Rance Series

[KingDoofus]

As I understand it, Alicesoft is "publishing" it but Jast/Mangagamer is "releasing" it (or some permutation of words that sound like that). This allows Alicesoft to actually get the game out, since when they tried to get it out directly with no Western middleman they got shut down - see the whole Evenicle 2 Steam debacle. But this means that the game is still subject to Japanese censorship laws, so it has to have mosaics or everyone at the company will be put on Death Row.

What this basically means is that Alicesoft has recognized the potential profit of releasing games in English, so they're stepping things up on that front (and any good sales here will help that impression). But going forward you will be enjoying these games like a Japanese person would: in glorious sexually stimulating mosaics. Congratulations on your authentic Japanese experience!

It's possible that Jast/Mangagamer independently releases some "uncensor patch" but I haven't heard anything about that and the legality of such a thing remains unclear so I wouldn't hold out hope.

 

[Bohrain]

I'm honestly not too bothered by the mosaics since the artists rarely bother to draw the genitals properly in the first place knowing that the primary audience is going to see them blurred to begin with.

 

[Tyrr]

I'm honestly not too bothered by the mosaics since the artists rarely bother to draw the genitals properly in the first place knowing that the primary audience is going to see them blurred to begin with.

I don't remember that being the case with Evenicle 1.

I'm not paying for censored media. If Alicesoft wants my money, they better next time use a western publisher, like they did in the past.

 

[KingDoofus]

I don't remember that being the case with Evenicle 1.

I'm not paying for censored media. If Alicesoft wants my money, they better next time use a western publisher, like they did in the past.

So as I understand it, the rights to Evenicle 1 were sold to Mangagamer. Mangagamer in that case "published" and "released" it and were not subject to Japanese censorship laws. They purchased the rights to Evenicle's release so they were free to release it how ever they liked.

And that meant Mangagamer kept the profits.

Evenicle 1 was Mangagamer's top selling game ever and it wasn't close. It's still usually in the "Top 10 releases sold" they put out every year, with late purchases years later still beating out their new releases. I think it grossed something close to a million dollars. And whatever profit was netted from that (I don't know what they purchased the rights for from Alicesoft) they were able to keep.

(this is basically entirely due to a Steam release)

Alicesoft saw those profits and their heads exploded. They'd considered the Western market barely profitable at best (and a money sink at worst) and had been shelling out Rance games to Mangagamer to release for years, not getting much back. They basically decided if they were going to go through the trouble of actually making the games they were going to see some of that profit from overseas releases - they could hire their own translator (often the same people Mangagamer was using) and get the shit done themselves.

But that meant Japanese censorship laws.

I may not have a great grasp of everything that happened - it's been years and everything I know is often from people complaining about shit on their twitter. Someone more official could probably correct or flesh out what I've said. But that's as far as I know.

You're free to buy or not buy what you want. If you don't want to buy a game with mosaics then do what you feel dude. But to say they should do what they did with Evenicle 1 really translates to "If Alicesoft wants my money, they'd better arrange for someone else to get my money." They've already got contracts with Mangagamer for several upcoming games (Rance 9 and Rance X). But going forward that... isn't likely to happen anymore.

 

[Tyrr]

I don't remember that being the case with Evenicle 1.

I'm not paying for censored media. If Alicesoft wants my money, they better next time use a western publisher, like they did in the past.

So as I understand it, the rights to Evenicle 1 were sold to Mangagamer. Mangagamer in that case "published" and "released" it and were not subject to Japanese censorship laws. They purchased the rights to Evenicle's release so they were free to release it how ever they liked.

And that meant Mangagamer kept the profits.

Evenicle 1 was Mangagamer's top selling game ever and it wasn't close. It's still usually in the "Top 10 releases sold" they put out every year, with late purchases years later still beating out their new releases. I think it grossed something close to a million dollars. And whatever profit was netted from that (I don't know what they purchased the rights for from Alicesoft) they were able to keep.

(this is basically entirely due to a Steam release)

Alicesoft saw those profits and their heads exploded. They'd considered the Western market barely profitable at best (and a money sink at worst) and had been shelling out Rance games to Mangagamer to release for years, not getting much back. They basically decided if they were going to go through the trouble of actually making the games they were going to see some of that profit from overseas releases - they could hire their own translator (often the same people Mangagamer was using) and get the shit done themselves.

