Shashin wrote...
Thanks both for uploading this and posting that the translation was completed on the front page. Been playing it religiously for the last few days and just cleared Kunagi's route a bit ago. Overall, it's definitely a great game, and I know I'll probably continue to play it at the same pace for the next few weeks.
There's some improvement over Sengoku Rance; I was really digging the management aspect the game took when it comes to territory. It's definitely not as shallow as the strategy was in Rance VII.
Combat was a bit of a mixed bag, but overall an improvement. The addition of alignments, unique abilities, and range were all great. Range especially, I think, since archers and other such classes actually feel like it, versus Rance where the only real benefit was being able to tuck them away in the back row. Actual combat is much easier though. Unless alignments factor in, you know exactly how much damage you'll be doing/taking, unless the enemy is hidden, but even then I found (at least in normal mode) it's almost always the enemy with the highest HP. Added to the fact that you get to choose who goes up to fight, makes almost all fights a breeze if you didn't neglect thinking about your overall positioning.
H-scenes were once again a bit of a mixed bag, but very good overall (and not just in comparison to Rance.) Voices are wonderful, and I hope the next Rance game has them, tradition or not. The Heroine Phase is a really cool idea, and it's great that it results in a lot of varied scenes for select girls. It was a bit disappointing that supporting characters received so few, though. One of my favorite characters received only one CG, while others hovered around 2-3. I guess that's not so much of a surprise, given the large cast of supporting characters and the amount of time they spend on the heroines. The other thing that bugged me a bit was the lack of "finish" CG. I generally feel that it just artificially inflates the CG count, nor do I particularly care to see a body soaked in excessive fluids. In this case, however, it felt like a missed opportunity (some scenes would have greatly benefited from it) and it would have broken up the static one image we get for most scenes. Still, even with those two flaws, I loved almost all the CG and there was a very good variety.
I'm going to start a hard file now, I think. I still prefer Rance VII in some aspects, but I'm thinking this will become one of my favorite games up there with Rance VII. That's overall, not just counting eroge. I'd almost play both of them even without the hentai; they'd both make strong standard games if they were just a bit deeper.
Thanks again for the upload and post.
"The other thing that bugged me a bit was the lack of "finish" CG."
"It was a bit disappointing that supporting characters received so few, though."
Exactly my feelings, my friend.
Just thinking, but if you took away the hentai from Rance, what would be his motivation? =P