These videos are incredibly fun to make. I actually started drinking about halfway through the scriptwriting for the 01 video and I think it legitimately made it better
The banters during sex definitely work as they show chemistry between rance and the characters. Like Sill not being wet or horny coming up. They are always so hilarious. When you get to Rance 6, I think the gal monster tamer will entertain you. The original rance 3 is pretty short. I beaten it almost completely with auto, the gameplay is fine for what it offers.
amazing video, like always 14:25 in vndb you can find the staff roles, TADA (the main director of most if not all of the rance games) was the scenario writer of the original rance I & II, kai has TADA and Yoidore Dragon credited as the scenario writers, while rance 01 has Dice Korogashi and Ittenchiroku as the scenario writers (TADA did the planning and supervision on that game) also take into account that rance 02 was the first remake they ever did, in 2009, and didn't really do much with it besides revamping the graphics and tweaking a little bit the dialog/gameplay, meanwhile rance 01 was made in 2013 and that was a proper remake, adding a lot of additional content and making everything from scratch 17:42 imo the series gets a lot more consistent after 5D, that's when they made the new canon (of which 01-03 are part, despite 02 being older and less polished) the series is first and foremost a parody so I don't mind games like 5D and 02 being wackier than the rest, in my personal opinion the good games are 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, kichikuou and 03 (I'm not sure about the original 3 and I haven't played 4 so can't say there), the rest are just "okay" I'm talking story-wise here, the gameplay is very hit-or-miss depending on the person since it changes in each entry, for example some people hated 5D's gameplay and some people loved it (I hated it) funnily enough even though 5D and 02 are the weakest for me they have some of my favourite girls: shizuka and rizna (maria is also very good) 23:55 yeah definitely, while rance keeps the comedy all the way through the end (and it never gets old), it has a lot of interesting characters, lore, good gameplay, serious moments, epic moments and even emotional moments that make it something special, something more than "a parody about a man who loves to struggle-snuggle"
I'm really liking the Rance videos so far. I really love these games, and seeing you enjoy the setting/characters makes me look forward to when you get to R6 and beyond. Will you be playing Kichikuo when you reach it in the timeline or do you think you'll just skip to 5D to avoid spoilers/stay on the main line for a first playthrough?
I do plan on playing Kichikuo. Even though it's technically a spinoff, I feel like it's an important part of the history of the series. Plus, I've heard that it's pretty good
Yes. He literally just spends the turn insulting the enemy and the fact that it does nothing against most enemies is wonderful. He'll also sometimes yell out "Boob touch!" When attacking
Nice video as always, but I do need to adress some things. 02kai and kaikai, despite being updated versions are just that: updated versions. What kai did was just updating the script and tweaking some numbers about combat. And kaikai goes over some smaller stuff again. Everything else (dungeon design and such) is still true to the 1990 original, outside of the graphics. So no, no version of 02 was a real reimagining like 01 and 03 (which both came out after 02). It's a remaster. And yes, Rance 01 and 03 have a brand new dev team. So here's your explanation on why's the tone so different. In fact, the only person working at AliceSoft who was around during the original releases of Rance I & II is TADA! He retired in 2018 after release of Rance X, though. So seeing how you don't speak moon and will have to go through original Rance III soon, don't hesitate to play the remake later! It's a brand new game. I think I do need to say it if no one else does, but please check the name spellings by inserting the Japanese into google or something. Leazas is pronounced like "lee-zas", and Bird is "bard". I know those things are usually silly, but that's AliceSoft for you. And I should also mention the terminology, which WILL come into play later. The fan translations before the games started being published officially had an established and working one, but MangaGamer's terminology is, to put it simply, a mess. They translated "mao" as Archfiend (a term common in Japanese fantasy and pretty much always being translated as Demon King/Demon Lord by fans and official publishers alike), just to give you an example. For the series which is a satire of the very same Japanese fantasy at it's core, you can guess what kind of impact on your experience it may have. The fans hated it so much, that now you can get the terminology patches for all of MG's releases on the wiki's Translations page. Excited to see more of your reviews, but I must ask you to not to be too harsh on Rance III. The way I describe it is, it's a game which tells a huge story about a major even on the Continent, but due to just being old and being made by a very inexperienced team with no clear vision of where's the series coming next, it fails to tell it in an exciting and "epic" kind of way. Rance 03 obviously fixes all of the issues with the story (including completely cutting the only moment when Rance wilingly cucked himself which goes against all of his previous actions and the very core of his personality) and also outright replaces the old combat system with a brand new one (just like 01 did). 03 also adds a canon moment when Rance first came up with the now legendary Hyper Weapon nickname! Just to save yourself some patience, look up how to get the Devil Passport early and DO NOT level up until you reach Hyper Tower or later (no, really, I'm being serious. This game is broken). And by the way. Bird is a major character and is a great foil to Rance, as you might have already noticed. So be prepared to see more of him! I'm also sorry if my wall of text may have seemed rude to you. I'm an ESL, so I can't really control it.
