Anime Discussion Thread - Page 2710

Rance 3
I played Rance 3 first because it was the latest of the three to be translated.

Graphics and such are ancient, as expected, but overall it's not bad.



The gameplay is largely uninteresting. A lot of common rpg elements. What I really liked was that you had the option to avoid all combat by escaping (100% success rate except for fights you can't escape from, period). It sped up the game a ton. You can also summon a demon that basically oneshots everything except for bosses, which makes the game a cinch. Boss fights (especially later ones) are largely RNG based, since the game ends only when Rance dies. Since you can't control the actions of other members of your party, this means they could attack instead of healing Rance, essentially dooming you. In other cases, the boss could attack your healers, crippling your party. In short, shit sucks. In one fight, I had to hex edit my save to grant me infinite experience.

Quest progression was also unremarkable. Where this game really shines is in the writing. It's absolutely hilarious. The Rance universe is largely a parody of traditional RPGs, and it certainly shows. For example, in one section of the game, you need a code to unlock a door. Sill suggests that you look in bookshelves to see if the code is there. However, the way to progress is to actually go to a small, out of the way room, where Rance interrogates soldiers that Sill lures in. Brilliant.

All in all, the game was worth playing for the parodies and jokes alone.

Rance 1
It was awful. There are very few good things about the game, and it just hasn't aged well at all. Even the humor was lacking in most of the game. 90% of the game takes place in the starting town. The world map has 4 other areas, but 3 of those are completely irrelevant and you can't even do anything in them except fight monsters.

Quest progression was awful. There was a lot of the old RPG crap wherein you have to perform arbitrary action X to get event Y to happen. The real problem manifests when you have no fucking clue what X even is. Worst of all is the battle system. There are random encounters as you'd expect, but escaping from them is iffy at best, and some enemies can outright ohko you. This means you take a bunch of damage wandering around areas trying to figure shit out. Grinding is necessary to progress, as bosses can wreck your shit. It was tedious enough that I wrote a script to do all the clicking for me.

Rance 2
Rance 2 is the holy grail of the trio, mostly because it got a remake. The art is on par with modern Alicesoft stuff.



The jokes and parodies are also out in full force, much to my delight. Seriously, they're so good.


Gameplay-wise, Rance 3 is similar to Rance 3 (Imagine that!). You can't control anyone other than Rance, but generally this isn't an issue since your casters tend to be smarter about healing this time around. Escaping is once again 100% reliable, which is awesome. Boss fights aren't exactly challenging or anything, but that's fine.

Finally, the game has the cutest game over screen ever.


I really couldn't ask for more from this game.

Do most people around here watch anime for free online, like manga? If so, is there anywhere in particular that one should go?