Rance (series)

"In an Era of Chaos and Destruction...

The world needed a hero But... He who possessed the talents of a hero... Was a selfish man A perverted man. A violent man. He wasn't anything you could call heroic in any sense."

- Rance IV - Collapse of Zeth, Rance IV -Collapse of Zeth opening

The Rance series, by Alice Soft, is one of the oldest on-going H-game franchises and one of the oldest series of the EasternRPG genre (released in 1989). It is notable for having one continuous story among the main series of games (with a few If Routes and Spin-Off games on the side) despite the age of the series. One of those Spin Off games, Kichikuou Rance, was released in 1996 and still is one the best selling H-game of all time.

Unlike most Heroic Fantasy protagonists, the main goal of Rance is to screw as many hot women as physically possible with the help of his faithful slave Sill -- preferably consensually, although Rance does have a loose definition of "consensual". If he needs to slay some random Big Bad or Demon Overlord and save entire countries to do so, he'll gladly do it, since the forces of evil will probably have some hot women to rape anyways. Besides, even if the man in question is a Heroic Comedic Sociopath, women love a man who saves the world once in a while. Not to mention that it makes for a more interesting story to have such a morally ambiguous protagonist.

It should be noted that despite the protagonist's dubious motivation, he actually does save and improve the lives of many of the Loads and Loads of Characters he meets along the way and is actually good for the Crap Saccharine World. In A World so full of cynicism because of sadistic JerkassGods and Corrupt Politicians, the idealistic (yet Ambiguious Innocent) Hedonist with a penchant for Brutal Honesty can actually be the good guy.

Games in the series
Rance Series
 * Rance I
 * Rance II
 * Rance III
 * 'Rance IV
 * Rance 4.1
 * Rance 4.2
 * Kichikuou Rance (A Spinoff If Route and not Canon)
 * Rance 5D
 * Rance VI
 * Sengoku Rance (Rance VII)
 * Rance Quest (Rance VIII)
 * Rance Quest Magnum

For more in-depth information on this game franchise, please visit our sister wiki.