I actually like wall of text comments because it tells me that people are engaged with the video and that's everything I hope for as a creative person. Also, I legitimately couldn't tell that you're not a native speaker. Impressive control of the language
Out of the translated games VI is the one that has the best story just so you know. Looking forward for when you reach there. Kichikuou is pretty good too. III is short and good enough. The dungeon crawling in IV is pretty painful.
As someone who played through the entire series (and spent a year to learn Japanese for Rance 10), it's great to see someone also going down the same rabbit hole and enjoying the 'setup' of the series. Rance 3's remake is the foundation for things going forward with the setting of the main antagonists and character development (or more importantly VA's for most of the cast). I really hope you finish the entire series, the more you play (other than 5d and 4.1/4.2) the better it gets with 10 being one of the crowning achievements of VN's, and something that contends with Muv-Luv in terms of scale and execution. Good video as usual, though I would put the game mechanics behind the story so it's easier as an introduction to the games for a general audience. The game mechanics can get in the way of this series because each game has its own mechanics for each game going forward. Good luck with your journey.
Great video! Although you said you weren't going to learn a new language to play one game of the series, I highly recommend playing Rance 03, it's a remake on par with 01 (Graphically speaking and on writing), I'm playing it with an extension of Textractor that translates the dialogue, and it does a good job at it (with sometimes translating names like Rance to "Lance"), I'm not sure how much they changed the story from Rance III to 03, but so far the story has been way more in-depth and rich than the previous two installments. Hopefully MangaGamer translates it soonish.
"I stopped playing Sengoku because I could immediately tell there was a lot of history that I was missing out on" I definably remember feeling that way. Although, when I played Sengoku back in 2011 none of the other Rance games were translated, and I couldn't yet read Japanese at the time, so I just suffered through it. It's nice that English only people can start at the begging of the story now.
I played original 02. All I can say about the gameplay is that I used Cheat Engine. Regarding the writing, I'm pretty sure on vndb they credited Tori for the writing alongside TADA as series director. Tori is, notably, a woman, and I think that's why they are able to nail struggle snuggle scenes that doesn't feel too scummy. I think that's also why despite Rance being a piece of shit he still come across as likeable - there are certain lines that aren't crossed and there aspects of his personality that's exaggerated that makes him endearing in that asshole kid manner. He's like a cat - you can get mad at him, but he's still a piece of shit that's going to do whatever he wants and you're not getting off the ride just because you know he's a piece of shit. The Sill part was my favorite honestly, I think it was an important that kept Rance the game and the character grounded and likeable to many people despite the things they pulled.
loved the video once again. i know where my like is going this was the weakest game in my opinion due to the gameplay and the story but glad you still enjoyed it mate. Unfortunately the remake of the next game, 03, is currently not translated so you might have to either skip it or go play the original. OR you can do what I guess most people did, which is just play the remake in Japanese and read the story up on the Rance wikis at a later time. due to the importance of the story and its world building, it is not a good idea to skip 03 but going back to the original is just plain hell (at least for me it felt like hell when I played it). not sure what your gonna do but I'm sure no one's gonna blame you for skipping it for now anyways, keep up the good videos man.
