Thanks for the rundown, that's exactly the kind of info I needed. Yeah my Rance 2 is the remake. The title theme is a banger but in a quick dabble I got the sense that it wasn't quite as good as Rance 1. Still, if it's shorter, and if it fits in the continuity and Rance 3 is a big improvement, then I'll stick with it and do the full series with as much thoroughness as I can. Like you, I've heard a ridiculous amount of good things about Sengoku Rance as well as Rance X, so I'm looking forward to eventually burrowing my way through to those ones.
Who knows how long that'll take though. I'm a bit burnt out on Japanese after spending hundreds of hours getting through AI Somnium and Fata Morgana this summer. I thought about re-reading Cross Channel Final Complete, which I half-assedly skimmed through once long ago - while absorbing enough to realise that it was an excellent story, I highly recommend it if you like basic VNs - but when I fired it up, the author's obtuse writing style was already hurting my brain within the first couple of scenes. Think I need to just stick with my handful of indie roguelites for a little while to recover from language fatigue and from eye strain.
Speaking of all that, you mentioned the Alice Bundle. Do you know if the Mangagamer version lets you switch language? Part of the reason I pirated the Japanese versions of Rance 1&2 is because I wasn't sure if you could play the western ports in anything other than English. If you can switch easily, then I might try purchasing them as I go forward in order to support the devs a bit, assuming nothing is censored.
Thanks for the rundown, that's exactly the kind of info I needed. Yeah my Rance 2 is the remake. The title theme is a banger but in a quick dabble I got the sense that it wasn't quite as good as Rance 1. Still, if it's shorter, and if it fits in the continuity and Rance 3 is a big improvement, then I'll stick with it and do the full series with as much thoroughness as I can. Like you, I've heard a ridiculous amount of good things about Sengoku Rance as well as Rance X, so I'm looking forward to eventually burrowing my way through to those ones.
Who knows how long that'll take though. I'm a bit burnt out on Japanese after spending hundreds of hours getting through AI Somnium and Fata Morgana this summer. I thought about re-reading Cross Channel Full Complete, which I half-assedly skimmed through once long ago - while absorbing enough to realise that it was an excellent story, I highly recommend it if you like basic VNs - but when I fired it up, the author's obtuse writing style was already hurting my brain within the first couple of scenes. Think I need to just stick with my handful of indie roguelites for a little while to recover from language fatigue and from eye strain.
Speaking of all that, you mentioned the Alice Bundle. Do you know if the Mangagamer version lets you switch language? Part of the reason I pirated the Japanese versions of Rance 1&2 is because I wasn't sure if you could play the western ports in anything other than English. If you can switch easily, then I might try purchasing them as I go forward in order to support the devs a bit, assuming nothing is censored.
Thanks for the rundown, that's exactly the kind of info I needed. Yeah my Rance 2 is the remake. The title theme is a banger but in a quick dabble I got the sense that it wasn't quite as good as Rance 1. Still, if it's shorter, and if it fits in the continuity and Rance 3 is a big improvement, then I'll stick with it and do the full series with as much thoroughness as I can. Like you, I've heard a ridiculous amount of good things about Sengoku Rance as well as Rance X, so I'm looking forward to eventually burrowing my way through to those ones.
Who knows how long that'll take though. I'm a bit burnt out on Japanese after spending hundreds of hours getting through AI Somnium and Fata Morgana this summer. I thought about re-reading Cross Channel Full Complete, which I half-assedly skimmed through once long ago - while absorbing enough to realise that it was an excellent story, I highly recommend it if you like basic VNs - but when I fired it up, the author's obtuse writing style was already hurting my brain within the first couple of scenes. Think I need to just stick with my handful of indie roguelites for a little while to recover from language fatigue and from eye strain.
Speaking of all that, you mentioned the Alice Bundle. Does the Mangagamer version let you switch language? Part of the reason I pirated the Japanese versions of Rance 1&2 is because I wasn't sure if you could play the western ports in anything other than English. If you can switch easily, then I might try purchasing them as I go forward in order to support the devs a bit, assuming nothing is censored.