The country of Nippon is a floating, island-nation separated from the rest of the Continent in the Far East. It is connected to Portugal of the Free Cities Alliance, through the Tenma Bridge. Due to the presence of the Holy Beast Orochi hiding in the island, the country is also filled with mysterious and humanoid creatures named Youkai.

The main political system is a feudal one, with each Lord ruling provinces. But at times, when the country is not united under a single leader, it enters into a "Sengoku Era" where every Clan is fighting each other to gain territory and trying to unify Nippon. The events of Sengoku Rance starts during the 4th Sengoku Era, when Rance joins the Oda Clan to become their secret ruler.

Central Nippon Clans

Oda Clan

The feudal Clan Rance joins at the beginning of the game. They used to have the greatest number of territories, but since the death of the previous Lord in the Great Youkai War, they only have the province of Owari left. Its current leader is Oda Nobunaga (although Rance leads the Clan from the shadows).

Nobunaga Oda / Kazusanosuke

The actual Head of the Oda Clan, he decided to give the reins to Rance as he proved himself to be the next ruler of Nippon. Once a former warlord and Oda's most skilled swordsman, he retired from battle due to sickness and prefers to spend time with his sister Kou in their dango cafe.

Tropes exhibited by Nobunaga include:

Adaptational Heroism: He's considerably nicer than his real life and Kichikuou Rance counterpart.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Gives one to Kou to tease her, or whenever she gets depressed.
Big Brother Instinct: Managed to hold Xavier's possession for some time, especially when his sister is concerned.
Celibate Hero: He doesn't want to have a new relationship, out of love for his late wife Oda Kichou.
Continuity Nod: Gets mentionned in Rance IX as part of the Twelve Knights, a ideal group of twelve men chosen by the Witch Miracle.
Cool Big Bro: To Kou.
Counter Attack: Combining his Sword Combat and his Jiujitsu make him able to deal powerful counters.
Cutting Off the Branches: While it is possible to save him from his fate on New Game+, the canon route ends with his death.
Demonic Possession: Xavier gradually takes over his body over the course of Sengoku Rance.
Demoted to Extra: After his possession is completely prevented when starting the Monkeyslayer route, he appears much less in scenes, due to the fact that a large portion of the scenes he appears in during the course of the game occur after he has gotten possessed.
Dying as Yourself: During the final battle, he regains control of his body long enough for Rance to kill him and Xavier.
Everything's Better with Monkeys: One of the few inverted tropes that happen in media. The presence of his monkey pet Toukichirou is what caused the events of the Official History.
- Played straight in the Monkeyslayer route however, where his originial pet monkey gets killed by Rance and Suzume and gets replaced with a similar-looking one. Oda himself is not fooled, as revealed in the ending of the route.
Grand Theft Me: His body is taken over by Xavier after the latter was unsealed by his monkey pet. While he managed to fight off the possession at first, he disappears entirely following the attack on Honnoji Temple.
Heroic Sacrifice: Uses his last bit of strength to impale himself (and by extension, Xavier) with his own sword during the attack on Honnoji Temple.
Historical Villain Upgrade: Entirely subverted until he's taken over by Xavier, but it can be Double Subverted on several non-canon routes.
- Played straight for his Kichikuou Rance counterpart, where he instead overrides Xavier's will and plans to take on the Continent.
Horrible Judge of Character: Zig-zagged, he thinks Rance is a good man, but he and his sister end up bringing out Rance's best side.
Jack-of-All-Trades: He possesses several useful Skills showing he was not a former warlord for nothing: Sword Combat, Bow Combat, Jiujitsu and Cooking.
Ill Boy: Has suffered all his life from weak health and illness, which worsens as Xavier's influence increases.
Marry for Love: Chose to marry his servant Kichou out of love for her despite the shame it brought upon the Oda Clan.
Master Swordsman: Despite his health, his skill with a katana is inhuman, and he effortlessly beats Rance in a friendly duel at one point. However, immediately afterward he had to go rest from the exertion. This skill is why Miracle Tou wants him for her dream team of warriors.
Meaningful Rename: Nobunaga was his father's name, which he took upon becoming head. His birth name was Kazusanosuke.
My Greatest Failure: Having his wife Kichou getting killed while she protected him from an assassination.
My Sister Is Off-Limits!: States to Rance that as long as he's alive, he will not have Kou's virginity even for several years. Xavier consenting to this is one of the first clues that tips Rance that something is wrong.
Nice Guy: One of the few people nice enough to tolerate Rance despite his antics, and partly influenced him to be nicer.
No Body Left Behind: After his death, all that remains is a lock of hair, due to Xavier's being Deader Than Dead.
Odd Friendship: With Rance, shockingly enough.
Retired Badass: Actually beats Rance in one-on-one duels.
Retirony: Gets possessed by the Fiend Xavier, who was sealed in a gourd, but it can be averted on certains routes.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The Savvy Guy to his wife Kichou's Energetic.
Supreme Chef: His skills as a dango maker are praised by every customer of his dango cafe, even Rance. Having the Cooking Skill does help.
Tragic Keepsake: A lock of his hair was buried along with his late wife, after the events of Sengoku Rance.
Unexpected Successor: Due his weak body and timed demeanor, he was never expected to succeed his father as the head of the Oda Clan. Then his father and older brother died in battle and Nobunaga found himself in change.
Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: He defeated Rance (armed with Chaos) in a spar with sheer skill and a wooden sword.

Kou "Kouhime" Oda

The next successor in line for the Oda Clan, and the little sister of Nobunaga Oda. She's 12 years old by the time of Sengoku Rance and is the main reason Rance travelled all the way to Nippon, even though "he has to wait until she grows up".

Tropes exhibited by Kou include:

100% Adoration Rating: She's loved by every member of the Oda Clan.
Adorably Precocious Child: Following the events of Sengoku Rance, she becomes the Empress of Nippon and has to act more mature than her actual age.
Abdicate the Throne: She eventually abdicate the title in favor of Isoroku's son, Rangi.
Badass Princess: Becomes one in the climax of Sengoku Rance.
Battle Ballgown: As a playable character in Sengoku Rance and Rance Quest, downplayed in Rance X.
Break the Cutie: The events of Sengoku Rance are incredibly cruel to her. She gets better eventually, partly thanks to Rance of all people, who acts as her late brother replacement.
Boring, but Practical: Her character card in Rance X in a nutshell. While she only has a 1 AP attack and a passive effect, said passive has 20% chance of raising your attack power by 10% for each time it is casted, and her attack is her "killer dango" which is one of the most reliable way to inflict Poison to your opponents.
The Cutie: Able to win everyone's approval in the clan with little effort.
Does Not Like Men: Justified. Following the above Break the Cutie, she has trouble standing near men, especially boys close to her age, with the exception of Kazemaru Akashi.
Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Gives an Armor-Piercing Slap to Rance when his judgment is clouded thanks to Sill being trapped in ice.
Glacier Waif: See for yourself. She also commands footsoliders.
Jack-of-All-Trades: Like her brother, she has a wide range of Skills for battles: Self-Defense, Guard, Strategy and Poison.
Kill the Cutie: In the Isoroku What If route.
Lethal Chef: Her homemade dango is nicknamed the "poison dango". So much that each customer tries their best to not faint and force themselves to eat out of sympathy for her. It's actually because she possesses the rather rare Level 1 Poison Skill.
Like Brother and Sister: How she sees Rance over the course of Sengoku Rance.
Little Sister Heroine: Not at start, but once she's forced into war, she is this to Rance and her brother.
My Greatest Failure: Witnessing his wife Kichou getting killed while she protected him from an assassination. Afterwards, he was left in a huge depression which caused the Oda clan to lose almost all of his former territory until Owari was left.
Nice Girl: With her young age and being raised by her brother Nobunaga, that's a given.
Princess Classic: Before her Break the Cutie.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Following her Break the Cutie, she starts taking part in fights alongside Rance.
She Is All Grown Up: In Rance X: Part 2.
Took a Level in Badass: After entering the battlefield in Sengoku Rance, she is surprisingly capable of holding her own, but her low Level and lack of combat experience tones it down.
Wife Husbandry: Rance plans to raise her himself until she gets old enough to marry her, to her confusion.

Katsuie Shibata

One of the generals of the Oda Clan's army. He's a very muscular man who's very friendly and jovial, often making jokes with his fellow warriors between battles. He's also rumored to be a lolicon due to his dedication to little girls, being very protective to them and often observing them from afar, but it's not actually true.

Tropes exhibited by Katsuie include:

Adaptational Heroism: Like Nobunaga, he's nicer than his real life and Kichikuou Rance counterpart.
Battle Couple: With Ranmaru, once she's character cleared.
The Big Guy: He's one of the toughest fighters available in the beginning of the game.
Blade On A Stick: His main weapon for fighting.
Boisterous Bruiser: Often seen goofing around with his buddies and Kouhime.
Disc-One Nuke: Katsuie is one of the best defensive assets one could use to protect from enemy attacks, up to the end of the game.
Gentle Giant: Despite being a very big and loud individual, he's quite nice.
The Lancer: To Rance.
Mistaken for Pedophile: He's very admiring of little girls, something obsessing and finds them beautiful, but it gets no more than that, condering such a thing evil.
Noodle Incident: Apparently, something happened between him and Shinobu that made him become passionate of little girls.
Official Couple: To Ranmaru at the end of the game, with them adopting a orphaned girl.
Power of Love: Clear Ranmaru and she & Katsuie get a noticeable boost in attack and defense if both are deployed together in a battle.
Schmuck Bait: In one skit, Rance sees him discussing with a strange individivual about little girls. Listening to them causes a Nonstandard Game Over.
Stone Wall: His offense is average at best, but he makes up by having one of the best defensive armies of the game.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He is a starting commander with a large frame and strong defense who remains useful throughout the whole game, making him a Nipponese stand-in for Cordoba, who wouldn't make a canon appearance until Rance X.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Dark-green.

Ranmaru

One of the generals of the Oda Clan's army. She's a stoic girl with a great skill with swords, and harbors feelings for Katsuie, although she doesn't admit them at all.

Tropes exhibited by Ranmaru include:

Action Girl: And the most powerful of the Oda Clan.
Battle Couple: With Katsuie after being character cleared.
Batman Gambit: How did she win her lover? By luring him with an orphaned kid, thus she pretty much uses her adopted daughter to win Katsuie. Even Rance was impressed by her devotion.
Crutch Character: Ranmaru is very useful for offensive up to mid-game, thanks to her massive damage output, but her low defense causes her to easily fall in battle near the end of the game. It can be downplayed if one gives her an Operation Permit, making her an independant force.
Deadpan Snarker: With Rance, mostly.
Gender Flip: She's based on Ranmaru Mori, who was a man under the real life Nobunaga's orders, and recognized as his lover. However, Ranmaru in the game doesn't have feelings for him, but Katsuie.
Glass Cannon: One of the strongest Samurai, but can't take much punishment, especially in the late game.
Hopeless Suitor: How she initially thinks of herself when Rance asks her about her feelings towards Katsuie (who is thought to be a lolicon).
Official Couple: To Katsuie at the end of the game with them adopting a orphaned girl.
Perpetual Frowner: Keeps a stone-cold face for most of the game.
The Stoic: Her default mood, and she hardly express any emotion apart from her interactions with Katsuie.
Weapon Across the Shoulder: She wields her katana across her shoulder instead of the belt like most of Samurai.

3G

An old Youkai working for the Oda Clan. He's the main advisor of Rance during the events of Sengoku Rance, even though most of the time his advice falls on deaf ears. He is also very protective of Kouhime.