@@Adze definitely play III if you can, a lot happens there, I'm not a fan of machine translation but I'll just say that it's another option in case you want to play 03 and can stand horrible translations (if you check the wiki be very careful with spoilers tho lol, stick to the pages of the games) or maybe if we're lucky and mangagamer is secretly working on 03 you could play III now and when 03 comes out play that version (it's a really good remake in all aspects)
I don't touch MTL unless it's a game where the story straight-up doesn't matter. I'd imagine 03 will get a translation eventually, but probably not until after they're done with X. Whenever that gets done, I'll check it out. But I'll definitely be playing III in the meantime
Okay, i'm too late to comment already and a certain recognizable person named Lemonov has already answered the thing about Rance 02 Kai, but let me clarify a bit further than that (even if you may already know by this point a year already) As pointed out, Rance 02 Kai is more a faithful remaster than a remake, and it more closely emulates the original old and very dated gameplay, which is why it feels stiff. alongside this, 02 came out earlier, so it was actually like a testing grounds for AliceSoft. to see what the reception for a remake be like. After having retconned a significant aspect of the older games leading upto Kichikuou, with the "new" timelines of Rance starting with Rance 5D, they were testing the water with the remake and fit the new 'canon' timeline with it. But didn't veer to make too much changes and i totally understand not doing that, as it may alienate the old and recurring fans of the series. But upon the positive reaction, they went ahead and we get 01 remake. which is a blast! and you know it, so they do 03. so mechanically 03 is the most polished of the remakes, while 02 is the least. presumably, an 04 remake might happen at some point but unsure yet, as new AliceSoft projects are heading in a different direction But! This actually means several things in fact. First, it explains why you felt as if the 02 remake was really jarring tone-wise. And it's because the script is super old, and largely unchanged. the old TADA writing for the series was actually kinda like this, and he even addresses it in 01's Alice's Mansion, as he stated his old writing style is really so unimpressive to him now. Of course he grew with time and experience, but he advised the 01 team on how to tackle the original script and make changes, which was then supplement by a team of both new and somewhat experienced already Devs for the franchise. This is largely polished in 03, in fact, which saw huge revamps to the story pacing and even adding in some new character who were never mentioned or seen before in the storyline (even if they were technically present in kichikuou spiritually, with a different character/design aspect). Also on that note, while yes Rance 03/III is like the major start of the whole worldbuilding aspect of the franchise, already by II they were setting up themes. As setting up the existence of Kathom (which is the name of "Custom" in the original fan translation) and the 4 witches, as well as the hub for magic potency, Bird's character introduction and more... yeah i'd say this was a start of many things as well. They just leaned very heavily into it with III and by the time IV came around, really tying up a massive section of the continent together. As for Rance and Sill seemingly splitting up so many times in the series, it was actually intentional, as it's intended to make Sill have a more noticeable presence whenever she is around, as opposed to having her following Rance always which would lessen her impact to the player, like the usual best friend/ally to protagonist in JRPGs goes. Though honestly, i feel it's more or less that the writing during the original games had no idea what to do with her all of the time, so they settled with having her do like her own sidegig, often to comedic nature. this is even more noticeable in original II's writing as Sill felt like a pop-in character at times. However, as they learnt how to craft the narrative, and alongside with it, develop Rance's character emotionally over the series, they learnt how to handle her better. To the point where in 4.1 and 4.2 it doesn't really detract from Sill being not 'there'. However, this is even more funnier, since you stated you played a bit of Sengoku, which is like a focal point of the relationship between Rance and Sill. because spoiler spoiler reasons i can't say (unless you already know), Rance really gets impacted a lot from all of the moments of interactions between them two in the previous games, up until this point in time. Which strike out particularly well, because even if Sill isn't always physically besides Rance in all of these games, just her mere existence somewhat tames his wild child side down and is a latch-on point for Rance to rely on at the end of the day, regardless of how good or bad things goes. Sill not being there with Rance just