Rance 4.2

Continuing from 4.1, Rance and his new party attacks the Angel Army base.

Gameplay
Rance 4.1 and Rance 4.2 are two parts of the same storyline, and use the same mechanics and artstyle. Part of the game involves navigating the Happiness Pharmaceutical office and Romance Park, speaking with people, and investigating the surroundings through an adventure game menu.

The other part is a dungeon-crawler taking place in the Angel Army secret underground base. Within the base, there are specific rooms where the player can interact with the environment, use healing items, and load/save. The rooms are connected to each other by thin routes, where the only available actions are "Advance" and "Retreat", to take a step forwards or backward. (Most routes are about 3-5 steps long). These paths are the spots where random encounters can occur. When the game starts, the base is unmapped, and paths are marked on menus as "???". Each time the player crosses a path and enters a new room, Athena 2.0 will draw the room on the map (with a short dialogue among the party Rance about how to name and illustrate it; sometimes giving comical or non-indicative names). If Athena is not present, Rance will try to draw the map himself. The "???" option will change to reflect the room name. Some paths are hidden or trapped, and can only be crossed later in the game.

In battles, Rance is the only controllable party member, with all other teammates auto-battling. A maximum of four party members and enemies can appear, represented by stat blocks across the bottom and top of the screen, respectively. Three statistics are visible in these stat blocks; Hit Points (represented by circles) show health overall, Stamina shows energy in the current fight, and Power is spent each time they perform an attack, refilled a little each turn. Attacking can reduce both an enemy's hit points and stamina. Battlers are represented as cards showing names and side-views, with only the attacker and target's cards visible onscreen at a given time (and usually using a different card for different techniques). Combatants who lose all their stamina are knocked out, and can't fight - but they can still be attacked to reduce HP. Combatants who lose all their HP are dead. If any player character dies, it's an automatic game over. Some minibosses will reappear later if they're not killed.

Rance's options in combat are "Standby" (which fills power), "Weapon Attack" (using the Iceberg Sword gained in Rance IV), "Use Item", and "Rance Attack" (which takes the most stamina). When fighting civilians, the option "Go On! Run!" is available to flee the battle with no EXP.

The player wins a battle when all enemies are either knocked out or dead. They're awarded with EXP at the end of the battle; unlike previous games, characters level-up automatically when they have enough EXP, with no need to summon a level goddess.

Like with old adventure games, some actions (ex: staring at a hypnotic painting too long or killing a girl Rance wants to rape) can lead to an instant game over. These "Bad Ends" are just a few lines long and are mostly played as jokes.

Story
The plot directly follows the events of Rance 4.1, where Rance and Athena 2.0 solved the case of monsters appearing underneath Happiness Pharmaceutical, the company responsible for producing the world-famous Seirogan healing drug. Partie Burr, captain of the Angel Army Rabbit Group, was captured in a failed assassination attempt against President Doharas Happiness; while Arnie Rolento, revealed as another captain, escaped. Partie threatens that Archibald and her comrades from the Angel Army would arrive to save her, and finish the job; worried about this, and prodded on, Doharas hired Rance's party to destroy the Angel Army for 200,000 gold. Genri the monk, still searching for his brother, decides to follow them; along with Kisara Copri, who wants to thank Rance for helping her repay her debt to Pluepet.

After sexually torturing Partie for information, Rance's party discovers that the Angel Army's main base is hidden below the idyllic Romance Park. With some rough investigation, they unearth a hidden path through a sandbox. Unbeknownst to them, Arnie is observing the group's every move; and has not only prepared the Angel Army for battle, but hired the four warriors known as the Marishiten Assassination Brigade to kill them. Another group is out to kill the adventurers, who she'd rather keep hidden: the Rare Gal Monsters Sailor, Blazer, and Jumper, seeking revenge for their rape in Rance IV. Aside from them, the homeless dog master Gotou considers Romance Park his territory, and will not stand for intruders trying to conquer it.

Aided by the mysterious Pink Mask, and with the restrained Partie still holding secrets, the team of four raid the base. They must discover the truth behind the Angel Army's attack on Happiness Pharmaceutical and the disappearance of the Holy Monster Gal Wenlina - all while Rance is set to deal revenge on Arnie for her treachery, get a moment alone with Kisara, and collect his much-needed reward money.

Setting & Lore

 * Happiness Pharmaceutical
 * Free Cities Alliance
 * Ice
 * Romance Park
 * Rance Castle (this is the name Rance gives his sandcastle, which little kids trample on seconds later)
 * Tenshi Sect
 * Angel Army
 * Levels
 * Haniwa
 * Guy Monsters
 * Gal Monsters
 * Holy Gal Monster
 * Rare Gal Monster

Trivia

 * A slot machine in the Angel Army base can dispense images of Guy Monsters and Gal Monsters. Most of them re-use art from Toushin Toshi 2, while others re-use Rance IV art.
 * The "User Card" section of Alice's Cottage presents three concepts AliceSoft was considering for Rance 4.3:
 * "Rance's Coming of Age Ceremony: Rance finally turns 20. An incident occurs on the night of his Coming of Age Ceremony..." (in the current canon, Rance turned 20 in LP0003, The missing era)
 * "Kanami the Bodyguard: When Rance is targeted by someone, Kanami is ordered by Lia to protect him... While she does, she ends up seeing his private life..." (this roughly parallels Kanami's role in Rance Quest)
 * "Hot Spring Trip: Sill wins a two-person ticket for a hot spring trip at their local grocer. She goes on the trip with Rance, but..." (this roughly parallels the begining of Sengoku Rance)