Rance Series

[Terra]

Played a little of R9 last night, I was a bit tired so maybe that's colouring my impressions, but my initial thoughts are:
-After 9+ games of Rance's antics, the game's opening assault on Merci was... kinda boring I guess. It wasn't erotic, it wasn't interesting to read, the pose was very passé and I think most criminally for Rance, it wasn't even comedic. Hoping this game doesn't mirror Kichikuou in terms of the ero scenes becoming a chore to get through. But without Rance's spell of impotence from 8, it seems its missing some of the levity that made 8 great in this department.
-Combat reminds me of the Agarest titles I guess, which isn't typically a good thing as I find perfectly flat grids with no height variation and/or few obstacles to get old pretty fast. Seems serviceable enough so far though.
-Seeing Shizuka/Maria again early on is good, as well as the Patton crew from various past games but after finishing the first chapter, I'm not feeling it quite as much as I'd hoped. Hoping things improve on multiple fronts tbh, initial setup of the main story seems intriguing at least.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Last week I was waiting around for Rance IX to get released, so I decided to pass the time and beat Daiteikoku. I should have liked Daiteikoku, as the game had several things going for it. A cheeky WW2 alternate history with babes replacing historical figures, WW2 translated into a futuristic space epic, random events to keep the player on his or her toes, tons of decent enough Alicesoft Hentai scenes, creepy Hanny appearances, and even a Rance cameo. But the game's translation was only partial and spotty and I didn't know much of what was going on. Without a game book, I had to go into the Alicesoft wiki page to figure out what special abilities the support vessels have. And to top it all off, there is a sort of level scaling to the game where the enemies get harder once you pass a threshold of territories earned. So I'm glad to say that I beat it, but also don't see myself playing it again and I consider it a middling to below average Alicesoft title. It's good for a hentai game, but that's more an indictment the eroge genre.

I've only been able to play through the first three battles of Rance IX since its release, and I'll echo some criticisms and worries that other Codexers have already discussed. It's nice to see the band get back together, but I feel like I'm playing a visual novel rather than a true RPG. So far there have been no choices presented to me in the game, and I have to go through 3-4 events where Rance converses with his friends and allies before being immediately dropped into another fixed battle. There is no exploration so far. I didn't love Magnum Rance's dungeon levels, but at least I felt they were appropriate to a fantasy RPG. Even Sengoku Rance had stuff you could discover at conquered locations and a truncated dungeon crawl system. This so far just sets you on rails. I'll play some more for a week or two and then give more impressions.

 

[Haba]

One positive of revisiting the game after such a long time, is that I've forgot most of the story.

Besides the big plot tweeests, of course.

There is deffo some retardation in the translation. Like on the stats, what the fuck is "Direct Hit" supposed to be? In JAPANESE it is "クリティカル量".

In case you are wondering how the crit formula works:

強撃は見た感じ通り威力の倍率上げ、クリティカルは攻撃ダメージのクリティカル量＝％分ダメージ底上げ+ダメージ値保証。例えば破壊力100のクリティカル30ならダメージ130当たる+回避or受け流されても30当たる。だからリッククソ強い

Really hating seeing the gatcha item upgrades again... 20 rolls w/o an upgrade.

 

[Maxie]

One positive of revisiting the game after such a long time, is that I've forgot most of the story.

Besides the big plot tweeests, of course.

There is deffo some retardation in the translation. Like on the stats, what the fuck is "Direct Hit" supposed to be? In JAPANESE it is "クリティカル量".

In case you are wondering how the crit formula works:

強撃は見た感じ通り威力の倍率上げ、クリティカルは攻撃ダメージのクリティカル量＝％分ダメージ底上げ+ダメージ値保証。例えば破壊力100のクリティカル30ならダメージ130当たる+回避or受け流されても30当たる。だからリッククソ強い

Really hating seeing the gatcha item upgrades again... 20 rolls w/o an upgrade.

It makes more sense to translate it as direct hit because crit damage is just an additional damage boosts that avoids evasion parry and armor

 

[Haba]

RK47

 

[Jaedar]

There is deffo some retardation in the translation. Like on the stats, what the fuck is "Direct Hit" supposed to be? In JAPANESE it is "クリティカル量".

The weird part is that the game says direct hit in some places, and critical hit in others.

Also the rng escapes of the treasure chests is pretty annoying.