emphasizes how brutish he can be, as he, even if doesn't openly or even internally admit it... as time goes on, tries to hold himself back a little with Sill's presence around. and i think the older games unintentionally portrays that very well, as Sill is usually not present when Rance is doing his most heinous acts, or just really really acting wild! Also speaking of which, Rance 02 has that jank about Rance's character as you noticed, primarily because of the remaking of 01 which you experiences beforehand. The Rance portrayed in the older games is really brutal and far far more cruel. This continues upto Kichikuou. But after AliceSoft, realizing they weren't going to go bankrupt, and working on the new Rance follow-up, started to somewhat tone Rance's brutality down. This works in both ways, as making this be the case in this slightly altered "new canon" worldline, but also as if to show that Rance is truly maturing as a person as the games go (in some aspects atleast). You probably already noticed it by now, having played the III and IV games, as to the tonal difference between the modern day Rance feel and the older Rance. he feels more of a brute there, but slowly coming to ease up a bit (a large part due to the various women he meets and interacts with throughout his journeys, especially going on from Rance Quest and forward) And lastly, that point you made about Bird is spot on! He is exactly a trope of the goody-two shoes rpg protagonists, made askew in usual alicesoft manner, as in he feels entitled to have a romantic relationships with women partners, especially if one is in his "party" so to speak. a subversion of the good guy trope, where he is such a "nice guy" that he starts to develop a bit of god complex that he 'thinks' he is just super duper nice, but just comes off as super pushy and overconfident (which is also why he thinks he can take on Ran, thinking she can be taken care of as she is a woman, as in... less likely of a threat to bird and can possibly be charmed over, atleast in his eyes... and his overconfidence gets his fucking arm chopped off). and yes, this will actually come back to be of actual note, as Bird shows up in the story more and more, and even gains somewhat substantial plot relevance at the latter half of the series. This game was basically a setup to his character, an introduction to the conflict between him and Rance that would go on for SUCH A LONG TIME! Basically the entirety of this game itself, a setup to a larger role in a later installment. ...hoyl shit that textwall is insane! i always start with trying to make my points concise and clear, before trying to bring out longer texts to explain what i mean and this huge mess ALWAYS happens! sorry if that was a slog to read through, but i hope you can decipher what i was trying to mean there. and if you did, thank you for taking time to read this, whoever you may be. As for OP, very interested to see you cover the latter half of the Rance titles, as i feel that it is at that point they truly diverge into radically changing up so much between each game that it just becomes a masterpiece each and everytime. 👍here's to more rance shenanigans
Will you consider playing and reviewing the original Rance III? Since the 03 remake isn't translated yet. According to VNDB it is longer than 02 Kai but shorter than Rance 01.
That video is actually almost done. I do plan to go through all the games that are currently translated (as well as IX and Showdown once they get their English releases).
I'm still kinda tickled that the medicine in the game is just flat out named Ibuprofen. Lol. That's like, Tylenol, if that wasn't completely obvious to everyone
nice video and good job explaining it. I am looking forward to play the games more in the end of the year, when i will have more free time, and i kinda want to know. How much time do you spend on each game? I possible i think this could be an interesting thing to have in the script for future videos.
Rance 01 is 10-15 hours long and Rance 02 is 7-10 hours long. Original Rance 3 is 11-12 hours long. The remake of Rance 03(which isn't translated yet) is 40-50 hours long
Yes, I know I accidentally left in a line twice. Wasn't worth re-rendering to fix it.
I liked it, it gave the video a nice bit of spice :)
I liked it, it gave the video a nice bit of spice :)
I liked it, it gave the video a nice bit of spice :)
I liked it, it gave the video a nice bit of spice :)
Dear god, what have I done....
Lol that rance laugh at the end was a nice touch can't wait for the next one
Your video on Rance 1 was great, excited that you're continuing to cover the series!
These videos are incredibly fun to make. I actually started drinking about halfway through the scriptwriting for the 01 video and I think it legitimately made it better
The banters during sex definitely work as they show chemistry between rance and the characters. Like Sill not being wet or horny coming up. They are always so hilarious. When you get to Rance 6, I think the gal monster tamer will entertain you.