(of the East Germany national anthem) for My Glorious Days. A version of this song has been present since Rance II
 * Adventure Game: The first few games mix this genre with Role Playing Game.
 * Anime of hhe Game: It's a Hentai for obvious reasons.
 * Affectionate Parody: Of Ys. It's painfully obvious when you take note of when each game came out, and the fact Rance even rapes the girlfriends of his world's "Red headed hero" at one point.
 * Rance Quest is a painfully obvious parody of Dragon Quest IX, right down to the logo.
 * At times, the Rance series is so affectionate, that it ends up being a straight example.
 * All There In The Manual: The Ranceverse is a surprisingly well-detailed place. Most of the extra details, like Rance's backstory and the world timeline, are from Alicesoft's (now discontinued) official magazine Hanihon, and the current official blog.
 * Art Evolution: In the earlier games, Rance was a bishonen who went Gonk when he had perverted thoughts (which was often). Later games improved the art and the look of the character, making his looks more accurately reflect his personality The evolution is made much more apparent when comparing Rance II to its remake.
 * For reference, here's an image of Rance's evolution up to Sengoku.
 * As Long As It Sounds Foreign: Justified since the game takes place in a different universe, but some of the names can get ridiculous.
 * Aerith and Bob: We have names like Alex and Rick, and Japanese names like Kanami and Shizuka alongside names like Ragnarockark Super Gandhi.
 * Audience Alienating Premise: The protagonist is a Jerkass who isn't beyond resorting to rape on his Quest for Sex. Needless to say, there's a lot more to it than that.
 * Backstory: Immense!, especially when compared to contemporary Role Playing Games. The Eternal Heroes are especially important.
 * Balance Between Good and Evil: The minor gods (and Ludo-Rathowm himself) maintain this at all costs, mainly because they think a world where no one suffers is boring. By Rance Quest Magnum,
 * Battle Harem: When the main character is a Harem Seeker in a World Of Badass, this is inevitable.
 * Broad Strokes: Later games in the series borrow many events from the non-canon Kichikuou Rance, but the details are changed around a bit.
 * One example of this can be seen in the difference between Oda Nobunaga in Kichikuou Rance and him in Sengoku Rance. In Sengoku, . In Kichikuou,.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Most of the really strong people in the series (i.e. people with at least a Level 2 in something) have some sort of odd quirk.
 * Call a Smeerp A Rabbit: "Cows" in this series are basically unicorns that go "nya".
 * Cerebus Rollercoaster: And how! No matter how serious a Rance game gets, there will always be Black Comedy Rape.
 * Character Level: In order to level up, one must gain a certain amount of ExperiencePoints then summon the Level Goddess. Furthermore, if one procrastinates for too long, they can level down based on how fast they can gain levels. This is used to justify why Rance is not level 99 at the beginning of a new game.
 * Of course, Levels actually mean something about a person's skill in-universe. Someone who reaches only level 10 is essentially average, but has some type of defined skill. If you reach level 20, you're the equivalent of graduating first in your class. Level 30 only occurs in 1 in a thousand people. Level 40 occurs only in 1 of ten thousand, and at that point you are considered a historical prodigy at your skill. The fact that Rance has no level cap, along with not knowing his parents,
 * Not only that, his infinite level cap has been proven to be hereditary,.
 * Skill Levels have a purpose in-universe as well. Most people are Level 0 or 1 in a skill, which is unskilled and average to moderately skilled, respectively. Level 2 is a master at the skill, one of the best in the world. Level 3 is a near-unheard of godlike skill. If you are Level 3, no one is capable of matching you in that skill. It's so powerful in fact that people who have reached Level 3 Magic in history have a tendency to explode from sheer magical overload. No one has ever reached Swordsman Level 3, not even Rance.
 * Comedic Sociopathy.
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Leazas's Armies.
 * The Red Corps specializes in offense.
 * The Blue Corps specializes in defense.
 * The White Corps specializes in strategy.
 * The Purple Corps specializes in magic.
 * The Gold Corps is the Queen's personal body guard.
 * The Black Corps is the main bulk of the forces and is headed by the Commander in Chief, General Bales.
 * When Rance becomes king in Kichikuou Rance, he heads the Green Corps.
 * Conservation of Ninjutsu: The idea behind how Demons are made in this world. There are only a limited amount of demons the Demon King can make, and the more demons there are, the weaker all of them will be.
 * Continuity Porn: It's a Long Runner with Loads and Loads of Characters. Heck, there might be as much continuity porn in this series as there is actual porn.
 * Crapsaccharine World: Sure, the Rance World looks like a typical Medieval European Fantasy, but due to the gods, devils, demons, and monsters, the occasional Deadly Decadent Court, and the Heroic Comedic Sociopath protagonist who is an Anti Hero at best it's not an ideal place to live in.
 * And remember that said Anti Hero has probably made the world a better place than before. Before Rance came along:
 * Smart, pretty girl in Leazas? Enjoy studying in a prestigious academy.
 * A young virgin in Custom with significant magical power? Here, have this ring.
 * Living in Zeth, but have no magical power to speak of? Congratulations, have fun living your life as a slave.
 * JAPAN? Plagued by earthquakes and home to a really, really pissed off demon.
 * Crosses the Line Twice: Much of the humor is relies on rape and the eponymous protagonist being a Jerk Ass (though if he does occasionally have his Pet the Dog moments)
