Rance IX

[Darknemo2000]

Originally Posted by Key Board

Unless they plan to split the story in half, Rance X should be the last Rance game ever. So everyone is going to appear

I hope that Rance X is conquer game like kichikou or Sengoku Rance. Because quite frankly though RPG's are fun they just cannot hold a candle to those titles. Even now I would take Sengoku Rance over Rance VIII or Rance IX without even blinking an eye.

[Hooves]

The Rance franchise has definitely fleshed things out to have potential for a conquer style similar to Sengoku Rance. I mean, who wouldn't want to lead armies and build castles/etc at this point.

[rantaid]

well, more troops not just 30 generals, maybe more rts like if possible (like suikoden 2 and 5 major battle) or maybe introducing squad system like super robot wars alpha 2 and 3, more tactics and strategies involved, and more importantly in English . tired of reading kanji and hiragana.

[Key Board]

at one point Rance was almost a dead franchise
Kichikuou Rance revived it
Sengoku Rance was one of the most successful eroge

if I'm going to guess the last game is going to be based on something similar to those games.
(but personally a part of me wants it to be like super robot wars)

Anyway, R9 already showed that most of the interaction can be done outside of battle during the intermission

But I'm guessing we are getting Rance 03 and Rance 04 first before the last game

[Drkz]

I still think nine is going to get something similar to magnum. A three remake would be nice although very unlikely considering they'd need to use their main staff to work on it. Three is pretty big... They must bring back the sexualized monster girls! Not the cutesy 3d ones!

[Darknemo2000]

Originally Posted by rantaid

well, more troops not just 30 generals, maybe more rts like if possible (like suikoden 2 and 5 major battle) or maybe introducing squad system like super robot wars alpha 2 and 3, more tactics and strategies involved, and more importantly in English . tired of reading kanji and hiragana.

RTS is way too risky because it doenst seem that anyone in H market knows how to make a good rts.

Madou Koukaku had a very good potential but RTS was what killed it and made it fail. Seems like good RTS is a problem. much easier to make a good turn based than rts. Hell even Koei failed real hard with ROTK XII and you would expect authors of Nobunaga Ambition to know how to make a good rts but the game turned out pathetic caricature of itself...

[Destined_Fate]

Rance...

Not really my cup of tea, I don't agree with how Rance drugged and tried to rape Leila Grecni but only stopped because even drugged she was serious about Rick who has been a bro to Rance over multiple games.

[Drkz]

Originally Posted by Darknemo2000

RTS is way too risky because it doenst seem that anyone in H market knows how to make a good rts.

Madou Koukaku had a very good potential but RTS was what killed it and made it fail. Seems like good RTS is a problem. much easier to make a good turn based than rts. Hell even Koei failed real hard with ROTK XII and you would expect authors of Nobunaga Ambition to know how to make a good rts but the game turned out pathetic caricature of itself...

Over ambition killed Madou. Tried to do way too much. Plus they probably had a bigger focus on the remake if anything. Main problems with too big of a cast? You'll run out of vas to voice your characters.

Rance has never been RTS. Its always been Turn Based Dungeon Crawler thingy.

[Darknemo2000]

I would not say it was overambition. The city building was well enough made also combining units to create new ones was interesting idea.

The problem was RTS battles. They were horrible. And in a game where majority of time you will spend battling thats quite a big failure. Story and characters were not interesting enough to help it either. Items and skills were lackluster as well.

Not as bad as ROTK because Koei after ROTK XI being very successful decided to change the course of the series and from turn based go straight into RTS. They also had less characters, less cities and less things to do. "Hey wanna buy a new game where you will have very small amount of characters, decreased number of cities and decreased number of features? Duels will be turned to shit as well! But its a new game, has more boobs and crappy mechanics! Go buy the game" Naturally, that one turned into a complete disaster and probably the worst game of the series.

Madou wasnt as bad. They did not have the series continuation to hold, only to show that Eushully's games are always top class. Well it was far from top class and one of the worst eushully's games but it wasn't that horrible. I think if it was turn based it would have even been slightly over mediocre.

