VN - Others - Completed - Rance IX - The Helmanian Revolution [v1.02] [AliceSoft]

Rance IX is not a bad VN, or a bad entry to the series, but it's a product that is susceptible to inner comparisons. Much of the "irreverence" of the initial (2) titles is gone. Worldbuilding, and some aspects of storytelling are inferior to VI. Gameplay mechanics were much better in Quest (personal). And the spark of brilliancy that can be found in Sengoku is certainly not here. With that said, there are addendums to these ideas: Rance is at a point where "he still does his thing", but his evolution has reached a state of maturity, and balance; Some new characters manage to surpass expectations, and generate likability ("Miracle Tor"); 18+ is still great; And Rance IX exists to wrap up things nicely, before moving to the "big stage" (advancing mechanism, if you will). If you like Rance there's no reason to avoid this, it's just that comparisons are getting in the way of a better score.

Positive:
- Adult content has quantity, quality, diversity, originality...; The new (main) heroines become relevant quickly, the old ones that got the spotlight were well picked; Gameplay is OK (not that engaging maybe); Scenario and narrative organization have focus and "smaller scale" going for them (always a problem before); Rance's character progress is in full display, with many previous events contributing to that result (long-term development); And it's always subjective, but this might be one of the funniest "Rances".

Negative:
- Most mentions would be born of unavoidable comparisons to other entries in the series. This is a good mix of story, gameplay, and 18+, that's what needs to be said.

Score: 7/10, and a mandatory read for Rance fans. In the grand scheme of things, this is solid entertainment with adult content, that is made better by reading what came before. Unfortunately, the notion of "what came before" is filled with examples of quality (or just a different approach), that surpass some of what's delivered in Rance IX. Hardly fair, and yet you are not playing this by itself (well, you shouldn't). Recommended for fans of the series.

TLDR
5/5 Absolute must play!

Why?
- Gameplay is great, good tactical top down combat with a medium battlefield, good compared to specialized non-porn games. Could be improved with more skills/attacks for the party andthe enemies.
- Music is great
- character design is excellent
- story is good (except for Rance part obviously)
- porn is mostly bad/vanilla (it is arguably rape but vanilla situations wise)
Only interesting part, porn-wise, was the bondage sex with one of his gals whom is a grown woman which is a plus.
The rest is vanilla (i've reached whapter 9) barely legal porn, sex offenders friendly...

Rance IX is actually pretty awesome. Rance has changed a lot since the older games, like Rance 6. He's still got that huge ego, but now he's starting to actually care about other people a bit (thanks to Reset). And yeah, it's cool how they put more guys in the main character slots this time, instead of just having all girls everywhere.

The gameplay is surprisingly good, even with all the RNG stuff. The different phases in the chapters where you gotta send your roster in waves is really fun, and the classes are really well done too. They all have important roles and balance each other out. The soundtrack is amazing too, better than most big-budget games. Sure, it's not as good as Sengoku Rance, but it still keeps things fresh with the special map conditions and all that.

But the story, well, it's kinda hit or miss. Rance is super strong now, and it feels like all the bad guys are just too weak against him. The Helman ruling elite are supposed to be the main villains, but they don't really live up to it. Some characters like Lelyukov are cool, but others like Stessel and Kechuk just don’t make sense half the time. And then there’s Pamela, who does nothing, and Mineva, who’s barely in the game.

Even though some characters get great development, like Kanami and Senhime, others are kinda ignored, like Crook and Alkaneze. Sheila, who’s supposed to be the main waifu, has a serious conflict, but it doesn’t really go anywhere, which is kinda disappointing.

The post-game stuff is okay but kinda short. Sometimes the writing is really good, but other times it feels rushed. Still, the game rewards you with some great H-scenes and the New Game+ is better this time around.

Overall, Rance IX has its problems, but it’s still a fantastic game, especially for Rance fans. The gameplay is fun, the characters are cool, and the story is decent enough, even if it doesn’t match up to the older games. Considering how small the AliceSoft team is and the stuff they gotta deal with, Rance IX is pretty damn impressive. Can’t wait for Rance X!

The most pathetic and coward Rance in history of Rance game.

Having sex with loser devalue the girl.

This is the most Loser Rance ever exist, he not like this in Rance 6, not like this in Rance 7. In Rance 6 he still fight for revolution but the villain is true evil and when you see him rape the villain you see justice, but here when you see him rape the poor girl you see injustice!!