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Triples as Leitmotif and Real Song Theme Tune
 * The Rance games have had at least one other incredible piece starting from Kichikuou.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: The AL Church, Creepy Cool Crosses and all. They worship the goddess ALICE, who is entirely separate from Alice-chan.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Rance has screwed 80% of them. He plans to complete the list.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: Prominent even if Rance isn't around.
 * Deconstructive Parody: This series is an unusual example. It's difficult to tell if it's an Affectionate Parody that's an Indecisive Deconstruction, a true Deconstructive Parody, or one really weird straight example of the Medieval European Fantasy Eastern RPG. Part of this is because of the Cerebus Rollercoaster.
 * Deus Sex Machina: Rape can be used to create love, redemption, or as an extortion tactic.
 * Eastern RPG.
 * The Epic: The Rance Series is essentially one long heroic epic about Rance, in the more classical Greek definition of "epic"
 * Everything's Better With Princesses: Especially sex.
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
 * Leazas is based on Britain since it's ruled by a queen whose ambition is to Take Over The World. Also,.
 * Helman is a northern empire that broke up due to a revolution, the largest human country in the Rance World, currently in poverty and with very well-built soldiers. It's Russia.
 * Zeth has a caste-like system and is ruled by Ragnarokack Super Gandhi. It's probably India, although it does borrow elements from France because of the Maginot Line and  the presence of extremist revolutionaries.
 * The Free Cities is based on Germany during the 'Biedermeier' period.
 * This explains why Rance's Leitmotif is a remix of the East German National Anthem.
 * JAPAN is based on Japan or more specifically Jidai Geki Japan.
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: And how!
 * Black And White Magic: Magic and Divine Magic respectively. Most magic users of the Rance world can only use Magic, but a few can use Divine Magic. Most Divine Magic users are nuns or priests of the AL Church. JAPAN has its own unique brand of magic; see Vancian Magic below.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: The AL Church and the AL religion.
 * Elemental Powers: Magic comes in five elements: Fire Ice Lightning, Light and Dark.
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Tenshi Sect for Buddhism.
 * Human Aliens: Rance has sex with one and saves the Rance World from an alien invasion because she fell in love with him.
 * Humanoid Aliens: Megallas of the Hols species is a demon.
 * Instant Awesome Just Add Ninja: Despite most of the game taking place in a Medieval European Fantasy, Kanami, a female ninja, is a major reoccurring character.
 * Eventually justified by her actually being from JAPAN.
 * Jerkass Gods: The Whale God, Ludo-Rathowm, the creator of the Ranceverse and where all souls originate from, is childish and loves chaos, so he created flaws within humanity for its own amusement. The Three Supreme Gods created by the Whale God are not much better. Incidentally, if the Rance World is ever united under a single leader and the Balance Between Good And Evil is broken, like in Kichikuou Rance,
 * Planner created both the Guardian Hero of the World System and the Demon King, presumably just to cause chaos. He also happens to be a Jerkass Genie.
 * Harmonitt created the lower level gods and the Kalar race. He knows where the Devil King lives, but doesn't tell the other gods For The Lulz.
 * Roven Plan created the Main Character races, so that the conflict between them and the demons could cause pain and suffering.
 * Magitek: There is a rare and highly difficult form of magic called Information Magic, which emulates a computer. However, you still need some brainpower in the form of actual monster brains.
 * Our Angels Are Different: They are considered lower tier gods.
 * Our Demons Are Different: And how! To be fair, it's less confusing in the original Japanese.
 * There are devils which are the direct enemies of the gods and use Faustian deals to gather souls for the Devil King.
 * Demons serve the Demon King who was created by the Planner to create suffering through their battles with humanity. The official translation for them is Dark Lord though this was mostly ignored.
 * Lastly, there are Youkai (which aren't really demons, but are often translated as such) which live in JAPAN.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: The King Dragon is a cat!
 * Our Elves Are Different: The Kalar, an all-female race of blue-haired elves. According to a memo from the chief staff, one of the members really liked elves, and another hated traditional fantasy creatures, so they reached a compromise using Insistent Terminology.
 * Kalar can become angels or devils when they die. One Kalar even became a (male) demon.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: Before you ask, no, Rance can't have sex with them... usually. He did have sex with one, but she didn't even know she was a spirit and other special circumstances behind her manifestation.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: There are zombie dragons flying around and occasionally, people do get resurrected as one. Rance had sex with the in Rance Quest, but that was sadly off screen.
 * Petting Zoo People:
 * Reincarnation.
 * Robots: Rance has a Sexbot.
 * Santa Claus: Thunder Claus. He saves people for a fee and uses that money to buy presents for everyone. He also happens to be a robot. Rance is one of the few adults who believes in his existence.
 * Schizo-Tech: A nuclear lamp in an era where Heroes Prefer Swords? What.
 * Not to mention the muskets in the JidaiGeki setting of JAPAN were actually based off of bazookas.
 * Space Whale: Ludo-Rathowm himself.