Also, spoiler free question: Is there any prep work or something else important to be done first game to make ng+/alt routes available?

 

[Jason Liang]

There is deffo some retardation in the translation. Like on the stats, what the fuck is "Direct Hit" supposed to be? In JAPANESE it is "クリティカル量".

The weird part is that the game says direct hit in some places, and critical hit in others.

Also the rng escapes of the treasure chests is pretty annoying.

Also, spoiler free question: Is there any prep work or something else important to be done first game to make ng+/alt routes available?

Just prioritize your main waifus with monkey orbs.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

RK47

Haven't seen him on steam either. Not for the last four months.

 

[Haba]

There is deffo some retardation in the translation. Like on the stats, what the fuck is "Direct Hit" supposed to be? In JAPANESE it is "クリティカル量".

The weird part is that the game says direct hit in some places, and critical hit in others.

Also the rng escapes of the treasure chests is pretty annoying.

Also, spoiler free question: Is there any prep work or something else important to be done first game to make ng+/alt routes available?

Just prioritize your main waifus with monkey orbs.

Basically, since you can't stockpile monkey orbs, it is not possible to get all alt routes on a single playthrough. There is a random monster spawn that gives an extra orb, but it is very low frequency AFAIK.

Suffer like a MAN.

 

[Jaedar]

I am suffering, especially on this crop protection mission. How the hell I'm supposed to protect the plants from ants when the ants will ignore all my dudes, frequently even when taunted, I have no idea.

 

[distant]

I am suffering, especially on this crop protection mission. How the hell I'm supposed to protect the plants from ants when the ants will ignore all my dudes, frequently even when taunted, I have no idea.

Oh man... yeah that mission was a drainer especially when Shizuka procs her range and you end up damaging the plant. Pray for good spawn RNG. Yeah taunt doesn't really seem to work when there is a priority target like the core or those plants.

 

[Jaedar]

I am suffering, especially on this crop protection mission. How the hell I'm supposed to protect the plants from ants when the ants will ignore all my dudes, frequently even when taunted, I have no idea.

Oh man... yeah that mission was a drainer especially when Shizuka procs her range and you end up damaging the plant. Pray for good spawn RNG. Yeah taunt doesn't really seem to work when there is a priority target like the core or those plants.

Taunt feels kinda unreliable in general to me, but it's nice when it works.
Also these "character bad ends" feel pretty terrible as well, no foreshadowing at all.

 

[Maxie]

it's 2014 and AliceSoft still hasn't internalized the concept of continuous press = continuous text box advance

 

[Haba]

Gotta say, that scene of Rance

Spoiler

casually child-killing

...reminds me of the good times. This is why we need Japan.

 

[Jaedar]

it's 2014 and AliceSoft still hasn't internalized the concept of continuous press = continuous text box advance

If you want to skip through dialogue, hold right control. Not sure what the utility of slightly slower skip would be.

Gotta say, that scene of Rance

The artwork is really cool too.

Spoiler

Also like how Rance and Miracle then go on to chastise Rick for being too weak to do it, and he agrees.

I think I'm getting close to the end. Will probably end up maxing 4 of the heroines by the end, depending on some stuff. So I guess you would at most need 2 playthroughs to 100% the game.

The save the crops mission continues to be the hardest challenge in the game.

 

[KingDoofus]

I am suffering, especially on this crop protection mission. How the hell I'm supposed to protect the plants from ants when the ants will ignore all my dudes, frequently even when taunted, I have no idea.

Just finished this mission, it's a major pain in the butt. The first thing you need to decide is if you're going to try and get the monkey orb and the item on the same run or not, since that'll decide your team composition. I just managed to get both on one run so here's what I did.

Firstly, the Treasure Dango will leave on (I think) turn 3 so you'll definitely want Tilde, since her skill is perfect for boss/dango killing. Have her Store Power on turn 2 then unleash on turn 3. You may need to get a little lucky since the Dango can repeatedly proc Tenacity, but if Tilde has some damage boosts she may just keep attacking anyway, so you'll probably be okay. Her killing the dango is the easiest part (and frustrating when it doesn't happen, though fortunately you'll know by turn 3, and Tourin may be able to reach it after it teleports and take it out anyway, since it'll be at 1 HP).

Secondly, Tourin is very helpful here. He's not a strong unit but his boost to movement is very helpful here and his ability to max your gauge is almost necessary - with 4 units deployed there's no guarantee it'll be maxed by turn 3 for Tilde, but he takes care of that. He can cover fire too if there's no one he can kill, may come in handy.

