Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- (Rance 01 -Hikari o Motomete-) is a 2013 visual novel by AliceSoft, a longstanding developer known for multiple games such as the Beat Blades series, Evenicle, and Dohna Dohna ~ Let’s Do Bad Things Together. The game is a remake of the 1989 title of the same name and serves as the entry point for the series. The story follows Rance, a skilled adventurer, and his slave Sill as they take various quests to keep themselves afloat in their conflict-riddled world while scoring some cute girls on the side. The game was published in the Rance 01 + 02 bundle by MangaGamer in English back in 2020 as part of their partnership with AliceSoft to make the series available to an international audience.
There are a lot of things you can learn about yourself when you read a Rance game. Be it discovering various kinks, your inclination towards bullying cute girls, or how much you can tolerate a protagonist clearly meant to be an asshole, there’s always something to pick up while you sift through its weirdly constructed story. As one of AliceSoft’s debut titles, many of their works that come after Rance echo similar inspirations in their humor, erotica, and narrative. In a way, your experience with this game will determine how much you’ll like their other works. Thinking about it, I’ve been their fan for as long as I can remember; at some point, I just realized that I enjoy the way they make cruel scenes a funny thing, especially when it comes to their heroines!
As one of the longest-running series in the visual novel sphere, how did an arrogant protagonist utterly smitten with the idea of sheathing his sword with the help of attractive members of the opposite sex spark an incredibly successful franchise? Perhaps a look into the first game of the series can help us figure it out!
A Cute Girl and Reward Money? Quest Accepted!
Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- starts with the titular character, Rance, approaching Keith’s Guild to hear details about a quest being offered to him. The quest involves looking for a missing person in the Kingdom of Leazas, the most prosperous nation in the Continent. Initially disinterested even after hearing about the reward money, Keith then brings to Rance’s attention that the missing person, named Hikari mi Blanc, is a student from Paris Academy, an all-girls school in Leazas that houses daughters from various noble families in the kingdom. With how attractive Hikari was plus the chance of becoming physically intimate with many cute girls, Rance could not bring himself to turn down the request anymore. Alongside his trusty slave Sill, he embarks on a journey to Leazas.
But not everything goes smoothly for our adventuring duo. For one, Rance is the strongest warrior in the Continent and an amazing hunk of a guy (self-proclaimed), so he can’t possibly infiltrate the all-girls’ school by himself. Secondly, they’re not exactly that well-off; there’s a reason why an amazing person like Rance needed to take a grunt quest like looking for a missing person. They’re on a pretty tight time limit here, unless they want to start sleeping in the park. Good thing he bought his own personal female slave to do every mundane thing for him that he finds annoying! Now they can infiltrate the rich girls’ school with ease—just send Sill there as a student! In the meantime, Rance will go to all the stores with cute girls to gather information. Yup, solid plan!
Wait, what do you mean Sill’s carrying all the gold they have? Going to school costs MONEY? How was the incredible Rance supposed to know that!?
Rance’s quest for Hikari begins.
Clicking “Ask” Does Nothing After Three Clicks, Dude
Rance 01’s story mainly revolves around Rance’s quest to look for Hikari in the Kingdom of Leazas. While investigating the case, he gets to know the residents of Leazas (mostly cute girls) and takes on various side jobs in pursuit of leads that will help him get to the bottom of her mysterious disappearance. These side jobs get him information, items relevant to his investigation, or some skinship with the girls. Along the way, as Rance becomes privy to bits and pieces of information scattered across the kingdom, he eventually gets embroiled in a greater, underlying scheme fitting to be foiled by a hero of his caliber. The hero beats the big baddie, Rance is hailed a hero, and he lives a good life with the reward. It’s your standard RPG story progression.
What makes Rance 01 stand out, however, is the fact that it is both a visual novel and RPG mixed together. There’s something special about the genre that gives the developers the freedom to tweak the story a bit differently from the classics. That’s right, instead of your shining paragon of justice, Rance is your favorite type of eroge protagonist—an arrogant, self-obsessed bastard crazy for sex, err, doing sword practice with any attractive girl in his immediate range! Everything he does is motivated by his libido, and fittingly enough, it gets him into sticky situations that he could have easily avoided if he used the head on his shoulders, rather than the one between his legs. It does make a lot of the dialogue in the game very crude, but it unleashes a pretty refreshing take on what’s necessary to complete an adventurer’s quest. After all, how many times can you say you saved people in pursuit of copulation?
The concept is definitely not for everyone. Rance will do morally questionable things and find humor in cruelty, violence, and assault in pursuit of his own self-gratification. If that bugs you, be careful about proceeding with the series. It’s meant to be comedic and is pretty lighthearted in tone for most of the run, but it does have strong triggers. As always, tread carefully!