The original rance 3 is pretty short. I beaten it almost completely with auto, the gameplay is fine for what it offers.
amazing video, like always
14:25 in vndb you can find the staff roles, TADA (the main director of most if not all of the rance games) was the scenario writer of the original rance I & II, kai has TADA and Yoidore Dragon credited as the scenario writers, while rance 01 has Dice Korogashi
and Ittenchiroku as the scenario writers (TADA did the planning and supervision on that game)
also take into account that rance 02 was the first remake they ever did, in 2009, and didn't really do much with it besides revamping the graphics and tweaking a little bit the dialog/gameplay, meanwhile rance 01 was made in 2013 and that was a proper remake, adding a lot of additional content and making everything from scratch
17:42 imo the series gets a lot more consistent after 5D, that's when they made the new canon (of which 01-03 are part, despite 02 being older and less polished)
the series is first and foremost a parody so I don't mind games like 5D and 02 being wackier than the rest, in my personal opinion the good games are 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, kichikuou and 03 (I'm not sure about the original 3 and I haven't played 4 so can't say there), the rest are just "okay"
I'm talking story-wise here, the gameplay is very hit-or-miss depending on the person since it changes in each entry, for example some people hated 5D's gameplay and some people loved it (I hated it)
funnily enough even though 5D and 02 are the weakest for me they have some of my favourite girls: shizuka and rizna (maria is also very good)
23:55 yeah definitely, while rance keeps the comedy all the way through the end (and it never gets old), it has a lot of interesting characters, lore, good gameplay, serious moments, epic moments and even emotional moments that make it something special, something more than "a parody about a man who loves to struggle-snuggle"
I'm really liking the Rance videos so far. I really love these games, and seeing you enjoy the setting/characters makes me look forward to when you get to R6 and beyond.
Will you be playing Kichikuo when you reach it in the timeline or do you think you'll just skip to 5D to avoid spoilers/stay on the main line for a first playthrough?
I do plan on playing Kichikuo. Even though it's technically a spinoff, I feel like it's an important part of the history of the series. Plus, I've heard that it's pretty good
hang on, "bad-mouthing" so you basically just begin verbally bullying an enemy during a fight?! I mean it sounds completely in-character but still...
Yes. He literally just spends the turn insulting the enemy and the fact that it does nothing against most enemies is wonderful.
He'll also sometimes yell out "Boob touch!" When attacking
Nice video as always, but I do need to adress some things.
02kai and kaikai, despite being updated versions are just that: updated versions. What kai did was just updating the script and tweaking some numbers about combat. And kaikai goes over some smaller stuff again. Everything else (dungeon design and such) is still true to the 1990 original, outside of the graphics. So no, no version of 02 was a real reimagining like 01 and 03 (which both came out after 02). It's a remaster. And yes, Rance 01 and 03 have a brand new dev team. So here's your explanation on why's the tone so different. In fact, the only person working at AliceSoft who was around during the original releases of Rance I & II is TADA! He retired in 2018 after release of Rance X, though. So seeing how you don't speak moon and will have to go through original Rance III soon, don't hesitate to play the remake later! It's a brand new game.
I think I do need to say it if no one else does, but please check the name spellings by inserting the Japanese into google or something. Leazas is pronounced like "lee-zas", and Bird is "bard". I know those things are usually silly, but that's AliceSoft for you. And I should also mention the terminology, which WILL come into play later. The fan translations before the games started being published officially had an established and working one, but MangaGamer's terminology is, to put it simply, a mess. They translated "mao" as Archfiend (a term common in Japanese fantasy and pretty much always being translated as Demon King/Demon Lord by fans and official publishers alike), just to give you an example. For the series which is a satire of the very same Japanese fantasy at it's core, you can guess what kind of impact on your experience it may have. The fans hated it so much, that now you can get the terminology patches for all of MG's releases on the wiki's Translations page.