But that meant Japanese censorship laws.

I may not have a great grasp of everything that happened - it's been years and everything I know is often from people complaining about shit on their twitter. Someone more official could probably correct or flesh out what I've said. But that's as far as I know.

You're free to buy or not buy what you want. If you don't want to buy a game with mosaics then do what you feel dude. But to say they should do what they did with Evenicle 1 really translates to "If Alicesoft wants my money, they'd better arrange for someone else to get my money." They've already got contracts with Mangagamer for several upcoming games (Rance 9 and Rance X). But going forward that... isn't likely to happen anymore.

I'm aware what happened, see https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/rance-series.76507/page-103#post-7724865

But it's not like Alicesoft gets nothing when someone else publishes their games. As you said, they sold the rights. It's also not uncommon that the developer also gets a percentage of the profit from the publisher. There are many other options for Alicesoft, other than self-publishing.

Alicesoft needs to lean that they can get more money with someone else publishing, so I will buy their other games from MG, but not their self-published ones. That's the only way I can change their decision.

 

[lightbane]

And to think this hostility towards random hentai games, including Alicesoft's games and especially Rance ones, happened as a reaction towards Rape Day, a shitpost-game that served as the perfect excuse for the SJW crazies to moan "Think of the children!!!" and start randomly censoring games, even those not featuring child-looking characters and/or school settings... While letting pro-homo ones, even when violating one or both of said rules, go untouched most of the time.
I wonder if it was a set-up or odd coincidence, because no reaction was made towards Evenicle despite being more explicit than RD, as the latter has shit graphics, shittier gameplay and looks goofy.


EDIT:

Doesn't Kagura games add links to decensorship patches for most of their games anyway? How come E2 is an exception?

 

[Nostaljaded]

Showcasing Chinese modding scene for Rance X Chinese version - part II

Although there's no sign of a [Rance X] map editor/ creator yet, no?

I (still) didn't see any editor floating ard but...

Rance X New Side Mission/Route mod
(probably only supported in Rance X Chinese version)

Routes are done as shown below, the modder is currently adding the fan fiction story elements in and asking for feedback on difficulty balancing.

The Mission/Event choice will appear in Turn 2 and the fan fiction is about Rance & Satella time traveling back to R3 events in an alternate timeline.
They will be able to bring back some unique item cards, upon completing the side mission.

IMO, the story setup is at the min decent quality.


The Chinese new side mission mod can be found at tieba in 战国兰斯吧 forum.

 

[Jaedar]

In personal Rance X news, I'm saving a certain someone in the monster realm

Spoiler

Hornet rescue, of course.
Holy shit, first 4 battles in 7 turns seemed impossible, but I managed to do it (with a few retries and reloads, fuck that random 5% miss chance in a mission like this).
First battle is easy, as it only has 160k hp. It must die in one turn.
Then there's 3 battles with 400k hp. Each one must die in exactly two turns (there's no way I can do it in one turn).
My teams were
Uzpira, Full, Kibako (full freeze combo has been my goto since I unlocked it in the first mission)
Kentaro and Athena (double kentaro slash on turn 2 is good damage efficiency)
Aegis and Cecil (aegis 3.3x for 1 ap with guaranteed boost is kerazy)
With the free slots filled with Rance, Rick, Krutche and Aegis as medal slots allowed for free damage+combo. This was also the first time I used the +30% damage bonuses.
None of it felt smooth, and I doubt I could have done one more battle in two turns. But I also felt I probably couldn't do any of them in two turns, so who knows!

Leazas isn't looking too good at 7k troops left, but I'm pretty sure they'll survive this turn... and I'm kinda hoping saving hornet will automatically remove Silky.

Unfortunately one of the failed attempts found a really good card, which I will have to go without (rip papaya).

And to think I thought I was going to play elden ring the entire weekend...

Oh shit, is Evenicle 2 in English already? Censored or not?

Sadly with mosaics. At least i've got it for $17.49 thanks to Jast's regional pricing for those living in second/third world countries.

​

That's really nice. I was looking into buying Rance3, but the only shop I found had it cost 70 USD + DRM. Which is insane.
Is Evenicle2 same gameplay as 1? I did try the first one, but the gameplay is just less exciting rance quest, and I already played that for 50 hours.