Rance is the guys who hate other man because a simple true:

Compare to other man in this game he so pathetic and coward and the sad true is he knew it.

Rance have talent and luck for become a true hero but his obsessed with sex turn him into 12 year old selfish kid, on the other hand every other man in this game are giga chad and you can see the different with him and Rance is SO BIG that make Rance so pathetic and coward.


The problem with when your main MC is so pathetic and coward than other man in this game is make every H-scene with MC become such a disappointed.


Why give other man so Giga chad then just make our main MC look like a loser and then you have this loser have sex with a hot girl.

You can clearly see Rance don't deserved the girl at all.

Every time i see a H-Scence with Rance i just skip it cause i don't want to see this loser ruin the girl at all.

Having sex with loser devalue the girl.

And the H-Scene don't even have voice, like what the hell does they run out of budget??

Clearly the main fun of the game don't come from sex or our MC, The main fun of the game is other character.


Even the Main Villain is giga chad to our main MC, every other character is way beter and more fun than watch our Rance.

Rance is one of the longest running RPG franchises to feature the same protagonist. For those who have never played this game, the titular Rance is a villain who is as strong as most other RPG protagonists. What makes him a villain is that he enjoys rape and has no remorse for those he rapes. He also kills allies (in the past game) or at least seriously attempts to kill allies if they think they will interfere in his harem. He is absolutely a narcissist and the whole crux of the game is everyone around him trying to feed his massive ego because he is so powerful that he can topple nations.

One of the biggest flaws of this game is the rudimentary UI which looks like something out of a PlayStation 1 game. This is an SRPG which, unlike its predecessors, isn't an absolute grind fest. Each of the characters are varied and have their own set of one/two skills. You gain skill points in which you distribute to specific stats to suit your own playstyle. There are 7 main heroines but most of the other females do have at least one sex scene. It's awesome that some maps let you use your entire roster or almost your entire roster (which can be up to 18 units) I wish the sex scenes with the 7 main heroines were more varied. Monkey orbs are used to see sex scenes and it's a mistake that you can only hold a max of 4.

This story is a straightforward and well told one: you are trying to overthrow the evil Helmanian government. All the story beats and foreshadowing focus around that thesis and it does a great job of it; no super out of left field, poorly written plot twists that you see in some other Japanese developed RPG's. Overall, if you love SRPG's, rape, and being able to play as a villain instead of a goody two shoes, then this game is worth trying out.

The gameplay was really fun. I spend a lot of time playing this game. Only the scenes could be better. But in the end it's a Visual Novel Game. Overall a really nice game. I wished the company would make more games.

Warning: The unskippable introduction cinematic of this VN is so unbearably long and so horrifically slow it might make you skip the entire game. 3-5 word sentences are given upwards of 20 seconds while the background slowly drifts upward for nearly 15 minutes. Until I watched it all the way through, I could not skip it or start the game normally. It was baffling.

The game seems fine if you like J-strategy RPGs, but after putting 48 minutes into the game, the first H-scene was just 3 stills in which the protagonist called his dick a "hyper weapon" and spoke short back and forth messages like "Oh?" "Y-yes." "Is that so?" "hmm... hmmm..." "I want to fuck." "Whaaa? whaaaaaat? whaaaaaaat?" "Yes I want to-

I just couldn't do it, fam. Gorgeous art, fun sound design, the gameplay of the battles is fun, if a little easy, but it didn't hook me even a bit.

Great continuation of the series. Fun gameplay as well, but wish there were more fights in the game. Focuses on 7 main girls this time, which I wish they spread it out, but overall good and wraps up a lot of loose threads in the series. Sure hope 10 comes out sometime in the next couple years.

Pretty good.

Rance 9 stands out in showing just how much Rance has developed as a character even from titles as late as 6. The writers have leaned quite heavily on Rance's massive ego being so satisfied that he's beginning to allow himself to genuinely bond with others (thank Reset). On top of that, it made the ballsy move of putting a bunch of men in main character slots, as opposed to the usual chickfest that is usually the character roster.

The gameplay is surprisingly balanced for how much RNG is engrained into every move. There are some fantastic design choices, like the multiple phase chapters where you send your entire roster in waves, and like the chapters that install specific conditions. The classes in the game are very well designed, too, with each of them offering vital roles in the gameplay, complimenting other characters' weaknesses. On top of that, each individual character has specialitises that the gameplay rewards you for speccing into.