Tropes exhibited by 3G include:

The Chew Toy: To Rance, most of the time.
Grumpy Old Man: Most of his interactions with Rance make him fall under this trope.
Helicopter Hair: Acts as his antenna to call other Youkai, and can actually fly should 3G happen to be in extreme distress.
Honest Advisor: Despite being the victim of Rance's antics, he gives good advices and tips to him during the Sengoku Era.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Rance may be the guy leading Oda's armies, but actually running the administrative side of government is all on 3G's shoulders due to Rance not really caring. Thankfully, 3G is very, very good at this.
Multiple Head Case: Downplayed, his three heads all think alike and consider themselves to be a single person.
Reinventing the Telephone: Subverted. One of his powers is to emulate a cellphone to contact other Youkai, much faster than letters.
Verbal Tic: "Gazooks!"
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Has an unique Nutritionist Level 3 Skill, but it is considered useless.

Kichou Oda

The late wife of Oda Nobunaga, and the first and only friend he ever had during his childhood. First a servant working for the Oda Clan, she quickly bullied the young Kazusanosuke for some time due to his sheltered life and his shyness. It eventually grows up into a friendship as they often spent time playing under a large cherry blossom tree, and friendship became love. After the death of his father and brother in the Great Youkai War, Kazusanosuke was appointed as the new lord Oda Nobunaga, and chose Kichou as his wife, a decision first met with initial outrage due to her being of common birth. Kichou proved to be at the same time a competent ruler and military commander along with his husband, and was loved by everyone in the provinces belonging to the Oda, as she worked greatly towards helping the poor thanks to her past life. However, Nobunaga was affected by a rare illness who prevented him to do as much as his wife. One fateful day, an assassin made his way to the ill and helpless Nobunaga, causing Kichou to sacrifice her own life from his attacker. After her death, she was buried under the cherry blossom tree where she spent most of her life with the young Kazusanosuke. The whole event made him falling into a state of huge depression, not helped by his illness, and caused the Oda Clan to lose almost all of the territories they had in the past, leaving only their own province, as seen in Sengoku Rance.

Tropes exhibited by Kichou include:

Action Girl: Due to her husband's illness, she often acted as the ruler and military commander in his place, and was stated by Nobunaga to be very competent in her job.
Identical Stranger: Hilariously enough, she is revealed to bear a strong resemblance to a Gender Flipped Rance. Rance is unsurprisingly rather disturbed by this.
The Lost Lenore: To Oda Nobunaga.
Posthumous Character: She's already dead by the time of the game, but is mentionned several times by the Oda.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The Energetic to her husband Nobunaga's Savvy.
Tomboy: Her attitude was stated to be unfitting of a woman in Nippon, and is remembered for being fiery and hot-blooded. As she became an adult, she became more gentle but would still lapse into it at times.
Tsundere: Type 1. In her childhood, she spent most of her time bullying the shy Kazusanosuke until they began to spent time together as friends, and later lovers.

Ashikaga Clan

Once known as the family of the Shoguns, the Ashikaga Clan now lives in the shadow of its former glory. They control two provinces at the time of the game and try to coerce the Oda Clan into giving them money to make reparations for their common war history. It's one of the first Clans Rance gets to fight at the beginning.

Choushin "Poop" Ashikaga

The Head of the Ashikaga Clan. A pathetic and self-centered man, his weird appearance and fashion sense make people mistake him for a fish. He's also the brother of the princess Hara Aki from the Hara Clan, forming an alliance with her.

Tropes exhibited by Choushin include:

Ambiguously Human: Several characters mistook him for a fish in his public appearances.
Animal Motifs: Unintentional on his part, but he looks like a giant tuna in a human skin suit and gets associated with fish imagery in descriptions.
Armchair Military: He's mostly useless on the battlefield (with a very low Level Cap of 6), and instead gives orders to his miko who are carrying him.
Catch Phrase: "Pupeeeeeeee!"
Evil Makeover / Guyliner: So much it becomes ridiculous.
General Failure: His Level Cap of 6 and inexperience in battles.
Gonk: He's...not a pretty looking man, to say the least. His sense of beauty is also completely inverted: He considers himself as beautiful while actual beautiful characters are considered "ugly" by his standards.
Joke Character: Is singlehandedly the weakest character of the game, with almost 0 in every stat. The only reason to recruit him lies with his Emperor Ring, one of the Three Sacred Treasures of Nippon.
Make-Up Is Evil: The only person in Nippon to wear make-up and a huge coward.
Meaningful Rename: Gets renamed by Rance as Poop Ashikaga after character clearing him.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Clear him and Rance will change his name to the above.
Sketchy Successor: The latest successor of the Ashikaga, but don't quite live up to the history of their clan, as they united Nippon in the previous Sengoku Era.
Starter Villain: Shares this position with Hara Shouji from the Hara Clan.
Stalker with a Crush: In a event, he finally found someone who match all of his criterias for beauty. It's Masamune.
Recurring Element: Yet another unattractive noble who relies purely on his wealth who acts as an early-game villain.
Uncanny Valley Makeup: The man barely look human with all his makeup.
Younger Than They Look: He's actually the same age as Rance, despite looking middle-aged.

Ikkyu

The advisor of the Ashikaga Clan, suggesting tactics for Ashikaga Choushin against the Oda Clan.

Tropes exhibited by Ikkyu include:

Ambiguously Human: He's implied to be a Youkai, but 3G strongly denies it.
Bald of Evil: Downplayed. He's only working for a rival Clan, but otherwise can be recruited as an ally.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: Likely the biggest eyebrows of Nippon.
Cloudcuckoolander: Talks to a straw doll he refers to as his mother which he holds up to his ear like a telephone, which Rance finds incredibly odd.
Disk One Nuke: Witty Turnabout, that can reverse the tide of war provided you have enough time, the gauge is really against you, and that you can guard him while casting it. Also, it's limited to three uses per playthrough.
Expy: Of Ikkyu-San, an old anime.
Foregone Victory: His special ability, Witty Turnabout, allows him to always turn the tides on any battle, guaranteeing victory. However, it's only usable thrice per playthrough.
It Only Works Once: He has the unique ability to win instantly any battles he's on, but it's limited to three uses.
I Lied: It turns out that following Yamamoto's clan takeover, he ordered Tarou to be killed, but claimed otherwise to still use Isoroku.
Psychotic Smirk: Sports one even though he's not that big of a threat compared to other Clans.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted due to his lack of villainous traits.
Reinventing the Telephone: Uses a Youkai Phone to contact other Youkai and "Mother".
Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: After the fall of the Ashikaga Clan, he fled for his life. Afterwards he's sometimes seen in other armies, and is capturable.
Vague Age: His physical features make his age difficult to estimate.

Isoroku Yamamoto

A skilled archer whose Clan was conquered by the Ashikaga. She's forced to work for them in exchange for her brother's life.

Tropes exhibited by Isoroku include:

Action Girl: The most skilled archer in Nippon.
An Arm and a Leg: She loses her leg at the climax of her route.
Archer Archetype: At least until her family is concerned.
Babies Ever After: Following the war, she gives birth to her son Rangi.
Dead Little Brother: She works hard for the Ashikaga clan to someday restore the Yamamoto family... Only to find her brother, who was supposed to be the family successor, dead by the hands of the very clan she was serving.
Despair Event Horizon: When she learns that her brother has been Dead All Along, until Rance talks her out of it by convincing her to have a child.
Family Honor: Initially refuses to have a child with Rance because her family's tradition requires the heir to be a male of Nipponese descent.
Four-Star Badass: Way more competent than the rest of Ashikaga at bare minimum, and when/if she joins Rance she makes an excellent archery unit leader, complete with a very useful unique skill.
Gender Flip: Of the real Isoroku Yamamoto, a famous Japanese WW2 general.
Heir Club for Men: The Yamamoto family apparently has a rule stipulating that the head of the family can only be a man. This is the reason she is trying to give birth to a son instead of just becoming the head. Hence why her title in Rance X is "Mother of Yamamoto Family Head".
The Heroine: In the Isoroku What If route.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: To the Ashikaga army.
I Am Not Pretty: She thinks this about herself as the reason no man propose to marry her. Definitely not because Rance is scaring off every pretender.
Improbable Aiming Skills: She tries to shoot Rance to the point where he is only visible as a small green thing in the horizon. He survives only due to dumb luck.
Lady of War: Despite her own comments of being unladylike, she is still more refined than most of your female commanders.
Law of Inverse Fertility: Subverted. At first, it seems like Rance was taking advantage of Isoroku not knowing about the contraception spell... Until the epilogue and Rance Quest reveal that yes, she did end up with Rance's kid, implying that he kept his promise.
One-Hit Kill: Her special ability, Piercing Tempest can instant-kill a unit.
Rapunzel Hair: She has a ponytail which goes down to her shoes.
Red String of Fate: One of Rance's fated girls.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Noticed by Rance in one of her events when she sees her composed demeanor and proper behavior towards a man she was gonna marry with. Upon giving birth to Rangi, she effectively becomes one to Rance.

Hara Clan

A Clan leading the relatively small province of Ise. Though one of the weakest Clans, their people lived happy days until the ruler Hara Shouji married with the princess Akihime. Since then, the province suffers from huge taxes rates, getting people angry due to the princess spending a lot of money for everything and anything.

Shouji Hara

The Head of the Hara Clan and ruler of Ise. He was respected by his men for being a benevolent leader, but it crumbled entirely after his marriage with the princess Akihime, as he is desperately in love with her and is unable to refuse any of her requests, often involving GOLD.

Tropes exhibited by Shouji include:

The Good King: He's loved by his people and his army, and managed to keep a somewhat peaceful state until he married with Akihime.
Henpecked Husband: Really doesn't have much to say when it comes to his spendthrift of a wife, and his war efforts suffer as a result.
Love Makes You Dumb: Akihime's influence didn't exactly improve his common sense. He even admits to as much.
Love Martyr: Despite being abused by his wife and even acknowledging it himself, he still loves her despite everything, sinking his province even deeper.
Rain of Arrows: His special ability, Volley, allows him to shoot multiple arrows to every enemy commander at once.
Sanity Slippage: When the Oda Clan tried to convince him to surrender, he stubbornly refused out of fear for Akihime, until he was given her head. He quickly went insane and killed several of his men, and it ended up in his death. He also has one after having her back from Rance.
Self-Imposed Challenge: In National Edition, choosing his clan is considered the single hardest challenge of the game: Like in the original game, not only is his house the weakest and the Warmup Boss, but his wife Akihime will regularly spent money uselessly.
Starter Villain: Is delegated to this role due to being the first Clan that Rance has to conquer in his quest to unify Nippon, shared with Ashikaga Choushin.
Throw the Dog a Bone: If Rance refuses to give his wife back to him, he can turn over a new leaf and find a new love, and they end up Happily Married.
Yandere: Not at first, but after the fall of his Clan and his capture by the Oda, he's gone off the deep end: After getting a good relationship with him, Rance can choose to give Akihime back. In doing this, Shouji mutilates her in order to prevent Akihime for ever doing bad things to him. However, it is completely averted if Rance keeps Akihime for himself.

Aki "Akihime" Hara

The woman married to Hara Shouji. She is an extremely self-centered woman who only thinks of commoners as beneath her attention. Because of this, she spent countless GOLD on trivial things unrelated to the war and people, also causing a huge raise of taxes to make up for it and provoking the ire of the people.