Thirdly, for the last 2 spots I found 2 tanks to be necessary. A NOTE ON TAUNT: The way taunt works, if a unit can attack the unit that taunted it, it will. However, if it can't reach the unit to attack it, then the AI seems to function as if it isn't taunted. The Antons only have 3 move (and can block each other's access to a tank by taking up an open side) so if they can't reach an open side to attack the taunter, they won't even move toward the them, they'll just attack whoever is closest (probably an Aloe). I used Senhime and Pitten as my tanks, though you could use Patton too instead of Sen. I think Pitten is better than Hubert here since his Taunt is a 3x3 square and Hubert's is just a plus symbol - that extra range will likely matter. Be very careful when using your taunts, since Sen/Patton have a huge un-targetable AOE range: if an Anton is next to Pitten and then gets taunted by another tank that it can't reach, it is effectively not taunted (and will likely go for an Aloe). Unfortunately, Sen/Patton's huge AOE is kinda necessary to reach the sprawled out Antons in the back.

And a final note, make sure your units (or at least tanks/Tilde) has a speed of at least 7; you can give them bugs to raise their speed if necessary. Antons have a speed of 6 and acting first to taunt them before they hit an Aloe can save your run. There's some variability to speed, but having 7 will at least put the odds in your favor and if you've got bugs to spare then higher is better. Always try to make sure the Antons will have a path to an open side of your tanks (check their turn order). Also, make sure you've got some good survivable gear on your tanks, especially good HP boosts (they'll be taking a lot of damage). This was why I used Sen over Patton, her extra Tenacity means she's very hard to take down (this ended up mattering for me).

I put Tourin and Tilde at the top, then Sen below them. Pitten was at about the third space up from the bottom. Pitten charged out and taunted the front 2 Antons (when they go for him they become closer to the front Aloes, who will have more HP since they're spared the early rush). As he's able he draws more Antons from the back row while inching forward (probably only 1 or 2 though). Tilde rushes out, hits an Anton (and won't kill unless she crits or gets to Act Again), then stores power and kills the Dango on turn 3. After that she's clearing out whatever Anton is untaunted or is closest to the lowest HP Aloe - whoever seems the biggest threat. Tourin tings people from a distance, uses his special on turn 2, and then Cover Fires or chips Antons as he can. Sen charges forward and taunts Antons, slowly drawing them back towards the front Aloes if she can move and stay in range (the back Aloes are likely raggedy at this point). It is better to have Sen's speed higher than Pitten's (likely 8 to his 7, though more is fine) so she doesn't fuck up his taunt with her own. Hopefully a counter is two is happening so Tilde/Tilde+Tourin can kill them with their own attacks.

And that's it. Charge forward, take out the dango, taunt the Antons, draw them back, whittle them down while they're focusing on your tanks. You may need to get lucky with Aloe Tenacity or a critical/act again but I can testify that this method will work. Took forever to figure out this lineup and this map... just sucks, but it is doable. Good luck.

(Doing this in 2 separate runs for the item and orb will likely be easier, since you can bring Rance/Rick/Someone with an AOE attack instead of Tilde - though that means you have to experience that hell twice. Just have them focus on Antons around the top tank with their AOE, make sure your tanks have open sides, and clean up as necessary. 7+ Speed and 2 tanks I think is the key)

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Yeah, that crop mission is bullshit, but at least it's an alternate quest and can be skipped. I finally beat it with a mixture of luck, area attacks, and speed. But mostly luck.

Ironically, I finished this game shortly after I finished Telepath Tactics Liberated and I have the same praise and complaints about both. Both games are tactics games, but there is no exploration and hardly anything that you can call choices and consequences. Anyway, so that I don't get ahead of myself let me break down the positives and negatives.

