Another solid Rance game
Rance
Rance Quest Magnum is another great RPG with at least 100 hours worth of playtime.For starters, this is a game where you come for the porn, but stay for the gameplay. The gameplay in this case is a turn based RPG which sort of resembles a combination of Rance VI and Sengoku, but with a few unique elements thrown in. Like in Sengoku, characters are divided into different classes (e.g. guards, fighters, healers, etc.) and battles have a time limit. You can bring five characters to a single battle.Like in Rance VI, characters do have limits in terms of how often you can deploy them. However, instead of limiting characters by a set number of times they can enter the fray, characters are limited by a set number of actions they can perform. Once they run out of actions, they are basically dead weight. For example, you might only be able to use the special "Rance Attack" once within a dungeon, but might have 8 uses of your normal attack. This forces you to constantly think about every action you take, adding to the overall strategy of the game. In fact, simply having a character "standby" takes up a skillslot, but can be invaluable for preserving your valuable attack options for harder enemies. Healing, protection, buffs, debuffs, etc. are also all somewhat restricted throughout the game. Success in a quest requires thoughtful management of each character's strength and weaknesses, which in my opinion is the hallmark of a good RPG.Alicesoft did a good job balancing the overall battle system. Enemies, quests and bosses are fairly varied. Some quests require you to use certain characters or consider different strategies, skill setups or equipment to approach them. Some enemies have elemental weaknesses to exploit. Others do not, and instead might require you to consider which elements they are attacking you with. You can't always just use the same 5 characters to completely clear a quest. Since the game has over 50 characters, there is a lot of variety and customization when it comes to building a party. Adding to the depth, the player also has complete control over which skills each character can learn. Furthermore, the game allows you to reset skill points at any time outside of a quest, a feature that every RPG should have. The game can be a little bit grindy, but for people who dislike grind, they've included an option which doubles your experience and money. One small gripe I have about this game is that progression requires recruiting a large number of characters as well as unlocking and finishing some specific quests. This isn't always well explained in game, and might require using a guide or backtracking through old quests if it's your first time playing. But if you can get past this minor annoyance, both the story and gameplay are excellent. With over 50 characters you're sure to find at least a few that you enjoy. For me, it was mainly Rance, Crook and Reset. I enjoyed the main plots of both the "Quest" and "Magnum" parts of the game.If you've never played a Rance game before, the game helpfully provides trivia details of most characters' previous roles within the story. So in theory at least, there is no issue with starting out with Rance Quest as your first Rance game. But you should also consider giving the other games a go first, because there's a lot of other great games in the series. Quest does not require you to play the earlier games in the series, but you'll appreciate it more if you do.
MG point:146
