Hentai Strategy Game Review: Sengoku Rance

Written by Thunder Pope, edited by Otaku Apologist

Sengoku Rance, a hentai strategy game, developed by Alice Soft. Released in Japan in December 15th, 2006. English localization released on September 19th, 2019. Download at MangaGamer for $34.95. For Windows PC. No voice acting. Censored genitals.

We’ve also reviewed these games from Alice Soft. Read our reviews of Rance VI, Rance 5D, and Evenicle.

STORY

Sengoku Rance takes place in an alternate version of the Sengoku period of Japan. Many historical figures and locations have been parodied. The premise of the game is that you are a foreigner called Rance, who has come to Japan for a hot spring vacation. The Oda house, which was once the most powerful in the nation of Japan, has declined with Oda Nobunaga’s failing health. Since Oda himself can no longer command his troops, he nominates Rance to take over the Oda House. The game starts with you putting down a rebellion among Oda’s own troops.

After putting down the rebellion, you get to where the real meat of the game is. You control a single province, surrounded by a multitude of small nations. All of them have their own ambitions. Your goal is to conquer and unite Japan. You decare war on the other nations and expand your territory. As Rance rapes and pillages his way through the Japanese countryside, a sinister enemy is biding its time, plotting in the shadows.

The most powerful families of Japan, including the Oda House, have been entrusted to protect strange gourds. A gourd is like a Japanese jar for storing whater, or rice. However, the gourd entrusted to the Oda House is broken early in the game and what was sealed inside, has been unleashed. The evil spirit takes over Oda’s body. As Rance conquers more and more provinces, more gourds are broken, and the evil possessing Oda grows stronger from reclaiming lost pieces of itself. The spirit bides its time until it’s ready to unleash destruction on an unsuspecting Japan.

GAMEPLAY

Sengoku Rance is partly a visual novel, partly a war strategy game with RPG mechanics. It’s a true hybrid game. The battle portions of the game feature multiple unit types you can deploy to the battlefield. You got strategists, foot soldiers, warriors, diviners, cavalry and even cannoneers. There are also special units led by named characters such as Rance, Honda Tadakatsu and Uesugi Kenshin. You have a limited number of moves every turn. Your units can only be used once per turn. You have to carefully weigh every move you make, how best to spend your time, which nations to conquer first and which units to hire.

There’s also tons of special in-game events, dungeons, and treasures. You meet new entertaining characters throughout the game. Every province you conquer offers something new to do.

Naturally, as this is a Rance game, one of your goals is to sex up as many women as possible, even those that don’t consent. Rance has a ‘satisfaction’ stat which gradually increases as you unlock hentai scenes. Every ten satisfaction points allows you to choose from a list of different rewards. The game also features multiple choices, routes and endings. You have to play through the “true route” at least once before accessing the other routes.

GRAPHICS

Being a decade old game, Sengoku Rance’s art may strike you as antiquated, but it’s still lovely. The sheer variety and amount of hentai CGs you can find in the game is staggering. Over the years, I have played through the game about four times and still haven’t been able to unlock everything. However, one issue that the game has is that many of the hentai CGs are fairly samey after a while. As far as sex scenes go, most of them are fairly vanilla as well, minus the frequent rape. There’s still a good variety of CGs. Nearly every single female character in the game gets fucked in the pussy.

The majority of named characters in the game have their own unit they can command and unique sprite art. Every house in the game has their own unique sprites for their units, including attack animations.

MUSIC

Sengoku Rance features a full original soundtrack. I found nearly all of the tracks extremely enjoyable, my personal favourite being Rebirth the Edge. Just wait until you hear it in-game! There are tracks for ordinary battles, and special battles. The music fits the depicted time period while bringing a modern twist to the mix. The only problem with the soundtrack is that there’s a lack of variety after a while. You will be hearing the same themes quite frequently throughout the game and it can become repetitive. They use the exact same theme for nearly every CG in the game, which are abundant.

VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)

Sengoku Rance has no voice acting. Considering the sheer amount of dialogue in the game, I suspect that the price tag would’ve gone up way too high had the company hired professional actors to voice all the lines.

The game features a variety of sound effects, including a full suite of battle effects, ie. sword clangs.

HENTAI

Rance will fuck anything with two legs, whether she likes it or not. The CG artwork is cute, but hardcore, spectularly colored. There’s ample use of great shading technique, and natural shadows. Assuming your genitals start throbbing at the sight of hot insecure anime girls, you got a whole course meal of pussy waiting for you. There’s a ton of hentai scenes with a wide variety of girls.

CONCLUDING WORDS

My review only scratches the surface of what Sengoku Rance offers to hentai gamers. It was developed by one of the most prestigeous Japanese developers in the industry, Alice Soft. If you’re bored of plowing through hentai visual novels, this game offers brain-scratching gameplay in between the hardcore porn, along with a basic but interesting storyline set in medieval Japan. Download Sengoku Rance.