Original Release: AliceSoft, 1990, PC-88/98/FM Towns
Other Releases: MSX (1991), PC (1997), PC (Rance 02 remake, 2020)
Released very shortly after the first entry, Rance’s second outing is notably better-made than the prequel but still has its dated elements (and is easily bulldozed through)
Rance 2 (PC, AliceSoft, 1997)
Where to Buy: Freeware (with fan-made English translation)
Review by: Master-B
Rance 2 is definitely a little more polished than the rough original game; the graphics are a little better (a LOT better in the case of battle screens), the music is better, structurally it’s more sound overall. The gameplay is more of an afterthought, though, you just sort of bulldoze through it in visual novel style with little challenge other than hunting and pecking for random flags.
The story sees Rance and Sill wind up in the small town of Kathom, which has been overtaken by a group of four Rebellious Maidens who were in magic training but apparently rebelled against their master and stole some Rings of Great Power or somesuch. They’ve now created a dungeon below the town and are hiding out in it, abducting the young ladies for purposes unknown. So once again into the breach goes our hero (after first extracting an extortionate payment from the town mayor).
The game retains the prequel’s style of basically being a visual novel with RPG and adventure elements blended in, but it’s much more visual novel than anything else. Combat is almost impossible to lose, and you just sorta bulldoze through everything, only interrupted when you have to do the usual visual novel thing of senselessly combing old areas to see if some random new thing popped up in them for no reason (fortunately not constant, but does happen several times).
I like the humor and rough quirkiness of these really old Alicesoft games (something that didn’t entirely carry over when they got more professional and polished in the 2000s, roughly post-Kichikuou Rance), so seeing this unexpectedly fan-translated is a nice treat for me. But that’s honestly about the extent of its value, it’s an annoying RPG where battles are basically a foregone conclusion that you just tediously click through, and the puzzles pretty much involve just wandering around inspecting everything available multiple times.
Links
Hint Disk (w/ SD Rance mini-game)
Videos
Rance 02 (PC, Alicesoft, 2009)
Where to Buy: MangaGamer
Review by: Master-B
While the Rance 01 remake added a bunch of new stuff, Rance 02 is about as straight of a “grade up” job as possible. In fact, I think I read somewhere that it actually runs on the code of the Windows port and simply overlays new graphics (and a better English translation from Mangagamer). Composer Shade also rizzed up the original soundtrack with some better MIDI instruments or something, but it doesn’t seem to add any new music.
So aside from looking more modern and playing a bit smoother, all you’re really getting from this remake is newly drawn sex scenes (which actually seem to be patterned after the old ones for the most part). There is a free DLC patch called “Kai” that’s something of a slight remix / quality of life tune-up, but it only changes very minor things: it removes some redundant or joke options from conversation menus to speed the game up, adds a new reminder of your current objective when in the camp screen, some of the sex scenes with Sill that required purchasing expensive toys in the original are freely available in camp from the beginning, Rance has more random fights in his chapters and Sill has less, and a ton of very minor tweaks that are all documented here. Basically, Kai tends to add small bits of help to the harder parts of the game (but it was never very hard to begin with).
So there’s all that, but you’re essentially getting the same game as the original, which has the advantage of having been officially declared freeware by Alicesoft some years ago (and is tiny, and has a fan translation, though much choppier than the official translation).
Links
Videos