Sengoku Rance

Characters, clockwise from top: Rance, Uesugi Kenshin, Yamamoto Isoroku, Kouhime, Kurusu Miki, Nanjo Ran, Sill Plain. This is going to be interesting.

Sengoku Rance is a Turn-Based Strategy game created by Alice Soft and is the seventh installment in the long-running Rance series (the first was released in 1989). It chronicles the adventures of the wandering swordsman Rance and his traveling companion/slave girl Sill Plain as they journey across the Tenma Bridge to the distant country of JAPAN (yes, it's capitalized for a reason). The game is known for its deep, challenging and engaging gameplay, as well as the no-less-impressive quality of its music...

...for an H-Game.

The truth of the matter is, Rance came to JAPAN for two reasons: first, to enjoy a relaxing hot springs vacation after narrowly escaping becoming the ruler of Zeth. And second, to have sex with as many beautiful women as he possibly can. Unfortunately, he and his companion slave Sill get caught up in the power struggles of JAPAN's Sengoku Era and have their aid enlisted by a feudal lord by the name of Oda Nobunaga, who doesn't really feel up to this whole conquering territory thing. After accepting (and with his sights set on the Oda family's young heiress Kou-hime... once she grows up) Rance becomes the real power behind the throne and raises an army to quash dissenters within the Oda family itself, and then conquer all of JAPAN. Oh yeah, and have sex with as many beautiful women as possible.

That's not to say the game is all about sex, though. As mentioned above it has a surprisingly challenging strategy mode that pits the player against the other warring families of JAPAN, some of which you may recognise as famous people from the Sengoku Era...except occasionally as a Funny Animal or Gender Flipped. The pace of the plot also starts to pick up around halfway through the game when a minor accident sets in motion a disaster that has its roots all the way back in the founding of JAPAN, and which will pave the way for its future unification.

That's just the first route, by the way.

A Character sheet is now in progress. Contributions are always welcome.

If you're interested about the Rance universe itself, go to this website right her.

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Tropes used in Sengoku Rance include:

• Zero-Percent Approval Rating: Despite being called the Demon Army, the Shimazu troops don't truly believe in Xavier's cause and refuse to fight for him. It doesn't help that he keeps killing off potential recruits to intimidate the rest either.
• Angst? What Angst?
  • Neither Yukkuru nor Mine are all that tore up over their (self inflicted) loss of eye and arm. Motomari Mouri doesn't bemoan his curse all that much (even if his daughters do), and Natori doesn't complain about her "Miko Of Death" curse all that much either.
  • Kouhime, post Rape as Drama is a subversion, given she's merely hiding the trauma, and even Rance realizes this.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: In-universe; according to a few people throughout the story, Rance may be Tsundere to Sill.
• Always Close: Played straight in Ran's route, where you can Take Your Time. However, it is averted in Kenshin's route. The more turns you take, the further the boss gets into the dungeon. Thus, you can stop him before he gets even halfway to his goal.
• Always Save the Girl: Rance's number one philosophy, except it applies to ALL cute girls, even if they happen to be the next Demon King.
• Amazon Brigade: The Leazus Royal Guard, who make a guest appearance in this game. The (nearly-)all-female Uesugi army counts as well.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Natori reveals to Rance that the reason he kept losing the miko lottery is because he doesn't possess any negative emotions for them to suck out. That's right: he apparently simply doesn't understand that rape is wrong.
  • If you actually pay attention during the harsher sex scenes, this has an element of truth; he clearly believes that Rape Is Love and All Women Are Lustful. Of course, this being an h-game, he's mostly right.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Miki is the Demon King, and will do bad things to all of Rance World if she ever fully awakens.
• Armor-Piercing Slap: Delivered by a few people to Rance, Rance to Sill (though it's more of nogging), and an awesome one from Kouhime.
• Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence: What happens to Mouri Motonari after you clear his character. He becomes a ghost and is immune to spells like Rizna.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Pretty much the case with all of the major houses. Notable inversions are Ashikaga, Akashi and Takeda. Shingen doesn't actually exist; the commanders appear to have made him up.
• Babies Ever After: Pretty much the point of Isoroku's route, but special mention goes to the fact that Rance forgot to turn the contraception spell back on. Remember, he claims superfertility. At the very least, it appears he's also gotten Sill pregnant. But there's a small subversion here; Rance is horrified rather than pleased.
  • In the canon epilogue Isoroku shows up to meet Kou, pregnant with Rance's child. This means that Rangi is canon now and that Rance did fulfill his promise to her to give her an heir.
• Badass: Most characters qualify, but special notice HAS to go to Isoroku. Who, while going into labor, manages to shoot an arrow into Xavier's shoulder and eye socket while losing her leg, and then giving birth moments later.
  • Badass Adorable: Plenty in this game, with Sill leading the pack.
  • Badass Army: The Oda army, who went from a single territory to control of JAPAN.
  • Badass Cape: Rance definitely is the epitome of this trope.
  • Badass Family: The Mouri family, of course.
• Bait and Switch Comparison: During a conversation between Rance and Yuzuhara Yuzumi:

Rance: Fufufu. My weapon is amazing as well. Yuzuhara Yuzumi: ... That thing with the face...? Rance: No, this is just a crappy sword.

• Battle Couple: The most prominent example would be Rance and Sill Plain, even though they're master and slave. There's also Ranmaru and Shibata Katsuie, Akashi Kazemaru and Hibachi, and Sakamoto Ryoma and either Yuzuru and Mine depending on player decision.
• Beef Gate: It's possible to declare war on nations like Takeda and Mouri early, just by conquering weak nations that border them. It just usually happens to be a very bad idea.
• Better Than Sex: Rance gets more satisfaction from finding rare shells than normal sex. This is an extremely unusual example since Rance is a Lovable Sex Maniac and a Harem Seeker.
• BFS: Mouri Motonari himself. Even more so when you bring him down to his normal size.
• Big Bad: Xavier
• Big Damn Heroes: This is Kenshin's modus operandi before she starts declaring a war on you (trust me, you'll need her unit. Also Kentarou as well, by showing up in time in Ran's and Isoroku's route to kill Rengoku.. Rance has pulled off quite a few Big Damn Heroes moments himself, and even engineers a fake one by "saving" Isoroku from showers of arrows. The majority of the characters in this game get one of these to their credit by the end.