The main battles of the games stays fresh asf, which special map conditions forcing you to vary your playstyle, all the while backed with a soundtrack that is better than most triple A games, as Alicesoft manages more and more with recent games. That being said, the gameplay doesn't reach Sengoku Rance heights of design, and it definitely seems the abandon the resource-centric nature of Alicesoft's usual design philosophy, which made me a bit sad. Nonetheless, it still manages to continuously bend its own rules in true fashion.

The game continues the trend of giving players the ultimate reward for doing hard stuff - high-quality artwork in H scenes, and it actually rewards you properly for doing NG+ this time around with rewarding you for access to post-game stuff that varies in quality. Which is where the bad side of my review comes in.

Post-game stuff isn't the only thing that varies in quality. Unfortunately, the story does too. Whilst Rance has finally achieved being amongst the most powerful humans in the world by this point in his life, I don't think that justifies having nearly every antagonist be utterly incompetent against him. Whilst some characters, such as Lelyukov, shine in Rance 9, even they are often arbitrarily hampered by the actions of the main antagonists of the plot.

The main antagonists is of course Helman's ruling elite. Whilst I wasn't expecting excellence the level of Rance 6 in terms of storytelling (I consider Rance 6 to have one of the most well-written and subtle plots in gaming,) I wasn't expecting Kichikou Rance's version of Helman to be better than Rance 9's. Stessel is shown as being shrewd one second, having access to knowledge few people have after game of thrones'ing his way into power, and then incapable the next. Pamela does nothing, and doesn't even have a H scene because apparently she's "too old", and Kechuk is simply incompetent to ridiculous degrees and doesn't even have a personal goal. The member of the council that seems to get the most done is Bashou, especially in some post-game stuff. The dude is the only one that fulfils his personal goals and has a good time, the fat mf.

Mineva? Mineva's good. But she's absent for most of the plot, unlike her addition in Kichikou Rance. She should've been a far more credible threat to Rance and his plans considering her actions have been felt in several games. Her little brother takes a much less effective role in the story, too. It simply feels as if Rance 9 should've taken place before even Quest with how little trouble he has.

Speaking of returning characters, some of them definitely stand out more. Even Kanami gets mad development in 9, along with Tilde and Senhime, who definitely seem like the different people by the end. But then there's Crook and Alkaneze. Each of them do very, very little. I understand Crook already had a whole expansion developing the fuck out of her to an S-tier waifu, and maybe she shouldn't be in Rance mode just for that, but have her do some stuff in the story please, damn. And Alkaneze is even more of a ghost in Rance 9 than she was in Quest. Maria, who always found a way to be pretty damn useful throughout the series, does nothing whilst LOSING her one true defining character trait - her thiccness (seriously, there's too many skinny bitches in Rance 9). And whilst Shizuka's Rance mode and post-game content was amongst the best in the game, she's also absent from the main plot.

Then there's Sheila, the main waifu and fan favorite of Rance 9. She's cute, and she faces some serious conflicts of her own, in that if she reveals herself, she'll cause a fight. And this is my biggest problem with the entire game - this conflict doesn't pay off. It makes so much of the game's story feel like a waste of time, and destroys both Hubert and Patton's credibility with me.

The biggest thing that makes Rance so damn compelling despite his simplicity is his role in the story. He is reprehensible, and none of the cast pretends otherwise, but none of them can do anything about it. They each need him to save them from the conflicts that are destroying their and others' lives, from monsters bigger than him. They can't kick his ass when he does terrible shit, like mercilessly rape and humiliate women.

But then Patton promises this will end if it ever happens to Sheila, knowing that he's probably going to be killed in the process, but he's going to do it because the game is constantly showing as that he has come far. But we already know that by this point Sheila has been raped several times right in front of him. And what does he do when he finds out? Nothing.

Pretty lame conclusion to what was the biggest conflict in Patton's journey. He invited Rance to Helman knowing what he's like, and that he's definitely going to make a move on Sheila. Whilst what happened to her was nothing compared to what Stessel would've done, as we know from Kichikou Rance, Patton doesn't come close to his Mamatoto counterpart's heroism by doing this shit.

