Finished Rance 4.2. Time for a double review!
In Rance 4.x, our hero of justice Rance sets out to discover the cause of a monster infestation in the factory of Happiness Pharmaceutical, responsible for the Seirogan drug seen in previous Rance games (and known as Ibeprofun in Rance 01 and Rance 02). Because the plot requires it, the drug no longer restores health points, but stamina instead. Its place is now taken by Youmeishu, an experimental drug being manufactured by Happiness Pharmaceutical. The plot is divided in two halves: the first half requires you to end the monster infestation, while the second half requires you to deal with the root of the problem.
Rance 4.x uses a turn-based combat system which expands on the stamina mechanic featured in previous titles. Whereas stamina gauged your ability to act in other Rance games, Rance 4.x places far more emphasis on it as stamina decides whether a character can act altogether, and in the case of enemies, when do they no longer pose a threat. Indeed, knocking an enemy unconscious (by reducing their stamina to 0) is a valid way of winning a battle. Killing enemies, by reducing their life points to 0, is another. Killing means just that: an enemy that is killed will stay killed. This leads to interesting yet linear scenarios where a killed enemy can be cause for an instant game over, or otherwise removing a nuisance for the remainder of the game. To the game's credit, these game over's are acknowledged through dialogue (as opposed to a simple game over screen popping up during battle).
Combat in Rance is an RNG fest, with NPCs controlled by their AI and not always making the wisest decisions.
An exception to the aforementioned rule is the death of companions. Their deaths will, indeed, provoke a game over during battle. It would have been interesting to see the game unfold differently by accounting for their deaths, though I understand this was far beyond the scope of what were two simple, low budget games. Rance 4.x also features a number of humorous game overs, so saving often is recommended. One in particular I felt was particularly unfair, and had me backtrack 20 minutes into my playthrough. Thankfully I had a spare save.
Certain enemies have much more stamina than they have health, and viceversa. Your companions have different attacks for specific purposes. Kisara's card magic is very useful at hitting agile targets who tend to dodge normal strikes, while Athena has an attack that deals health damage exclusively. Of note is Genri's tendency to
kill enemies by dealing damage to their life points as they lie unconscious. Rance's world famous Rance Attack returns, a powerful strike that deals massive stamina and health damage. Stronger and special attacks require Power to accumulate; this is achieved by standing by and skipping your turn.
Something that I'm on the fence about is the inability to control your teammates' actions... playing as "intended", at least. The English fan translation adds an option to control your companions directly, at the cost of making the game easier. Because, really, why wouldn't you optimize your attacks instead of having Genri kill unconscious NPCs, potentially killing a quest NPC in the process and getting a game over as a consequence? The game never reaches the point where manual combat becomes a necessity, however. Even the final segment of the game relies more on resource management than optimized combat strategies.
Rance 4.x is more spartan on inventory than Rance IV. Aside from the quest-related items, your only options are to use Seirogan or Youmeishu. Both are limited in their quantities, and you want to make them count. A knocked out companion is an easy way to get a game over if you let enemies gang up on them. Strangely enough, Rance 4.2 sees companion health drop down considerably compared to Rance 4.1.
On the note of quest items, Rance 4.1 is much more closely styled after Rance I/01 than it is after its follow ups. You spend some time interacting with NPCs, gathering hints on how to proceed, meeting new people, and slowly unlocking your way through the dungeon of Happy Pharmaceutical's factory. Rance 4.2, on the other hand, takes place almost entirely inside the secret base of the Angel Army: an organization dedicated to saving gal monsters.
Not everything is at it seems in Happiness Pharmaceutical...
Dungeon movement is pretty much identical to that of Rance 02 and Rance IV, so those who have played the games will feel right at home. Click to advance or retreat, and watch your party move. According to the readme, encounters are not entirely random but somewhat fixed. While providing experiences, battles are a way to consume your limited resources. Of note is Athena's role as official dungeon mapper in Rance 4.x; discovering a new room ensures a conversation between Rance and her robotic waifu, short and often funny. It is at this point I must mention the most glaring omission in this game: Sill Plain is not a playable party member, and only features in the game's intro and ending. As such, AliceSoft places a heavy burden on Athena 2.0, as she has to take on the role of the game's female comic relief. Yet another notable omission is that of series regular Level Goddess Willis, as party members level up automatically on acquiring enough experience points. For the first time in the series since the first game, I felt like levels were a complete afterthought.
Athena believes the Pink Mask is actually Sill Plain, but the intro establishes Sill is at home doing chores.
Apart from the ever changing gameplay mechanics, two things make up a Rance game: the humor, and the porn. Often a mix of both. And Rance 4.x has it in spades. The most welcome addition to the cast in this regard is not yet another teenage girl, but a bald monk named Genri who begins Rance 4.1 as Rance's romantic (rape) rival, going so far as having sex with Happiness Pharmaceutical's receptionist before Rance even had a chance to. Late in the game, Genri (who throughout the course of the games addresses Rance as "Rance-dono") joins Rance's party in their goal of taking down the Angel Army. Meanwhile, Rance 4.2 sees Genri demoted to a privileged cuck role as he watches Rance rape women left and right while leaving none for the poor monk.
Genri goes from threating, wholesome monk with a huge dick, to a massive cuck with a huge dick.
When it comes to the sex scenes, there are plenty to choose from. You have your romantic sex scenes, your perverted sex scenes, torture porn, abuse porn, humilliation porn... it's all there, and it's great. To the game's credit, it handles humilliation porn well enough as to not make me feel bad about the female characters involved. Rance IV had me feeling very sorry for Sill when she was raped by Io as a hypnotized Rance looked on.
Blazer-chan is my waifu.
One aspect I can't praise enough is the use of chibi sprites throughout the game to illustrate certain scenes. There's a place and a time for everything, so using chibi sprites for those scenes that don't warrant CGs is more than welcomed. One can only wish AliceSoft had placed as much effort on the sound design of Rance 4.x. Unlike previous titles, there's an alarming lack of sound effects and music tracks. For instance, there's no music playing whenever you call the System God. Additionally, there are no combat sound effects. Gone are the sweet sword and magic attack sounds. There's a serious lack of feedback that tarnishes the whole experience.
You don't get to fuck the loli goddess, but you get a nice surprise towards the end of the game instead.
On a final note, Rance 4.2 also features a slot machine minigame. Simply acquire KyanKyan medals to insert into the machine, and spin the slots to win a gal/guy card. I didn't bother obtaining them all, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was no reward at the end of the minigame. It's not like it would make any difference: whatever prize you may get is probably not worth the time and effort required to farm enough medals to win all 20 cards, especially since you can get repeats.
At the end of the day, Rance 4.x is more of the same. Good old Rance humor and porn, good old AliceSoft mixing up the formula to keep things fresh with varying levels of success. One wonders how much different the series could have been at that point in time if they had kept the strongest elements of each game and ironed out the flaws. Allegedly, Kichikuou Rance is that game.
Still, they must have done something right if this is the fifth Rance game I play in a row, and still haven't gotten tired of the franchise yet.