Excited to see more of your reviews, but I must ask you to not to be too harsh on Rance III. The way I describe it is, it's a game which tells a huge story about a major even on the Continent, but due to just being old and being made by a very inexperienced team with no clear vision of where's the series coming next, it fails to tell it in an exciting and "epic" kind of way. Rance 03 obviously fixes all of the issues with the story (including completely cutting the only moment when Rance wilingly cucked himself which goes against all of his previous actions and the very core of his personality) and also outright replaces the old combat system with a brand new one (just like 01 did). 03 also adds a canon moment when Rance first came up with the now legendary Hyper Weapon nickname! Just to save yourself some patience, look up how to get the Devil Passport early and DO NOT level up until you reach Hyper Tower or later (no, really, I'm being serious. This game is broken).
And by the way. Bird is a major character and is a great foil to Rance, as you might have already noticed. So be prepared to see more of him!
I'm also sorry if my wall of text may have seemed rude to you. I'm an ESL, so I can't really control it.
I actually like wall of text comments because it tells me that people are engaged with the video and that's everything I hope for as a creative person.
Also, I legitimately couldn't tell that you're not a native speaker. Impressive control of the language
@@Adze Thank you! Again, looking forward to future content.
Out of the translated games VI is the one that has the best story just so you know. Looking forward for when you reach there. Kichikuou is pretty good too. III is short and good enough. The dungeon crawling in IV is pretty painful.
Can't wait to hear your thoughts about Rance III
As someone who played through the entire series (and spent a year to learn Japanese for Rance 10), it's great to see someone also going down the same rabbit hole and enjoying the 'setup' of the series. Rance 3's remake is the foundation for things going forward with the setting of the main antagonists and character development (or more importantly VA's for most of the cast).
I really hope you finish the entire series, the more you play (other than 5d and 4.1/4.2) the better it gets with 10 being one of the crowning achievements of VN's, and something that contends with Muv-Luv in terms of scale and execution.
Good video as usual, though I would put the game mechanics behind the story so it's easier as an introduction to the games for a general audience. The game mechanics can get in the way of this series because each game has its own mechanics for each game going forward. Good luck with your journey.
Great video! Although you said you weren't going to learn a new language to play one game of the series, I highly recommend playing Rance 03, it's a remake on par with 01 (Graphically speaking and on writing), I'm playing it with an extension of Textractor that translates the dialogue, and it does a good job at it (with sometimes translating names like Rance to "Lance"), I'm not sure how much they changed the story from Rance III to 03, but so far the story has been way more in-depth and rich than the previous two installments. Hopefully MangaGamer translates it soonish.
series of the year keep it up bro
"I stopped playing Sengoku because I could immediately tell there was a lot of history that I was missing out on"
I definably remember feeling that way. Although, when I played Sengoku back in 2011 none of the other Rance games were translated, and I couldn't yet read Japanese at the time, so I just suffered through it. It's nice that English only people can start at the begging of the story now.
I played original 02. All I can say about the gameplay is that I used Cheat Engine. Regarding the writing, I'm pretty sure on vndb they credited Tori for the writing alongside TADA as series director. Tori is, notably, a woman, and I think that's why they are able to nail struggle snuggle scenes that doesn't feel too scummy. I think that's also why despite Rance being a piece of shit he still come across as likeable - there are certain lines that aren't crossed and there aspects of his personality that's exaggerated that makes him endearing in that asshole kid manner. He's like a cat - you can get mad at him, but he's still a piece of shit that's going to do whatever he wants and you're not getting off the ride just because you know he's a piece of shit. The Sill part was my favorite honestly, I think it was an important that kept Rance the game and the character grounded and likeable to many people despite the things they pulled.
I'm here because someone said Rance is the voice actor of Mori Nagayoshi from fate grand order
loved the video once again. i know where my like is going
this was the weakest game in my opinion due to the gameplay and the story but glad you still enjoyed it mate.
Unfortunately the remake of the next game, 03, is currently not translated so you might have to either skip it or go play the original.
OR you can do what I guess most people did, which is just play the remake in Japanese and read the story up on the Rance wikis at a later time.
due to the importance of the story and its world building, it is not a good idea to skip 03 but going back to the original is just plain hell (at least for me it felt like hell when I played it).
not sure what your gonna do but I'm sure no one's gonna blame you for skipping it for now
anyways, keep up the good videos man.