Tropes exhibited by Aki include:

An Arm and a Leg: What ultimately happens to her if you choose to give her back to Shouji: Having learn from his "mistakes" in treating her, he breaks her legs and cuts her arms and tongue, to ensure that Akihime won't try something nasty on him.
Break the Haughty: Let's just say that the Hara Clan's defeat to the Oda isn't exactly kind to her no matter what Rance chooses to do with her.
Evil Redhead: Called evil at one point, though vain and self serving are more applicable.
Fate Worse Than Death: See An Arm and a Leg.
Gold Digger: Uses her looks and personality to get away with spending GOLD on trivial things.
Jerkass: She really doesn't have a very pleasant attitude, especially towards her own husband, Shouji.
Got Volunteered: One of the options for Rance after capturing her is to become a commander for his army, though her complete lack of experience makes her unit very bad.
Promoted to Playable: She can be recruited on second playthroughs, but her unit is below average.
Rich Bitch: Akihime spends money whenever she wants and is not a very likeable person from the start.
Tsundere: Gradually opens up to her subordinates and Rance after being forced into Oda's army, albeit relunctantly at first.
Ugly Guy, Hot Sister: She's Choushin Ashikaga's sister. While she may not have the looks for it, she certainly has the personality.

Tokugawa Clan

A neighboring Clan which has been taken by Youkai racoon dogs. Since then, the humans living under their rule were forced to dress as racoon dogs. They don't participate in the war and prefer to spend their time drink and doing festivals.

Ieyasu Tokugawa

The ruler of Tokugawa. A raccoon-dog youkai born with an insatiable desire for conquest, who has declared his nation to be a safe haven for raccoon-dogs.

Tropes exhibited by Ieyasu include:

Asskicking Equals Authority: He's amazingly powerful both as a commander and in one-on-one fights. It's how he conquered the Tokugawa.
Blade Spam: One of his skills in individual battles, enough to beat experimented enemies.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Though he spends his time making racoon-dogs festival with his army, he's a very dangerous force to be reckoned with, as a giant Youkai.
Do Not Go Gentle: Refuses to serve Rance when conquered, and instead fights him in a duel to the death.
Faking the Dead: Even after being defeated by Rance in their duel, he was still alive, ready to reconquer his territory if not for Masamune, the Youkai King, to intervene personally for his violent behavior towards humans.
Implacable Man: Through him, we have a foretaste of what the Youkai can pull off: Superhuman strength and endurance, and needs to be defeated twice... Which isn't enough to kill him, until Masamune arrives and finishes him off.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: He is more dangerous than his behaviour lets on.
Trademark Favorite Food: Like all raccoon-dogs, he loves tempura. He loves it so much it can even erase his bloodlust. Can be exploited on second playthroughs to recruit him.
Youkai: One of the few that are independent of the Dokuganryu Clan. Though he swears loyalty to Masamune, he is in fact biding his time to launch his own conquest.

Sen "Senhime" Tokugawa

The former princess of the Tokugawa clan before it was overthrown by Ieyasu and his raccoon-dogs. She refused to submit to them and was thrown in prison as a result. She becomes a wandering mercenary after Sengoku Rance, and is eventually shown to be one of his "fated women", giving birth to his daughter Tone.

Tropes exhibited by Sen include:

Better Than Sex: Enjoys sex, but not as much as the battlefields.
Blood Knight: Despite having been raised as a princess, she's a complete adrenaline junkie who lives for war and can't stand peace. In Sengoku Rance, she will even desert Rance's army if he doesn't throw her into challenging battles enough.
Meaningful Name: "Sen" can be read as "war". Given her Blood Knight tendencies, her nickname of "Senhime" doubles as a badass title: "War Princess".

Naomasa Ii

Tadakatsu Honda

Yasumasa Sakakibara

Hanzou Hattori

Tadatsugu Sakai

Iga Clan

After the Great Youkai War, the Iga Clan was left as a subordinate to the Oda. However, its commander thought of ninjas as completely expandable and treated them like garbage as a result. However, a large grouping of ninjas under the leadership of the ninja Inukai broke free of Oda's control, declaring their independance.

Inukai

Raised in the Iga Clan, Inukai grown to hate the way ninjas were considered in the past. Some time before the events of the game, he secretly gathered a all-ninja group and take over the Clan, under Oda's control at the time. Since then, he works tirelessly to improve the ninjas' rights across the country as their "Ninking".

Tropes exhibited by Inukai include:

Animal Motif: Dogs, probably as a pun on his name ("Inu" means "dog"). He can unleash a swarm of dogs as a special attack and has several specially trained Ninja Wanwans accompany him at all times.
The Beastmaster: Able to command an army of dogs to fight in commander battles.
Determinator: If he's conquered by the Oda, he will liberate himself and claim his territory once again. Narrowly averted if Suzume is brought in battle, where she finds his hiding place.
Friend to All Living Things: He's quite fond of dogs, to the point he trained an entire squad of Ninja Wanwans. Should he die in Sengoku Rance, his dogs self-destruct along with him.
Glass Cannon: He's a ninja after all. He can dish out huge damage and has good evasion abilities, but his defenses are pretty weak.
Old Master: One of the older ninja around and a veteran of the Youkai War. He's also one of the toughest ninja type enemies Rance will face.

Suzume

A carefree (or so it seems) Kunoichi working for Inukai. Once the rumor of the new leader of Oda being a foreigner comes around, she's sent as a spy to kill the man named Rance. However, upon meeting him, he didn't thought of her as much of a threat, preferring complementing her feminine assets without being afraid of her at all, even asking for sex. After another encounter with him, she comes to the conclusion it would be funnier to work for him and betrayed Iga as a result.

Tropes exhibited by Suzume include:

Absolute Cleavage: As you can see in her profile picture, and is also part of her training to attract men.
Eyes of Gold: Is pretty much a by the book example.
It Amused Me: Suzume is pretty laid back and has a fun-loving personality, and many of the things she does are just because she thinks they're funny. She follows Rance around for this reason and she isn't disappointed.
Like Is, Like, a Comma: When she describes her life in the Iga Clan, she words it quite vaguely with these.
Ms. Fanservice: She wears her kimono in such away as to promote maximum fanservice. Justified as she often seduces her targets in order to assassinate them.
Ninja: Touted as the single best ninja in Nippon, as well as a master assassin. It's largely thanks to her that a number of other ninjas and assassins fail to kill Rance.
Obfuscating Stupidity: She seems to have a ditzy personality but make no mistake: She's the finest Kunoichi of Nippon.
Out with a Bang: The usual way she assassinates people. You'd think this would work on Rance no problem, but he manages to avoid all the traps she has hidden on her body by chance. That said, he almost dies twice after experimenting with her kunoichi techniques which exhausted him to the point of near-death.
Overrated and Underleveled: Despite being supposed to be the best Kunoichi of Nippon, her stats are average and she is overshadowed by others ninjas like Inukai or Orime.
Poisonous Person: She has a number of deadly poisons within her body, though she can choose whether to release them or not. Unfortunately, this also means that she will likely die young... and she does, dying in Rance Quest at the age of 19.
Surpassed the Teacher: Inukai freely admits that she's the best Kunoichi of Nippon and vastly surpasses him in skill.
Valley Girl: Subverted. Don't be fooled by her, y'know, ditzy behavior and stuff. She can easily, like, poison unsuspicious victims, with her totally sexy looks.
Verbal Tic: "Nin nin." and "Oui oui."
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Light blue.

The Ninja Rangers

A ninja-based quintet appearing in the conflict between Oda and Iga. They are actually the latter's clan elders, who lend their help to Inukai and his army. They are also the ones who trained Suzume to be the finest kunoichi of her generation.

Azai-Asakura Clan

The Asakura were originally a minor Clan, it gradually climbed its way in power though treaties and negociations, up until its eventual merge with the strongest Clan around, forming the Azai-Asakura Clan.

Yoshikage Asakura

The old Head of the Azai-Asakura Clan. Unlike most of the other Clans, Yoshikage prefers to use diplomacy and dialogue rather than conquering neighbors. Due to this, he created the association of the Azai-Asakura Clan without resorting to violence of any sort. However, if his daughter Yuki is groped by Rance during one of her visits for negociations, he will immediately wage war against Oda.

Tropes exhibited by Yoshikage include:

Actual Pacifist: Thanks to his Lv1 Skill Level in Conversation, he managed to merge with the most powerful local Clan of his province without fighting. Up until Rance groped her daughter Yuki.
Arranged Marriage: He frequently sets these up to ensure his rivals join him rather than fight against him, by marrying one of his children into their families.
Badass Bureaucrat: He's not all that effective in battle, but he's an amazing civil servant as shown with her Lv1 Skill Level in Governing. If Rance is able to recruit him, he can massively improve Oda's territories and economy.
Berserk Button: Anyone threatening or harming Yukihime. Rance copping a feel off of her causes him to declare war immediately.
Horrible Judge of Character: Since he only use non-violent means to merge with other Clans, he wasn't aware of Kensei Uesugi's true character upon negociating with him.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Prefers to use diplomacy to secure his people's authority.

Yuki "Yukihime" Asakura

The daughter of Yoshikage and the most famous princess of the country. She is unfortunately one of the targets of Rance and it leads to a conflict against the Oda Clan. Wanting to protect her Clan at all costs, she enlisted the help of the wandering Warrior Hakkindasan by accepting to be married with him, but it quickly crumbled, and it goes downhill from here.

Tropes exhibited by Yuki include:

Arranged Marriage: She offers herself to Hakkindasan to secure his help against Rance. However, when she sees his disfigured face she reacts in horror, causing him to reject her.
Sex for Services: After Rance conquers her homeland and takes her father hostage, she starts offering her body to various men in exchange for them attacking Rance. Sadly, she eventually goes insane and is captured by bandits, though the player can prevent this on a second playthrough.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: Said to be the most beautiful woman in Nippon, which definitely puts her on Rance's list.

Hakkindasan

A hermit Warrior happening to live in the vicinity of the Azai-Asakura territory when they get attacked by the Oda. After meeting Yoshikage, he proposes to work for him as a soldier, in exchange of Yukihime's hand. First turned down, the princess accepts the deal when it becomes clear that the situation is not at their advantage at all. He always wears a mask and has the odd power of controlling pandas with his eyes. However, he eventually abandons the Clan after seeing the disgust Yukihime feels for him after seeing his face.

Tropes exhibited by Hakkindasan include:

The Beastmaster: Can control great herds of vicious pandas, and leads them into battle.
Berserk Button: People reacting to his face in disgust or horror. Yukihime tried to apologize to him after involuntarily reacting, but he refuses to forgive her and throws her out.
Cool Mask: Sports one in order to talk to other people. It's mandatory for him, given how his true face looks like.
Nightmare Face: It's misshapen and has three eyes on one side, even looking slightly diseased. Hakkindasan himself is actually a pretty friendly guy to those who ignore his deformity.
Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Rance can recruit him by giving him a woman as a wife. Rance being Rance, he gives him one of the "ugly" women. However, Hakkindasan and the unseen woman fall in love for real.

Miko Union

A neutral Clan composed of Miko whose sole purpose is to give to purify man's hearts with rituals and sexual intercourse. However, its true purpose is to keep the Holy Beast Orochi under control, by sacrificing Miko to him.

Natori

Head priestess of the Miko Union. She doesn't participate in "purifying" men herself, instead training the younger girls.

Tropes exhibited by Natori include:

Can't Have Sex Ever: Her purification abilities are so strong, that rather than just absorbing the corruption within men she sleeps with, she outright kills them. This is the reason she constantly refuses Rance (though Rance turns out to be immune if he does sleep with her).
Healing Hands: As is standard for a priestess, she can cast powerful healing magic.
I Did What I Had to Do: She really doesn't like what the Miko Union does, but knows how necessary it is to pacify Orochi. If Rance defeats Orochi, she is very grateful to him (though she still doesn't like him).
Red Mage: In addition to healing, she has access to the "Miko Storm 2" spell, which attacks enemies with swarms of shikigami.