Rance series is ironic in a sens that they are sticking to classic rpg most of the time while two most successful games of the series were in fact srpg. Makes you wonder why they did not do more of srpg. Well hopefully new one will be that. I dont mind rpg but for rance series it seems like srpg works the best.

[Key Board]

Yeah.. Madou Koukaku was pretty clunky
I think Eushully should stick with turn based

On another note, Tower Defense games count as RTS?
if so I enjoyed Custom Raid 4

[dragon1412]

Originally Posted by Key Board

Unless they plan to split the story in half, Rance X should be the last Rance game ever. So everyone is going to appear

i thought what Tada said was they will make it at least to rance 10 rather than Rance 10 is the last game of the series ???

[chaosprophet]

Originally Posted by dragon1412

i thought what Tada said was they will make it at least to rance 10 rather than Rance 10 is the last game of the series ???

It was already planned for X to be the last one way back when VI was released (info on Rance VI Alice's mansion). If you look around on Alicesoft blog posts you will see it being mentioned here and there.

For example, this post from 12/24/2013 does mention 10 being the last one.

[Honoakari]

News from Alicesoft:

- Rance 03 remake is scheduled for 2015
- Gameplay will be an improved version of that from 01
- Some details in the story will be modified

- Rance 10 is scheduled for 2016
- They're planning to add lots of characters, just like they did in Rance Quest (makes sense since it's the last game), hopefully with sufficient scenes for each of them
- They're getting rid of polygons and making it a 2D game
- They're currently debating whether to switch to 1920x1080 or stick with 1280x720 (I hope they choose the latter...)
- The gameplay will be different from the "territory conquest"-style of gameplay in Sengoku Rance (just don't make it like Rance 09... the gameplay was somewhat minimalistic, and the game felt more like a regular VN rather than an actual RPG).

[Darknemo2000]

Well since Rance X won't be "territory conquest" its pretty safe to assume that the game can only hope to be the third best in the series. No chances of beating Sengoku Rance and Kichikou Rance out with a plain RPG.

Alicesoft doesnt make great RPG's sadly. Its their conquest games that bring them the highest fame and profits while (Sengoku and Kichikou Rance, Dai series in general) their RPG's end up being either ok or just meh. This doesnt make me excited about the last Rance game at all. Rance Quest and Rance IX were just so so compared to SR or KR.

[risingstar3110]

I don't know why they didn't stick to the popular formula of Sengoku? It did not sell well or something?

[Darknemo2000]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

I don't know why they didn't stick to the popular formula of Sengoku? It did not sell well or something?

No, it sold very well. Its their best selling game actually. It and Kichkou Rance really earned them cash big time.

In fact Kichikou Rance saved Alicesoft from closing down. Back then in 1996 the company was about to close down as their Rpg's and other games just were not selling well.


Bear with me as this post will be pretty long. I will also use EGS ranking scores as it usually reflects popularity and sales as well of the game.

As you know first game out was Hiroko-chan (unranked) in 1983 basic game, wasnt very big on market. Then during the four years they didnt release great games. They all were pretty meh, but because at that time game market was small it helped to keep them afloat. Then in 1987 came Little Princess (EGS - 50). Miki and Kentarou were the main characters in that game. It was pretty decent game. Cant say they hit the jackpot but it put their company on the highier tier eroge companies. For us, Rance fans, its important as the start of the Rance series even though Rance isnt present in it, its the start of Rance universe.

Then in 1988 came out Little Vampire which was continuation of Miki story. It had 48 score. So another of those poor games but again important to Rance universe.

In 1989 Alicesoft released its first game that first time gained 60 score. Its name? Rance 01. Was ok because of its main character - Rance but otherwise, rather poor game, yet the best of Alicesoft games at the time. In same year came DPS (a long lasting series had score of 30).

Another big game from Alicesoft came in 1990 - Rance 02, this time scoring 65 and becoming most popular Alicesoft game to date. And then it started rolling.

Toushin Toushi 01 was released in 1990 and Rance 03 in 1991 both games scoring amazing 70. For alicesoft at that time it was amazing scores.

DALK in 1992 and ProstudentG in 1993 scored allso big in 65 and 70. Between these titles they kept on releasing DPS which rarely scored over 30.

