Original Release: AliceSoft, 1991, MSX 2 / PC-98 / FM Towns / Sharp X68000
Other Releases: Windows (1998)
Taking place in the world of Rance (but some two decades after that series), Toushin Toshi blends dungeon crawling action with a time-based arena tournament plot and hentai that largely avoids its predecessor’s rapeyness.
Toushin Toshi (PC, AliceSoft, 1998)
Where to Buy: Freeware – download English translated version here
Review by: Master-B
Alicesoft tooted this game about as their first “field-type rpg,” but it’s essentially running in the same engine the first three Rance games did. The only difference is that when you’re in the game’s lone dungeon, you actually see a tile set and your character moving around instead of just hopping from point to point automatically.
As all that might suggest, this is basically a good ol’-fashioned dungeon crawl. But, this being Alicesoft, it has a few twists that differentiate it from its contemporaries such as the Gold Boxes and the Eyes of the Beholders and etc.
It cops a style similar to that of Rance 2 and 4, where you’re based out of one town for the whole game and you enter the single dungeon from it. But, there is also the titular Toushin tournament to contend with. Initially the central focus of the game, the tournament is the whole reason our hero Custom has wandered into this adventure. The game alternates between your tournament matches, which are essentially boss battles, and then exploring the dungeon to prepare for them.
And, of course, it’s an H game. If you dig Alicesoft’s general style, humor and world-building but can’t abide Rance’s not-always-entirely-consensual cuddling tendencies, this branch-off series essentially was designed for you. It takes place in the Rance universe, but the sex tends to be a lot less morally iffy. It’s more of a straightforward hentai setup with a naive young hero striving to be The Very Best That Ever Was and bumbling into various amorous encounters along the way.
He’s helped out by the silly rules of the tournament, which require all entrants to bring a beautiful woman along (unless they are one themselves) and put their ass on the line as a prize for the match winner. Rape is no bueno in this series, but Whut Slavery isn’t out of bounds it seems. To paraphrase the match commentator, just repeat to yourself it’s just an H-game, I should really just relax and fap.
This actually turns out to be a surprisingly solid little CRPG, more so than any of the original trilogy of Rance games. The tournament adds a bit of time and resource management to the proceedings, as once you’re registered you’ll only have four in-game days between matches to level up and do whatever plot stuff in the dungeon you need to do to be ready for the next match (time is advanced when you sleep at the Inn to heal up). You can also only save by leaving the dungeon and returning to the Inn, though you can do that freely without advancing time.
The first three dungeon levels can pretty much just be hacked through, in the fourth level enemies start having individual strategies that you need to pay attention to. They might only be damaged by magic, or take much more damage from one particular attack type. One seemingly innocuous enemy eventually summons an invincible dragon that you can’t run away from, so you have to run from her until either you’re strong enough to one-shot her or find a special dragon-killing sword.
Past that the dungeons also start having more mazelike qualities, though this is where things get a little iffy and irritating and require at least a little bit of mapping / note-taking. You’re dealing with old-school things like invisible wall mazes, unmarked pit traps and teleporter mazes. Outdated at this point, but standard stuff for the early ’90s.
Only other complaint is a horrible bug when using the mouse to walk around, in which you can get stuck in certain tiles that have interactive things on them (like NPCs or doors) and have to quit and restart. You have to remember to switch to the arrow keys for control when approaching anything questionable of this nature.
Even with the mazes and the resource management aspects, the game is still a little on the easy side if you’re willing to do some grinding (and are aware of the Rance convention of saving your level-ups until your health is low to get a free refill while mid-dungeon). It has the same humor and charm of the early Rance games, with a particular highlight being the goofy Sportscenter-esque match updates each night that describe how the other competitors fared against each other. The art is on the basic side overall, but there are some nice monster designs (that reminded me of the Elvira RPGs) and the soundtrack is the usual better-than-expected fare that Alicesoft tended to put out.
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