Fuuka Tamagushi

A woman dressed as a Miko who can be recruited early. She has amnesia and wants to recover her memories.

Tropes exhibited by Fuuka include:

Crutch Character: She will probably be the player's go-to healer for the early game of Sengoku Rance, but she gets outclassed by later healers.
Friend to All Living Things: She really just wants people to be peaceful and happy, and does everything she can to see that happen.
Healing Hands: As is typical for priestesses, she has healing powers.
Identity Amnesia: She can't remember anything. Even her name was given by the people who found her. Turns out she's actually a member of the Miko Union, who was sacrificed to Orochi, and her soul is now shackled to the beast as its slave, preventing her from passing on peacefully.

Tenshiism

A religious insitution founded by the Devil Geppei in the NC Era. Its main goal is to keep the Fiend Xavier sealed in eight gourds guarded by 8 chosen Clans.

Seigan

Head of the Tenshiists. His main concern is preventing the return of the Fiend Xavier.

Tropes exhibited by Seigan include:

Older Than They Look: Would you believe he's been in his position for over 50 years? Even assuming he assumed leadership as a child (which is never suggested), that puts him at around 60-70 years old at least.
Poor Communication Kills: He attacks Oda after hearing that their gourd was broken, knowing what this means. Had Rance known that Nobunaga was possessed by a Fiend, he would likely have cooperated with Seigan. But Xavier (as Nobunaga) convinces Rance that Seigan and his people are devil worshippers (which is actually true but irrelevant) and are oppressive, evil tyrants.
Sinister Scythe: His weapon of choice. Indeed, that scythe was the personal weapon of the Devil Geppei, founder of Tenshiism, passed down from one head monk to the next.
Sketchy Successor: Downplayed. He's stated by Xavier to be weaker than his predecessors who sealed him, and it's shown when he's subjected to a Curb-Stomp Battle following his revival. However, as shown in Ran's route, he is perfectly able to seal him again and split him in 16 parts, even more than before.

Genri

A high ranking Tenshiist monk . He first met Rance in Rance 4.1, while he was travelling the Continent searching for his elder brother. They cooperated in taking down the Angel Army. In Sengoku Rance, he acts as an advisor to Seigan.

Tropes exhibited by Genri include:

Gag Penis: He's notable for having a bigger one than Rance, which infuriates the latter.
Kavorka Man: Despite being said to be unattractive, he's quite popular with women due to his personality and... skill.
Nun-Too-Holy: He greatly enjoys drinking and sex, as well as other physical pleasures, quite different from what one would expect of a holy man (though, given Tenshiism's origins, one has to wonder whether if they have such restrictions).
Warrior Monk: He is an excellent fighter and a devout Tenshiist.

Eastern Nippon Clans

Takeda Clan

One of the main contenders in the unification of Nippon, led by the legendary warlord Shingen Takeda and his four commanders. During the events of Sengoku Rance, they spent several weeks fighting the Uesugi and Houjou Clan on two borders.

Shingen Takeda

The legendary leader of the Takeda Clan and a figurehead for all the people in the Takeda territories. A samurai of immense skill, he is widely regarded as one of the strongest warriors in all of Nippon, although nobody but his closest commanders have actually seen his true face, and is always seen covered in a red mask and heavy armor.

Tropes exhibited by Shingen include:

100% Adoration Rating: Is perceived as both a cunning and strong warrior and a benevolent ruler to all his subjects.
24-Hour Armor: To the point no one have seen him without it, because of his secret: It's actually an armor worn by one of the four commanders of Takeda.
The Ace: Due to the four generals taking his role, he combines the qualities of each of them, making him good at everything.
Clothes Make the Superman: Of a sort. The armor of Shingen Takrda was created to serve as an instrument to become a figurehead to look up to and unify the Takeda under one authority, and it's toughness allows its wearer to parry attacks from Kenshin Uesugi. Later exploited, since this also leaves the armor itself open to getting donned by Rance himself so he can use the authority it gives in order to disband the Takeda without fighting them after finding out the truth about Shingen Takeda.
Composite Character: In-Universe exemple. He was created by the four commanders as a flawless leader who combines of all their qualities.
Decoy Leader: He actually isn't real and never was in the first place, the true power of the Takeda clan lies with his generals who take up the mantle of him to inspire the people.
The Faceless: His face is never directly shown in the game, and is in fact never seen without his armor on at all. The reason for this is because he isn't actually real, the Shingen armor seen in dialogue is actually just Masakage, Tourin, Shouen or Yoshikaze wearing the armor.
Foreshadowing: Very subtle, if you pay attention to each scene he appears in, he only ever speaks to a maximum of three of his generals at a time, and tends to adopt one of the missing ones' speech patterns during said scenes, hinting to the fact that he actually isn't even real at all.
Hoist by His Own Petard: In additional playthroughs, upon sending Suzume to assassinate Shingen, Rance discovers the truth behind Takeda's leader. By donning the armor, he causes the four generals to disband out of fear of having their secret revealed.
Invented Individual: The person people knew as Shingen Takeda never actually existed, he was merely invented by his own commanders to give the people of Takeda a great figure of hope to look up to.
Large and In Charge: Barring Motonari Mouri and maybe Ieyasu Tokugawa, he is one of the largest and most imposing warlords in all of Nippon.
The Rival: To Kenshin Uesugi.

Masakage Yamagata

Amongst the four commanders, Masakage was the Chief Advisor of Takeda. Despite having an above-average Level Cap compared to his three companions, he nonetheless was the best when it comes to leading people. His role as Shingen Takeda was to give passionate and inspiring speeches to motivate the people and his army, thus he can be considered the "true" leader of the Takeda.

Tropes exhibited by Masakage include:

Badass Mustache: Similar to a daruma doll.
Bald of Awesome: He's bald in addition to being the leader of Takeda.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Represents the Sanguine.
Honor Before Reason: Upon their defeat at the hands of the Oda Clan, the four generals contemplated their last moments: While Tourin choose to surrender, Shouen wanted to die in a blaze of glory along with Yoshikaze. Despite acknowledging Tourin's choice as the most rational one, he followed his other companions last wish and died with them.
Horse of a Different Color: His fighting style relies on mounted attacks with a creature named Hotwing, exclusive to the Takeda Clan.
The Leader: To the other commanders of Takeda.
Status Buff: With the other commanders, he's able to use the "Fuurinkazan" (representing the four elements, him being the Mountain) which increase the stats of his army by a huge 50%.
Weak but Skilled: Downplayed. In individual prowess, he's not that impressive of a fighte compared to the other generals, with a Level Cap of 34. However, his skills as a leader and speeches allows him to give motivation for his troops and he's considered The Face behind Shingen Takeda. In Sengoku Rance, his troops are one of the most powerful in the game.

Tourin Sanada

The main tactician of the Takeda Clan, Tourin is considered by many the greatest tactician of all Nippon, and his skills for strategy were said to be unmatched. He also acts as the voice of reason for the other commanders, especially Masakage. His role as Shingen Takeda was to plan the different strategies of the army and giving his greatness in tactical warfare. After the disbanding of Takeda, he served under Oda for a couple of years until he moved to the Continent, to live in the Free Cities. He then befriended the Homonculus Athena 2.0, the personal pet and unofficial housekeeper of Rance's home.

He later appeared in Rance IX as a tactician for the Helman Revolutionary Army, and in Rance X as well.

Tropes exhibited by Tourin include:

Cool Old Guy: A pretty decent guy, who admires Rance for his strength and determination, despite not agreeing with his goals. Surprisingly, he's also a good friend of Athena 2.0.
Expy: Of Stourin Wald from an old Alicesoft game, Mamatoto.
Eyepatch of Power: Sports one from Rance IX onwards.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Represents the Melancholic.
Know When to Fold'Em: Choose to surrender to the Oda to work towards unifying Nippon.
Odd Friendship: Someone as serious and devoted as Tourin ended up befriending Athena 2.0 of all people.
The Smart Guy: The main tactician of Takeda and the most revered in Nippon.
Sole Survivor: Of the Takeda Clan, because he was the only one who choose to surrender to Rance and living another day under Oda's reign, when they were on the verge of losing.
Status Buff: With the other commanders, he's able to use the "Fuurinkazan" (representing the four elements, him being the Forest) which increase the stats of his army by a huge 50%.
The Strategist: To the Takeda Clan and later the Helman Revolutionary Army in Rance IX.

Shouen Baba

A muscular man commander of the Takeda Clan, Shouen is a famous warrior known as one of the best through the country. Posessing a very high Level Cap, his strength allows him to be on par with the stongest swordsman Kenshin Uesugi. His role as Shingen Takeda was to fight on the battefield as the greatest warrior of Nippon, unrivaled by any other, apart from the likes of Kenshin.

Tropes exhibited by Shouen include:

Badass Beard: A large and spiky orange one.
Better to Die Than Be Killed: Upon losing against Oda, he invited his companions to die alongside him in a final battle instead of getting captured. Masakage and Yoshikaze followed him, while Tourin surrendered and was spared.
The Big Guy: The more powerful and musucular of the bunch.
Blood Knight: He is the most ferocious of the four commanders in the battlefield, often searching for powerful opponents.
Curb Stomp Cushion: He managed to hold his own against Xavier for some time during his conquering spree, true to his reputation as a Warrior.
Expy: Of the Sengoku Basara version of Shingen Takeda, even down to riding by standing on top of two Hotwings at once like Shingen does to horses.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Represents the Choleric.
Horse of a Different Color: The same as Masakage, but his massive body and fighting style requires him to mount on two Hotwings instead of one.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being the shortest Warrior of all Nippon (barring the uncursed form of Mouri Motonari), he's still recognized as one of the best, by Kenshin Uesugi herself. He's also the only one who can freely move in the heavy armor of Shingen Takeda.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: His main drive for fighting. When the Takeda Clan is almost conquered by Oda, he choose to die in a last battle against them in a blaze of glory. While Masakage and Yoshikaze followed him and died, Tourin choose to surrender for Nippon's future.
The Rival: To Kenshin Uesugi.
Status Buff: With the other commanders, he's able to use the "Fuurinkazan" (representing the four elements, him being the Fire) which increase the stats of his army by a huge 50%.

Yoshikaze Kousaka

The relatively taciturn expert ninja of the Takeda Clan, Yoshikaze is more laid-back compared to his companions. He was a former high-ranked ninja of the Iga Clan, and raised the would-be founder of the Iga Clan, Inukai. Some time after, he declared independance from Iga and founded his own Clan that would merge into Takeda. His role as Shingen Takeda was to sabotage and scout in enemy territory, and his stealth allowed him to silently disappear from the battlefield and quickly donning the armor to preserve the impression of Shingen Takeda being a separate person from the four commanders.

Tropes exhibited by Yoshikaze include:

Eyes Always Shut: He's always seen with his eyes closed.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Represents the Phlegmatic.
The Lancer: While Masakage is driven by a sense of responsability and is The Face of the group, Yoshikaze is more of a carefree person and his talent revolves around stealth and discretion.
Lightning Bruiser: Hits hard and as a Ninja, often acts first in battle.
Old Soldier: Downplayed. He's not that old, but he has plenty of experience and used to be Inukai's mentor, as one of the best ninjas of his generation.
Status Buff: With the other commanders, he's able to use the "Fuurinkazan" (representing the four elements, him being the Wind) which increase the stats of his army by a huge 50%.

Uesugi Clan

Main rival of the Takeda Clan, the Uesugi Clan is notable for its army entirely composed of women. They are led by the strongest female swordsman of Nippon, Kenshin Uesugi. They are considered strong enough to hold the Takeda's invasion of Houjou during the events of Sengoku Rance.