 * Vancian Magic: The Diviners of JAPAN who use Paper Talismans.
 * Youkai: They live in JAPAN. Most of them are represented in the Rance series including Kappa, Kitsune, and Tanuki.
 * Fan Translation: Approved by Alice Soft themselves. They even have specified some English terms they wanted fan translators to use, e.g. Dark Lord, though they were ignored by most translators. The current translator for Rance 5D and Rance 6, however, plans to use them.
 * Fetish Retardant: Some players will be too busy laughing or  awed by the sex scenes to actually be aroused by them. Part of this is due to the Awesome Music that plays during most of them and the resulting Soundtrack Dissonance.
 * Four Is Death: The number tends to pop up a lot in this series.
 * Four Holy Beasts holding up the world.
 * Four Holy Monstergirls.
 * Four major human countries.
 * Four (former) witches of Custom.
 * Four Heavenly Lords of Zeth.
 * Four Apostles of Xavier.
 * Four generals of Takeda.
 * Four Demon Lords.
 * Four archbishops of the AL Church.
 * Gameplay Roulette: The Videogame Genres of the games in the main Rance Series varies quite a bit.
 * Genius Bonus: How else would you recognize all the Shout-Outs?
 * God And Satan Are Both Jerks: The Whale God wants the world to suffer for its amusement. The Devil King wants to take the Whale God's place by stealing the souls in the world. No matter who wins, the world will still suck.
 * Grandfather Clause: Every single game in this series is unvoiced for this reason, which would be quite odd if it were any other H-game series.
 * Also the reason why the some games have people under the age of 20 having sex.
 * The hyper weapon was probably a way to get around censorship at the time, but it stuck, considering how in-character it was for Rance.
 * Guide Dang It: Good luck trying to play without a walkthrough.
 * H Game.
 * Heroic Fantasy: The Ranceverse as a whole is this. The games themselves vary between this and Low Fantasy.
 * Insistent Terminology: Rance will always refers to his genitials as his "hyper weapon"
 * Invincible Hero: An interesting variation. Rance himself is not this, but the Hero character chosen by the Guardian Hero of the World System is. He is capable of killing even the three Supreme Gods but has a Power Limiter based on the current population of the Rance World.
 * Leaning On The Fourth Wall: Everyone is aware of the concept of Character Level and Experience Points, a lot of characters are Genre Savvy, and occasionally, someone outright breaks the fourth wall.
 * Loads And Loads Of Characters: To be expected of a Long Runner. Here's a relationship chart for up to Sengoku Rance that's been partially translated. Not that it will help...
 * Updated Character Chart as of Rance Quest Magnum. At least the status of the character is in English.
 * Long Runner: Only two years younger than FinalFantasy. And the original storyline is still on-going!!
 * Love Can Make You Gonk: Rance turns ugly in the earlier games whenever he thinks about sex. (Later games give him a fixed appearance that's a hybrid of his two earlier looks.)
 * The Magocracy: Zeth. Slightly less so after The Fall of Zeth (aka Rance VI), but it is still mainly ruled by magic-users.
 * Mascot Mook: The Hannies, complete with CatchPhrase. "Aiyaaaa!"
 * Meaningful Name: The Maginot Line in Zeth. It even has the same shape as the real-life Maginot Line, albeit with the invading and defending sides switched. Like its namesake, it was built to be near-impenetrable against strong invading forces,
 * Medieval European Fantasy: The series is either a Indecisive Deconstruction or an Indecisive Parody of the genre. It's hard to tell.
 * Magnum Opus: A definite one for Alicesoft. Kichikuou Rance is an example within this series, essentially being an H-Game based on world domination.
 * Most Writers Are Male: Averted. One of the major scenario writers is female. Even though Tori retired in April 10, 2009, that still means she was involved in every Rance Series game up to and including Sengoku Rance.
 * Nigh Invulnerable: Whoever is the current Demon King gets what is known as an invincibility field, which does just what it implies. The only way to get through it is by either waiting until their reign is over and they choose a successor (prepare for a long wait, their reign tends to last a thousand years), or use one of the weapons that was once one of the Eternal Heroes.
 * Fellow Dark Lords, as well as Devils, can naturally shatter the Demon King's barrier (it's implied that dragons can too) because of their origin. Even if Rance didn't have Chaos, he has the Devil Feliss under his thrall.
 * Nintendo Hard: Occasionally, but especially if one tries to get a Hundred-Percent Completion.
 * No Export For You: For "political incorrectness". Alice Soft even blocked off their website from computers outside Japan!
 * Fortunately, there is an ongoing project by the Fan Translation group HGTP to translate the older Rance games to English. As of this time, Rance 1, Rance II, and Sengoku Rance (by Yandere Translations) have been translated.
 * That being said, AliceSoft is obviously aware of Sengoku Rance's popularity among the US visual novel community, if the questionaire at the end of the Rance Quest demo is any indication.
 * And it certainly hasn't stopped them from pretending.
 * Obviously Evil: Many demons, but Kayblis takes the cake. His six claws, four horns, and monster-like body already make it obvious, but since this is a HGame Franchise, he has eight of "that" type of appendage.
 * And they're razor-sharp and as thick as a torso.
 * Oddly Named Sequel: Rance 5D (There were Rance games 5A-C, but none of them were released), Sengoku Rance and Rance Quest (The number of the game usually appears as a subtitle, thus averting Sequel Number Snarl).
