Rance: Quest for Hikari



Rance: Quest for Hikari is the first game in the long-running Rance series made by AliceSoft in 1989. It is an Adventure Game with RPG Elements.

The story follows Rance, a mercenary working for the Keith Guild. His current job is to find out what happened to Hikari Bran, a young student kidnapped by ninjas. With his faithful slave Sill, Rance has to rescue the missing girl before it's too late.

The game can be found with a Fan Translation here.


 * Affectionate Parody: This game lampoons pretty much every ancient RPG trope it can get its hands on.
 * Anti-Hero: Rance outrights rapes random women.
 * Anticlimax Boss: The thieves' lader in the Thieves' Lair has low accuracy and his attacks who do land maybe hilariously low damage. A random monster which will you find in the dungeon can be harder than him. His only advantage is that he is quick and therefore he dodges a lot of attacks, but you can make much more damage on him.
 * Ascended Extra: A literal case with the nameless girl who runs the level shop. After this game, she becomes a series regular as Level Goddess Willis.
 * Bait and Switch: Rance seems like he is going to try to comfort a man imprisoned in cement in the Thieves' Lair. But his comfort is to say which he only rescues' girls, what only drives the man further in despair.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:.
 * The Cameo: Miki appears from AliceSoft's earlier Little Princess series.
 * Chainmail Bikini: Lampshaded. Rance mentions it can't offer much protection, making him impressed Yuran is the best gladiator around wearing it.
 * Chain of Deals: You need to trade a straw for a mandarin, which gets you a key. Rance lampshades the oddness of it.
 * Degraded Boss: Type A. A thief who you defeat to access the stairs in the Thieves' Lair becomes a recurring enemy in the exact same dungeon.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: In this game, Rance could both learn magic (from H-ing Sill) and equip shields. He also lacks his Rance Attack among other unique features.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Lia is far more efficient at running the country than her parents.
 * Face Heel Turn: Raping a hostage in the thieves' lair makes Rance decide to become a full-time criminal. That generates an early bad ending.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: The man trapped in cement.
 * He is actually
 * God Save Us From the Queen:
 * Gladiator Subquest
 * Guide Dang It: Knowing what spells to get from Sill. Also, much of the game itself, considering how it's an old Adventure Game.
 * Hero with an F In Good: Not only Rance rapes girls, his idea of kindness when he finds a man he can't help is Cruel To Be Kind, driving the subject further in despair.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Hikari was kidnapped by female ninjas.
 * Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Game: No, the girl on the box isn't Hikari. Nor is she any other character you see in the game.
 * Law of Conservation of Detail: This is Princess Lia. These are Lia's parents. No guesses for who's more plot-important.
 * Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Missing student -->
 * Morality Pet: Sill is the one of the few things standing between Rance and a complete loss of any morals.
 * No Fourth Wall: Rance actually addresses the player during an H-scene, along with the below example.
 * No Name Given:
 * The girl in the level shop, who says it's because the authors got lazy.
 * Several other unimportant NPCs outright break the fourth wall or lean on it by saying their names don't matter.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: If you decide to assault the girl in the Thieves' Cave, Rance will decide that Being Good Sucks and join the thieves.
 * Out with a Bang: Maris attempts to do this to Rance, but fails.
 * Pooled Funds: In the ending, Rance takes a bath in his 20,000 gold reward, while lampshading how painful it is.
 * Put on a Bus: Yuran Mirage, who never made any future appearances until Rance Quest, over 20 years later.
 * Hikari herself makes her first reappearance in the expansion pack,
 * Refuge in Audacity: Setting the standard for future games. The "Assault" option on the menu is the least of them all.
 * Signature Move: Yuran's Illusion Sword.
 * Standard Hero Reward: Played with. After raping the princess, Rance is later informed that the person who takes the princess's virginity has to marry her. Of course, he and Sill make a quick escape before that happens.
 * Town with a Dark Secret:
 * Wham! Episode: The mansion.