Kenshin Uesugi

The Head of the Uesugi Clan and a famous rival to Shingen Takeda, Kenshin is recognized in Nippon as a serious combatant and one of the strongest swordsmen in the country. However, behind this serious exterior, she hides a softer, more sincere side, which comes to light as she unexpectedly falls in love with Rance mere moments away from delivering a killing blow to him.

Tropes exhibited by Kenshin include:

Action Girl: The most powerful warrior of Nippon.
Amazon Brigade: Most of the Uesugi's forces are made of women, and she is nearly always accompanied by Ai, Katsuko and Torako.
Battle Ballgown: Her outfit is made of a large skirt beneath her armor.
Battle Aura: Weaponized in Sengoku Rance where her initial skill is a passive which removes one action point to every enemy. Strenghtened if she becomes Emperor to two actions points.
Big Eater: She has a extremely strong appetite of surprising potential. Case in point, in Rance X she manages to out-eat Galtia, who almost literally has a bottomless stomach, in one of the quests.
The Cameo: Appears in Eiyuu Senki: The World Conquest as a playable character, though she's mute throughout the entire thing.
The Cavalry: She leads the support force sent to Helman by Nippon in Rance X.
- In Sengoku Rance, Kenshin will sometimes join whoever is on a defensive battle.
Cool Hat: Wears a pretty unique pointed helmet in Sengoku Rance and Rance Quest.
Compelling Voice: One of the perks given to the Emperor is to command every person living on Nippon. She uses it to force Nobunaga to expel Xavier, freeing him.
Curb Stomp Battle: Pulls one on Rance in their first encounter, also helped by his underestimating of her strength.
Crush Blush: When speaking with Rance.
De-Power: She is sent back to Level 1 in Rance Quest because of Rance.
The Dreaded: When she appears on the battlefield, the fighting troops usual behaviour is to run away.
The Emperor: She wins the Emperor Race in her What If Route and as such, becomes the uncontested ruler of Nippon.
Expy: She's a clear reference to Saber from Fate/stay night, due to being a Lady of War in a Battle Ballgown, as well as being a Big Eater to boot.
Gender Flip: Of the real Uesugi Kenshin, based off a popular theory saying that he was actually a female, according to some evidence.
The Heroine: In the Kenshin What If route.
Horrible Judge of Character: It takes only one look at Rance for her to fall in love with him, and on the battlefield of all places!
The Ingenue: Despite her reputation as The Dreaded, she is actually a sheltered girl outside of the battlefield, with Ai Naoe taking care of her and teaching her the ways of the world.
Insecure Love Interest: Thinks Rance won't invite her to his place because she is too much of glutton to be attractive.
Lady of War: Regarded as one of the strongest swordfighters in all of Nippon, nay the entire continent.
Love At First Punch/Love At First Sight: She falls for Rance the minute she meets him, and moments before killing him.
Love Confession: Give one to Rance when she is recruited. He is actually speechless to it.
Nice Hat: It's long and pointy too.
Nice Girl: Aside from being perfectly fine with Rance's antics, she still try to give a chance to her uncle despite Ai telling him he is probably plotting something nasty.
Red Baron: The Goddess of War.
Religious Bruiser: Really faithful to the teachings of Bishamonten.
The Rival: To Shingen Takeda and Shouen Baba (though it is revealed they are the same person).
World's Strongest Woman: Combined with her Level 2 Sword Combat Skill and her Level of 63, she is one of the strongest female humans in the entire Continent, and even rivals characters like Rick Addison and Minerva Margaret in terms of physical strength. In her first encounter with Rance, she easily defeats him.
Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: A fearsome fighter on the battlefield, she relies a lot on Ai outside of it.
Signature Move: Cartwheel Sword.
What Does She See in Him?: Many characters are unable to understand why she is in love with Rance. Hilariously enough, he's also among them.
Yamato Nadeshiko: She is a Lady of War while being very humble and polite, despite the sheer extent of her abilities, and surprisingly is a passive and obedient girl outside of the battlefield. Furthermore, she's also devoted to her love with Rance to a great degree: Praying in temples to cope with his bad behavior, or tirelessly training in Rance Quest when he is unable to have sex with women under Level 35.

Ai Naoe

The main tactician and manager of political affairs of the Uesugi Clan. She's also the personal advisor of Kenshin regarding tactics, intel of other Clans and everyday life, to the point their relation is similar to mother and daughter.

Tropes exhibited by Ai include:

Action Girl: Not as much as Kenshin, but her great commanding ability makes her a powerful foe with an army.
The Chessmaster: Almost all of the Uesugi victories and stalemates against the Takeda Clan come from her, with Kenshin mostly operating under her orders. She's also one to Kenshin herself due to her having Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training.
Forehead of Doom: Reflects her status as an competent tactician.
Gender Flip: Of Naoe Kanetsugu, a famous tactician working for the real life Uesugi Kenshin and his son. Furthermore, his helmet sports the kanji Ai (愛), hence the namesake for Ai Naoe.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: For Kenshin, since she manages all of the battle tactics and her life schedule.
Parental Substitute: Acts as one for Kenshin, and yet she is younger than her.
The Strategist: To the Uesugi Clan.
Take Me Instead!: She has slept multiple times with Kensei's underlings during his takeover of the Uesugi Clan, in order to protect Kenshin.
Tsurime Eyes: Has very distinctive ones compared to most of the cast of the series.
What Does She See in Him?: After discovering that Kenshin fell in love with Rance, she mentions the trope by name almost word for word. Even after knowing him personally through their interactions in Sengoku Rance, she is even less able to understand why.

Torako Uesugi

A young samurai in the service of the Uesugi Clan. In constant competition with fellow samurai Katsuko.

Tropes exhibited by Torako include:

Embarrassing Nickname: "Kumako" ("Bear-girl") due to her headband. Mostly used by Katsuko and picked up by Rance to tease her.
Gender Flip: Of Uesugi Kagetora, one of the real Kenshin's retainers.
Obnoxious In-Laws: Since Katsuko married her brother, the two bitter rivals are also sisters-in-law.
The Rival: She and Katsuko seem to be perpetually competing over anything and everything.

Katsuko Uesugi

A young samurai of the Uesugi family. In constant competition with fellow samurai Torako.

Tropes exhibited by Katsuko include:

Arranged Marriage: She's engaged to Torako's brother, which also puts her next in line to head the Uesugi Clanhold after Kenshin.
Gender Flip: Of Uesugi Kagekatsu, one of the real Kenshin's retainers.
Obnoxious In-Laws: Ironically enough, she marries Torako's brother, making the two rivals sisters-in-law.
The Rival: She's always competing with Torako over something. She even gets into contests over which of them will be molested by Rance more or first, despite both of them hating Rance.

Kensei Uesugi

The only parent alive and uncle to Kenshin. Despite the latter having nothing against him, he loathes her for having much of the power in the Uesugi Clan, and consider women (i.e. all of Kenshin's army) only as a means to raise children and get married. During the war with the Oda Clan, he pulls off a coup against her and take hostage most of her commanders to seize the Uesugi Clan, and trying to bargain peace with Rance by using Kenshin as a bait, but it ends in failure. Following the Uesugi Clan defeat, Kenshin cannot bring herself to kill him despite everything until Rance beheads him in her place.

Tropes exhibited by Kensei include:

Asshole Victim: No one mourns his death after being killed by Rance.
Beard of Evil: Has a fairly notable goatee.
Creepy Uncle: Says at one point to be sexually interested in her niece.
Evil Uncle: Fits the trope to a T.
Hate Sink: He has no redeeming features at all.
It's a Wonderful Failure: Can happen if you really mess up against the Uesugi Clan following his takeover. In fact, this requires the player to go out of their way to willingly losing, since most of the Uesugi's manpower was taken hostage, leaving only a few men to protect the Clan.
Jerkass: Up to no good from the start, and it gets worse after seizing power from Kenshin.
The Starscream: He's only staying with the Uesugi and waits for an opportunity to take over the Clan, given when they enter war against the Oda.
Stay in the Kitchen: His main opinion regarding women.

Houjou Clan

A rather ancient Clan of Nippon. Their goal is to defeat the various Onis across the country and sealing the multiple Hell Holes they came from, using the secret arts of Yin/Yang magic to do so. During the events of Sengoku Rance, they are invaded several times by the Takeda, but managed to push them back thanks to the Uesugi who attacks them from the north.

Souun Houjou

Head of the Houjou Clan, and one of the most powerful Onmyoji in the land of Nippon. He is chiefly concerned with protecting the people from oni, and coordinates with the Tenshiists and Miko Union to protect Nippon from supernatural threats.

Tropes exhibited by Souun include:

Arch Enemy: Suzaku, following Ran's death. He even starts roaming the Continent searching for Suzaku, believing him not to be truly dead (which is shown to be true in Rance Quest).
Cuckold: Happens at the very end of Ran's route if Rance did all of her character events (which dabbles in Guide Dang It! territory), where she stays with Rance. Subverted if their relation is kept to a minimum, where she ends up with Souun at last, and in all of the other routes.
Curb Stomp Battle: Inflicts one on the Apostle Suzaku/Gigai in Sengoku Rance, by destroying him with several highly destructive Yin-Yang spells.
Megane: He's quite handsome and wear glasses.
It's Personal: Towards Suzaku. Should Rance sends him against the Apostle Suzaku, Souun kills him quite fastly thanks to his advanced Onmyoji techniques, avenging Ran.
Odd Friendship: Despite being a man, Rance spends time with him, notably after Ran's death to make him turn a new leaf and even proposes to give him a new wife. On the other hand, Souun appreciates Rance for his Brutal Honesty and his consideration, even giving him lectures about Nippon's history. He can also become friends with Yuzuru and Ryouma from Takuga.
Shaggy Dog Story: Spent several days fighting the Oni Minamoto and keeping himself barely alive until Rance and his group found him. And then Suzaku revives by tearing apart Ran after she used his power too much moments after being reunited with Souun. Averted in Ran's route and Monkeyslayer, where Rance and Souun stop her from using Suzaku anymore.
They Do: In the non-canon Ran route of Sengoku Rance, he ends up finally marrying Ran.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Can kill Suzaku if given the chance.
Workaholic: His job consumes almost all of his time, leaving little left over for Ran.

Ran Nanjou

A powerful Onmyoji, and Souun's fiancee. She's often frustrated by his dedication to his work, which leads her to try to take on greater amounts of work herself to take the pressure off.

Tropes exhibited by Ran include:

Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Summoning Suzaku makes her a very powerful Onmyoji, but she's eventually killed by him upon using his spell too much. Averted in her own route and Monkeyslayer, where she stops using it.
Doomed by Canon: In the Official History route, she dies when Suzaku bursts out of her body. She can only be saved on her own route and Monkeyslayer, where the Monster Army doesn't appear.
The Lost Lenore: Becomes this towards Souun in the True History route, following her death.
Guest Star Party Member: Because Suzaku kills her following Xavier's revival, she's playable for a short time in the Official History route and cannot be character cleared, but she becomes fully playable on Monkeyslayer route and her own.
One-Man Army: Temporarily becomes one when using Suzaku, allowing her to defezt entire squads by herself.
Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Unbeknownst to her, Xavier's Apostle, Suzaku, is sealed within her bloodline.
Summon Magic: She can summon an extremely powerful fire spirit, Suzaku. It's actually Xavier's Apostle, and the more she uses him, the closer he gets to breaking free...
Your Cheating Heart: If her relation with Rance in her route is Love, she eventually chooses him over Souun at the end of the story.

Komatsu Daidouji

A samurai in the service of the Houjou, she acts like a stereotypical Japanese idol.