Rance also continues the trend of killing off main heroines off-screen with more major characters. A certain character that had a semi-death in Rance Quest ends up being confirmed to have died for good off-screen. Really? A main heroine of two games, poof, just like that - no ceremony? Also, whilst the game varies in terms of objective and map, they don't at all change who you fight. 90% of the time you're fighting waves upon waves Helman dudes in armour.

Then there's the new characters. Pigu sucks. She is an unjumped side-character that steals far more screentime than she deserves, and I don't know why Rance pretends she's not a loli. I heard a lot about Miracle Toh, but honestly? She doesn't deliver on what her character promises, which is Mage Level 3 fuckery. Even Rance was intimidated by her initially, but it turns out that she's all talk.

All in all, Rance 9's gets going fast and hard, as Rance is often to do, but then suddenly the plot stops after the first act, and stays cold dead until the very end. Even then, the True End seems strangely rushed.

Then, after its gone, you get post-game stuff that is sometimes written excellently, but they're never long enough. It's my only complaint, and it's a pretty big one considering that Alicesoft's flagship titles usually put out much better for titles so long. The story simply feels like it was wasted.

BUT, as far as H-games go, it's amongst the best of all time, as if most Rance games. Its easier and more accessible than 8, but I still consider it around as good. If anything, we all owe Alicesoft an apology for pirating.

Decent game, good Rance game, great AliceSoft game.

Viewing Rance IX as part of the Rance series--it's easy to love. The plot is more focused than other entries, but the world feels as broad and vivid as ever thanks to the careful inclusion of characters from across the Continent & across the series itself.

The Rance series is wrapping up in Rance IX and loose threads are being tied & tidied up. It's refreshing, in a series rife with cliffhangers, to see the conclusions to some major character arcs. Rance X is evidently the finale and its events are now (imo) being heavily foreshadowed, which is exciting in itself.

As for gameplay, Rance has always played it relatively fast & loose. AliceSoft practically revel in trying new gameplay systems in every entry of Rance, and as a fan of tactical RPGs it was enjoyable enough in Rance IX. There were clearly some missed opportunities, but I'll address that at the end of the review.

The character writing is as good as ever, albeit focused on a relatively small cast (by Rance standards). As someone ironically put off by rape, I appreciated how AliceSoft used Rance's compulsion to do the opposite of what girls want/expect as an excuse for more traditionally 'romantic' scenes with Shizuka, Kanami & to a lesser extent Tilde. No complaints there.

As for the choice of heroines, I was slightly disappointed, though given the number of options it's difficult to imagine anyone being totally satisfied.

Given the heroines who were at least featured in this game, I would have preferred more focus upon scenes for Crook & Maria. Sen's mini-arc was quite shallow, though I liked the ending, and Pigu would have sufficed as a side character. I like Miracle Tor, but the actual sex scenes with her were quite uninspired, likely due to her lack of history in the series. Could go on about this forever, but ya get the point.

I think there's a broader context that should be addressed in regard to this game feeling somewhat unsatisfying, and I'll just reduce that to two major points:

1. AliceSoft are a small team. I suspected it simply by playing their games, but watching the credits scroll really hammered it home how few people are making this series so many people love. Games might not be better for having a low budget or small dev team, but when you know that's the case you have to cut them slack, which brings me to...

2. Rance is a rare example of a long-running series in a niche, stigmatized genre which is, frankly, ravaged by piracy. Don't think I need to remind anyone where they're likely reading this, and I won't take any moral high-ground. Point is--if the game seems low-budget, truncated or incomplete, that's probably because it was, and not by choice of the developers.

So again, just cut them some slack on those points.

In conclusion, love me some Rance, looking forward to playing Rance X in English as a brain in a jar in the year 40XX.

I dont play visual novels, I knew before hand of the rance series but didnt know anything of the characters, this one is the first ive played
liked the gameplay
really liked the art
will check the other ones in the series

If you have never played a Rance game, go play 7 (Sengoku Rance, probably best game ever, ero or no).
If you like the gameplay of that game but not the lore, check out Big Bang Age and Kichikuou Rance.
If you like the lore, play other game in the series.

In term of gameplay, imo this one is better than 8. Difficulty is alright. I didn't beat Gunagan tho.
In term of heroines, you have 7 here. I like Miracle and Shizuka (dad Rance is so wholesome). Senhime's route feels like nothing happens. Pigu is more like your little sister than a proper heroine. I wish they had merged all the heroine routes into true end in a proper way.