• Big Eater: Taken to ridiculous lengths with Kenshin, who considers a five-layer bentou box a snack.
• Bigger Is Better: Invoked by Motonari when he dies and his ghost - inexplicably in his huge cursed form - remains.
• Black Comedy Rape: What else are you supposed to think when the H-scene starts and the theme is good old fashioned Rock 'n Roll?
• Blessed with Suck: Sakamoto Ryouma gets one of the worst youkai curses in this game: the one who was actually cursed was Ryouma's pregnant mother, who showed no ill effects until she gave birth to a hermaphrodite baby. There are no given benefits apart from the standard physical resilience increase and it causes tons of problems for them.
• Bling of War: The armor of the Leazas Royal Guard is gold-colored, probably to emphasize their badassery.
• Blood Knight: Leila is the more social type, while Senhime is a purist "life = combat" type (so much so that she's been nicknamed with a kanji pun on her actual name meaning "princess of war"). The Mouri family as well, especially Teru and Motonari himself. They even send a massive all out battle challenge just because it sounds fun to have the entirety of both armies fighting at once.
• Bonus Boss: Orochi, except in Kenshin's route. Also, Dokuganryuu Masamune and the entire Dokuganryuu army never have to be fought, essentially being one large, rather challenging sidequest that gives you great units when beaten and bonus ending points. Canonically, Rance does kill the Bonus Boss and defeats the Dokuganryuu army.
• Boobs of Steel: Omachi. There definitely seems to be more than one reason why she was the previous Youkai King.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Clear the Road to Hades dungeon and beat its insanely tough boss and all you get is a lousy CG.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Souun in Ran's route. Let's see: gets brainwashed by the resident Manipulative Bitch, summons ogres from a ton of portals, and summons Sekhmet (though he's WAAAAAAAY easier than Xavier).
• Brought Down to Badass: Mouri Moutonari, after you kill the youkai who cursed him. However, instead of becoming weaker, he gains 3xxx troops and does much more damage.
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of the True Route, Rance leaves the Oda empire, but promises to return one day.
• Butt Monkey: Rance plays harsh pranks on Sill and otherwise abuses her constantly. The Hannys that try to form their own nation are not taken seriously at all, even when they declare war on Rance. Also, Kojika's unsuccessful attempts to restore her family are a running joke for part of the game. Also Okita Nozomi, who is so much of a Butt Monkey that the HANNYS smack her around. Even if you rescue her and she joins Oda, Rance treats her even worse. Finally, bad things tend to happen to Rance as apparent karma for being such a jerk.
• Calling Your Attacks: Rance Cossack Dance!
  • Rance Attack!
  • Kentaro-kun Slash!
  • Yamamoto Sweeping Fire!
• Casanova: Everyone can and will fall in love with Rance. And he will have sex with them before or after, whether they like it or not. (As long as they happen to be a cute girl.)
• Cassandra Truth: At first, no one believe Rance's stories about his past country-saving exploits on the continent. That is, until troops start marching in from Leazus and Zeth to back him up.
• Catch Phrase: The newspapers in-universe at least acknowledge Rance's "Gahahaha, good." as the new catchphrase in Nanjou Ran's route.
• Caught in the Rain: Rance and Kenshin get trapped in a cave after Rance idiotically got lost in a freezing mountain. Cue the warming each other up naked... except they actually go all the way. Oddly enough, that part was off screen.
• Chaste Hero: Kentarou, much to Miki's disappointment.
• Chekhov's Gunman: How come Rance always loses those lottery draws at the Miko Institute, while other guys win every time? It's because a win signifies that you're full of negative emotions for the miko to drain. Rance's consistent losses mean he doesn't have any; he just really wants to have sex with women. Sadly, said women have to be sacrificed to Orochi afterwards. When he finds out how the miko institute works, he insists on killing Orochi.
• Chew Toy: Yamanaka Kojika's every appearance involves something horrible happening to her.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Ran and Souun.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: After taking a level in badass, Kouhime becomes the new ruler of the Oda faction.
  • At the end of the game in Isoroku's route, Yamamoto Rangi, Isoroku's son with Rance, leads the whole nation of JAPAN to fight against the demons on the continent.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Rance. Just Rance.
  • A full list of his out-and-out crimes would double or triple the length of the page; including situations where he acted despicably but not necessarily criminally would further triple it; and further stating every morally questionable action he takes or can take would produce an unreadable wall of text.
    • The game is pretty full of it even where Rance isn't involved.
• Continuity Nod: One of the New Game+ bonuses is an edit to Sill's schoolgirl outfit scene that references her disguise in the first Rance.
• Converse with the Unconscious: One of Rance's few serious moments in the game is his heartfelt attempts, culminating in a kiss, to free Sill after she's frozen in ice protecting him. All the more of a shame it didn't work.
• Cosmic Plaything: Okita Nozomi apparently has an aura that causes everyone to horribly abuse her. She ends up falling in love with Rance because he eventually becomes the first person to not torment her.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Rance is either this or Obfuscatingly Stupid, but sheesh, he really knows what to do in certain situations. Observe as he:
  • in the Kenshin route: tells her to use her Aura Light to make Nobunaga bow down to her so that Xavier will be forced to get out from him. Even Naoe Ai was impressed by his thinking.
  • figures out how to defeat Kiku just by observing her chain.
  • turns out to be the only one who knows how to fully defeat a demon (though experiences from the past has taught him that).
  • knows how to get any woman with ease (then again, he does respect women after having sex with them).
  • And best of all, he saves THREE of the four countries in THE WHOLE WORLD.
  • Rance regularly sacks countries if he doesn't like their leaders. Or their methods. Or if he's feeling bored. Or horny. If he doesn't care about something, he really doesn't care; if he DOES, though, then nothing will get in his way. It's just that he doesn't care about most things that aren't A. boning or B. eating.
• Crutch Character:
  • Ranmaru She's the strongest unit you have at the start of the game, but unfortunately becomes outclassed by other characters as you go along.
  • Katsuie may fit this role even better. He starts out with a lot of units, has strong overall stats, and makes a nearly unkillable wall for your other generals, before other foot soldiers with self-healing skills, strong counterattack, or All Guard become available.
• Cursed with Awesome: Quite literally, in the case of people who get cursed by Youkai. They gain various superhuman abilities but they tend to sacrifice something in return, which is what the actual curse is. For example, Mori Motonari was already an old man when he was cursed to gain massive strength at the expense of half his lifespan. Gon is slowly losing his ability to speak and read, but in return is extremely powerful and has blades sticking out of his skin.