Engaging Allies and Enemies in (Night) Battle
With all its quirks and lack of seriousness, it makes sense that Rance 01’s story is more comedic than anything. It’s a mistake to start the game expecting to encounter a plot that changes lives. It’s far from the main appeal of the visual novel. For the most part, it’s just okay. Despite this, I still enjoyed reading Rance 01. Instead of a well-thought-out plot that has a good flowing narrative and convincing stakes, it’s the humorous dialogue that does it. Rance can be doing the most heinous thing to Leazas’ best citizens and I’d still find it funny because of how they frame it. The way they structure his lines alongside his overall character motivation, the music, the reactions of his victims—they’re all done in a way that instead of making you worry about them, it just feels like a lighthearted bout of teasing; a playful way of bullying someone, if you will.
The downside to this, however, is that there’s not much excitement to be had in terms of plot progression. The overall story feels like an afterthought most of the time. When I was playing the game, I was mostly concerned with reaching the current objectives and fulfilling side quests related to pretty girls I met during Rance’s investigation. And even during the story’s climax, it felt more about the idea of punishing the culprit than finally solving the mystery of the case. In a way, it’s pretty simplistic. It’s more about collecting CGs and wrestling matches with cute girls than an engaging story.
Are There Eight Hours in a Day?
Besides the dialogue, another core part of Rance 01’s appeal is in its gameplay loop. The game makes use of a day system where time progresses for each action you take. A day is split into three parts, each of which feature events that only trigger during that specific time interval. There are also options to advance time, such as “Kill Time” or resting in your personal room, which makes the rate at which you progress in the game pretty customizable.
Of course, with a day system in place, there are events or side quests with a time limit on the clear condition. There aren’t that many though, as most of them are instead limited by how much you’ve progressed within the story. At a certain point in the game, clearing some side quests becomes unavailable so be mindful of the possibility of missing out on some content. Thankfully, Rance 01 doesn’t have a strict limit to how many in-game days you can spend to clear various objectives, so you can take as much time as you want for the most part.
Overall, the day system is a pretty nice touch to the gameplay. It incorporates characters’ behaviors into the gameplay by making some of them only available during certain parts of the day, which makes exploring dialogue options a lot more interesting. It’s not incredibly complex, but it gives the game a bit more dimension in terms of planning out your activities, grinding levels and gold, and clearing main quests.
A New Conversation Starter: Assault
As you enter each of the areas in the Leazas map, Rance will be given multiple options to interact with either the environment or the character present in the scene. These options are also repeatable to an extent until the variations are exhausted, usually being necessary to dig out information that will progress the main quest. Besides a minor hint usually being present in the pause or camp menu (accessible through the world map or the dungeon screen), the game doesn’t really give you direction about where to go or how to progress outside of the dialogue so for most of your time reading, spamming these options will be your best friend. Depending on who you’re talking to, what items you have, or what point in the story you’re in, you might even unlock special events!
This kind of point-and-click system is pretty archaic. It’s very in line with retro adventure games where you just explore all the options available until you hit the correct line you need for that current point in the story. If you have no patience, it’s pretty frustrating to play, especially when all you want to do is read already. At times, I even died choosing some of the options because I wasn’t aware I was going to receive damage by doing them. It set me back a few days in-game because I forgot to save while rushing some side quests. Honestly, this one will probably make or break the game for you.
Personally, it felt rewarding exploring and repeating each available option because of how unpredictable Rance’s lines are (except Assault, maybe). A lot of them are pretty funny, so I definitely recommend engaging the gameplay loop as much as possible. This is where most of the characters’ quirks will be revealed too, such as being obsessed with the beach. Some of them even give hints to plotlines in the succeeding games! This is where most of your time reading will end up, so if you want to read as much of the game’s text as possible, spam those circles.
Putting All My Chips in One Bag
As for its battle and exploration system, Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- makes use of a dungeon crawler-esque mechanic where you choose cards laid out in front of Rance to advance within a specific area. Some of the cards are predetermined events, enemies, traps, or loot, while others are randomly picked from an available pool. Aside from one endgame dungeon, most of the stages have a set pattern that you can easily identify once you run through it a few times, rewarding attentive players. Some enemies even change forms depending on the time of day!
Similar to many visual novel/RPG hybrids, Rance 01’s battle system runs under a turn-based ruling. During the battle proper, Rance will have access to chips that you’ve collected throughout your playthrough. There are different types of chips, such as attack and defense, and you are limited in how many you can bring with you during a dungeon run. An action within a turn depends on what chips you use; your current turn is assigned an attack, defense, or resist value depending on their total. This is functionally the same way the enemy’s turn works—the enemy’s attack, defend, weakness, and resist values will be displayed in advance for the player to play around. If your attack stat is higher than the enemy’s defense, you deal damage to them and vice versa. There are also multipliers for weaknesses, while resists usually render the damage of an attack zero.