9th title in the series and now a 9 year old game(Why couldn't we get this sooner?!?). I'm sure when it came out it was at the peak of hentai content and it still holds great to this day.

So... as per usual for a Rance game new title=new mechanics. This time Fire Emblem-like, but with your units being way stronger while facing tons of enemies. It has its charm and can feel daunting at times but hella satisfying.

Take a note that Rance games require some grind and effort to dish out the cg and arent given in a silver platter. As long as you clear what is given as it is given and spend the resources methodically you shouldn't have any problem clearing it.

Really enjoyed the new "training" aspect with the rance mode, but kinda bummed out there are no monster gals to capture this time around.

Wouldn't recommend starting with this game if you are unfamiliar with the series as there are dozens of reccuring characters and it hits different when you know the history, especially with some of the girls in the rance mode. Still it gives tons of information in case you do to catch you up as best as it can. For any Rance fan its just pure joy or at least it was for me. Can't wait for Rance X!

I haven´t even finished the game and i´m already loving it.
As one would expect from the ninth game of a saga, if you played the previous entries you will understand what is going on. The narrative builds up on the sucess of the previous games (From dethroning Paton in rance 3 to meeting him again as a comarade in Rance VI, to help him reshape his corrupted empire in this one). Many characters came back from previous entries and more than a few loose ends and story arcs were finished (In particular Kanami an Shisuka´s story line were my favorites).
The gameplay is mostly strategising how to deploy your trops and knowing wich character to use (For example:Any fan of the saga knows that hanies of any kind are inmune to magic, so you will need a physical attacking character to deal with them, but there are other enemies that only are weak to magic, so it is important to mix them well ).
The mechanics of skill points and boosts are good enough (Every 2 skills points rised on all skills you get a boost, from one extra special attack to a rise in certain probabilities).
I could get going on and on but i prefere to keep it until here, go play the game it is really good.

Ah yes the classic rance returns definitely enjoying the series so far hope to see rance x translation comes out too soon. Rance IX provide you with the Patton helping Rance to gather more harem in their way to revolution.

Unlike most raters, thus far, I am not coming at this from the perspective of a long-time fan of the franchise. The ones I have played previously were "ok", but did not greatly interest me, in terms of story or game-play. Yes, it is indeed a simplified format of FE play, but Sengoku was a simplified version of original PS era "Romance of the 3 Kingdoms", that ultimately felt quite lacking in real tactics and combat bored me completely after a half-dozen conquests.

This entry into the franchise, however, I have had a ball with. I find myself experimenting with the game-play aspects, and team comps, far more than I had done previously. The aesthetics, both visually and audibly, are more pleasant, and I find the "jokes" land more often than in previous iterations. The story is basically the same structure, and the sex scenes have never really seemed the point, as much as just the hook.

Regardless, an enjoyable game, for fans of turn-based combat, with a protagonist who's "heroics" are merely the accidental side-effect of his single-minded quest for girls - All the girls.

Rance IX is a flawed gem, but the flaws don't matter enough for me to rate it below a 5. To preface, I have played every single translated Rance game, so I am coming at this review with a heavy rose tint. I'm a fan of the series and have been eagerly awaiting the english IX release for a long time.

I'll try to keep the comparisons to previous games to a minimum, as I doubt many people who read this review will have played any of them beyond Sengoku, if that. The "IX" in the title might scare some people off, and that might even be warranted. Many of the character beats in the game won't hit right if you haven't spent some serious time with the series; out of the main "route" heroines, only 3/7 are new to IX. I wouldn't say it's a good starting point to the series if you're completely new, especially considering the gameplay is just serviceable.

I did three playthroughs of IX, an initial one, one on 2X difficulty, and one to blaze through on normal to get the one heroine ending I was missing. While this is a "tactics" RPG like Fire Emblem, it doesn't have the depth that FE games have, which is both a benefit and a drawback. I say a benefit because FE has what I'd like to call "feature bloat" where there's a huge number of variables to keep track of when building characters. There's classes, there's maximizing level ups, there's equipment. Furthermore, the map sizes can be brutally large, taking a significant time investment to slog through.