• Cute Bruiser: Aburako Dousan is a monk, pretty young, and the teacher of the Mino Three (or something like that).
• Cute Monster Girl: Masamune's four wives.
• Defiled Forever: Averted, actually. For all of Rance's horrible flaws, when poor Kouhime is raped by others and she's understandably VERY heartbroken about it, he goes outta his way to reassure her that she's not damaged goods at all.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Almost every enemy general, from random mooks to enemy lords to women Rance has raped, can be recruited into your army and, if you clear all their events, will either come to trust or fall in love with Rance.
• Demoted to Extra: Many Sengoku era generals and other historical figures who didn't make the cut to be a major character fell into this. To name a few, we have Nagamasa Azai, Kiyomasa Katou, Masanobu Honda, and Yukimura Sanada, as well as Matsuo Basho, Souma Hayate, and even Commodore Perry PERRY!!
• Deus Sex Machina: Invoked in Ran's route. Rance tries to convince her that Gigai will come out even with Xavier sealed unless they have sex at least once a week. Someone quickly tells her the truth, though.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Sill, when she's narrating the events from the time Rance and Sill came to JAPAN, to the opening scenario.
• Did Not Get the Girl: In Nanjo Ran's path, she actually goes back to her previous lover at the end if you failed to clear all her events before the end of the game. This actually seems to be the true ending to that path, as it gets its own CG and can be replayed, while the good ending doesn't get either.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Shikibu deliberately invokes this trope to gain an advantage in battle. Even when Kentarou is aware of it, he can't fully resist.
• Disc One Nuke: Natori and Leila can be this, due to their extremely powerful abilities and early availability. Natori, with one round of preparation, can remove 30% of the enemy army's troops. Leila can one-shot-kill any unit up to twice the size of her own so long as it's not guarding and is larger than hers. Both are theoretically available within the first twenty turns.
• Drama Bomb: Isoroku's route. Everything is going fine and then suddenly Kou is raped like in the true route, but Rance doesn't find her in time to save her life.
• Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: Rance tends to get bored when the girl he's after isn't conscious or responsive.
• Empathic Weapon: Rance's demonic sword, Chaos. Like his master, he is rather horny.
• Every Japanese Sword Is a Katana: There's only one JAPANese sword-wielding unit in the game, and that's the Warriors. They all carry katana.
• Everything's Better with Monkeys: The presence of a monkey does not make this game funny at all. In fact it steers the plot in the opposite direction of funny, making this an inverted trope.
• Everything Is Worse With Bears: When you first encounter him, Hakkin Dasan summons ever-increasing armies of pandas. IN WAVES!
  • Don't forget the Golden Bears.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Averted. Xavier doesn't give a cracked iron piece about his daughter and treats her like a plaything, even going so far as to describe all the exquisite methods he has of torturing her. Being half human might have something to do with it.
  • Played straight with the Mouri house... sort of. Whether or not they are 'evil' is up to the player, but they sure are Blood Knights.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Kenshin, of course. There are hints when you first attack the Uesugi family, but you only get to know the full details in the most cruel way if you fail to conquer Uesugi and save Kenshin in time.
• Expy: There are several:
  • Senhime's long lavender hair and bluish-white infantry armor gives her a suspicious resemblance to KOS-MOS.
  • Baba Shouen (a major Takeda general and one of the four who 'made' Shingen) rides two tebasaki, much like (amusingly enough) Shingen Takeda in Sengoku Basara.
  • Masamune Date, the One-Eyed Dragon of Oshuu... who is now literally an eyeball. Quite possibly also an expy of that eyeball youkai in GeGeGe no Kitaro.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: JAPAN, of course.
• Fate Worse Than Death: Leila, if the player messes up and lets her get captured by the Demon Army.
• A Father to His Men: Motonari Mouri of course, in a literal sense (he's the father of Mouri's three key generals). Tokugawa Ieyasu also fits the trope, seeing that his generals all look up to him like this. Shingen Takeda is an interesting case; his men created 'him' to be the focal point for the Takeda army to rally around. He is presented in this way to commoners and, presumably, generals outside the four key Takeda generals.
• Five-Bad Band: The Demon Army, of course.
  • The Big Bad: Xavier in Oda's body.
  • The Dragon: Rengoku
  • The Evil Genius: Madou
  • The Brute: Gigai
  • The Dark Chick: Shikibu
• Flash Step: One of Uesugi Kenshin's more powerful techniques.
• Foreshadowing: If you notice the game box itself, it shows Rance with Sill, Miki, Isoroku, Kenshin, Ran, and Kouhime on the cover. One would wonder out of all the women in this game, why them. It turns out that all of them (except Sill because Sill is always with Rance) have their own routes: True route (Kouhime), Ran, Isoroku, Kenshin, and Demon King (Miki) route, though the final one is just something that happens if you screw up.
  • In the opening, Nobunaga's background is Honnouji Temple on fire, and his shadow is red. Probably to foreshadow his possession.
• The Four Gods: Xavier's four apostles, Rengoku (Byakko), Shikibu (Seiryuu), Madou (Genbu) and Gigai (Suzaku).
• Functional Magic: JAPAN's Yin Yang Ways are, surprisingly, not Theurgy but more like Vancian Magic.
• Girl in a Box: One of the weapons used by the demon army is a massive demonic robot type of thing powered by a girl used as its core. You can probably guess what Rance does after he beats it.
• Gender Bender: Near the end of the game, you can change the gender of your characters. Hell, you can even make RANCE a woman. Of course, this leads to a Nonstandard Game Over.
• Gender Flipped: Many characters fell into this, since most of the Sengoku Jidai generals are male, and this is a straight H-game with a male protagonist.
  • Uesugi Kenshin is a unique case. There are conspiracy theories in real-life Japan stating that genuine Kenshin is actually a female.
  • And then there's Ryouma Sakamoto, who's... well... different. Ryouma was cursed by a youkai, and consequently has both sets of sexual organs. Clearing most of Ryouma's events allows the player to choose a permanent sex for her/him.
  • Isoroku takes her name from a Japanese WWII admiral of the same name. Even the kanji for their full name is identical. On a similar vein, there's another generic female general by the name of Hidegi Tojo, a genderflip version of Hideki Tojo, a general and Prime Minister of Japan during WW 2.