The plan is to play III. I'm sure it'll be dated as hell, but I can power through
@@Adze definitely play III if you can, a lot happens there, I'm not a fan of machine translation but I'll just say that it's another option in case you want to play 03 and can stand horrible translations (if you check the wiki be very careful with spoilers tho lol, stick to the pages of the games)
or maybe if we're lucky and mangagamer is secretly working on 03 you could play III now and when 03 comes out play that version (it's a really good remake in all aspects)
I don't touch MTL unless it's a game where the story straight-up doesn't matter. I'd imagine 03 will get a translation eventually, but probably not until after they're done with X.
Whenever that gets done, I'll check it out. But I'll definitely be playing III in the meantime
To be honest, I do not care about Rance at all. But you still have great insights that made this video well worth watching.
That was an amazing review you really hit the nail on the head with Rance's assholeness being his greatest power lmao
Okay, i'm too late to comment already and a certain recognizable person named Lemonov has already answered the thing about Rance 02 Kai, but let me clarify a bit further than that (even if you may already know by this point a year already)
As pointed out, Rance 02 Kai is more a faithful remaster than a remake, and it more closely emulates the original old and very dated gameplay, which is why it feels stiff. alongside this, 02 came out earlier, so it was actually like a testing grounds for AliceSoft. to see what the reception for a remake be like. After having retconned a significant aspect of the older games leading upto Kichikuou, with the "new" timelines of Rance starting with Rance 5D, they were testing the water with the remake and fit the new 'canon' timeline with it. But didn't veer to make too much changes and i totally understand not doing that, as it may alienate the old and recurring fans of the series. But upon the positive reaction, they went ahead and we get 01 remake. which is a blast! and you know it, so they do 03. so mechanically 03 is the most polished of the remakes, while 02 is the least. presumably, an 04 remake might happen at some point but unsure yet, as new AliceSoft projects are heading in a different direction
But! This actually means several things in fact.
First, it explains why you felt as if the 02 remake was really jarring tone-wise. And it's because the script is super old, and largely unchanged. the old TADA writing for the series was actually kinda like this, and he even addresses it in 01's Alice's Mansion, as he stated his old writing style is really so unimpressive to him now. Of course he grew with time and experience, but he advised the 01 team on how to tackle the original script and make changes, which was then supplement by a team of both new and somewhat experienced already Devs for the franchise. This is largely polished in 03, in fact, which saw huge revamps to the story pacing and even adding in some new character who were never mentioned or seen before in the storyline (even if they were technically present in kichikuou spiritually, with a different character/design aspect).
Also on that note, while yes Rance 03/III is like the major start of the whole worldbuilding aspect of the franchise, already by II they were setting up themes. As setting up the existence of Kathom (which is the name of "Custom" in the original fan translation) and the 4 witches, as well as the hub for magic potency, Bird's character introduction and more... yeah i'd say this was a start of many things as well. They just leaned very heavily into it with III and by the time IV came around, really tying up a massive section of the continent together.
As for Rance and Sill seemingly splitting up so many times in the series, it was actually intentional, as it's intended to make Sill have a more noticeable presence whenever she is around, as opposed to having her following Rance always which would lessen her impact to the player, like the usual best friend/ally to protagonist in JRPGs goes. Though honestly, i feel it's more or less that the writing during the original games had no idea what to do with her all of the time, so they settled with having her do like her own sidegig, often to comedic nature. this is even more noticeable in original II's writing as Sill felt like a pop-in character at times. However, as they learnt how to craft the narrative, and alongside with it, develop Rance's character emotionally over the series, they learnt how to handle her better. To the point where in 4.1 and 4.2 it doesn't really detract from Sill being not 'there'.
However, this is even more funnier, since you stated you played a bit of Sengoku, which is like a focal point of the relationship between Rance and Sill. because spoiler spoiler reasons i can't say (unless you already know), Rance really gets impacted a lot from all of the moments of interactions between them two in the previous games, up until this point in time. Which strike out particularly well, because even if Sill isn't always physically besides Rance in all of these games, just her mere existence somewhat tames his wild child side down and is a latch-on point for Rance to rely on at the end of the day, regardless of how good or bad things goes. Sill not being there with Rance just emphasizes how brutish he can be, as he, even if doesn't openly or even internally admit it... as time goes on, tries to hold himself back a little with Sill's presence around. and i think the older games unintentionally portrays that very well, as Sill is usually not present when Rance is doing his most heinous acts, or just really really acting wild!