By contrast, IX is a compact game. For one, the map sizes are always very compact, with no or very little wasted space. Units do not have an area of control beyond where they're standing either, so positioning "walls" to protect squishies is necessary. Each map can be done in around 5-10 minutes, barring some of the end game stuff. While there's a lot of things to level up for units, most of the time you'll be pretty set just maximizing speed and damage. Upgrading equipment isn't particularly important outside of large endgame battles, where you just spam the "make the armor temporarily better" button until you win, and the game showers you in enough money to keep you going. Outside of the final boss, I'd say that I was never really challenged in IX on my first playthrough. There was absolutely no need to grind either, I stopped doing the side missions around 3/4s through the game and that never bit me in the ass. All in all, the gameplay is engaging enough for me to binge the game over four days.

So far, the review doesn't seem incredibly positive, but the real draw to the Rance series is its writing. Rance as a character is very polarizing, but it helps to view him as a Greek hero instead of a traditional protagonist. He does things in his own interest, and its the whims of fate that cause those actions to benefit the world. He's abrasive, brash and lustful, but those traits are never laughed off by the supporting cast. Rance will do something reprehensible, and the people around him will barely tolerate it because they need him for their goals, not because he isn't a shit. Some characters abhor him for his actions, some don't care at all, but there's no ludonarrative dissonance for me because everything is accounted for in game.

The writing is snappy and witty, in a way that other mainline Alicesoft games haven't really been able to approach since the end of the Rance series. The girls are all cute and funny, each one being a fully cohesive character that stands apart from the rest. While the main girl for this game is a bit boring for my tastes, she acts as a good foil to Rance's insanity. I do wish my girl Crook had a route too, but the Quest's entire expansion was about only her, so I guess it evens out in the end.

The plot structure is good too, further buoyed by a decent cohort of villains that are easily hate-able. A lot of JRPGs fall into the trap of having an "omniscient" villain, who's always a step ahead of the heroes and hyper-competent to an absurd degree. Thankfully, the Rance series at large, and IX included, do not suffer in the same way. The villains are firmly human, with flaws in their plans and actions, which really makes the world feel alive.

The sex scenes have a very good variety to them too. While the bad ends are pretty difficult to get blind, Rance himself has a wide variety of tastes when it comes to having sex with his women. There's somnophilia, bondage, public, portals, spanking, training, and more. Any game that makes a girl get trained into sexually loving headpats is going to meet my marks.

All in all, I was immensely satisfied when I finally finished the True True ending of the game after collecting each character's ending. While the gameplay isn't anything to write home about, the storyline, characters, and humor more than make up for it. Easy 5/5 from me. I'd like to reiterate though, it's not a great starting point for the series and I can imagine someone not enjoying it nearly as much if its their first Rance game. VI or Sengoku are much better choices in that department.

Few eroge series have a history that is as large as Rance. This comes for the good and the bad - you'll read Rance IX and suddenly everyone's telling you to play this one game from 1996 which is "really good but not canon" and you should "definitely start at rance 6 or 7" and all other sorts of stuff; after all, there's roughly fifteen fucking Rance games, so you start comparing them to one another when they're really just so wildly different. And I mean, it's Rance. This is a two decades long story that is coming to its fruition. The game is good on its own - but as everything in life, the emotional payout is larger when you feel more intimate to the characters and the world in the story, and Rance has enough of that in spades. The game can be quite emotional to those who've been invested in the overall Rance storyline/plot for years.

The one thing I'll say about the whole debacle is: the Rance story really settles itself and starts being a bit more "streamlined" at around sengoku rance and if you just want to play the bare minimum of games and get the "full story", do start there.

But let's talk about Rance IX - as the ending steps of the Rance world and as a game itself - for now.

Gameplay: this is a turn based RPG. It's not bad, but it's definitely not my favorite iteration of gameplay in the series, even though I'm quite a fan of TRPG in general. It's on the easier side, not exceedingly unfair, but not exceedingly interesting either.

OST: Missing some of that Shade godlyness in this run but there's enough DJC++ to go around. If you don't know either of these names, you're missing out. Rance as a series hasn't missed in the soundtrack since 1996 so don't worry about that.

Art: There's enough of that in the post for you to judge for yourself.

Story: Now we're getting into the actual good stuff. As Rance as a series has gotten older, Rance as a character has been better fleshed out and developed, and by this game he's... still a complete fucking douchebag but definitely a more mature version of Rance. This game in particular is a bit lighter in theme overall and it works pretty well; the writing in general has definitely improved upon itself as usual and there's more "feels" in this than just generic absurdity and comedy.

All in all, this is one of the better installments in the Rance Series... but if you're playing it as a standalone game, it's good, but not GREAT.