• Generation Xerox: Subverted HARD. Rance and Isoroku's son is WAAAAAAAAAAAY different from Rance himself.
• Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Granted the game will somewhat warn you that the dungeon Road To Hades will feature a boss (because there are 18 floors and you usually retreat before reaching the last floor), if you're stupid enough to push through to the 18th floor, you will be fighting Gunagan, a giant wall who will shoot out some laser at your party. At this point, your party will be so exhausted from their action points if they started from floor one.
• Grand Theft Me: Xavier takes over Nobunaga's body. In the True and Yamamoto routes, both are killed. In Ran route, both are sealed and in Kenshin route Kenshin manages to free him from possession.
• Gratuitous English: It's not a joke, the country's name is really written as JAPAN.
• Guide Dang It: Some of the character clears and recruitments have some rather arcane requirements. For example if you want to get the whole Mouri house and a certain H scene, you need to beat the Mori house before the demon army or Shimazu take it over. But there's more to it since you also need to beat them in an all out battle, which is only possible when they have three or more territories left. You can't capture Kikkawa Kiku before this. After that, you need to get her to trust before beating house Mori. Finally, you need to have beaten house Takuga and done a special event in Izumo followed by killing a certain youkai if you want Motonari himself. Unless you do all this, you won't be able to get the New Game+ Mori house bonus.
• Handicapped Badass: The entire Takuga faction led by Sakamoto Ryouma. They vary from their eyes torn off, their hands cut off, or being cursed outright. Later on, Isoroku becomes one in her own route by firing two arrows to Xavier while pregnant. Oh, and her left leg was cut off.
  • Then there's Gekkou who only has one arm and yet he's the best ninja of the whole game. You can only recruit him in New Game+.
• Happiness in Slavery: Sill had a spell of absolute obedience cast upon her in a previous game which has now worn off. Despite this she still travels with Rance and even wishes on her birthday that these happy times could continue forever.
• Harder Than Hard: Mention Hard 3 to Sengoku Rance players and they WILL shudder.
• Hard Mode Perks: Selecting harder difficulties during a New Game+ starts you off with more points. This doesn't mean anything during the current playthrough, but finishing the game quickly means you can use the leftover points for subsequent New Game+ bonuses.
• Heroic Sociopaths Prefer Swords: Rance comes equipped with the demon sword Chaos and can't ever unequip it (but why would you?)
• Heroic BSOD: Souun after you capture Ran during a battle. Damn guy can't even catch a break.
• Heroic RROD: Rance at the end of the Demon King Route.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Rance.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Although they still wear kabuki stagehand uniforms in broad daylight, ninjas in the story are described as being highly stealthy and acting like, you know, proper assassins.
  • Kunoichi actually do pretend to be regular women and lure the opposition into bed before killing them, often with poison. Thus, making this an averted trope as well.
• Historical Domain Character: It's a kind of Exactly What It Says on the Tin due to the title of the game, but Sengoku Rance does not stop at just Jidai Geki characters. There are generic generals which take their names from historical figures, some of which are not historical daimyo or military men (for example, Matsuo Basho).
  • One case even takes it up higher by a notch: the Mouri generic general Murakami Suigun, who is named after a famous (living) illustrator.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Uesugi Kenshin channels Bishamonten's divine power and single-handedly routs a Takeda army sent against her, which is expressed in actual gameplay with the skill "commander charge" where she attacks first (killing about 100-200 troops) before her army attacks. She doesn't suffer any counterattack damage when doing this either.
• Hot Mom: Isoroku in her route. One fine woman too, damn.
• I Call Him Hyper Weapon: Also, "Imperial Juice". You're not even royalty, Rance. Stop it. In the original, he calls it Ultra Super Magnum.
  • Technically, he is if the back story is true and by playing the previous Rance games. This is the 7th continuity and the 10th game after all.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Pure Squick. Demon!Nobunaga holds Kou-hime hostage for awhile and then gives her to a group of boys and tells them they can do whatever they want with her. Rance shows up after they've had her for a few days, killing them all. He manages to save her life at least, except in Isoroku's route. It happens again later with Kurohime, which is possibly even worse since we have to see it. Finally, don't use Leila against the Demon Army or you might have to see it a third time. It is not pleasant at all. Rance would probably qualify as well if it wasn't played for laughs when he does it.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: The Leazas Royal Guard all use rapiers and are one of the most powerful units in the game, being able to decimate large units of spearmen with ease.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Parodied with Cough Cough Disease, moreso by the fact that the disease is curable. A citizen informs Nozomi of this, but is quickly shot down by her Hanny tormenters because "incurable girls are moe". This is actually rather jarring considering Okita Nozomi is based on the historical Okita Souji, who died of tuberculosis.
• In Universe Game Clock: Time in the game is simply given as 'turns' instead of actual time. However, events starts to occur as turns passes.. Many of the events can be lost forever, such as saving Soun, as taking too much time results in Ran leaving on her own. Furthermore, the less time you take, the greater your score in the end.
• I Play It For The Tactics:If the current article is anything to go by, most people view the H scenes as a mere bonus. Or at least, that's what they want to talk about.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The biggest offender is probably Hojo Soun, who is actually happy that Nanjo Ran finds love with Rance as he is about to die. Rance actually takes advantage of this to force the unwilling Ran into being his lover. The ever so innocent Kenshin is fully willing to give up Rance or share him with other women as long as Rance is happy.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: There's no other trope that can describe what Rance does to get information out of important prisoners.
• Jerkass: Who else but Rance? As an example: When an earthquake devastates a nation he is at war with, he immediately gets the idea to send them poisoned relief supplies. What a hero. Fortunately, his Morality Pet Sill replaces the poison with laxatives as a less-lethal alternative.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rance... kinda. While definitely a Jerkass and a Designated Hero, he does have a few moments that show off a level of human decency we don't often see from him, particularly towards Sill Plain. Maybe Jerk With A Heart Of Gold Plating would be more accurate...
  • Oh, definately has a Heart of Gold but only shows it to certain women. Rizna is a great example for the older games, but for Sengoku Rance it is likely Kenshin.
    • Isoroku definitely counts in her route. What, being one of the few women if not the second (his supposedly first child did not appear due to the fact that the first woman Rance impregnated had to do an abortion and thus Rance started to take birth control seriously and the second one was with the Devil Ferris. The son's name is Dark Rance) son that came from him? After she requested that she did not need to have a son anymore due to her feelings for Rance? And Rance gets touched himself?
