploring dungeons, where you're just clicking through 200 floors in some cases. Fighting in general is much less developed. I'd still give it a second place right after Sengoku.

7. Rance reuniting with Sill in Rance IX

Was there such a scene in IX? I was expecting there to be, but didn't see any. Just an information that Crook will use some artifact to unfreeze Sill

 

[KingDoofus]

Rance games have more emotional scenes and well written female characters than most western productions. And they are porn games.

name seven of those emotional scenes and well-written female characters

(I'll try to keep this spoiler free-ish)

1) Urza overcoming her grief in Rance VI
2) Suzume accepting her fate on her own terms in Rance 8
3) Hunty and Patton expressing themselves to each other in Rance 9
4) Dens helping Hubert see he can become a better person in Rance 4 (no girls in this scene, but still, nice moments from an old game)
5) Shizuka willing to do anything for her sister in Rance 9
6) Nanjou Ran holding out until the very end to save her fiance in Sengoku Rance
7) Bullying glasses girls! (ALL GAMES!!!)

A list of just seven is pretty hard. I also don't understand how the commitment to the writing is so good in these games when a huge amount of production time is dedicated to making the best setting for sex scenes.

 

[Longes]

Was there such a scene in IX? I was expecting there to be, but didn't see any. Just an information that Crook will use some artifact to unfreeze Sill

I don't quite remember, but I think it's part of the True Epilogue you get after you do every route.

 

[Maxie]

seven is too easy. name seventeen now

 

[Longes]

seven is too easy. name seventeen now

You name seventeen well-written female characters and emotional moments from Bioware games.

 

[Maxie]

seven is too easy. name seventeen now

You name seventeen well-written female characters and emotional moments from Bioware games.

why would i
im not arguing western shit is better, just asked y'all to name them moments if they so numerous

 

[Tyrr]

Almost drowning that one girl in R1 was quite emotional.

 

[Zurbo]

Was there such a scene in IX? I was expecting there to be, but didn't see any. Just an information that Crook will use some artifact to unfreeze Sill

I don't quite remember, but I think it's part of the True Epilogue you get after you do every route.

Now I saw, indeed there is. Thanks a lot for pointing that out.

 

[M. AQVILA]

Kichikuou Rance is the best in the series, better than Sengoku Rance in my opinion. Back in the day I only played until Rance VI (edit: not counting Sengoku), but outside the first 2 games that was the one I disliked the most. Rance III and IV were pretty good as well. That era (3, 4, Kichikuou and 5D) was the best in the series, Sengoku being the exception. I'm talking about the oldies of course, not the remakes.

I'd say Sengoku is more like a complete product and because of that I'd rate it as the best.
Kichikuou had better history and denser, darker atmosphere, especially with some of the character outcomes. However mechanically it can be quite frustrating with for example saving only at a turn beginning or exploring dungeons, where you're just clicking through 200 floors in some cases. Fighting in general is much less developed. I'd still give it a second place right after Sengoku.

Kichikuou is better as a whole. Sengoku simply improved upon the mechanics of a, by the day of its release, 10 year old game (1996 vs 2006). But to each his own.

 

[KingDoofus]

seven is too easy. name seventeen now

Game on.

There's about a dozen games in this series; I haven't played some of these in a long time, but some scenes really stick with ya. (I will again try to keep this spoiler free-ish, these scenes are worth seeing for oneself - these descriptions are mostly just a callback for anyone who knows what they are)

1-7) (See my previous post)
8) Hunty Kalar saving Hubert in Rance 4
9) Caloria Cricket becoming the last of her kind in Rance 6
10) Just, fucking, anything Abert Safety does with a girl in Rance 6. I'm completely serious.
11) Isoroku realizing her lineage now falls directly on her in Sengoku Rance
12) Hibachi learning what it means to be human alongside Kazemaru in Sengoku Rance. Mustache!
13) Reset Kalar getting a family in Rance 8
14) Feliss knitting a sweater and it getting to her son in a very roundabout fashion in Rance 8 (this is one of my favorite)
15) Freak Paraffin's message to Hubert and Hunty at the end of Rance 9
16) Pigu Geliciam and a big fucking cockroach in Rance 9 (this scene is brutal)
17) Did I mention bullying glasses girls? Bullying glasses girls! (Gahahaha!)

