Rance Series

[TheEntitledOne]

#1

#2

 

[JoKa]

Uruza FTW!

 

[TigerKnee]

#1

#2

Well I can't say this isn't appropriate due to your avatar.

 

[Stefan Vujovic]

HALP! Kuchikuou Rance crashes at start, should i run this in some compatibility mode? Win7 32bit...

 

[Haba]

No, running fine without it on Win7.

 

[Wen Yang]

Finished with KR, playing Rance IX atm...

<3 Pigu. gotta love having 8 mini-killing machines running around for the price of one. ^_^

 

[nimateb]

Started Wasteland 2, got bored after a couple hours.

Started Sengoku Rance which was on my backlog because of the Codex's recommendation: Full adict, going to work with 3 hours of sleep, mode.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

 

[Wen Yang]

Started Wasteland 2, got bored after a couple hours.

Started Sengoku Rance which was on my backlog because of the Codex's recommendation: Full adict, going to work with 3 hours of sleep, mode.

Welcome to the club.

At least you got 3 hours of sleep. I went to work a couple times completely without sleep due to SR. XD

 

[baturinsky]

Started Wasteland 2, got bored after a couple hours.

Started Sengoku Rance which was on my backlog because of the Codex's recommendation: Full adict, going to work with 3 hours of sleep, mode.

Sengoku is great, but, like others Alice strategies, has a bad case of Guide Dang It. Such as unintuitive gourd breaking mechanics, and ways of unlocking many, many generals. Also, replay value is not very high, even though New Game+ mechanics is very interesting.

 

[Haba]

Eh? It has multiple separate routes... How's that not high replay value? In fact, I can't think of a game with higher replay value. BG2/Fallout/PST maybe, but eh.

 

[Raghar]

Don't complain about guides until you played BigBANGage.
That sex revealing stuff needs strategy guide.

 

[Average Manatee]

Only thing that I would say actually needs a guide is getting the Takeda House bonus, and even then it's just something that most people wouldn't take the time to do without a guide, not something particularly unintuitive.

The gourd thing is supposed to catch you off guard because Rance is supposed to be caught off guard by the whole thing. So in story terms it fits. In gameplay terms the first playthrough is basically scripted anyway so that as long as you win at Honnoji (which you have infinite time to prepare for, just can't conquer more houses) you are guaranteed to win the game.

And no, I can't think of many games with more actually different content in terms of replay. In addition to the routes you have the NG+ bonuses to buff you while the increased difficulties make the game harder, and trying to optimize for more points.

Don't complain about guides until you played BigBANGage.
That sex revealing stuff needs strategy guide.

Yeah, this game needs guides so fucking hard it isn't even funny. Average character clear requires you to capture a character, level them x times, place them in some random place with another specific character who you've already cleared while they are below 3 HP and the turn number is even and a certain building is in place, and do it all before you finished conquering the nation they came from.

 

[baturinsky]

Regardless of scenario and starting bonuses, you paint same small map with more or less same methods against enemies acting the same. Replay value comes from being able to play differently. Such as different starting countries in CK or EU, different classes in Diablo2, Titan's Quest or King's Bounty.

 

[Raghar]

Talk to him three to four times during the conversation phase (can be done during school/district chapter - basically exhaust all his conversation topics until he starts repeating himself).
Station Yuuki along with Jinnai Heita (陣内兵太) in any region during the national chapter for 2 turns for 2 separate beginning-of-turn events (second one is food related). They don't need to be stationed together for two consecutive turns. You must clear Heita's 3rd star first.
Once Yuuki's experience bar is at /74 or higher, station him again with Jinnai Heita (陣内兵太) in any region. An event should trigger at the beginning of turn (peeping related). (Note: I was able to trigger this event immediately after Yuuki levelled up to 70.)
Next, station Yuuki and Francine (フランシーヌ) in any region. An event should trigger where Francine (フランシーヌ) tries to examine him.

Of course this means recruiting Francine, which of course loathes the second medical person. Thus you can't have both.

 

[baturinsky]

Yes, BBA is the worst. Also that stress mechanics. That made me dropping out of BBA at around 1/3 of nation stage.
Kichikou has pretty complex ways with everything Zeth-related, starting with getting Gandhi and his harem, and then Pika cannon, and each single recruitable Zeth char.

 

[Average Manatee]

Regardless of scenario and starting bonuses, you paint same small map with more or less same methods against enemies acting the same. Replay value comes from being able to play differently.

I don't know how you can't play differently in SR.

Such as different starting countries in CK or EU

Everyone plays mostly the same in these games. They simply start in different positions and don't have much else to distinguish them. FFA mode in SR closely approximates the same gameplay alterations.

different classes in Diablo2, Titan's Quest or King's Bounty.

You can start with different house bonuses and use different classes/characters in SR. About as much variety as D2 or TQ, if you can even compare across genres like that. KB has lots of diversity but the games turn into such a drag by the end game that I can't fathom someone finishing KB and immediately wanting to replay another game, a problem SR doesn't suffer from. And even KB generally loses most of the variety past the mid game where you are always using the same OP units and spells for the nth time.

 

[Grinolf]

Only thing that I would say actually needs a guide is getting the Takeda House bonus, and even then it's just something that most people wouldn't take the time to do without a guide, not something particularly unintuitive.