    • He also showed some decency towards Naoe Ai when he remembers that she sacrificed her body for Kenshin's purity. He then decides to stop for the day when Naoe Ai just went to hell with it and started going at it.
• Jidai Geki: It's the Warring States era...but not quite as you remember it.
• Karma Houdini: Keikoku gets away free in every route.
• Ladykiller in Love: For someone who has the goal to have sex with every cute girl in JAPAN, Rance probably don't want the next generation to be all his kids, which is assisted by a spell from his slave Sill. He does however, make one, and possibly the only exception in the entire series with Isoroku. The ending actually shows her preparing the child to meet his father.
• Lady of War: Leila and Uesugi Kenshin who, incidentally, become rivals.
• Legacy Character: The heads of each historical house take their name from their ancestors. At the very least, it justifies Uesugi Kenshin.
• Lethal Joke Character: Ashikaga, sort of. Has zero in most of his stats, but is required for getting one of the Three Sacred Treasures and clearing Aki. He still remains rubbish at actual fighting, however, so most people fire him after they've gotten what they needed.
  • In the Rance OVA, the Hannies themselves can be considered as one, by melting themselves to actually trap Rance and Sill in a case of clay.
  • The Hannies are pretty good in Free For All, if just a little easy to kill... good thing you can always replace them.
• Legal Jailbait: Kojika. She claims to be 20, but looks like a kid, so Rance refuses to have sex with her. Unfortunately, they did anyway though to his defense, Rance was so drunk that she looked older after winning the Mouri territory.
• Level Up At Intimacy 5: The game keeps track of Relationship Points of each characters (even Rance himself), and when it reaches 7 points, the character 'levels up'. His/her relationship with Rance may go up in the order of Hate (lowest), Normal, Trust, and Love (males can only reach Trust at the most, for obvious reasons), except on special cases where a specific condition should be met to upgrade the relationship. This 'relationship upgrade' brings added benefits (getting certain skills, getting extra troops, etc); one of them is leveling the character up by 2.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Nearly every country has between one to five major generals fighting for them. All of them can join Rance after he defeats their country, and every one will have their own set of events to follow in order to "clear" them.
  • Then there are the reinforcements you can recruit from foreign countries, who then reference other characters from previous games.
• Lolicon: Shibata Katsuie, who claims to just think little girls are adorable and dislikes those with what he claims to be impure sexual motives. He can cause a Nonstandard Game Over if you let Rance listen to him too much.
• Loveable Sex Maniac: Rance may love having sex, but for some weird reason, you can't help it but admire what Rance has done in the entire Rance series. That, and he pretty much did what no other RPG protagonist did anyway: save the world while banging women.
• Love At First Sight: Kenshin. Unfortunately for her, it was with Rance. Though it turns out Rance has no idea how to deal with straight-forward love, as his experience mostly in Rape Is Love relationships. Needless to say, Kenshin's pure feelings confuse Rance to no end, so he actually treats her pretty decently.
• Love Epiphany: At the end of Ran's path, assuming you cleared her events, she would mentally want to chase after her ex-lover but couldn't move her body. After watching her ex-lover walk away, she finally realized that she has fallen for Rance instead. Many of the other characters that originally hated Rance will come to realize that they are in love with him instead such as Naoi Ai and Yukihime.
• Love Martyr: Sill is clearly in love with Rance. However, as mentioned above, she is constantly the Butt Monkey to his jokes and abuses, as well as his womanizing tendencies. In the true path, Rance shows that he truly does care for her in the end.
• Luck-Based Mission: Trying to capture specific commanders will probably make you scream at your monitor. Usual suspects would be Kikkawa Kiku (you need to capture her before conquering Mouri if you want to clear her), Nanjou Ran (if you want Souun in your party or to set up Ran route), the three Takeda generals (who more often than not simply disappeared from the face of JAPAN once Takeda fell), and Agireda (who you can only clear in True Route and that route definitely has a time limit).
  • To explain: encountering them is half the trouble that's worth already. Then comes the REALLY fun part: capturing them. Due to the fact that either a.) they're behind the enemy lines, b.) if you kill too many units while having the Light Attack + Defeated Warrior Hunt even though you've used it on those specific units, they get to capture someone different instead, or c.) foot soldier units defend your target so that you can't even get to them to beat them in time.
  • To make matters worse, some generals can only be recruited after their country is conquered, AND they must join another country first before they can be brought to your side. The three Takeda generals (Baba Shouen, Yamagata Masakage, and Yoshikage Kousaka) can be a real pain to search after Takeda's fall, to the point where trying to recruit them almost requires its own playthrough.
• Manipulative Bitch: Keikoku, who seems to have no other purpose than to show up in the three heroine routes and cause trouble/be a general asspain.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: While she's manipulative in the If routes, she doesn't even appear in the True Route, which is considered Canon.
• Manly Gay: Gigai, who is thus the only man Rance is truly afraid of.
• Marry Them All: Any girl who thinks that Rance will settle for anything less than this probably hasn't been paying attention.
• Meido: The Mouri sisters; not by their own choice but by their mom who specifically made them to wear it so that at least they have an ounce of femininity.
  • Ninja Maid: Kikkawa Kiku.
• Miko: A unit type. They specialise in archery and healing magic. They also run the Miko Institute, a neutral nation.
• Moe: In-Universe. Apparently, according to the hannys, having an incurable cough and coughing up blood is moe for them. Quite the Take That to the Ill Girl fans.
• Mood Whiplash: Ok Miki, Kentarou is already dying but did you just have to slap him when your breasts were touching him or something?
  • Occurs a lot, actually. Going from 3G flying up in the air making 'Youkai Phone Calls' to Xavier ordering Kouhime be raped.
    • Leila's horrific capture can occur even if you WIN the battle in which it occurs. Nothing like seeing the victory screen after a tough battle and then seeing THAT particular scene. Time to Save Scum.
• Morality Pet: Sill. In True History Route, she will be killed if you attack Hounouji alone, which makes Rance go nuts. If you survive, she gets frozen in a block of ice(setting up a scenario for Rance VIII). If you go into the Demon King Route, Rance goes insane and becomes the new Demon King.