While each rank does have a set value interval that it falls under, that range is not available for the player to see. So in short, most of your first encounters with enemies will be some form of trial and error trying to figure out how to deal with them in the most efficient way possible without randomly dying. Because of this, dying to a random enemy is definitely a realistic outcome that can happen at any point, especially if you’re unprepared. It’s usually a disaster if you do, since you can only save in your personal room or by using a consumable item. Good thing there’s an available option to escape in exchange for throwing gold at the enemy!
The last thing of note related to the battle system is the “Set Up Camp” option available on the world map or in a dungeon. This screen displays Rance’s current level and stats, including passive skills acquired from leveling up and status ailments he’s currently afflicted with. Your current experience points and gold are also displayed on this screen, which you can use to level up and buy items from the shops. Additionally, you can also sort or toss away chips in this screen should you want to manage your inventory outside of your personal room. Of particular importance here is the “My Notes” section of the screen—this usually has a brief description of Rance’s current task alongside the estimated progress of the main story.
Summarizing this section, I felt that the dungeons and battles in Rance 01 were satisfying experiences. It doesn’t have as much depth as other RPGs, but because of its simplicity, it has a lower threshold of investment that even casual players won’t be too overwhelmed with. It’s a good balance of gameplay without being too suffocating, especially for a visual novel reader.
What is a bit of an issue here, however, is the ambiguity when it comes to stat values in general. Because they’re unknown from the player’s point of view, you are highly susceptible to just losing large amounts of progress if you don’t save frequently. Although there is an available auto-save function that you can reload if you die at any point, it only rewinds to the start of a dungeon or the start of a new day. So if you drop an incredibly rare item and die without saving, say goodbye to your loot. The game would greatly benefit from displaying values to help solve this problem, though this would be at the expense of its retro difficulty feel.
It does feel like it was made for you to die on the regular on purpose though. I mean, there’s an achievement for dying a hundred times in one playthrough!
A Weapon Shop is an Appropriate Place to Fight (Assault)!
Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- features a lot of adult content that you can unlock by clearing quests, acquiring items, and interacting with various female characters. In fact, you’re more or less incentivized to pursue a character sexually—some of them reward you with powerful items or even additional dialogue options! It’s not an overstatement to say that probably one of your main goals for playing the game is collecting as many H-scenes as you can to fill up the game’s gallery slots. They are pretty much the reward waiting for you when you engage in its gameplay loop.
As for their quality, most of them are pretty simple, featuring only one to two adult CGs with several variations in facial expressions. They’re not long reads, so if you prefer your H-scenes short, you’re in luck. Another thing to keep in mind is that the game is unvoiced; the only company you’ll have during these scenes are minor squelching sounds and their choice of background music. They also feel largely casual with hints of success in conquest, since you technically grind to unlock the content. Instead of focusing on maximizing the quality of experience, the game’s strength is definitely in the number of H-scenes it offers, with around 44 available to unlock.
Makes you realize why it doesn’t have a censored version, right? There wouldn’t be a Rance game without its adult content!
~1989 Bizarre Summer~
Last but not least, since Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- is a remake, I’d like to compare it to the experience of playing the original. The dialogue system is largely the same, with similar options available to you to explore the story. The original is a lot more barebones, however, with the limitations of PC systems back during its release. The original story is a lot shorter and there’s a lot less gameplay content. Battles there are very straightforward, with stats being limited to your ATK, DEF, and HP. They’re also largely irrelevant after a certain portion of the story, so there’s no real goal to grind levels for. The plot, although technically the same, is less interesting because there’s not much characterization of the various Leazas characters. I’d like to point out though that despite being more than 30 years old, the art is still really pleasant to look at.
Overall, the remake is a big upgrade both in terms of story content and gameplay mechanics. It fleshes out characters a lot more, giving them relationships with each other that weren’t present in the original game. Heck, there are plotlines that weren’t there in the first place! The additional content they added alongside their decision to retain a lot of the original game’s retro feeling makes the remake a great pickup for both people interested in trying out the Rance series and longtime fans wanting to experience the first game in a new way.
Art and Music
Rance 01 features a total of 54 unique CGs, not including variations. 43 of these are HCGs, featuring some form of sexual content not limited to just sex. Some of these HCGs are reused in H-scenes, hence the larger number of H-scenes (44) compared to their corresponding HCGs. The game’s main artist is Gyokai, a previous illustrator of AliceSoft who worked on some of their newer games such as Toushin Toshi III, Dohna Dohna, and Rance 03. His art leans more towards the cute side, with heroines having large circular eyes and vibrant colored hairstyles. The way he employs lighting in the heroines’ hair gives it more volume by emulating layers on its surface. Overall, I’m a big fan of the art style. It does the job well for a game that puts great focus on attractive heroines.
