Written by Flamecaster, edited by Otaku Apologist
“Rance 5D”, developed by Alice Soft. A hentai action roleplaying and dungeon crawling RPG with unique progression mechanics. Download at MangaGamer for $34,95. Download at JAST USA for $29.70. This game is bundled with Rance VI. Released on December 23rd, 2016. Genitals are completely uncensored. 5+ hours of gameplay. This is the first official English entry into the Rance eroge franchise spanning decades. A good introduction point for new players.
The game features forceful, unapologetic intercourse and raep memes.
STORY
It’s impossible to talk about Rance games without going in-depth. I’m only going to skim the surface of this franchise, because there’s just too much to talk about. When it comes to the character of Rance, it’s hard to find a person in the eroge community that hasn’t heard about Rance. He’s a shark-toothed “Hyper Weapon”-wielding protagonist of over 10 different games in his name. Rance’s appearance and the selfish, brutish ways he deals with women characterizes what people nowadays expect from most Alice Soft titles: a lot of competently structured and engaging raep scenes, coupled with epic fantasy adventure.
Getting officially introduced to Rance’s character through Rance 5D, situated almost in the middle of the whole franchise, might seem like a weird decision at first, but the game has one specific thing going for that will allow newcomers to the series to get familiar with it. That is the standalone story, which does not require knowledge of previous Rance games to be understood and enjoyed. For how much he hates to explain and overcomplicate things, even Rance himself briefly explains who his traveling slaves and pets are!
The plot of Rance 5D begins with Rance with his cute doormat slaves, Sill, and Athena 2.0. One of them is an artificial girl with the intelligence of a dog. The trio tries to escape a cave and return home, where he can get some well-deserved R&R (raep and relaxation). From that point, most of the events that unfold in the story are pretty much fueled by Rance’s libido, his sense of entitlement. He wants to get his way no matter what. Rance’s exploits this time take him to another dimension full of challenges, girls to “save” and fuck. Even if the story is mostly about entertaining you with no-holds-barred sexual and non-sexual violence related humor, it doesn’t shy away from getting serious at times.
The story is incredibly self-aware, and straightforward.
GAMEPLAY
Rance 5D’s gameplay is a weird mixed bag of genres, with mechanics both familiar and new. You will be spending most of the time on what the game calls an “Adventure Screen”, selecting actions that characters do, picking up items and using them in events. Experimenting with all kinds of items on different characters and events can yield some surprising and sometimes rewarding situations.
What you encounter while moving in dungeons is determined by a roulette roll. You can select from three types of spins. Whichever node the roulette stops on, you get that type of encounter. Normal spin takes one unit of time, slow spin takes two units of time. The roulette will end on three adjacent nodes, and you pick one of the three. Each node, or ball has a corresponding color to it that determines what kind of event you experience. The events range from fighting a monster, to looting treasure, encountering a trap. To advance the story, you will have to land on the numbered green event nodes that gradually appear the more spins you make.
Almost any action the player takes depletes a certain portion of a time limit gauge atop of the screen, and when that runs out, you will get an automatic game over. Managing how you move from scene to scene and calculating the risks versus rewards of using more costly spins, adding different nodes to the roulette ultimately determines if you can get through each chapter successfully. I have to say that this approach to progression feels like a breath of fresh air.
When actual combat starts, the player spectates as a die is cast. The dice roll determines which skill is used by your characters, and the enemies. As you battle and defeat enemies, you gain experience, which you can channel into level-ups through the camp screen and the goddess Mikan. The camp screen also lets you manage your inventory, equip items, manage skill slot arrangements and swap battle positions for your characters. Leveling up not only increases your stats but also gives you access to new skills every few predetermined levels. Stacking the same skills usually improves their effectiveness.
Speaking of baddies, the enemies you encounter range from standard-looking fantasy monsters to a seemingly random RPG tropes and monster girls, which can be added to your party if captured to serve as temporary party members. This game is so crazy, you even battle multiple versions of Bill Gates attacking you with various Windows OS iterations.
You can get items that influence your combat rolls, but that’s the extents of your control. Generally, your best chance at survival comes from properly leveling up your characters and skills, always making sure you have the best gear equipped. Due to the random nature of the combat system, you can get bad rolls and misses, and get your whole party wiped. You need to either reload from the last auto-save point or from one of the five event triggers for specific chapters. While you would think the RNG-laden nature of this game is a problem, it gives the game immense replayability. No session of Rance 5D will turn out exactly the same and you might just discover more secrets the developers have hidden.
At the end of each of the title’s five chapters, your score is tallied and added up based on what kind of actions you have taken throughout the chapters and how much time you have left in each of them. You are then rewarded a corresponding amount of experience points to help you throughout the adventure. As an added bonus, two Alice Soft mascots — Alice and Dark Alice — exchange some funny banter with one another, all the while Alice gives you percentage-based stats of your playthrough.
GRAPHICS
The most important and longest sex scenes happen in the major story-related events and are also the ones accompanied by full-resolution (though not widescreen) CGs lovingly drawn by the game’s lead artist, Orion. His sexy character designs and the use of bright and warm colors coupled with gentle line art was always one of the things that kept me coming back to Alice Soft and Rance titles. After you complete the game, you unlock a CG gallery that includes Orion’s commentary on all art pieces he created for the title. I’m not surprised that he is very critical of his own work, despite how positively received it is by others. Orion seems to never be fully satisfied with his creations and that motivates him to get better all the time. That kind of mindset has surely worked for him all this time. His stuff gets better and better in subsequent sequels.
MUSIC
The game’s soundtrack deserves a positive mention. The dynamic rock scores during battles are accompanied by more fun-filled goofy tracks. The soundtrack adds a ton to the game’s humor, as it practically burps and farts its way into your body and tickles your funny bone. Traditional Japanese music combined with weird boops, beeps and even rap with English vocals adds to the surreal atmosphere present throughout.
VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)
The game sadly doesn’t have any voice acting. The sound design beyond the official soundtrack is standard without any major bells and whistles. Sounds are there, are unintrusive and play well with the whole package. Most Rance titles don’t have voice acting.
HENTAI
Even for a short title, Rance 5D is packed full of erotic content. The developers have not missed a single beat when it comes to quirky and kinky situations. In order to quell his boredom and libido (which rises very often), Rance will go through any lengths to fuck a pretty girl on his radar. He will also be inventive about it. Even if he isn’t the smartest of heroes, he is certainly one with the biggest imagination for sexual things. Expect everything from blowjobs, to bukkake baths, extreme bondage BDSM sessions, group sex, etc. The way all of those scenes are written captures Rance’s forceful and sometimes downright brutal nature.
CONCLUDING WORDS
The first Rance officially released in the West, is a solid great-looking eroge. It has its flaws, like the short length and RNG-based combat system. It tried out new ideas and succeeded in implementing most of them. Its standalone story nature allowed it to be an introductory title to an expansive series of legendary games, managing to set up a good segue into Rance VI. I cannot help but feel excitement over one of the world’s most immoral fantasy protagonists on his journey towards pussy, power, and prestige.
Recommended hentai RPG for guys. Download at Mangagamer. Download at JAST USA.
Overall
- Graphics
- Gameplay
- Story
- Music
- SFX
- Hentai
