Kichikuou Rance

The Title
The title literally translates into "Sadistic King Rance". Some places translate the title as "Ghost" or "Ghost Rance", because the first kanji character in "Kichikuou (Sadistic King)" means "Ghost" in chinese. Also, because it was released after Rance 4, some english sites/forums calls this game "Rance 5", which at times gets confused with the real Rance 5D.

Basic Story
This game is not part of the official Rance universe timeline, forking off after the events of Rance 4.2, as a "What if" episode. Currently it's considered non-canon but some of the events and characters in the canonical storyline were left the same while others changed wildly.

The prelude starts with Rance leading a band of bandits in rural Helman Empire. The Imperial Patrol crushed his band with overwhelming force, and captured his slave, Sill. Rance fled to the borders of Leazas where he was rescued by Kanami, personal ninja of Lia, queen of Leazas.

Eager to take revenge upon Helman and rescue his slave Sill, Rance agreed to marry Lia. As the new king of Leazas, Rance set his first step on a path that eventually leads to world domination, or death.