 

[Bohrain]

It's pretty much the same as 1. Very much on rails and not a lot of customization options. I do enjoy the silly writing though.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Even in Rance H&H is on hiatus.

 

[KingDoofus]

Yeah, but that hiatus joke was written about 2 years ago for the demo. Surely it's no longer accurate, right?

 

[DrDustCell]

Showcasing Chinese modding scene for Rance X Chinese version - part II
I (still) didn't see any editor floating ard but...

There is an english guide here for modding in cards and quests, though I haven't tried it out myself

 

[Bohrain]

Truly the pandemic era drama the world needed.

 

[Jason Liang]

... HELP. I can't decide whether to post this in the Alicesoft thread or the KoF/ Fighting Games thread :/

 

[Jaedar]

So about this RanceX. It's a pretty cool game but it really annoys me how half assed the CnC seems to be. I get why it is, but still. It is pretty annoying when the story makes a big deal about how a character is sitting in their castle worrying about rance fighting some big enemy, when in gameplay terms they're participating in the fight. But at least then it's broken in my favor, unlike when

Spoiler

I have a floating castle, and mr hero just walks in and kills one of my allies (because his sword leveled up). How exactly did he teleport 100s of metres up into the air? How did he even find the castle? How did he escape without getting shot down by the dragon who lives there?

Similarly, characters butting in to conversations before I've even met them in the story (and some of them you just never seem to meet, they just stealthily join your party at some point during turn 1, completely unannounced and then contribute some essential thing as the plot demands) this also gives me whiplash.

Really makes one appreciate Rance 6, which had really tight handling of all this stuff and managed to make most of the party members feel like characters with their own goals and opinions.

Also speaking of evenicles: I did catch the reference to it in Rance X.

 

[Jason Liang]

So about this RanceX. It's a pretty cool game but it really annoys me how half assed the CnC seems to be. I get why it is, but still. It is pretty annoying when the story makes a big deal about how a character is sitting in their castle worrying about rance fighting some big enemy, when in gameplay terms they're participating in the fight.

The real C&C is which nations you fight to save and which you abandon. I'm pretty sure that any characters you lose to game events wont make further appearances in the story.

Similarly, characters butting in to conversations before I've even met them in the story (and some of them you just never seem to meet, they just stealthily join your party at some point during turn 1, completely unannounced and then contribute some essential thing as the plot demands) this also gives me whiplash.

Not sure if I know specifically what or who this refers to. From what I remember, characters don't "break the 4th wall" i.e. they wont appear in the main story until you've recruited in-story (for example, Kenshin's dialogues don't trigger until you've "met" her in one of the Nation Campaigns), although I guess if you take a different route in the same chapter you can skip a character's recruitment, but the game will treat it as completed (for example if you did the Maria route instead of the Shizuka route in FC 1, I think the game does flag both as complete). Afaik this is true even in cases where you can acquire a character's card before you recruit them in the story (for example, Miracle Tao or Crane). Many characters' cards are even gated to not appear in chests until after you've seen their intro/ recruitment events in the story first.

The only exceptions *should* be the Meal ticket events since it would be impractical to have hundreds of meal ticket vignettes reflect the actual game state.

Take all this with a grain of salt that I played the game through using machine translation from Japanese to Chinese to English.

Maybe it's the case that some characters are assumed to be in CITY/ Rance Castle after the events of Rance IX? For example Senhime and Feylis are characters that is a given live there by the start of Rance X.

 

[Jaedar]

The real C&C is which nations you fight to save and which you abandon. I'm pretty sure that any characters you lose to game events wont make further appearances in the story.

I have not abandoned any nation yet... although bad events have triggered due to the order in which I went to them.
I might let Helman die simply to avoid Rance 9 spoilers (so far I'm barely keeping them afloat with the minor missions), but unless the game is going to revv up the rate of casualties I could have kept all nations going I think.

(for example if you did the Maria route instead of the Shizuka route in FC 1, I think the game does flag both as complete)

This is probably the one I ran into that annoys me the most, as Shizuka has had changes, and I took the maria route. Lead to some whiplash when suddenly neo-shizuka was running around.