They needed more cash though so in 1994 came out their cash cow - another Rance title. Rance 04 had a score of 72 and was again a popular tittle. In same year came Toushin Toushi 02 with score of 85.

Alicesoft allowed those titles success get into their heads and started baking titles that cost plenty but didn't earn enough. Out of them Only You was decent enough. So suddenly, company, due to not distributing their resources well enough found close to going bankrupt.

So they decided to go out with a bang in 1996 and release Kichikou Rance which had all Rance ideas mixed into one because they didnt think they will release any other Rance game or any game for that matter.

It clicked. Was a massive success popularity and finances wise. It was, like sengoku Rance, a conquest srpg. Saved their company. Its scored fucking 90 too. (only Sengoku scored as highly).

The company was about to close and suddenly cash started to flow again. It sold like crazy. Then came Panyo (score 65), Type-0 (score 70), Atlach-Nacha (score 80) and Diabolique (scored 80). Pastel Chime 01 (scored 70) and Mamatoto (78), helped to keep the good wave going. in 1999 came Darcrows with a score 75. So yeah after KR Aliecesoft pretty much stopped producing below 60 score games. Even 65 were getting rare. Usually it was 70 or higher. Persiom in 2000 was alos 70 score tootle. SeeIn came out same year and was a bad game, scored poor 60. 2001 Square of the moon, SRPG game, with score 75 fixed it in.

Tendency is that SRPG saved Alicesoft and classical RPG or adventure games dragged it down. Not always though. There were some good RPG's that gived them big bucks Rance series or TT.

In 2001 the company realeased another SRPG - Daiakuji and scored 85. Beat Angel Escalayer that followed it with 75 score was almost a let down.

In 2002 they released Rance 5D it wasnt a very good game and scored 70. Mamanyonyo in 2003 scored higher with 72.

So in 2003 Alicesoft decided to earn some cash. So what did they do? Release another SRPG of course - Daibanchou came out and of course scored high with 82.

Following it in 2004 came out Rance 06. Though it was a classic RPG it was one of those successful Rpgs's with score 87. in 2005 they did Pastel Chime Continue with score 77 and Galzoo island with score 80. Yokubari Saboten scored 72.

in 2006 it didnt seem going taht well, three releases taht didnt break 70 scores and Tsumashibori with 80. So to make profit they once again released a SRPG. It was Sengoku Rance.

It like KR was massive sucess. Sales going wild, score is 90. Becoming Eroge of the year. Everything is going smooth.

After it came some drops. Few 70 titles, BAHaruka with 80, AliveZ with only 60 and TT 03 that alicesoft planned to be their bog tottle but it didnt make a splash with a score of just 72.

2009 was a bad year for them as releases mostly scored 63-65. In 2010 Shaman's Sanctuary scored 65. So yeah. After SR Aliecsoft had some bad aftertaste. 2006-2010 is pretty big period to go without great selling games when the game production cost is high.

Luckily Alicesoft was big company by now. And they also planned on releasing their big cash earner - another SRPG game. In 2011 came out three game production cost game Daitekoku. And boy it flopped. Hard. While score 72 isnt that bad you need to take into account that the game costed 3x times normal game would and it didnt feel like the game was that that good. Mostly because they planned it to be RTS but when halfway done they released that RTS is too sucky (again as I said its the problem with all eroges - RTs is just too risky) so they had to redo it. But it cost money. Lots of it and dint earn enough.

If Alicesoft werent that big this game would have ruined them.

But behold same year Rance game was coming out. Rance 08 cannot be bad? But oops alicesoft fucked up again. Rance Quest didnt sell well and scored 76. Now, it was becoming bit heated for Alicesoft.

So they decided to improve half-baked Rance 08 by releasing Magnum which instantly raised the games score to 85. Really, dont play Rance Quest without Magnum. It sucks.

Oyako Rankan and Pastel Chime 03 scored 78 and 71 respectively. So Aliesoft decided while preparing for Rance 09 to re-release Rance 01 as it was better than risking with new titles. It worked - game scored 75, but didn't cost much to produce.

So this year came Rance 09 finally and it scored 84. A good game. Better than Rance Quest without Magnum.