As for the monsters, a lot of them are classic AliceSoft monsters such as the Meatball, Good Day/Night, the Maneater series, and the Rotten Corpses. Their renditions in the remake are pretty well-made, such as with the Jellyfish MkII which has subtle scales embedded on its surface. It gives the monster a pretty glossy feel, kind of like what you’d imagine underwater animals to have on their wet exteriors. The game also features its own lineup of Gal Monsters, monsters that resemble females and usually have hidden H-scenes unlockable through the game’s mechanics. They didn’t skimp on making them cute too; they’re almost as cute as the main heroines!
Looking at the BGM list, Rance 01 has a sizable amount of tracks, featuring 27 in total. While Sakuranosaki Mie, the composer, made plenty of tracks mirroring the game’s retro feel, a good number of them are also straight-up remixes of the original’s tracks. Some of them are even directly from the original, and Alice’s theme is present as it usually is for AliceSoft games. They Come, They’re Dead and They Come, I’m Dead have pretty nice vibes for battle tracks, using upbeat notes matching its adventure theme and electric guitars to create a sense of tension when necessary. Meanwhile, An Emissary of Reason Long Passed, a track that only plays if you’re afflicted with Earworm, is the most annoying thing I’ve heard in recent times. It almost broke the fourth wall with how much it affected me as well. And for fans of the Rance series in general, My Glory is still as glorious as it’s ever been. It still hits that march-like feeling with the trumpets and the steady beat that the instruments follow, giving off a sense of accomplishment that feels great after a long and hard grind session. It’s a song you just don’t get tired of hearing.
Overall, the music’s great! There are lots of idle BGM to choose from depending on the area you’re in, and they’re all pretty memorable as well. There’s a healthy balance of exciting, adventurous, cruel, and (surprisingly) sentimental tracks that help make the game entertaining. I’m also glad they decided to give multiple throwbacks to old tracks; not only does it invoke feelings of nostalgia, but it also makes the remake welcoming to old players as well.
Alice’s Mansion
Of course, just like any other AliceSoft game, Rance 01 also features Alice in all her remake glory. Similar to their other games’ “Alice’s Mansion” sections, the game has the usual Staff Corner alongside other nifty features, such as your game clear details, a monster taxidermy, a chip list, and a collection of mystery scenes from the game’s development phase. These features are only unlockable once you’ve finished the game fully, however, so don’t look them up beforehand.
The Staff Corner features messages from staff members that worked on Rance 01, including some that were present during the original game’s release. There are a bunch of cute messages about their workflow, drafts of some scenes, their expectations and whatnot, difficulties they encountered, and reminiscing about the original. If you’re interested in stuff like that, you’ll definitely enjoy this section. It’s also the only time you get to talk to TADA, AliceSoft’s top dog hanny! He’s the guy who has been in charge of Rance for the longest time, so hearing his casual ramblings about the development process is both fun to read and pretty informative.
I honestly believe that these sections are really nice additions to a visual novel’s features. It helps readers come to terms with the end of the experience while making the game feel like less of a product and more of a shared memory between many people. Of course, this doesn’t exempt the title from scrutiny either way, but it’s a pretty convenient way of just engaging your audience in general as fellow fans of the medium. I always look forward to reading them after finishing the game!
Verdict
Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- is a visual novel/RPG hybrid that features cute characters and a gameplay loop that doesn’t overwhelm its readers. Your progress is largely customizable and the game leaves you free to explore as much of it as you want. Additionally, as an eroge, it rewards players with sex scenes that feature excellent art from its artists, creating a feeling of working towards a particular goal. Just be careful of its randomly cruel mechanics—you might find yourself losing major progress!
While it lacks an intriguing storyline, it puts most of its efforts in creating humorous dialogue that fits the overall characterization of its protagonist. The motivations, while questionable, are consistent, making the story progression feel solid and sensible. Even the way the case gets solved is pretty comedic, as if we’re just here to have a good time. Just note that Rance is the strongest warrior in the world, so he might come off as weird sometimes. Weirdly cruel, even. Oh, and keep your brain off for the story unless you want to be annoyed.
If you’re a fan of visual novel RPG hybrids, then Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- is definitely worth a pick up. With quirky characters, an irresponsible and arrogant protagonist that’s strangely charismatic for some reason, and art that makes you work for it, it’s a fun little time sink for those who want to try out the Rance series or just have a change of pace from your standard click and read visual novel.
Alas, it’s not that deep… yet. Maybe in Rance 02.
RANCE 01 -QUEST FOR HIKARI- IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another Alicesoft visual novel, check out Dohna Dohna ~ Let’s Do Bad Things Together. We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both original to English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
Visual novel reader that wishes there were more than 24 hours in a day. Gacha victim, TCG enjoyer, and VTuber simp. Still trying to live happily.
