It isn’t Rance Month anymore, but we’ve got some unfinished business.  It’s time for Rance IV!

The battle system isn’t much different from Rance III.  The primary difference I’ve seen is that we no longer get party icons, which kinda sucks.  The right side of the screen only ever shows the stats for Rance and Sill.  The option to assault female enemies is still in and still a pain.

The map system is back to Rance II’s board game style rather than the “click and move” style of Rance III… which is a good idea because random encounters with Rance III’s map is horrible.

So what is different this time around?  A time system.  You get a certain amount of steps and battles to work with each day.  Sill gives a warning at 7pm, and at 8pm you’re forced to exit the dungeon and rest at the inn.

We begin with Rance and Sill fucking in a meadow because fuck, why not?

The two are making the best of being transported to another space due to the events of Rance III.  After a while, they finally notice a nearby town.  Rance sends Sill over to acquire clothes and equipment.

However, in order to get the money to buy the items, Sill agreed to work for a brawny innkeeper.  Rance tries to thrash her, but it seems he was deleveled back to 1 because he stepped on the face of God as part of a trial in the demon path in Rance III.

We eventually learn that the pair were transported to an island named Ylapu floating above the skies of Leazas.  It is actually an ancient weapon known as Toushin Toshi, and the people of the town of Cassado are descendents of the soldiers of Dallas, who were trapped on the island during an expedition 200 years ago.

After gathering information and heading to the western tower (there are five towers in the area), Rance levels up enough to beat up the innkeeper and get Sill back.

The next day, they meet a girl named Mai, who asks Rance to save her from a fate of being sacrificed to a demon named Okayu.  If Okayu doesn’t receive a sacrifice, he sends demons to attack and kill villagers.  But Rance is around and he doesn’t give a fuck about the repercussions of killing the demon, as long as he gets to fuck Mai in the end.

Rance and Sill enter the hidden entrance in the Church and easily defeat Okayu.  The magician girl handling it escapes, however.  But Rance doesn’t really care.  He head back to town and fucks Mai.

Meanwhile, a Helman team has infiltrated Toshin Toshi in order to reactivate it and destroy Leazas.  They need four keys, however.  They also see Rance on the security camera and the leader, Bitch (that’s really his name) orders his henchwoman Io to manipulate Rance into retrieving the keys for them.

Also meanwhile, Maria completes the Tulip #4, an aircraft that can bring six people up to the floating island.  Maris prevents Lia from going herself, so she sends Kanami to join with Shizuka and Maria.  Oh, and three other characters.  Rick and Leila were in Rance III, but they were introduced so late that they left zero impression on me.  Julia on the other hand is completely new.

End Chapter 1.

Rance decides to find a way off the island and ventures further into the hidden dungeon.  He spots Io about to be raped by a monster, but instead of saving her right away, he waits to see how far it gets.  This seems to be a trap by Io, who doesn’t realize just how much of a scumbag Rance is, so she kills the monster before things go too far.  Rance helps her up and somehow tries to take credit for killing the monster anyway.  Io immediately hypnotizes him into doing her bidding.  Sill realizes what’s going on, but she can’t do anything as long as Rance does what Io commands.

The group meets a ghost girl that wants to pass over, and in exchange, will give a key.  They return to the church and retrieve some holy water, then bring it to the girl’s remains.  However, the girl wants to lose her virginity before she can pass on.  Rance is okay with this.  Though she has to use Sill as a medium.

The key allows the group to venture further and encounter Moganda, a mad scientest that turned himself into a Toushi, or combat robot.  Moganda also turned various monsters and soldiers into stone 200 years ago for preservation.  He decides to turn a human woman into a Toushi, but Rance has none of that and kills him.

The woman is Sanakia, a knight from 200 years ago.  Rance successfully tricks her into thinking he saved her and totally didn’t attempt to take advantage of her while she was asleep.  Then he ruins it by getting pissed off at her when she talks about how she abandoned her femininity to be a knight.  She gets beaten and raped (with Io’s help), then Rance prevents her from killing herself by making her so angry at him that she refuses to die until she kills Rance first.  Very chivalrous of him.

Finally, Rance summons Ferris (or Feliss, as she’s now called because consistency: what the fuck is it?) to recap everything they know about the Toushin Toshi.  After hearing everything, Rance decides he should take over the Toushin Toshi and rule over all of humanity with it.