Tropes exhibited by Komatsu include:

Hopeless Suitor: She's in love with Souun, but he's made it pretty clear he's in love with Ran.
Idol Singer: She's based on this archetype. Her personal squad is made up mostly of her fanboys.
Popularity Power: Her passive ability causes volunteers to join her squad each turn, without effort on the player's part.
Subordinate Excuse: Pretty much the only reason she's with the Houjou is because Souun's there.

Imagawa Clan

A once peaceful province where humans were living with Hannies surrounding the region in coexistance. However, the (in)famous Hanny King of the main Continent arrived one fateful day in the middle of the war between the Clans. United under the banner of their returned King, they formed the Imagawa Clan and joined the war, mimicking their human neighbours.

"Hanny King" / Yoshimoto Imagawa

An old man wearing a Hanny King costume. He was mistaken for the true Hanny King by the hannies in the province, who took over and declared him their ruler. He wants no part in this, but is too scared to go against the hannies.

Tropes exhibited by Yoshimoto include:

Death Faked for You: Rance saves him by fighting and "killing" the Hanny King. This depresses the hannies and causes them to leave, allowing Yoshimoto to ditch the costume.
Gone Horribly Right: His Hanny King costume did allow him to go undetected by hannies, to the point they believe him to be the real thing.
Puppet King: Too scared of the hannies to go against anything they say, so he basically just sits there and okays their schemes, with a notable exception when he uses his authority to prevent the hannies from harming his daughter.
The Unfought: He's just an unfortunate old man stuck with hannies, making him the only Clan leader whom Rance doesn't have to fight.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He has a phobia of hannies, hence why he frequently dresses up as one, and it allows him to move through them unnoticed. That backfired when he dressed up as a white hanny, which happens to be the same color as the Hanny King.

Nozomi Okita

A sickly girl set up as the "leader" of the Hanny Shinsengumi. She wants nothing more than to cure her illness, but the hannies won't let her.

Tropes exhibited by Nozomi include:

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite her constitution, she has a stunningly high level cap. Her abilities as a commander are lacking, but she's fantastic for clearing dungeons.
Ill Girl: The reason the hannies latched on to her. As a sick, clumsy girl in glasses, she's the personification of their ideal "moe".
Meganekko: Good-looking and with glasses, much to the delight of hannies.
Soap Opera Disease: Her "Cough-Cough" disease, which is only annoying now but could prove fatal later. After Rance saves her from the Shinsengumi, she starts getting treatment.

Anko Imagawa

Yoshimoto's daughter. She contacts Rance and asks him to save her father.

Tropes exhibited by Anko include:

Cute Clumsy Girl: One reason the hannies tolerate having her around, as they consider this trait "moe".
Sex for Services: Rance demands to have sex with her in exchange for saving her father. She passes out partway through.
Shrinking Violet: She's extremely shy and timid, and is totally out of her element dealing with Rance.

Dokuganryu Clan

The easternmost Clan of Nippon sheltered behind natural mountains, the Dokuganryu Clan is one of the larger, if not the most powerful, Clan in the country. They are entirely led by Youkai and their army dwarves any other, but they have a strict policy of not interfering in conflicts of any sort, but they can fight back if threatened.

They once lived peacefully with humans, but the Great Youkai War which happened eight years ago caused the current Youkai King Masamune, to isolate them from human contact to heal the old wounds.

Masamune Dokuganryu

The current Youkai King, whom fought alongside the Oda Clan during the Great Youkai War. A laid-back, self-centered womanizer, he is none the less a wise and beloved king who believes in maintaining peace between humans and Youkai.

Tropes exhibited by Masamune include:

100% Adoration Rating: Is universally beloved by his people.
Badass Adorable: Is a cute little guy, and a deadly swordsman. Just ask Ieyasu Tokugawa.
Battle Harem: His four wives are all capable of kicking ass.
Expecting Someone Taller: Pretty much all the characters who haven't already met him are surprised that the feared Youkai King is an eyeball with a stubby little body.
Foil: To Rance. The two of them are both laid-back and most interested in being with their harem, but Masamune actually has a sense of responsibility and compassion that makes him endear far more to people in the long term. Rance quickly relies the comparison and becomes incredibly jealous.
The Good King: Beloved as a wise and compassionate ruler by his people.
Master Swordsman: One of the best warriors in Nippon.
Meaningful Name: Dokuganryu, his last name, translates as "One-Eyed".
Polyamory: In a happy and committed relationship with his four wives.

Omachi

The former ruler of the youkai in Nippon and currently Masamune's fourth wife. She's the one who lead the youkai against the humans in the Great Youkai War a generation ago.

Tropes exhibited by Omachi include:

The Atoner: Her time with Masamune has lead her to realize the pain she inflicted on humans with her war, and she now feels badly about it.
Kitsune: A nine-tailed kitsune at that, which explains her incredible magic power.
Love Redeems: She's definitely become a much better person after marrying Masamune, and of all his wives seems to be the one most in love with him.
Overly Long Name: Her epithet as the Youkai King was "Her Knowledgeable Highness the Nine-tailed Fox of the Insane Star".
Retired Monster: Her reign as Youkai King saw her using the Forbidden Youkai Soul Binder and other extreme strategies that lead to humans fearing her as a demon. Nobunaga's father gained his acclaim by leading the human army that defeated her.

Nogiku

Masamune's first wife, a cyclops. Very good with a spear.

Tropes exhibited by Nogiku include:

Cute Monster Girl: Her single giant eye aside, she basically looks like a normal human girl.
Fragile Speedster: Her most noticeable trait is her speed. In fact, she repeatedly escaped Rance until he managed to tie her up.
Improbable Weapon User: Though said to be skilled with spears, she actually wields a giant pen in combat.

Orime

Masamune's second wife and personal ninja. Known for her huge appetite.

Tropes exhibited by Orime include:

Big Eater: Consumes large meals and is always requesting more food. Probably a consequence of that second mouth.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: Has extra eyes on her shoulder blades, which have green sclera and red irises.
Too Many Mouths: She's based on the legend of the "Two-Mouthed Woman", who has a second mouth on the back of her head.

Noir

Masamune's third wife, a spider youkai. She's known for her short temper, but has a hidden soft side.

Tropes exhibited by Noir include:

All Webbed Up: Naturally, she makes heavy use of webs to restrict her opponent's movements. She claims even Masamune had trouble cutting it in the past.
Extra Eyes: Spider youkai, remember? She has six eyes on her forehead in addition to her "normal" eyes.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has four spider legs coming out of her back, making her very dangerous in hand-to-hand combat.
Tsundere: She's harsh and irritable, but if you get on her good side she can be surprisingly sweet. She also tends to spout stereotypical tsundere catchphrases.

Western Nippon Clans

Tanegashima Clan

A minor Clan not involved in the war, but responsible for introducing firearms during the events of Sengoku Rance. Depending of the Oda Clan's actions, they can sell weapons to several countries in order to counter them. The Mouri Clan can invade them if Rance chooses to attack the Akashi Clan.

Shigehiko Tanegashima

A strange looking man who got hold of Maria's designs for the Tulip and began mass-producing arquebus rifles based off of it.

Tropes exhibited by Shigehiko include:

Crippling Overspecialization: The arquebus is a powerful weapon, but it takes a lot of time to reload and he has no other kinds of warriors. If someone survives his initial attack, he's doomed.
Epic Fail: If he's invaded by Mouri, he will completely fail to put up any defense because it rained, ruining his gunpowder.
Gonk: Due to his weird design, he isn't the prettiest man of Nippon.
Non-Standard Character Design: He looks more like a Minecraft character, very out-of-place on the Continent.

Yuzumi Yuzuhara

The best sharpshooter in Tanegashima.

Tropes exhibited by Yuzumi include:

Cuteness Proximity: She adores cute things, and the main reason she stays with Rance after being captured is because Kouhime is adorable.
Glass Cannon: She hits hard, with a chance to insta-kill one commander, but she only gets the one attack, and her defenses are very low.
I'm Taking Her Home with Me: Has this reaction upon seeing anything cute.
School Swimsuit: Her usual attire, with a sailor suit's top over it.

Akashi Clan

The smallest and one of the weakest contenders in the war. After several crushing defeats at the hands of the Mouri, the Akashi Clan is led by its youngest heir, Kazemaru Akashi. However, it hides a great secret between its walls. The Mouri Clan can invade them if Rance chooses to attack the Tanegashima Clan.

Kazemaru Akashi

The newly made Head of the Akashi Clan. Despite knowing the seriousness of his situation, he remains optimist and tries his best to keep his family's honor, after his father's death.

Tropes exhibited by Kazemaru include:

Godzilla Threshold: Once the Nuhe are gone, his generals start sending children into combat in a desperate attempt to fill out their army. Kazemaru is horrified by this action, but is a bit too timid to put his foot down and overrule the generals.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Despite the odds being against his Clan, he refuses to yield in order to not dishonor his fallen father and brothers. As a result, they are one of the hardest nations to vassalize with a score of 30.
Nice Guy: He is one of the nicest people of Nippon. It's why he ultimately chooses to release Hibachi rather than use her in combat, and why Kou is trusting towards him despite her general androphobia in later games. He even tried to eat her dango whole!
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The Tiny to Hibachi's Huge.
Unexpected Successor: Kazemaru was the youngest son, and therefore was never expected to become head of the family. Now that he has been put in this position, he feels inadequate to fulfill that role.

Hibachi

Hibachi is a Nuhe, an artificial humanoid made by man through a secret technique only known in Nippon. When the Oda Clan is invading the Akashi Clan, Kazemaru proceeds to unseal three of them who managed to successfully push back their attacks for some time until circumstances made them inoperative. Hibachi is the fourth Nuhe unsealed, but seems different from her precedessors...

Tropes exhibited by Hibachi include:

Artificial Human: As a Nuhe, she's an artificially created super soldier. Exactly how Nuhe are created is a secret that has been lost.
Bodyguard Crush: Develops feelings for Kazemaru after being given the order to live, showing that he cared for her despite her status as a weapon.
Emotionless Girl: Standard for being a Nuhe. She seems to slowly pick up on them when living with Kazemaru.
Super Soldier: A single Nuhe can turn back a small army. Hundreds of warriors die to the onslaught when one takes the battlefield.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The Huge to Kazemaru's Tiny.
What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Nuhe aren't developed with any emotions. She's very confused by Kazemaru's order to run away and live, since it doesn't serve any purpose she can see. She does seem happy to be with him when they reunite, as far as anyone can tell.

Mouri Clan

One of the main contenders in the unification of Nippon, led by the cursed human Mouri Motonari and his three daughters who came from neighboring provinces. Together, they proceed to invade east and south, leading in an eventual conflict with Takuga, Tanegashima, Akashi and eventually Oda.

Motonari Mouri

The gigantic man in charge of the Mouri Clan. His great skill at commanding and with the sword helped his Clan rose at the position it is known as in the beginning of Sengoku Rance, and his recent curse made him insanely stronger, easily towering most of the living beings in the country.

