in sengoku, the game starts off with a bunch of characters including nobunaga who seem to have appeared in previous titles.Then im thrown into combat with no explanations.It seems to be assuming that you have played the other games which I havent.I dont see how it is a good starting point. I have no idea how battles work.Am i missing something?
Nobunaga only appears in Sengoku and hasn't appeared in any of the previous games. Nearly the characters you meet in Sengoku have not appeared in any of the previous games. The only major characters that have appeared in previous games is Chaos(the talking sword that Rance wields), and the 7 total reinforcements you can get from another country(It is one of the satisfaction bonues that gets raised whenever Rance has sex. And of the 7, 1 of them is a NG+ only bonus) And those characters play an almost non-existent role in the story outside of their own character episodes. You could go an entire playthrough without ever recruiting them and it wouldn't affect the story. This is why Sengoku Rance is often one of the games people recommend to start with, because it the narrative is stand-alone enough that newcomers won't be completely lost on the overall story, and the few references and characters from the past games are more of a bonus than anything(as well more lewd sex scenes)
As for the gameplay, this I guess
can be considered a flaw for newcomers(or a plus depending on who you are) as there is no tutorial to ease them in and the game pretty much does toss you into things and has you figuring things out on your own. Each game in the series has different gameplay and combat mechanics, so even with experience of playing past titles, you would still have to be figuring things out your own. If you're really lost, I would recommend checking out the
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and it'll give you a rundown on how the game works, the flow of combat, and the other mechanics.