+ The strongest thing I can say about this game is that it is truly great to see more of the characters we've grown to know and love through this series. Although I'm going to have a lot to criticize with this game, the story was very enjoyable and it had an easy-to-follow story arc, but with a few twists thrown in to keep the player surprised.
+ I do like my turn-based tactical games, and this was a long series of tactical battles to get to the end.
+ The artwork was top notch, as always from AliceSoft.
+ I prioritized maxing out the relationships for Sheila, Kanami, Shizuka, and Sen. I enjoyed Shizuka's and Shenhime's endings the most. I know everyone has a favorite waifu from the Rance series, and Senhime is mine, and her secret ending does not disappoint.
+ However, while watching Shizuka's and Nagi's two endings it struck me that there is a lot of serious storytelling going on in the background of Rance's antics. Shizuka and Nagi wanting to start their lives and relationship over; Kanami actually becoming an excellent ninja through hard work instead of talent; Rick and Leila trying to have a normal relationship despite constant war; Patton, Hubert, and Sheila and the fate of their country. We've gotten to see these characters struggle and grow and I'll miss many of them when I conclude with Rance X.
+ Rance's bros got some time to shine in this game. Patton, Hubert, Rick, Pitten, Freak, and Tourin all get their chances to shine without eclipsing our hero.
+/- The game was short and straight forward. There's not even all that much post game content and therefore not much replay value. But on the other hand, it stopped just as the battles started getting dull. I do wish we had a bit more content for some of my other favorite heroines like Maria and Leila.
+/- Characterization is all over the place. In some instances Rance falls back to the brutality he shows towards women in the early Rance games, and other times he seems to progress from the gradually more empathic Rance we saw towards the end of Rance VI and through Sengoku Rance. Shizuka's arc was pretty good and keeping with her character. Same for Sen. I'm of two minds on Kanami; she has an arc and shows herself maturing as an adventurer, but seeing her falling so head over heels for Rance was a bit jarring.
- The fights were repetitous since you mostly fought different types of the same Helman troops: heavy armor guy, light spear guy, heavy crossbow guy, mage. Every now and then the game would throw in something random and make it fun and different, like dude with cats of their shields... but it's still just heavy armor guy, but now with cat shield.
- The Gold Box series of tactical combat games avoid becoming dull for the first 15 character levels or so because they have constant progression. It's not just more hit points, but also new spells, new weapons, new magical equipment and so on. In Rance IX, there are some miscellaneous items you can equip the characters with, and you can improve the weapons you have by purchasing bonuses for them, but otherwise the only real progression is the amount of bonuses a character has on its armor, or its weapon, with their stats, or the amount of times they can use their one special ability.
- The story is on rails and there is no exploration in the game. The characters never perform dungeon crawling or interact with an immersive city, town, or wilderness community. The content that is here is well put together, but sometimes it feels like a visual novel broken up by the occasional combat instead of a tactical RPG with storytelling elements being the connecting tissue.
- The villains are forgettable in this game. They make stupid decisions and die stupid deaths. Admittedly, the villains are normally just fodder for Rance, but these seemed especially ineffective. The totalitarian government in Rance VI and the the demons in Sengoku Rance were a lot more intimidating.
- Where's my Sill content! I swear we had more Sill in Magnum Rance than we did in this game, and Sill was the main reason Rance started this quest. Fuck, AliceSoft. It's been two and a half games without Sill backing me up in combat. Stop teasing me!

I enjoyed the game because I enjoy tactical games and the story arc of the Rance series. But if someone is new to the Rance games, I can't recommend this as a starting point. If you are curious about the Rance series of games but never played one, start off with the Rance 1 remake, Rance VI, or Sengoku Rance.

 

[Jaedar]

I'm still finishing up the game (lots of heroine routes to go), so my full thoughts have to wait, but I want to make some replies.

Where's my Sill content! I swear we had more Sill in Magnum Rance than we did in this game, and Sill was the main reason Rance started this quest. Fuck, AliceSoft. It's been two and a half games without Sill backing me up in combat. Stop teasing me!

My brother, play Rance 03 and cleanse yourself of this beastly appreciation for worst slave.

the story was very enjoyable and it had an easy-to-follow story arc, but with a few twists thrown in to keep the player surprised.

This is interesting to me. Granted that I have played Rance X, and so had perfect knowledge over who lives and who dies, and accidentally spoiled myself on Russian by getting mad about translation, but even trying to take all that into account this felt like the most linear and straightforward plot of the series. You set out to rebel against the corrupt ruling council, and then that is exactly what happens. There's no major subplots (I guess the nagi stuff might count, but it's only resolved in an alternate ending route, so I don't count it) or twists, and basically all the major character development happens in a completely separate area from the normal gameplay and story (it's similar to Rance X in that way, but X has the excuse of having 100+ characters to develop).