Also speaking of which, Rance 02 has that jank about Rance's character as you noticed, primarily because of the remaking of 01 which you experiences beforehand. The Rance portrayed in the older games is really brutal and far far more cruel. This continues upto Kichikuou. But after AliceSoft, realizing they weren't going to go bankrupt, and working on the new Rance follow-up, started to somewhat tone Rance's brutality down. This works in both ways, as making this be the case in this slightly altered "new canon" worldline, but also as if to show that Rance is truly maturing as a person as the games go (in some aspects atleast). You probably already noticed it by now, having played the III and IV games, as to the tonal difference between the modern day Rance feel and the older Rance. he feels more of a brute there, but slowly coming to ease up a bit (a large part due to the various women he meets and interacts with throughout his journeys, especially going on from Rance Quest and forward)
And lastly, that point you made about Bird is spot on! He is exactly a trope of the goody-two shoes rpg protagonists, made askew in usual alicesoft manner, as in he feels entitled to have a romantic relationships with women partners, especially if one is in his "party" so to speak. a subversion of the good guy trope, where he is such a "nice guy" that he starts to develop a bit of god complex that he 'thinks' he is just super duper nice, but just comes off as super pushy and overconfident (which is also why he thinks he can take on Ran, thinking she can be taken care of as she is a woman, as in... less likely of a threat to bird and can possibly be charmed over, atleast in his eyes... and his overconfidence gets his fucking arm chopped off). and yes, this will actually come back to be of actual note, as Bird shows up in the story more and more, and even gains somewhat substantial plot relevance at the latter half of the series. This game was basically a setup to his character, an introduction to the conflict between him and Rance that would go on for SUCH A LONG TIME! Basically the entirety of this game itself, a setup to a larger role in a later installment.
...hoyl shit that textwall is insane! i always start with trying to make my points concise and clear, before trying to bring out longer texts to explain what i mean and this huge mess ALWAYS happens! sorry if that was a slog to read through, but i hope you can decipher what i was trying to mean there. and if you did, thank you for taking time to read this, whoever you may be.
As for OP, very interested to see you cover the latter half of the Rance titles, as i feel that it is at that point they truly diverge into radically changing up so much between each game that it just becomes a masterpiece each and everytime. 👍here's to more rance shenanigans
>Complains about Rance and Sill having to spend time apart
"Oh boy, you've got a storm comin'"
Will you consider playing and reviewing the original Rance III? Since the 03 remake isn't translated yet. According to VNDB it is longer than 02 Kai but shorter than Rance 01.
That video is actually almost done. I do plan to go through all the games that are currently translated (as well as IX and Showdown once they get their English releases).
I'm still kinda tickled that the medicine in the game is just flat out named Ibuprofen. Lol. That's like, Tylenol, if that wasn't completely obvious to everyone
nice video and good job explaining it. I am looking forward to play the games more in the end of the year, when i will have more free time, and i kinda want to know. How much time do you spend on each game? I possible i think this could be an interesting thing to have in the script for future videos.
Rance 01 is 10-15 hours long and Rance 02 is 7-10 hours long.
Original Rance 3 is 11-12 hours long.
The remake of Rance 03(which isn't translated yet) is 40-50 hours long
"Ok so hear me out"
Amo tu voz.
Nice! Could youz maybe review bunny black? it is an tactical eroge rpg also with rapey content and i am curious what you think of it
it returns!
Rance III review when?
Working on it
Bro grate video
comment to boost youtube stuff
Yea boi.Do a false myth review.
a 41some?! who does he think he is, Annabel Chong?!
What can I say? The man's got that hentai protagonist stamina
Worst game of series
It's a close call, but I think Rance I and 4.1/2 are worse on a gameplay level
That was an amazing review you really hit the nail on the head with Rance's assholeness being his greatest power lmao