Deuce Traveler
2012 Newfag
since i've seen sengoku rance recommended here many times, can someone please elaborate on why it is good?
This is a write-up I did for felipepe's book:
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The Rance series of erotic RPGs began back in 1989, following the adventures of a man named Rance in search of money and sex. The series is over a dozen titles long, each different from the previous, but Sengoku Rance is the best of the bunch.
It’s a trick game. The plot starts off simple enough – Rance is given control of a fictional Japanese clan during the country’s civil war and must unite Japan into one nation. The goofy opening hints at a casual eroge RPG and the first battles are simplistic.
However, once you’ve taken over a couple of rival clans the others begin to see your rising power as a threat. Inevitably, you’ll find yourself fighting on several fronts, having to make hard decisions on where to send your few officers. Defeat becomes inevitable and you restart the game, wondering how such a simple game became so damn complicated.
That’s because Sengoku Rance is actually a very deep Strategy RPG about capturing provinces and managing troops. Every one of your officers have a skill set that fits them into a role, such as being a tough melee attacker with decent defense or an archer that targets from a back row. The more troops the officers have, the more damage they inflict. It they lose all their troops, they are either killed off, captured, or flee. Rance can try to hire, release, or execute officers he captures, making for strong replay value.
Besides conquering territories, you can also explore captured provinces, purchase troops and materials, or go dungeon exploring with your team of officers. Surprisingly, there is quite a lot to do.
The storyline also tricks you. Rance is meant as a parody of the RPG hero, who travels with scantily clad females, uses violence as a solution to everything and always sees himself as a hero – even as he abuses women or slays monsters while they beg for mercy.
But what starts as a comedic parody seamlessly transitions into a game about responsibility to friends and allies as Rance slowly shows compassion, and closes out in grim horror, with each fallen ally leading him into a cycle of depression that affects gameplay
Packing a surprising story, challenging battles, great artwork and multiple endings, Sengoku Rance is quite the work. I highly recommend everyone giving it a try, even if eroge is not your thing.