Maybe it's the case that some characters are assumed to be in CITY/ Rance Castle after the events of Rance IX? For example Senhime and Feylis are characters that is a given live there by the start of Rance X.

Could be, but I still think it's bad the game doesn't have some "first time setting out scene" in that case, where everyone gets a one line intro just so I know who is in the blob-o-blobs.

Also question (answer will be spoilery but please try and keep it to a minimum): when does the game end?
There were a bunch of events around turn 8 which I thought would segue into an ending pretty quickly, but now at turn 10 things seem to have stabilized and it's just business as usual, with Rance striking at the demon armies from CITY? I kinda want the game to end quickly so I can restart with bonuses and get better outcomes...

 

[Jason Liang]

The real C&C is which nations you fight to save and which you abandon. I'm pretty sure that any characters you lose to game events wont make further appearances in the story.

I have not abandoned any nation yet... although bad events have triggered due to the order in which I went to them.
I might let Helman die simply to avoid Rance 9 spoilers (so far I'm barely keeping them afloat with the minor missions), but unless the game is going to revv up the rate of casualties I could have kept all nations going I think.

(for example if you did the Maria route instead of the Shizuka route in FC 1, I think the game does flag both as complete)

This is probably the one I ran into that annoys me the most, as Shizuka has had changes, and I took the maria route. Lead to some whiplash when suddenly neo-shizuka was running around.

Maybe it's the case that some characters are assumed to be in CITY/ Rance Castle after the events of Rance IX? For example Senhime and Feylis are characters that is a given live there by the start of Rance X.

Could be, but I still think it's bad the game doesn't have some "first time setting out scene" in that case, where everyone gets a one line intro just so I know who is in the blob-o-blobs.

Also question (answer will be spoilery but please try and keep it to a minimum): when does the game end?
There were a bunch of events around turn 8 which I thought would segue into an ending pretty quickly, but now at turn 10 things seem to have stabilized and it's just business as usual, with Rance striking at the demon armies from CITY? I kinda want the game to end quickly so I can restart with bonuses and get better outcomes...

The typical bad ending happens when Kayblis becomes the Demon King and you aren't strong enough to defeat him when he comes for you. You'll know when its time for the endgame.
If you want the game to end quicker instead of waiting (i.e. you can't fully liberate any more nations or end Kayblis before Kayblis ends you), there *might* be some third options in the main phase side quests.

 

[Jaedar]

The typical bad ending happens when Kayblis becomes the Demon King and you aren't strong enough to defeat him when he comes for you. You'll know when its time for the endgame.

Damn. Kayblis is kinda shit and not a very respectable villain, it's going to sting being defeated by him.

And since this game can be very hard when it wants to, I doubt I will win.

 

[Reinhardt]

Damn. Kayblis is kinda shit and not a very respectable villain, it's going to sting being defeated by him.

I doubt you can fight off him first playthrough. This shit is YUUUUUUUGE.

 

[Bohrain]

Finished Evenicle 2, some closing thoughts. Strengths and weaknesses are very similar to the first game. Very much on rails, combat feels a tad brainless except for some of the boss fights later on and you essentially play it for the writing. In the first game they had edgy scenes that were instantly backpedaled to be meaningless, it's still kind of a thing but overall they tend to sustain the sillier atmosphere throughout the game. I think they were kind of searching for the identity of the franchise, it felt like they wanted to carry some of the darker tones of the Rance series but it doesn't quite work out with a more vanilla protagonist. Second game felt a lot longer than the first one, I finished the first one in 40h but this one took probably something around 60. The game could use a quest journal, they usually do clearly state where you should go at the end of the scene, but you can't reread it if you have too many inn scenes or something after the last story event. I wasted at least a couple of hours because of that.

 

[Jaedar]

I could use some advice for Rance X, kesselring.

Spoiler

So I'm assaulting the demon realm. This means I need to go through all 4 "tier 2" dark lords. Medusa I killed before, and I killed PI-R(did you know that if you leave one of his buffs up, he'll frequently pass the turn with no action?), using up only 20% of my hp, seracholaras (so basically, a full hp bar) and marias support skill.