 * Older Than They Think: Since the first Fan Translated game is SengokuRance (Rance 7), many will be surprised to learn that the Rance Series has been around since 1989. Not to mention the games the series itself was  spun off from, Little Princess and Little Vampire, which were made in 1987 and 1988 respectively. Which effectively makes the series as old if not older than Final Fantasy. The first was released in 1987 as well.
 * Path Of Inspiration: Both major religions are this. The Tenshi Sect . The AL Church may seem fairly benign in comparison (maintaining the Balance Between Good And Evil,) but "good" in this case refers to a Jerkass God, and.
 * People Farms: Demon King Gele built this for a very specific purpose: the Hero of the world's power (specifically, the limiters on his sword) rise the less people there are left in the world, and thus the greater danger to mankind's extinction. With the farms, Gele ensured that the human population would always stay high and thus the Hero's power would stay relatively weak (though she didn't count on someone else beating her in the Hero's stead).
 * Porn With Plot: Sure, the Rance games often have more porn than even a Porn Without Plot Eroge, but the plot can reach even Final Fantasy levels of quality despite the many tropes on this page that would suggest otherwise.
 * Power Of Love: Almost always subverted for any of The Four Loves. Rape is a much more effective plot device in the Ranceverse.
 * Precursors: Two different groups! . While both of them still have living members, their status as the Main Character Race in the world has been taken over by humans.
 * Purely Aesthetic Era: It's a Medieval European Fantasy... Theoretically, at least.
 * Rape Tropes: Almost all of them are played straight or Played With. Even the ones that contradict each other. The only one that is explicitly averted is Rape Is A Special Kind Of Evil.
 * Real Song Theme Tune: My Glorious Days is a remix of East Germany's national anthem for no discernible reasons other than Rule Of Funny, Rule Of Cool, or Genius Bonus.
 * Refuge In Audacity.
 * The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: In Rance 6, the Ice Flame group lead by the (formerly) IllGirl Uruza when Zeth discriminated people who could use magic and people who could not.
 * Roaring Rampage Of Rescue: A few of the games start off as this, although Rance usually takes a few detours.
 * Role Playing Game.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: The only aversion was Lia's father, but he was forced to retire and make Lia the queen of Leazas. He and his wife even lampshaded their incompetence.
 * Shout-Out: We'd be here for a very long while if we listed every single Shout Out this series has ever used. From anime to old video games and baseball to World War II, Alicesoft certainly liked their references.
 * Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The Rance World as a whole is heavily cynical, but the actions of Rance push it ever so slowly towards idealism. Basically, Rance manages to make the Crapsack World less terrible because he is so Crazy Awesome.
 * Sliding Scale Of Silliness Versus Seriousness: It's a series where you rape women to this, how can it not be silly? Though the series does start having more serious moments later on when we start seeing the Crapsack World elements.
 * Spell My Name With An S: Averted with Rance, but played straight with almost every other character.
 * Spin Off: The series itself was spun-off from two games starring Kentarou and Miki called Little Princess and Little Vampire. Spin-offs of this series include the Toushin Toshi series and Galzoo Island.
 * Squick: Due to the series penchant for Playing To The Fetishes being turned Up To Eleven most of the time, this is a common reaction for some patrons of the series.
 * Supporting Harem: No matter how many women Rance encounters on his journey, Sill will always be his favourite whether he admits it or not.
 * Theme Naming: Holy Skeletal Fighting Marshals are named after famous people in Nazi Germany.
 * They Just Didn't Care: About the design of any Non-Cute Monster Girl Random Encounter. To quote TADA,
 * We here at Alicesoft will maintain this half-assed policy on monster designs.
 * Troperrific.
 * The Reason You Suck Speech: Rance delivers an epic one to Arios in their duel in Kichikuou.
 * Rance: I have beaten you, Arios. You have seen what your body is like, and your mind is in the same state: bruised, broken, bleeding, and soon to be DEAD! And the most delicious part of it, you know it was me! You watched as I tore down your world around you, and you watch as I take what little left you have: your life. But, since I'm not one for big speeches, this is the last thing you'll hear: I win. Gahahaha!
 * Useless Useful Spell: The series as a whole averts this trope.
 * Vestigial Empire: Helman, which Rance 9 will take place in. It used to be a rather large country, until its more fertile region past the mountains split from it and became Leazas. Now the people are in poverty while the Deadly Decadent Court hold on to their massive fortune.
 * Visual Novel: While vndb.org considers them as such and the series uses many Visual Novel Tropes, the games of this series are more like other types of VideoGames than Visual Novels even if they still do have a lot of text. Many people who don't like Visual Novels like the Rance Series for this reason.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: If someone becomes a Demon King, they tend to go evil and berserk to better fulfill his duty to cause chaos and entertain the Whale God. This happens to a lesser extent if one becomes a demon, but it is more of a release of inhibitions than obligatory evil.
 * This also happens when one tries to wield Chaos for too long. Rance is immune to his effects, however.
 * World Of Badass: From Rance himself to the King of Zeth, King Ragnarockark Super Gandhi, to even the Token Mini Moe, there are a lot of Badasses in the Rance World.
 * You Kill It, You Bought It: Demon King Gi got the job after defeating the previous DK Gele.