Tropes exhibited by Motonari include:

Ambiguously Brown: He's a bit darker than most Nipponese characters, including his own daughters.
Badass Mustache: An utterly enormous, sharp edges mustache, even for his size. His uncursed form has one just as huge.
Big Freaking Sword: Wield a gigantic sword matching his body.
Brought Down to Badass: If uncursed, he will still be a force to be reckowned. Hell, he is even stronger uncursed than cursed in tactical combat because he loses his Fixed Damage Attack and gains proper troops.
Cursed with Awesome: While being cursed made him insanely strong, it shaved 100 years from his lifespan and left him only 3 years to live. In gameplay proper, his cursed form allows him to hit any foe with the Fixed Damage Attack, very useful against dungeon bosses, but left him unable to have his army in tactical combats. His uncursed form is the other way around: Less useful in dungeons, but very strong with his newly found troops.
Blood Knight: He lives only for battle and nothing more. He even accepts duels against the Oda Clan when asked by Rance, who promised him a good fight.
Curb Stomp Cushion: He is able to fight Xavier 8 hours straight while cursed. It's implied he would have won if not for the Invicibility Field.
Determinator: When he reach the end of his lifespan, his ghost sticked around. He refused to die because he still want to fight.
From Nobody to Nightmare: In the span of 3 years, the Mouri developped from a small Clan surrounded by others powerful families to being at the top of the pecking order.
Good Parents: He may have raised his daughters to be like the warmonger he is, but he loves them dearly.
Hopeless Boss Fight: During the Emperor Race, should he duel Kenshin when he is still cursed, you are rewarded with a Game Over.
I Want Grandkids: Sadly, he died before his grandson was born.
Large and In Charge: He's dwarfing every other human in the game, measuring at least 3 meters, and he is the Head of the Clan.
Long Lived: He's 100 years old, and that's after the curse halved his lifespan.
Made of Iron: He shrugs off a headshot without being hurt.
Old Soldier: 100 years old and capable of wrecking havoc on the battlefield.
One-Man Army: All of the commanders in the army fight using hundreds or thousands of troops. This man fights alone. As comparison, the only other character fighting alone against an army in the game is Little Princess in the Demon King Route.
- To put it into context: If Xavier invades Mouri House, the level 95 Fiend needs 8 hours to kill him while he takes minutes to slay the most powerful fighters in Nippon.
Our Ghosts Are Different: His love for battle is so great it prevents him from leaving the living world: He came back after his death as a ghost.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: When breaking his curse, he is shown to be quite short. Regardless, he still wields his BFS.
Unconventional Formatting: In his cursed form, his dialogue is randomly sized, from extremely tiny to the same height as the text box.
World's Strongest Man: Aside from Fiends, it's unlikely any human could win a fight against him.

Teru Mouri

Motonari's eldest daughter and closest advisor. The most alike in terms of battle-lust to her father, she often accompanies him into battle. Her specialty as a maid is cleaning.

Tropes exhibited by Teru include:

Berserk Button: Calling her father a "monster" due to the curse placed on him.
Blood Knight: Just like her father, she loves battle and killing, though it's not quite as extreme as him.
Gender Flip: Of the real-life Motonari's grandson Terumoto.
Improbable Weapon User: She fights with a duster made of blades.
Longest Pregnancy Ever: She becomes pregnant with Rance's child in Rance Quest, but dosen't give birth until after the main arc of Rance X. Doing the math, this means she somehow was pregnant for 15 months In-Universe. Strangely, this is never lampshaded or explained.
Neat Freak: She's an obsessive perfectionist when it comes to cleaning. Ironic, given her love of bloodshed.
Red String of Fate: One of Rance's fated girls.

Kiku Kikkawa

The second daughter of Motonari, a wild woman with an interest in personal strength. She used to be married, but divorced her husband for being frightened of her eyes. Her specialty is cooking.

Tropes exhibited by Kiku include:

Best Her to Bed Her: After her divorce from her first husband, she declares that she would never marry a man who couldn't beat her one-on-one.
The Cavalry: In Rance X, she leads one of the supports groups sent to Zeth.
Defeat Means Playable: To recruit her, you have to defeat her unit in battle following the All-Out Battle (or conquer Mouri Clan but you will miss her events) Then, Rance duels her in a one-on-one duel to make her join Oda.
Improbable Weapon User: Wields a wok alongside her weapon.
Ninja Maid: She wields stereotypical ninja weapons (albeit with a Frying Pan of Doom attached to her kusarigama), and she's skilled in assassination.
Supreme Chef: A highly skilled cook, and also in charge of screening Motonari's meals for poison.

Chinu Kobayakawa

The youngest daughter of Mouri Motonari. A sweet and cheerful girl who also happens to be a sadistic killer who uses poisons as her main weapon. Like Kiku, she was married, but has divorced her husband.

Tropes exhibited by Chinu include:

Back from the Dead: In Rance Quest Magnum, she can be revived as a zombie. The canonicity of this event was in question... until zombie-Chinu showed up in Rance X.
The Cutie: Despite her sadistic killing streak, the game takes pains to point out that she really is happy and sweet towards those she loves.
Chekhov's Gun: Her poison skill serves again in Rance X when Rance try to exploit Galtia's Big Eater tendancies.
Guest Star Party Member: Because Genbu kills her following Xavier's revival, she's playable for a short time in the Official History route and cannot be character cleared, but she becomes fully playable on Ran's and Monkeyslayer routes.
Healing Hands: Surprisingly, she's pretty good at healing as well as poisoning.
Really Gets Around: Noted to sleep around quite a lot, unlike her sisters. Naturally, she enjoys her time with Rance.
Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Xavier's Apostle, Genbu, is sealed within her bloodline. She is killed when he bursts out of her body following Xavier's unsealing.

Takuga Clan

A group of outcasts who happened to live in Shikokalamity, under the jurisdiction of the Houjou Clan for being the largest gathering of Onis in the country. However, they decided to proclaim their independance and formed their own Clan under the name Takuga. After invading the neighboring province of Chuu-earth belonging to the Mouri, they are quickly pressured into allying with them.

Ryouma Sakamoto

Head of a group of human outcasts in Shikokalamity, who leads them to break out and establish a nation of their own. Like most of them, Ryoma is cursed: they are both male and female at the same time and cannot have children. (At least in the English translation, the game tends to refer to Ryouma as female while cursed.)

Tropes exhibited by Ryouma include:

Ambiguous Gender: Physically intersex, Ryouma doesn't identify as male or female, and since they were cursed prior to birth, doesn't know which sex they started out as. If the player cures them, the player can choose which sex Ryouma truly is, at which point Ryouma embraces that gender identity.
Fate Worse Than Death: After retreating back in Shikokalamity following a defeat against Oda, Rance is given the choice of locking the only door leading to Chuu-earth, leaving Ryouma and his group to slowly die of attrition due to the undending waves of Onis.
Hermaphrodite: Has both sets of genitalia, and apparently both are functional, although sterile.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Their greatest wish is to remove their curse and become a normal human, able to have children.
Sir Swearsalot: Though generally a nice person, Ryouma is incredibly foul-mouthed, to the point that Rance's language appears clean by comparison.
The Strategist: They're the ones who come up with the plans to break out of Shikokalamity, and even Mouri Motonari praises their tactical abilities.

Gon

A huge hulk of a man with blades growing out of his body. He's a childhood companion of Ryouma and raised them when they were an infant.

Tropes exhibited by Gon include:

Cursed with Awesome: Super strength and blades growing out of him? He even decides not to cure his curse when given the opportunity, since he feels his strength is needed to help his friends. The one downside is that his tongue is slowly (and painfully) shrivelling and eventually he will be unable to speak.
Dumb Muscle: Justified as he was outcast at a very young age.
Gentle Giant: He's a really nice guy, though he's also insanely strong and he will kill to protect those he loves.
Never Learned to Read: Was outcast before becoming educated, and as a result can't read.
Parental Substitute: He raised Ryouma when they were exiled as an infant. Ryouma goes so far as to refer to Gon as their father.

Mine Kawanoe

A young woman from a poor family who was exiled after cutting off her own arm. One of Ryouma's lieutenants.

Tropes exhibited by Mine include:

Handicapped Badass: Being down an arm certainly hasn't slowed her down on the battlefield.
Made a Slave: She was going to be sold by her family as a slave, but Yuzuru intervened and exiled himself so she could become the heir instead. When he was sent to Shikokalamity, she cut off her own arm so she could join him.
Relationship Upgrade: If Ryouma becomes a man, he'll hook up with Mine.
Sex for Services: She prostituted herself to get food for children, at least for a time before Gon and Ryouma took over.

Yuzuru Kawanoe

The son of a poor family who was exiled after gouging out his own eye. One of Ryouma's lieutenants.

Tropes exhibited by Yuzuru include:

Big Brother Instinct: When he heard his sister was going to be sold into slavery, he gouged out his own eye to get himself exiled, meaning his family would have to make Mine the heir instead of himself.
Handicapped Badass: His missing eye doesn't seem to slow him down in combat.
Relationship Upgrade: If Ryouma becomes a woman, she'll hook up with Yuzuru.
Shaggy Dog Story: He wasn't too pleased that Mine joined him in exile, after he had lost his eye to protect her from a terrible fate. By the time of Sengoku Rance, however, he's forgiven her.
Sir Swearsalot: like Ryouma, Yuzuru uses language that would make a sailor blush.

Shimazu Clan

The westernmost Clan of Nippon, and the most exotic of them all due to being connected with the Tenma Bridge to the city of Portugal in the main Continent. Consequently, they are the most advanced and wealthiest Clan and all of their inhabitants spend a life of leisure, notably the four Shimazu Brothers and their womanizing tendencies causing them to accidentally invade several provinces.

Despite having a large army, they don't engage in war, because of their unique position in the whole Continent. However, they are forced in the later game events to cooperate with the Demon Army led by the Fiend Xavier, after he defeated each of the brothers and taken their princess Kurohime hostage.

Yoshihisa Shimazu

Head of the Shimazu family. The most cool-headed and serious brother.

Tropes exhibited by Yoshihisa include:

Counter Attack: As a Footsoldier, he mainly uses the Counterattack 2 skill to do damage, meaning you should be wary when attacking him.
The Good King: Despite his youth and flippant attitude, he's actually an intelligent ruler and he does take his duties seriously.
Heroic Sacrifice: When cornered by Rance's army, he takes a drug to supercharge his combat ability and rushes in to hold Rance off and let his brothers escape. He's successful, but he dies as a result.
Katanas Are Just Better: His weapon of choice as the leader of Shimazu's army is a katana.
Ladykiller in Love: Under certain circumstances, he will fall in love with Teru Mouri. She may either reject or accept his proposal, and if she rejects him, his reaction shows he was actually serious about her.
Smoking Is Cool: Notable for being one of the few characters of the series seen smoking.

Kazuhisa Shimazu

The second brother, and also the loudest and most boisterous.

Tropes exhibited by Kazuhisa include:

Boisterous Bruiser: Loud, somewhat crass, and strong, but also friendly, energetic, and fun.
Despair Event Horizon: When Iehisa died.
Ladykiller in Love: In certain circumstances, he will fall in love with Ai Naoe. She can either reciprocate or not depending on her relationship with Rance.
Last Stand: Following his brothers' death, he attacks Xavier in Tenma Bridge knowing he will die in the attempt.
The Lancer: To his elder brother Yoshihisa. He even carries a spear when compared to his brother's katana.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Xavier try to kill him during the Emperor Race, he just go into hiding, knowing he can't best the Fiend.
Skyward Scream: When Iehisa dies in his arms.

Toshihisa Shimazu

The third brother, who also happens to be the most popular with women out of all of them.

Tropes exhibited by Toshihisa include:

Bishonen: He has the looks of a pretty boy and puts them to good use.
Driven to Suicide: He shoots himself in the head upon being infected by the Soul Binder.
Glass Cannon: Hits very hard as an Arquebus commander, but can't take much punishment.
Ladykiller in Love: In certain circumstances, he can fall in love with Komatsu Daidouji. She can reciprocate or not depending on her relationship with Rance.
Zombie Infectee: He is infected by the Soul Binder in the Official History.

Iehisa Shimazu

The youngest of the brothers, who relies on his boyish cuteness to attract girls. He's the group's tactician.