But kesselring just destroys me. He has a ridiculous 10 million hp and hits for a lot (and never spends turns passing or doing easily countered stuff). And he also spends like 2/3rds of the time being immune to magic (and status effects?) and having high dodge.
And even in his normal form he has 50% status resist, preventing any kind of sleep cheese, and making poison hard to apply.
And he heals, and dispels.

Even if I had a full nother hp bar from sera, I don't think it would actually matter, I just don't have time/ap to do meaningful damage.

Maybe doing this assault at regular NG is too much. The wiki seems to imply that if you have a card from Leazas2, you just straight up ignore most of his attacks, so maybe the only solution would be to rewind to before I went after medusa and do that instead, but that feels like real cheating and redoing many hours of playing.

So yeah, idk what do. But I really want to win.

 

[Jason Liang]

Kesselring (Night mode) is one of the hardest and most stressful fights in the game, and she might actually be impossible by turn 10 since she just has too much hp. Especially in Breakthrough boss rush. If you can't burst damage around 30% of her life bar in one fog/ mist rotation, then she's too hard since even if you play very defensively you wont survive more than 5-6 rotations.

In general you need to burst her down in fog mode, and play defense/ heal in mist mode. As bad as fog is, don't dispel it since mist is even worse. Just try to keep track of your AP remaining each turn. Ironically (probably intentionally) "maid" characters tend to be useful vs Kesselring, so for example Kiku is useful since she's a ninja, and Puerelle can tank one of her KO attacks, and Sheila has a chance to stop her heal. But really there is no "trick" the fight is a pure damage race, kill her before she kills you. Even if you do win you'll probably have only a sliver of life left.

But realistically, the only way for you to Breakthrough is to go back and beat Kesselring in Day mode (Helman 2) then try it without her, since she's easily the strongest of these 4.

However there is a much easier way to reach Kayblis

Spoiler

From the Sea. You have to do a Base Phase event before the end of turn 11, and pick the RED option. Then you'll have ships to sail to the Monster Realm when the tide rises on turn 12. You can also get this route is you had gone Shizuka instead of Maria in FC1).

 

[Jaedar]

. But really there is no "trick" the fight is a pure damage race, kill her before she kills you.

HNNNNNG

But realistically, the only way for you to Breakthrough is to go back and beat Kesselring in Day mode (Helman 2) then try it without her, since she's easily the strongest of these 4.

HNNNNG

But realistically, the only way for you to Breakthrough is to go back and beat Kesselring in Day mode (Helman 2) then try it without her, since she's easily the strongest of these 4.

Sadly this is not realistic as I haven't even done Helman 1.

Bah, guess I'm not doing breakthrough then. Real shame. It is also problematic because helman is one turn away from losing all its soldiers (unless I prop them up in preparation phase).

Edit: did some savescummy attempts where I just reloaded if I didn't get poison+curse off nigh perfectly first phase. This makes getting him to 50% easy. Managed to dps him down to 1 million in the next damage phase, but then I died. Maybe I need to reload and take Pi-R better, so that I have seracholras for this, letting me use more ap for damage... but it's a bit too annoying to savescum for 5 minutes and then do a 15+ minute long fight so I dunno. Especially since I need to win it with enough power remaining to do the next fight too.

Edit2: I am really regretting

Spoiler

Going after the mechano dude now. If only I had done Leazas/free cities2 instead, I could probably have done this breakthrough. Hunty is an exceptionally good card (9X damage for 4AP yes please), but not "make a dark lord fight noticeably easier" good

. This is what I get for not seeking spoilers (no regrets on that part).

 

[Jason Liang]

You need to figure out the minimum defenses and healing to be able to survive at least 4 fog/ 3 mist rotations, I think. Also, you have to optimize your burst damage output to the utmost. If you got her down to 1 million, it sounds like she's beatable.

Spoiler

If you are doing melee, did you use Kenshin's Prayer to Bishamon buff? Do you have either Atago or Cafe Artful?

Edit2: I am really regretting

Spoiler

Going after the mechano dude now. If only I had done Leazas/free cities2 instead, I could probably have done this breakthrough.

.

If it makes you feel any better, it's really, really tough to get the card from Leazas 2 that the wiki suggested (Apostle Atlanta). I would confidently wager that more players have beaten Kesselring (Night mode) without getting Atlanta than players who have ever gotten Atlanta.