These are some of my favorites off the top of my head. I tried to steer clear of some of the mainstay girls and their scenes (Shizuka, Kanami, and all of Rance X since most people haven't played it). Feel free to list some of your own (even if you don't wanna write out a whole 17)!

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

What a savage exchange! A little one sided, but that was to be expected.

 

[KingDoofus]

What a savage exchange! A little one sided, but that was to be expected.

No need for it to become confrontational. Man wanted an example of some good scenes from the series, I'm happy to give it.

I don't know if the original intention was just to get people talking or to poke holes in enthusiasm; there's a contingent that seems opposed to the idea that the Rance series could be good. There's a few practical reasons. One is generally prudery, though sometimes it's hard to see that in oneself. I've got older relatives who refuse to watch Game of Thrones because there's sex in it and entertainment shouldn't be showing that kind of smut (and, hey, more power to them if that's their choice).

But I think a larger influence is the reputation of a "porn game," and what people think of it. Nowadays, it's not hard to find some porn cgs slapped on a barebones combat engine and see it widely marketed, even on Steam - to see a person enthusiastically champion the story of "Latex Dungeon" probably would give the impression that that person has low standards for stories, has juvenile sensibilities, and is overvaluing weak elements of a game just because it got them aroused (I've never played it though, so who knows, maybe the story is magnificent). To someone who doesn't know the series, I imagine that's what it looks like to people popping into this forum.

I think this begs the question of "what is a porn game?" The Witcher had tons of sex (after fucking somebody in the first game you could get a collectible card for them) and it wasn't hard to find people saying it was a storytelling masterpiece. Baldur's Gate 3 lets you customize characters' dicks and vaginas and it'll probably win Game of the Year on this very site (perhaps for that reason!).

So as someone who obviously likes the series, I would encourage people to look past the sex and see what else is there. There is, of course, plenty of sex. But after checking out Sengoku Rance due to recommendations that the gameplay was good, I was shocked to see that the writing was actually quite funny. And occasionally very affecting. That they're able to weave a cohesive narrative over 10 games is an accomplishment in itself. And, oh yeah, the gameplay is surprisingly good.

This is roughly true of Alicesoft games in general and especially the Rance series. It seems clear to me that these people could easily be making "normal" games if they wanted to and they'd probably be very good. It's just... they're perverts. If you're reading this, you can probably sympathize (or at the very least, can't throw stones). And this is the kind of game they want to make.

So give it a shot!

 

[Endemic]

This is roughly true of Alicesoft games in general and especially the Rance series. It seems clear to me that these people could easily be making "normal" games if they wanted to and they'd probably be very good. It's just... they're perverts. If you're reading this, you can probably sympathize (or at the very least, can't throw stones). And this is the kind of game they want to make.

As I understand it, originally they were parodying the stereotypical harem anime with the series. That's why Rance is an anti-hero and quite a slave to his primal desires at times. There's some edgy stuff in there as well (being able to see Kouhime being gang-raped doesn't really enhance the Sengoku story, or copulating with the "alien" for that matter). That said, he got a lot more well-rounded in character terms later in the series, culminating in 10 (which will hopefully get translated someday).

I suppose the played straight "fuck the chicks, defeat the villains" part of Rance works pretty well with the audience, but I find him more interesting when he's in out-of-the-box situations like the curse in 4.

 

[Longes]

You wouldn't get quality dialogue like this in your Baldur's Effects and Mass of Decadences.

 

[Lord of Riva]

A lot of alicesofts games are hugely innovative and extremely creative, their influence has swapped over into other games and some games, like Sengoku Rance have mainstream acknowledgement and appeal (whispered behind closed doors of course) because there are masterpieces in the Series.

It's fasctinating stuff to find in an Eroge especially with how Rance presents it's pornographic content.

In other words KingDoofus is absolutely right, some games in the rance series should be played by anyone liking storytelling and RPGs, even if they have a distaste for the H-content

 

[Longes]

According to TADA (and therefore to be taken with a grain of salt), Kichikuou Rance was a system seller for Windows 95 in Japan.

I wouldn't claim that Rance is high art or anything, but it's a fun adventure fantasy series with a bunch of technological and narrative innovations to it. If you've see any anime in the last decade - you've seen something influenced by Rance. Because anime right now is pulling from Shōsetsuka ni Narō the way american studios pull scripts from Wattpad, and syosetu works pull a ton from Rance.