The ending may leave you feeling slightly lackluster, but simultaneously, it's but a setup for our grand finale in Rance X!.... That's coming out in like, 12 years in English if we're lucky. That's just how it rolls. Welcome to the club.

Great stoy, simple gameplay and everything is easy to get, rance never dissapoints being himself, only complain is that this game is a little short compared with rance quest or sengoku, cant wait for the big Rance X!

Well, I can see there are some negative reviews, with some points being justified and some points being "I'm too fucking scrub to actually figure out how the game works", so I'll even out the scales a bit.

First of all, let's start with the story: it's alright. Really don't know what to say about it. It's not amazing, but it's not bad or even mediocre. It's just good. I don't know whether Rance matured or the writer kinda forgot about it, but it seems he's capable of multiple feats he weren't before, as in: somewhat willingly working with dudes, discuss tactics with them and even call some by their names. Oh, and they went somewhat deeper into lore and worldbuilding in this one.

Okay, now for the gameplay.
First of all, yeah - monkey orb system is kinda bullshit. Basically, in order to progress with main(for this entry) heroines and get their H-scenes, you are supposed to feed them three monkey orbs, which you get out of story and free battles. Some free battles can seem outright sadistic, but they are definitely not impossible to complete - just gotta use your noggin' a lil' bit or try it a bit later when you've grown more muscles on your bones.
This whole system wouldn't be too bad if not for two things:
1. You can't max out all the heroines even if you gather all the possible orbs during your playthrough.
2. The amount of monkey orbs you can have on your hands is limited. Hence, you can't just stockpile them and use them up all at once when you've decided on your main focus. I don't understand why that restriction was put in the first place, considering that said progress is already gated by your story progression.

After unlocking a heroine's event you get a "crab" orb. A crab orb, upon using on a character before a battle, will grant said character a double accumulation of skill points you can use for upgrading your char's stats. But here's the kicker: these orbs also cannot be stockpiled. It's really funny, because a double SP bonus is so negligeable, that you really don't lose much by not using it. But you can only have 4 in total. And if you accidentally unlock a heroine's event before using them... well, they go the the Shadow Realm, fuck you.

There's also a "magic" orb that you can use the same way you can their crustacean kin, but I have no fucking idea how to obtain them, what these are for, and neither is mentioned in the game either, I simply saw them pop-up at some point for whatever reason.

The actual gameplay is a bit boring. Typical grid-based tactical combat, but without any twist. It would benefit greatly from some more mechanics, like, I dunno, attacks of opportunity or backstabbing, but it's pretty simple: hit, hit harder with a special, occasionally aggro the enemy.
The stat system is also boring as fuck. There are lost of stats, but the ones you should actually look out for are basically: attack, HP and, sometimes, speed. Mostly attack, though. Very rarely do you need to raise some other stats, and only if you are going for some very specific build. And while you do need an exorbitant amount of points, you can complete the game easily without grinding it. The dude below who went all "hurr-hurr the game unfair and grindy" is, as I said before - just a scrub. The difficulty curves are noticeable, but not all that steep.

Hoverfort system is kinda meh also. While you don't need to grind for points that you use to buy the "ammo", because these are plentiful just from playing normally, upgrading it actually IS grindy(random special currency drop), but not really all that needed, especially not for the first playthrough. You are supposed to stretch its progression over several NGs. After a few upgrades it's possible to break the game really easily, so it's no surprise that you don't have the fort spells during the fights that actually matter. And yeah, you can't rotate those blocks, and while being OCD-inducing - it doesn't really matter anyway.

Gold is essentially useless and is used to gacha roll for weapon upgrades and buy the armor ones. Stupid shit, yeah. Nope, you can't buy items with it, and items themselves are random drops, which is kinda cool, because it makes you adapt your playstyle, but is also slightly infuriating for the same reason.

You: But what about sex???

Sex is fine. Covers a wide variety of kinks, too, in the true Alice Soft fashion. Almost every girl you come across has at least one sexy scene, including my fav tomboy Alkanese.

Well, that's about all I can say about the game off the top my head. It's not bad, it's not amazing - but it's pretty good. Worth playing at least for the story, and even this braindead gameplay can feel pretty refreshing from time to time.

6.5/10

Now all we have left to do is wait for another 80 years until X comes out so, while lying in our deathbeds, we can depart from this world with no regrets and a smile on our faces