  • Also Kouhime. Rance does not tolerate any abuse to her and is also far nicer to her than he is to Sill. He not only avoids sleeping with her, he even responds maturely to her asking him why he hasn't tried!
    • He has a rare freak out when she asks him if she's been soiled after her rape. Compared to how carefree and happy-go-lucky he normally is, its a sure sign that the story has truly taken a turn for the serious (if the previous event hadn't already clued you in).
• Multiple Endings: In addition to the main "True History" route, there are three additional story routes for Kenshin, Ran and Isoroku that differ from the main story at certain points, in addition to a story-less "sandbox" route accessed by killing Nobunaga's monkey that allows the player to focus on conquering their way through Japan, completely uninhibited by the plot.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: The player's number of commanders and troops are limited by his amount of national power (which is gained by conquering and upgrading territories), and human players can never have more than thirty commanders at a time - needless to say, the AI players aren't bothered by these rules in the slightest, which is why they can have well over forty commanders and an army of twenty-thousand soldiers (something which would require any human player anywhere from 12 to 15 territories to maintain) or more, even when they control only a single territory.
• Mythology Gag: Many from Kichikuou Rance.
  • Yamamoto Isoroku's child with Rance.
  • Leila's unfortunate fate if you let Xavier capture her is related to how her unhappy end would trigger if you married her off to the Demon Oda Nobunaga in Kichikuou Rance.
  • Sill is frozen by the Demon King in Sengoku Rance. The same thing happens in one possible end of Kichikuou Rance except the Whale God does it.
• New Game+: Finishing the game once allows you to play through again, but with added bonuses, and the ability to access new story paths at certain points.
• Nice Hat: Seriously Kenshin, does that helmet have to be so tall?
  • If you look closely at Kenshin's Commander Charge animation, you'll see that she charges headfirst to the enemy troops. I think that's what that fancy helm is good for.
• Nintendo Hard: While Rance may want to have love affairs with every woman in the game, you (the player) will almost certainly have your own steamy liaison with the save-reload buttons. In fact, this game, while being merciful enough to make your first battle slightly easy and explain a few basic game mechanics, will otherwise make you pay for not thinking ahead and the computer is brutal and will kick you while you're down.
• No Fair Cheating: Invoked by Kentarou when you "win" against the Demon King route. Rance promptly denies it. While it is possible to win the Demon King route with no cheating (Isoroku route plus Operation Permits come to mind), if you're going to attempt this in True Route at 5-star (Hard 3) difficulty, you might as well cheat in the game because it's next to almost impossible without those Operation Permits (plot takes those away from you).
• Nonstandard Game Over: If you genderflip Rance, Nobunaga takes back over the body despite being dead because female Rance looks just like his deceased wife. No more demon army!
• The Not-Secret: Rance is supposed to be the secret ruler of Oda. Needless to say, word got out pretty quickly even without taking his actions into account.
• Mikos Are Nuns: One territory is controlled by the Miko Institute, a kind of fusion of a traditional shrine and a convent.
  • Naughty Mikos: The Miko Institute holds a lottery and anyone who picks out a winning ticket gets to share a bed with one of the mikos there. For free!It's part of a ritual designed to suppress the god Orochi.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: The carriers of the apostles would probably have like the chance to do so. Especially Ran.
  • Or Chinu. Having your last words simply be "Oh" is really terrible. Worse, since the guy who witnesses the whole thing dies moments later. Her family almost certainly never learns what happened to her...
• Oda Nobunaga: You know how, in Sengoku Basara, he's called the "Demon King"? He's actually a nice guy! Well, until he becomes possessed by an actual demon called Xavier.
• Older Than They Look: Sill is 20. Does THAT look 20 to you?
  • Rizna tops that. She's FIFTY!
  • Then there's Seigan, who looks no more than 30, but is actually 70 years old.
• One-Hit Kill: The ninjas have the Assassinate skill which pretty much kills its target if it succeeds. There's also Isoroku's Whirlwind Shot which is arguably better than Assassinate and Yuzumi's Aim and Shoot, which can be a Game Breaker by itself.
• One-Man Army: Ogawa Kentarou after he becomes a demon can pretty much defend entire territories by himself--assuming that the enemy side doesn't have any demon class units. If they're all human, drain all of his units and let him fight against the whole army. He won't get scratched at all. Of course, by the time this happens you WILL be seeing demons, so this is more or less academic.
• Out with a Bang: The modus operandi of the kunoichi.
  • Supposedly, this was also Natori's condition as well, until Rance came along. If anything, instead of outright killing Rance, it makes him stronger. And, for those who were paying attention, the first miko he sleeps with says she's a fukuman and she increases the ability of great men she sleeps with. Left unsaid is what happens to people she sleeps with who are not. So the fact that she makes Rance stronger is actually foreshadowed.
• Path of Inspiration: According to the English AliceSoft wiki, the Tenshi Sect's religion is one. First, the religion itself was founded by Geppei, the monk who sealed Xavier centuries ago... and Geppei is a devil, who is an antithesis of angels and God in the Rance series. Second, Geppei's intention in founding this faith is pulling souls out of the reincarnation cycle, and by extension, salvation.
• Playing to The Fetishes: The game's sex scenes have something for everyone.
• Power Glows: Win the Emperor Race in Kenshin's route and Kenshin acquires the Emperor's aura which makes her shine so much that people living in JAPAN bow down to her. She can also turn it on and off at will causing her to play with it until Naoe Ai tells her to stop it.
• Punch Clock Villain: The Shimazu family, after they become the Demon Army.
• Precision F-Strike: Swearing isn't particularly special, and course language is thrown around fairly commonly--which is all the more surprising that Rance's "You idiot! You fucking virgin!" towards Kentarou is so powerful. In this case, it's because he (and the player) are Genre Savvy enough to realize that knocking Xavier out of the window was the worst possible outcome, because it gives him the opportunity to escape. And sure enough, they Never Found the Body.
• Rain of Arrows: A special attack that archer units can do.
• Rape as Drama: With all of the comedic rape in the game, it's quite surprising and dramatic changes how much the mood shifts when young princess Kouhime is gang-raped. Ai's rape was off-screen, but is one of the few Pet the Dog moments for Rance. Leila and Kurohime similarly qualify. The first two happen offscreen, which eliminates any ability to find them titillating. The latter two are simply too gruesome.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The entire franchise has an...interesting relationship with this trope. On the one hand, the main character, Rance, is a serial rapist out to have sex with as many women as possible. On the other hand, he thinks he's God's gift to womankind, and doesn't seem to understand that what he's doing is wrong. Every good character is at least slightly distressed at his actions (not that they really do much to stop him), and all of the other rapists of the franchise are killed by Rance himself because they rape much more brutally than he does.