Takeda isn't that hard to figure, only require a very long time to accomplish and win a 4 pretty hard battles in a row without ability to save beteen them. But good luck getting monster house bonus without a guide

The gourd thing is supposed to catch you off guard because Rance is supposed to be caught off guard by the whole thing. So in story terms it fits. In gameplay terms the first playthrough is basically scripted anyway so that as long as you win at Honnoji (which you have infinite time to prepare for, just can't conquer more houses) you are guaranteed to win the game.

Actually player, unlike Rance, was warned that something big should happen after 5-6 gourds are broken if he paid attentions to text. One don't get an exact number, but it is pretty obvious that it a good idea to avoid breaking gourds as long as possible. And there is a time limit, which is 90 turns, that is plenty of time to clear most of the map.

What is counterintuitive, that saving some houses from taking over by other houses could be done not only by being at war with aggressor, but a victim also. It doesn't make much sence, but it allows to save a characters and not advance a story without facing mosters like Takeda and Mori too early. But that relevant only first game for ome reason. Not sure why revoved it from second+ games, that were supposed to be harder and not easier.

 

[Average Manatee]

Takeda isn't that hard to figure, only require a very long time to accomplish and win a 4 pretty hard battles in a row without ability to save beteen them. But good luck getting monster house bonus without a guide

It's hard to figure that's its possible in the first place, which was the point. Not many people spend dozens of turns after destroying a house to try and recruit units.

One-Eyed house had a ridiculously silly requirement, but clearing Akashi was something that was very easy and you probably did anyway. I got them on my first run without any guides at all. Considering that One-Eyed is one of the few houses left after the demon attack you have basically all the time in the world to get them.

Actually player, unlike Rance, was warned that something big should happen after 5-6 gourds are broken if he paid attentions to text. One don't get an exact number, but it is pretty obvious that it a good idea to avoid breaking gourds as long as possible. And there is a time limit, which is 90 turns, that is plenty of time to clear most of the map.

Not really a warning. The warning was that there was a doom clock of 8 gourds, and that the first 4 had no gameplay ramifications. There was really no expecting the 5th to be the trigger when there was still 3 left.

 

[Grinolf]

It's hard to figure that's its possible in the first place, which was the point. Not many people spend dozens of turns after destroying a house to try and recruit units.

But game tells you, that it is possible to hire all Takeda generals. And since there are only two ways to deal with them and only one, where all of them survive, it's an obvious way to go. The main problem there is the Demon Army. Since Takedai is arguably the strongest enemy in the game (and arguably only because of how broken Omachi is), it is most likely that they will be dealt right before Demon army arrival, if dealt at all, which leaves no time to hire them. I am not sure if they could be hired by Demon Army while they are at "human phase", but I don't remember them hiring commanders at all.

One-Eyed house had a ridiculously silly requirement, but clearing Akashi was something that was very easy and you probably did anyway. I got them on my first run without any guides at all. Considering that One-Eyed is one of the few houses left after the demon attack you have basically all the time in the world to get them.

Except in the first game Akashi most likely be conquered by Mori. And even then player need to hire their leader. And since number of generals is limited and there are plenty of unique chracters of the same class as him, most of which are much better units having him isn't very tempting. And not only hire him, but progress his story before dealing with monsters, and there almost always better options to spent fans and gifts until a very late game, than spending them on him. There is also a way to screw his character progression by conquering his house before all events would fire, making monster house bonus unavaiable also.
So one should be very lucky to have it cleared without a guide.

Not really a warning. The warning was that there was a doom clock of 8 gourds, and that the first 4 had no gameplay ramifications. There was really no expecting the 5th to be the trigger when there was still 3 left.

So having Nobunaga and his underling stating multiple times, that they don't need all 8 gourds, in their conversations isn't enough a warning? One could get number 5 from them by simple math.

Also spekinng about character's story progression, there arent'n any inane stuff like in BBA, and other chracters needed for them are or story related or be in player's party by default. Only exception that I could remember are brothers, who need a random girls. But these girls are top or near the top generals anyway, so they are close to the secong category.
But in the same time such "default" characters as Sill or Kou became unavaiable depending on the story, withou any notifications from the game, that some characters can't be cleared without them. At least in case of Kou player aim to lose her, while Sill get frozen without any warnings.

 

[Grinolf]

It's hard to figure that's its possible in the first place, which was the point. Not many people spend dozens of turns after destroying a house to try and recruit units.

After all this talking about SR I started a new campaign there and that's what I got after "assassinating" Takeda:

It looks like clear indication to a player what he should do next. The other question is, that these words may sound cool, but it all turned out to the most unexcited thing in the entire game, but it wasn't that unintuitive.

 

[Average Manatee]

Nah, the unintuitive part is figuring out that they are the house bonus in the first place. Obviously you can capture almost all of the commanders of all defeated houses, it's just the odd man out because Takeda is the only House bonus that requires you to do significant work after their storyline is over.

 

[baturinsky]

Tried to play Sengoku following walkthroughs. There are sooo many reloading involved. To get right event triggered, to get important character captured (such as Ikkyuu, Himiko, Honda), to have enough +relation items by right turn, to be or not be attacked on enemy turn...

 

[Average Manatee]

Walkthrough for what? Maximum score? Anything else only needs a walkthrough for babies used to railroaded games.

 

[baturinsky]

Basically, I want early third fan and not to miss Ikkyuu and Himiko on the way.