Not massively great like RK or SR but still works.

Now all that is left is release Rance X so that TAMA can finally leave the industry. He wants to finish Rance as he is getting older and now has more and more health issues.

My guess is if Rance X will be a RPG in classic sense it wont score higher 85. If innovative it will depend on how good innovation will be.

But since it wont be SRPG my guess is that Kichikou Rance and Sengoku Rance will still be much better game at the end. The only SRP that Alicesoft failed with through all these years was Daitekoku and that was only because it was originally planned to be an RTS and had to be redone.

[risingstar3110]

Wow, what's a history.

But if like you put, then it seems the reason they stuck with RPG seems to be inner politic rather than anything else? Maybe that Tama guy has something to do with it? Or maybe they afraid releasing too many SRPG will saturate the market?

[Darknemo2000]

I think in Rance case they go to Rance X as Rpg due to story. For strategy conquest, technically Rance already controls Leazas, Japan and Helman. Most of Free Cities are under his influence too. Even freaking AL Church.

The only thing that is not under his influence is demon realm. So conquest game where you already control most of territories do not seem that great of idea.

Unless they pull off Rance 03 thing with mind control or something but then the whole story before Rance X gets weaker...

Financially wise, Alicesoft had much better success as SRPG rather than RPG. In this case soem nostalgia may play too. Rance generally not counting Kichikou Rance and Sengoku Rance are RPG series. Its ironical that the two best games in the series are not RPG's, but 7 games are still RPG's though and story wise it makes more sense.

Rance IX story wise would have worked better as conquest though. Because really rebels are just a bunch of guys who overthrow battle hardened Helman like nothing... It seemed and still seems silly.

But since they didnt go with conquest SRPG in Rance 09 where it was asking for it, its seems more plausible that they don't go to conquest SRPG in Rance 10 where story limitations against SRPG is higher.

Personally, I think its a pity that last Rance game is pretty much destined to be inferior to Kichikou and Sengoku. But again though it will be last agme in the series doesnt mean you can't do alternative story like Kichikou Rance with conquest SRPG eventually.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Darknemo2000

I think in Rance case they go to Rance X as Rpg due to story. For strategy conquest, technically Rance already controls Leazas, Japan and Helman. Most of Free Cities are under his influence too. Even freaking AL Church.

The only thing that is not under his influence is demon realm. So conquest game where you already control most of territories do not seem that great of idea.

Unless they pull off Rance 03 thing with mind control or something but then the whole story before Rance X gets weaker...

Financially wise, Alicesoft had much better success as SRPG rather than RPG. In this case soem nostalgia may play too. Rance generally not counting Kichikou Rance and Sengoku Rance are RPG series. Its ironical that the two best games in the series are not RPG's, but 7 games are still RPG's though and story wise it makes more sense.

Rance IX story wise would have worked better as conquest though. Because really rebels are just a bunch of guys who overthrow battle hardened Helman like nothing... It seemed and still seems silly.

But since they didnt go with conquest SRPG in Rance 09 where it was asking for it, its seems more plausible that they don't go to conquest SRPG in Rance 10 where story limitations against SRPG is higher.

Personally, I think its a pity that last Rance game is pretty much destined to be inferior to Kichikou and Sengoku. But again though it will be last agme in the series doesnt mean you can't do alternative story like Kichikou Rance with conquest SRPG eventually.

Fairly admirable if they limit the sequence to make the story fit into the franchise. Comparing to Western gaming i means. Triple A tittle like Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age 2.... real piece of trashes (story-wise) really. Saying that despite i am quite a fan of earlier installment.


We won't see a grown-up Kouhime at this rate, don't we? Or are they gonna open up for the sequence of the next Rance game, maybe with of his child as main protagonist ? But i don't want to see my Kouhime as a MILF then T__T

[hyl]

...
I don't think that EGS rank correctly reflect actual sales because there usually isn't a correlation to high selling games and the average scores. Like last year the best sold eroges were Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai, Amairo Islenauts and Prism Recollection but the EGS scores of those games were fairly (above) average and not even over 80

You can try to check the getchu's or tech gian's sales rankings but those don't give exact numbers