Also I find it funny that in this game going north of helman is basically a death sentence in IX, in rance X intro you venture far beyond it with seemingly 0 difficulty.

her secret ending does not disappoint.

Did you know you get an extra scene in the epilogue for every heroine route you've completed?

I'm also not super happy about how some of the heroines routes are canonical, and some are not.

 

[Jason Liang]

I started replaying this a few days ago and I will post my thoughts on the game once it seems everyone has finished their playthroughs. I will say that I'm enjoying the battles more the second time around, just more relaxed, for example I spent a few hours replaying the Senhime hanny battle just to see how many hannies I could smash with Senhime (record: 84).

SEN SMASH

Tilde smug

 

[Jaedar]

Tilde smug

At least Kenshin doesn't look like a child. I wish Tilde always looked like she does in X part 2. I could respect her character then, as it stands she's my least favorite.

Yesterday I extracted the images from the game to prepare for IX codex portrait pack. I am now unable to take this screen seriously, because basically everything shown except the numbers and the animation is just a prerendered image. I wonder if it was like that in the original game, or if it's just the easiest way for MG to implement the translation.

 

[Tyrr]

Time to replay the series.

Took a bit longer than I thought, but I finally started with R9 yesterday.
I'm in chapter 4 right now and I'm still trying to understand the leveling system (what are the black stars with numbers 2,4,6... near the skills you upgraded?). I mainly went with upgrading attack, because killing stuff faster is always good.

One thing I noticed are the high amount of male characters in your party (for a Rance game).

 

[Jason Liang]

Basically each character gets a special bonus for each time you improve *every* stat by 2. Whenever you increase a stat by 2, the stat gets a black star and once every stat is increased by 2 they get a gold star which gives the bonus. For example, Rance's Rance Attack uses less meter and Shizuka increases her chance to increase the radius of her AoE attack.

I'd say generally, Speed, Resistance, Tenacity and Attack are the most important, in that order, especially if you are trying to beat the game with no grinding. Improving weapons is a much quicker way to get more damage. Stat buffs are much more gradual progression (similar to KR).

 

[Tyrr]

Basically each character gets a special bonus for each time you improve *every* stat by 2. Whenever you increase a stat by 2, the stat gets a black star and once every stat is increased by 2 they get a gold star which gives the bonus. For example, Rance's Rance Attack uses less meter and Shizuka increases her chance to increase the radius of her AoE attack.

I'd say generally, Speed, Resistance, Tenacity and Attack are the most important, in that order, especially if you are trying to beat the game with no grinding. Improving weapons is a much effective way to get more damage.

So for the bonus I have to spread around my points, instead of focusing the important stats?
Also Resistance seems to be extremely expensive compared to the other stats.

 

[Jaedar]

Basically each character gets a special bonus for each time you improve *every* stat by 2. Whenever you increase a stat by 2, the stat gets a black star and once every stat is increased by 2 they get a gold star which gives the bonus. For example, Rance's Rance Attack uses less meter and Shizuka increases her chance to increase the radius of her AoE attack.

I'd say generally, Speed, Resistance, Tenacity and Attack are the most important, in that order, especially if you are trying to beat the game with no grinding. Improving weapons is a much effective way to get more damage.

So for the bonus I have to spread around my points, instead of focusing the important stats?
Also Resistance seems to be extremely expensive compared to the other stats.

I kinda disagree. As noted resistance is really expensive, and there aren't a lot of enemies that use magic, especially not in the few hard battles.
I basically focused attack on everyone, and then some parry/evasion/tenacity depending on the character (warriors should focus parry for counter attacks). I think HP is not a good stat because the items that raise hp give 10 times as much benefit compared to the items for other stats.

It's not a hard game in general, I think you'd have to try to really mess up your builds. Just keep some crab orbs around for the hard fights.

 

[Jason Liang]

2 points in Resistance make a lot more difference than 2 points (2%) more evasion or parry, especially on characters that start with very low Resistance and guards (besides Pitten ofc). And ofc you get +20 Parry/ Evasion items, while the best Resistance item is +5.

There are more than a few challenging fights, especially if you do a no items/ no grinding challenge run (besides the fights where you actually *must* use some items to survive). After my original playthrough I didn't think the game's combat system was polished enough to be worth playing the game with challenge/ handicap, but this second time through I've come to change my mind.

Imagine if Rance VI had Rance IX's tactical battles instead :D Magic would be much more painful...