Tropes exhibited by Iehisa include:

Big Brother Worship: He has it bad for Yoshihisa, whom he considers to be "incredibly cool".
Dirty Kid: He don't seems much older than Kou but he is just as much of a womanizer than his brothers.
Human Pincushion: How he died.
Ladykiller in Love: In certain circumstances, he can fall in love with either Ranmaru or Senhime. Ranmaru can reciprocate (depending on whether she hooked up with Katsuie), but Senhime always turns him down.
The Strategist: The tactician of the Shimazu family. All of his brothers trust him with this and defends him from Madou when he is unpleased of Shimazu's military.
Shorter Means Smarter: He's the shortest and smartest of his brothers, handling tactics and strategy.

Kyouko / Kurohime

The only daughter of the Fiend Xavier, and one of the very few examples of a half-Fiend. Despite her parentage, she is a kind woman who helped the people of Nippon oppose her father centuries back, and she has been sheltered by successive generations of the Shimazu Clan since.

Tropes exhibited by Kurohime include:

The Ageless: While she doesn't possess the Invincibility Field, she doesn't seem to age and is much tougher than an ordinary human.
Archnemesis Dad: She despises her father and does everything she can to ensure his defeat. It isn't hard to see why, given the way Xavier treats her.
Child by Rape: Her mother was one of the numerous women Xavier would torment for his own amusement, and she died shortly after Kurohime's birth. Xavier cares nothing for her, seeing her as being "tainted" by being half-Nipponese.
Cool Big Sis: The Shimazu brothers see her as such, and adore her like a member of their own family.
Half-Human Hybrid: An extremely rare case of a Fiend successfully reproducing with a human woman. Most other Fiends who have children did so before they became a Fiend.
Meaningful Name:
- Her birth name, Kyouko, is written as "Mad Child", since she was born among suffering and madness. She abandoned the name after Xavier's defeat.
- Her chosen name "Kurohime" means "Black Princess". Not only is her skin tone very dark, but she prefers black clothing and has black hair as well.
Really 700 Years Old: Though she looks like a young woman, she's in fact over 500 years old.

Agireda

The leader of a tribe of warrior women from the province of South Africa (part of Shimazu territory). She was seduced by Toshihisa into serving as a general in their army after her people were conquered, and hates herself for it.

Tropes exhibited by Agireda include:

Ambiguously Brown: Despite being Nipponese, she has dark skin. The Continent's equivalent of Africa is located in Nippon, so she's probably meant to be black.
Humiliation Conga: Before being her territory was conquered, she underwent a long string of events where she was seduced by every Shimazu brother until she and her tribe completely lose South Africa to them.
Jungle Princess: She was the daughter of the chief of the African Amazons, and she dresses the part with wild hair, leaves as part of her clothing, and face paint.
Revenge: She desperately wants the Shimazu dead, but every time she tries to undermine them, they just seduce her again.
Unexpected Successor: in alternate routes, if Rance kidnaps Kurohime, all four brothers will immediately surrender to him. This leaves Agireda in charge of the entire Shimazu Clan, to her shock.

Unaffiliated People

Humans

Kojika Yamanaka

A former retainer of the Amago Clan, who were conquered and annihilated by the Mouris. She now travels Nippon desperately searching for anyone who could help her take revenge on Mouri and restore the her clan.

Tropes exhibited by Kojika include:

Butt Monkey: Whenever she shows up, it's guaranteed she's going to be hurt or taken advantage of in some way. Nobody takes her seriously... except maybe the Shinsengumi (and they're just a bunch of hannies who play along because they think she's Moe).
The Jinx: She's incredibly unlucky, and any endeavor she undertakes is doomed to failure for one reason or another.
Older Than She Looks: Despite appearing to be maybe 10 or 12, she's over 20. Her appearance naturally doesn't do her any favors with people taking her seriously.
Rhetorical Request Blunder: It's hinted that the reason she's so unlucky is that, when she decided to undertake the task of restoring the Amako Clan, she declared "Deliver pain and anguish upon me!" in order to demonstrate her resolve. A disembodied voice replied "I'll grant your wish!" and ever since her luck has been abysmal. Though it's unknown who exactly the voice belonged to, most guess it was the Sublime God Planner (he has been known to be a Jackass Genie towards humans in the past).

"Princess Kaguya" / Ka Guya

A mysterious woman worshipped by the people in the Mikawa province as a goddess. She's actually an extraterrestrial who crash-landed on the Continent, and her "miracles of healing" are the results of advanced technology.

Tropes exhibited by Ka Guya include:

Army Scout: Completing her sidequest reveals that she was sent as a scout to determine if the Continent (known to them as "Rudrathaum's Land") could be invaded and enslaved. Given their advanced technology, Kaguya is certain her race would win.
Because You Were Nice to Me: As a scout, she was supposed to investigate the Continent as a place to invade, but Rance helping her repair her ship made her fall in love with him, so she reports to her superiors that Rudrathaum's Land is devoid of life and there's no point in visiting it further.
But Now I Must Go: If Rance recovers the "artifacts" she's looking for, she repairs her spaceship and leaves.
Doing In the Wizard: Her healing powers comes from advanced technology instead of Divine Magic like the Continent.
Higher-Tech Species: Her people have advanced space travel technology, and even Maria Custard has no clue about how it works.
Human Aliens: She looks completely human, though she keeps herself inside her bulky spacesuit at all times out of fear of the Continent's atmosphere.
Pragmatic Adaptation: She's based on Princess Kaguya from ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'', in which a childless bamboo cutter finds a little girl of extraterrestrial descent. Her superior's name also resembles his, named Take No-Okina.

Gekkou

A master ninja who fought in the Great Youkai War alongside the previous Nobunaga Oda. He and his adopted daughter Shinobu were believed to have been killed, but in fact got thrown a few years into the future by a freak lightning strike.

Tropes exhibited by Gekkou include:

Heroic Sacrifice: He was thought to have blown himself up during the Youkai War. If he's character cleared, the player can have him do the same thing: instantly win any battle, but at the cost of his life.
Lightning Can Do Anything: How a chance lightning strike mixing with an explosion equates to short-range time travel, only Rudrathaum knows.
Master Apprentice Chain: He was Inukai's master, who then in turn trained Suzume. Each was known as the most skilled and dangerous ninja of their generation.
One-Hit Kill: His Assassination+ skill lets him get a guaranteed kill on any commander who has exhausted their action points.

Shinobu

Gekkou's adopted daughter, whom he found orphaned on the battlefield as a baby. She grew up learning his ninja arts and fighting alongside him.

Tropes exhibited by Shinobu include:

Age-Inappropriate Dress: Wears a fishnet on her torso and nothing else, which in turn influenced Katsuie's passion about little girls.
Happily Adopted: She and Gekkou are inseperable, with Gekkou even calling her his left hand (he cut off his actual left hand upon adopting her).
Together in Death: Gekkou was originally moved to blow himself up because Shinobu had been badly wounded and he couldn't bear life without her. Should he sacrifice himself again, she will go down with him, refusing to leave his side.

Non-Humans and Youkai

Soul Binder

One of Nippon's Forbidden Youkai, who possesses powers deemed too dangerous to exist. In her case, anyone who touches her becomes a zombie (and anyone who touches one of those zombies in turn becomes a zombie, and so forth...) Sealed long ago, Xavier breaks the seal to use her power against Nippon.

Tropes exhibited by Soul Binder include:

Meaningful Name: When somebody touches her, they are instantly killed. However, their soul is bound to their corpse, reanimating it until they have touched 5 other people and inflicted the same curse.
Ofuda: She is covered in paper seals, in an apparently vain attempt to halt her powers.
Power Incontinence: Her power activates regardless of whether she wants it to.
Zombie Apocalypse: She can cause it simply by touching someone, who turns into a zombie and can transmit it to other people around.

Stone Geezer

One of Nippon's Forbidden Youkai. Stone Geezer was sealed, but released by Xavier in order to destroy Nippon. He grows larger when he cries.

Tropes exhibited by Stone Geezer include:

Living MacGuffin: He doesn't really have any agency or character of his own, and is just a tool used by Xavier.
Sizeshifter: He grows larger when he cries, and smaller when he laughs. There doesn't appear to be a limit to how large he can become.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Xavier tries to use him to destroy Nippon... by constantly torturing him to make him cry, until he grows so large that he literally capsizes the landmass.

Keikoku Yaobikuni

A mysterious woman who may or may not actually be a youkai who travels around Nippon causing chaos for fun. She only appears in non-canon routes, so whether she actually exists in the Rance canon proper is unclear.

Tropes exhibited by Keikoku include:

The Ageless: She claims to be a woman who was cursed with immortality. Some believe she's actually a youkai who happens to be shaped like a human woman (youkai are ageless by default).
Big Bad Wannabe: She shows up as a secondary villain to Xavier in most routes, only becoming the main villain in Ran's route due to Xavier being sealed up again before being able to do anything.
It Amused Me: Has no real reason for the chaos and bloodshed she causes other than she's bored and thinks it would be fun.
Karma Houdini: She escapes with her life in all routes she appears in, free to cause more chaos at a later date.
Meaningful Name: Her name refers to a woman who can destroy countries with her beauty. In Isoroku's route, this is pretty much exactly what she tries to do. Her less-seen other name, Yaobikuni, refers to a Japanese legend of a woman cursed with agelessness after eating a human-headed fish.
Remember the New Guy?: Seemingly appears out of nowhere in non-canon routes of Sengoku Rance:
- In Ran's route, she's introduced as the doctor in charge of Souun Houjou's health following his fight against Minamoto.

Orochi

A fifth Holy Beast created by Rudrathaum to serve as structural support for the Continent. Orochi's movements are the cause of Nippon breaking off of the main Continent, and he formed its foundation afterward. Every hundred years or so, he sheds his skin, causing a great earthquake throughout Nippon. The Miko Union was founded to keep him sealed and lessen these earthquakes by sacrificing miko to him.

Tropes exhibited by Orochi include:

Bonus Boss: He's an optional boss that can be fought by completing Fuuka's storyline. Canonically, this quest did happen and Rance was successful in defeating Orochi, causing the souls of all the miko sacrificed to him to be released into the cycle of reincarnation.
Mother of a Thousand Young: All Youkai were created from him. Not on purpose, just a result of tiny pieces of his body flaking off and gaining their own lives.
Multiple Head Case: He's a giant eight-headed snake, mirroring his namesake from Japanese Mythology.
Your Soul Is Mine: Any miko sacrificed to him to keep him from moving too much becomes bound to him, unable to pass on in the cycle of reincarnation. This isn't pleasant for the "Orochi girls" (as they're called), who are unable to find peace in their state of undeath.

Kurobe

The first Youkai King to exist, during the years where Youkai first appeared in the NC Era. Despite his appeareance, he isn't actually hostile to humans, but one fateful day caused him to completely distance himself from them and gained a reputation as a savage monster. He allied with Fujiwara Ishimaru in his crusade to conquer to world, but died in battle against the Dread Fiend Xavier.

Tropes exhibited by Kurobe include:

Back from the Dead: Inexplicably revives near the start of Rance X, for reasons no one, not even he, understands. He turns into a minor villain and possible subordinate to Rance.
Blood Knight: Centuries of being forced to fight against humans turned him into this. He grew to enjoy the challenge and would viciously kill any who challenged him.
Defeat Means Friendship: Ishimaru Fujiwara was the first and only time in his life he was ever defeated in combat, afterward he pledged his loyalty to Fujiwara. The same occurs if Rance defeats him in Rance X.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He lived in peaceful seclusion until he one day found and returned a lost child to his village. The people of the village mistook him for a monster and for ages afterward he was hunted by human "heroes" wishing to vanquish the "dangerous beast".
Then Let Me Be Evil: He started out peaceful, but after so long being hunted by humans, he eventually decided to become the monstrous beast they all thought he was.