End Chapter 2.

We switch gears to the Rance Rescue Party, led by Maria Custard (I guess we’re sticking with Custard over Castard, which I approve of).  Her Tulip #4 breaks down and crashes near one of the towers.  The group enters a nearby cave and encounter the Helman Army group led by Bitch.  They defeat the Helmans, but find no way further in.

The party rests at their campsite, which is the crashed Tulip #4 site.  Maria has a chat with Leila about love and…

Wow.  I know Maria and Rance had a couple of moments in Rance III, but I wasn’t expecting this.  Rance always called her ugly, especially when she had her glasses on, displaying one of the rare times Rance has poor taste.  Just hope Lia never finds out, Maria.  No telling what she’ll do.

The party goes back and forth through the ruins, encountering the Helmans several times.  We learn that Rick has a sort of split personality tied to his helmet; when he doesn’t have his helmet, he’s a total wuss and loses all his power.  They eventually find the W Key.  However, they fall into a trap by Bitch, who captures Shizuka so she can power a powerful Tousho they found.

End Chapter 3.

We begin the next chapter with Io harassing Sill again.  We then immediately go back to Bitch, who forces Shizuka to power the Tousho.  Its name is Dio Calmis, and it is forced to obey Bitch since he planted explosives in Dio’s body while he was deactivated.

Bitch tries to molest Shizuka, but his subordinates knock him out and free her.

Meanwhile, Io is still molesting Sill.  Rick and Julia arrive and put an end to things.  Sill tells them that Rance is under Io’s spell, and Rick promises to knock him out of it.  He does, and Io escapes with the E Key.

Rance’s party ventures into the new path and rescues Kanami, whom Rance promptly rapes back at the inn.  Also, we finally learn why the worthless Julia was sent on this mission: Lia made sure to give Rance a virgin to play with.

Let’s take a second to talk about Julia.  When you first get her, she’s completely worthless.  She’s at a low level, she dies in 1 shot, and none of her attacks connect.  There’s a secret room where she can be trained to become a Power type, Speed type, or Balance type, and this brings her up to “usable” levels.  But she still has the lowest level cap out of all the characters.

Anyway, further in, the group encounters Bitch’s group and easily beats them.  Rance is about to kill him when Bitch throws Merim at him to cover his escape.  Merim is brought to the inn and interrogated, but she gives up all the information without giving Rance a chance to try any of his techniques.  She’s then added to the party, but the party size limit won’t allow it.  Now, we finally have the chance to choose party members.  Not having Rick around allows Rance to have a little more freedom, but Rick’s also a powerhouse, and Merim is completely useless in battle, even worse than Julia.

That night, Kanami and Sill have a chat where we learn that Sill’s obedience curse in fact wore off a long time ago, and she’s traveling with Rance because she loves him.  This is unfortunate, because Lia ordered Kanami to kill Sill if that’s the case.  I warned you about Lia!

Rance puts an end to the assassination attempt and completely wrecks Kanami’s vagoo until she reveals she’s following Lia’s commands, which Rance kinda figured.  He lectures her not to follow Lia so blindly since she’s a spoiled psycho brat.

Deeper in the ruins, Rance’s party encounters Bitch’s party, and he sicks Dio the Tousho against them.  Dio can’t be beaten, so they warp away while they’re in a dead end.  Rance’s party returns to where thhey encountered Dio and find that the wall he destroyed has opened up a new path.  The group ventures further in but can’t move past a freezing room, but they find a weapon and key that allow them to free Leila and Maria and further explore a different tower, respectively.

Leila joins the party, but Maria seems to have become possessed and goes on a rampage through the town, opening up the southern tower and entering.  Rance’s party follows suit and finds Maria sitting in the middle of the tower’s third floor, just eating a lot of food.  She’s unresponsive, so Rance snaps her out of it with his Hyper Weapon.

And this is where I’m going to stop for now.

Rance IV is so long, I couldn’t finish it in time for a Hentai Hump-Day even after working on it for two weeks.  It’s no joke.  Not only is Rance IV a solid RPG all around, but it also has a significant amount of hentai content and combines all the best elements from the first three Rance games while adding its own flavor… and I’m pretty sure I already said that about Rance III.  Seriously, this is a franchise that keeps outdoing itself.  How have we not had it in English for decades?