• Real Song Theme Tune: My Glorious Days is basically a rocked up version of the national anthem of East Germany.
• Really Gets Around: For Rizna it's an actual medical condition she takes medicine for (i.e. - it's basically a variant of nymphomania). Then the medicine leaves on a journey (by which we mean Rance stole it). The rest is, as they say, history.
  • There is a really sad reason for that though.
  • One of the conditions needed for One Hundred Percent Completion is to have sex with 300 women.
• Restart At Level One: Literally in this case. In the Rance universe, catching diseases can have a negative impact on your level and this is exactly what happens to Kenshin, though in "compensation" she recovers almost immediately.
• Revenge: Many cases, but chiefly Xavier wants this on all of JAPAN for sealing him. Souun wants this on Gigai for killing Ran.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The heads of most, if not all, of the families take to the field as commanders.
• Rule of Cool: Baba Shouen must have taken a page from Shingen by riding not one BUT TWO Tebasaki's.
• Samurai in Ninja Town: Parodied. One event has a Cold Opening featuring Kentarou "surrounded by ninjas...in a ninja town...". Kentarou attempts to ask himself how it came to this, and begins to flash back...only to realize that he has no idea how he got there. Even his talking sword is confused.
• Save Scumming: As per the rule of single-player strategy game, many of the events can be reloaded for better result and enemy actions are randomized. Also considering that almost anyone can die in battle, you better have a previous save when that girl you are trying to clear suddenly dies in an unfortunate battle.
  • This is actually forced in some cases. Since plot-critical characters can also die - Rance included - some unfortunate accidents can lead directly to a game over screen after a quick 'bad end' event.
  • There are some measures against this, too. For instance, the results from using the Covert Action command seem to be pre-determined several turns beforehand, meaning its pointless to save scum in order to achieve the most advantageous covert action result.
• Sentai: The Go Ninjai.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Rance is not above using this in order to have sex with princesses. Sometimes he even follows through on his end of the bargain.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: An option late in the true route, in which Rance simply decides to leave JAPAN in the middle of the war, leading to a Nonstandard Game Over as while Rance most probably survives, JAPAN arguably does not.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Xavier and the god Orochi.
• Senseless Sacrifice: The Takeda generals (minus Sanada Tourin) will try to defeat Rance, each of them having only 50 units each. If you did not deploy Rance at this battle, his unit will pretty much curb stomp the three generals.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Rance always claims that him and Sill aren't lovers. He isn't fooling anyone, though.
• The Shinsengumi: Parodied with the Hannys that stay behind in Kyo.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In the main route, after the Demon Army shows up, every few turns Xavier will slaughter the commanders of a nation you didn't defeat, making it impossible to get that nation's characters in your army, with the only exception being the Dokuganryuu family.
• Sidequest: The Miko Institution, Tanegashima House, and Dokuganryuu House won't declare war on you, and invading them are pretty much optional outside of Kill The Monkey route.
  • Tanegashima actually will declare war if its your first game and you aren't at war with either them or the Akagi. Mori Motonari will deliver an ultimatum to either Tanegashima or the Akagi ordering them to attack you or face annihilation. Since it never happens in subsequent games, most will miss this.
• Smug Snake: Kensei Uesugi, Kenshin's uncle, is undeniably the most selfish character barring Xavier in the entire game. Hell, you can't help but cheer for Rance when he slashes him dead in front of Kenshin.
• Spiritual Successor: To Kichikuou Rance, the Spin-Off game of the series. Both are strategy games, and Rebirth The Edge and Ontology are both remixes from Kichikuou as Rough Edge and Ontology, respectively.
• Stripperiffic: The armour of the Leazas Royal Guards.
  • Let's not forget Attractive Bent Gender Rance who pretty much just has a breast plate and short shorts. Oddly, she still keeps the Badass Cape for some weird reason.
• Superpower Lottery: Kentarou pretty much raided the damn warehouse by having Holy Sword Nikkou, becoming a demon himself, and his Victorious Childhood Friend as a Demon King. In a game like Sengoku Rance, though, his incurable virginity is a greater weakness than kryptonite.
• Sword Beam: That Rance attack? It really is a Sword Beam. Also Kentarou-kun Slash.
• Take Your Time: Except in Ran's route, this is averted just about everywhere. Take too long to stop the crying old man? BAM, JAPAN goes down. Take too long to find the Big Bad in Kenshin's route? BAM, JAPAN goes down. Take too long to find the Demon King? BAM, JAPAN goes... wait... you can technically win this route ( With the enemy accusing you of cheating).
  • One exception, is the Honnouji Temple Route: You can take forever to go to said temple. However...you can't attack any other houses, between the time the event comes up, and the time it is finished. Thus, there is an effective timer. Eventually, you run out of other things to do. You can still boost your units a LOT.
• The Day the Music Lied: It's Naoe Ai's H scene, "My Glorious Days" is playing, he's enjoying it and she's putting up with it...then suddenly, the music stops. Because he thoughtlessly says something that reminds himself she gave up her body to protect Kenshin. He even says that he's sorry, asks forgiveness, and offers to call off the whole thing--perhaps the ONLY TIME in the entire series that this has happened. Ends up being subverted when Naoe doesn't care and a remix starts playing.
• Theme Naming: 3G, Edge and Dokkomo are named after things relating to cellphones. In the Miko Institute, Natori, Isuzu and Maya are all named after battleships.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Kojika's character clear has Rance finally listen to her and decide he will reinstate the family she served.
• Took a Level In Badass: Happens to many character throughout the game. A few are plot relevant, but most can be induced by Rance if the player has him pick all of the options that let Rance show his nice side.
• Tournament Arc: Only applies to Kenshin's route where it's a race to become the emperor of JAPAN.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Things usually work out OK when Rance goes with his instincts, but there are some notable exceptions, especially in situations involving Miki the Demon King.
• Troperrific: Just look at the list of tropes in this game!
• True Ending: Oddly enough, this one comes out first before the Multiple Endings not the other way around.
• Truth in Television: A lot of the odder story elements have some basis in reality.
  • Some historians theorize that Uesugi Kenshin really was a woman.
  • If you ignore the magic, the kunoinchi are pretty much completely accurate. Yes, they really did kill men using sex. In fact, the word kunoinchi is actually a dirty pun.
  • How Tanegashima developed their muskets in this game is actually rather similar to how they were developed in real life, if you ignore the fact that they reverse-engineered them from a bazooka. Traders from Portugal (the town JAPAN is connected to via bridge) brought firearms (the Tulip) that the locals were then able to mass-produce.
• Tsundere: Interestingly, none of the main characters (those who have their own routes, so to speak) show signs of this... whereas it's the side characters (as in, relatively irrelevant to the plot) who shows the signs of Tsundere-ness. Notable examples are Noir (part of a Sidequest involving the Dokuganryuu house), Hattori Hanzo (though it's rather uncertain if the youkai is male or female), and Elina (an extra character). Also, refer to Alternate Character Interpretation above.
  • Magic the Gandhi is a pretty notable example as well, considering how she was a major character in the last game.
• Turn-Based Strategy
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: In-universe; Free for all mode makes EVERYONE enemies.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: The dungeon crawling sections.
• Unwinnable: The Demon King route. Even if you manage to "win", you get accused of cheating and you get a Game Over at the end of it in any case.
• Useless Useful Spell: Averted in some places. Although most tacticians are rather weak, not putting their buffs and debuffs to good use will cost you. Played straight with assassination, since it costs all your action points and is reliant on how many troops the enemy has, but more averted with Isoroku's Whirlwind Shot and especially Yuzumi's Aim and Shoot, which have fixed kill rates.
  • Also played straight in solo battles, which are more reliant on the commander's level.
• Verbal Tic: Suzume's "nin-nin~", Ashikaga's "Pupiiii!" and Kaguya-hime's "Pikoko".
• Victim Falls For Rapist: If by this point you still didn't expect this, you haven't been reading anything else posted here. It is easier to count the girls that can't fall in love with Rance after he rapes them.
  • Which is nearly 0, given enough time to clear routes.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Despite the fact (or perhaps because of) the fact this is Rance game, it is to your benefit to be nice to most characters and pick the noble option when available. Not only does it make Rance in universe more sympathetic to the other characters, but considering all the cool bonuses not having Rance be a dick 24/7 provides, you can make the game considerably easier in the process.
  • And, if that's not enough, the nicer options turn Rance into The Matchmaker, and the resulting Happily Married BattleCouples can be some of your strongest units, not to mention you even can make several characters better people in the process.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Some of us players take great pleasure in every opportunity to torment Rance, such as letting Ryouma become a boy just to spite him.
  • Or recruiting the Shimazu brothers and have their 'targets' fall in love with them, where they will join the unit and reject Rance. Can be prevented if the girls are raised to Love, but Rance's despair when that happens is awesome to behold.
  • Or how about the time when Rance gets sick in an event and MOURI AS A GHOST takes care of him because ghosts are cold.
  • Curb stomping the Akashi family when they send you kids who have 10-20 per unit in battle because there are no more able-bodied men in town due to Rance and Mouri killing all the other commanders and soldiers.
• Violation of Common Sense - There a few of these. But the most significant one is that once you conquer some of the Shimazu teritories can leave JAPAN and abandon the war, which of course leads to a bad end.
• The Virus: The curse of the Soul Binder turns people into zombies and they must infect 5 other people before they are allowed to die.
• Wake Up Call Boss: Arguably, the Tokugawa house. The first two houses (Hara and Ashikaga) are pretty easy, with the Miko Institute slightly more difficult but not unbearable. Tokugawa throws you the games' first curveball during his last stand. He's got two ninjas who can Assassinate you, Tadakatsu can pull off a devastating Commanders Charge on you, and Ieyasu himself has 5 actions plus a very powerful attack and self-buff skill. If you try to attack either of them, you've got Sakakibara Yasumasa to deal with, whose high defense makes killing him a bear. Your best strategy is to patiently bleed him dry by capturing his powerful allies and reducing his troop levels, but that might not occur to you the first time through.
  • They are unlikely to attack you first, however--reflected in-story by Tokugawa's pacifist stance. Although he is plenty capable of conquering his weaker neighbors, (Imagawa is a weak house Tokugawa doesn't invade them out of respect for his fellow youkai).
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Definitely Gigai.
• Warrior Monk: The high ranking members of the Tenshi Sect. Of course, the monks in this game as well.
• We Cannot Go on Without You: Get Rance killed in a war battle will result in a Game Over.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Played painfully straight. Suzume kills 50 guards...and joins your party without complaint. Why? They were just faceless ninjas!
• When All You Have Is a Hammer: How does Rance find out whether Sill's healing abilities improved? Simple: slash a random guy and get Sill to heal him.
• White and Gray Morality: Many of the houses (7/17) are unquestionably white, while the rest are some form of neutral, or at least a very light shade of dark gray. The only true black morality faction is the Big Bad, who take it upon themselves to make up for the rest of the cast. It really helps that you get to see the story unfold from every faction's perspective. They don't look on you too highly.
• World of Badass: Oh hell yes! Even without the hentai elements, the world of JAPAN is pretty awesome.
  • Which is a pretty small country compared to the REAL WORLD where the world is situated in Rance. That small country at the lower right? That's JAPAN!
• Yandere: Possibly Hara Shouji, though only if you don't pay attention to the obvious 'Don't pick this option' signs. If you give him his wife back (Akihime) he starts to discipline her by cutting off her tongue and breaking her limbs so she can't run away as 'discipline.' Rance of course gets appalled by all of this and kills Shouji on the spot. His niece replaces him after that.
• Youkai: One eyed Masamune leads a kingdom of Youkai and has a Kitsune wife. Rance's chief adviser is a 3-headed/faced youkai. The Tokugawa family is made of tanuki. The Hojo family is made of diviners specializing in fighting against Oni. Well, it is JAPAN after all.
  • A few sealed youkai become the source of major plot events later in the game.
• You Need to Get Laid: Rance tries this on Souun once. He responds by calling Rance a whore, but with nicer language.
• Your Head Asplode: The big bad's apostles are imprisoned within the bodies of those that sealed them and passed down through generations, much like an STD that simply won't go away. Now, when the big bad reawakens, guess what happens to those lucky descendants who have the apostles sealed in them.