Rance 03: Fall of Leazas

Back in 2020, I played and finished Rance 03 Remake during the period of COVID isolation and even did make an article for the game at some point. At the time, I did promise to make full article for this game. But the plan ended up never materialized since I thought I accidentally deleted the in-game assets I collected to make the full article of Rance 03 which totally killed my motivation. However in a strange turns of event, I managed to retrieve the Assets that I thought had been long gone. Thus, just like Sakura Taisen 2, I will make an amend even if it has been overdue for 5 year. Therefore I proudly present Realm of Darkness Rance 03: Fall of Leazas full article!

This article will feature Safe-for-work Rance 03 Storyline overview which will be mostly done through covering the main factions, characters and points of interests in this game. The aim of this relatively lengthy article is to hopefully get people interested with Rance 03 and might as well delve further into this legendary High Fantasy series. Because among many Visual Novel Titles, Rance series are one of the few that can be actually successful without relying on their R-18 contents. Lastly this article revival also owed to the enthusiasm of this Blog’s visitors who seems to show quite an interest with past Rance series articles that are written in Realm of Darkness. This is one of the longer article that this blog had even compared to Kannazuki no Miko mechatalk part 2, so enjoy the read.

Rance 03 is probably one of the more important chapter in Rance series as this is the first game that lays the Solid Foundation of this legendary VN series from Alicesoft. Because in this game, Rance’s Heroic Feats reached a new height as he saves a whole kingdom from neighboring Empire invasion that is assisted by Demon King faction's Dark Lords. So far, I have only played 7 out of 10 named Rance series. But I can easily guarantee that Rance 03 is one of the must play Rance Title along with Rance VI, Sengoku Rance and Rance X.

The 2015 remake of Rance 03 Fall of Leazas which is the one to be discussed in this article is just a top tier for Visual Novel game when it comes to Production value. If you want to know how good this game is, even without the Ero Content Rance 03: Fall of Leazas remake could pass as a Top quality 2D JRPG. For almost 30 Years, Rance series never bothered to have Voiceover, but Rance 03 Remake got one and overall, it is a solid work. As the cast for the main characters performed their Role very well, especially Rance whose Seiyuu is most likely Yuuichi Nakamura captured Rance’s Heroic yet Kichiku warrior personality perfectly. For anyone who don’t know Rance, he is the OG of the sadistic Fantasy male protagonist archetype like Konosuba’s Kazuma or Redo of Healer’s Keyaru and he would have passed as their long-lost father.

Not sure If the Rance 03 Remake have been translated after 10 years since the original release but rest assured it is a very good game for a Visual Novel and you won’t regret the experience as Rance Fan

When it Comes to Gameplay, Rance 03 Fall of Leazas is continuation of Rance 01 where players lead Rance explore many dungeons on the way to Kingdom of Leazas. My memory has been hazy but The Dungeon explorations encounters are presented with Card game mechanics which is very unique experience befitting Alicesoft title. As for the fight mechanics, Rance 03 Remake presented a fast paced Turn based RPG Combat which have strategic elements as the Players form the combat turn of Rance’s Party by drafting party member’s turn. As the game progresses, there are plenty of actions that can be taken and I recall some characters have some passive abilities to boot.

5 years do gap do make my memory on this game went hazy, but one thing I still remember is that Rance 03 featured plenty of Pop Culture cameo references like Gundam, Oishinbo and many others as many encounters which you can look forward to guess how many that you will able to Identify.

From this point on, please steer away if you do not wish to get heavy spoilers for Rance 03 remake and proceed at your own risk.

Taking the events after Rance 01 & 03, Rance 03 Fall of Leazas story starts with the Capital City of Leazas Kingdom on the verge of being captured by 3^rd Helman Army which somehow able to defeat formidable Leazas Army that guarded Leazas Army. Before Leazas castle completely fall, Princess Lia dispatched her Ninja servant Kanami to Rance to save her Kingdom.

Upon Kanami’s arrival to Rance’s house in Free Cities to request for his help, Rance being on his Jerk side decided to decline the request but somehow easily get persuaded thinking of the prospects scoring more cute girls through this adventure. On his way to Leazas, Rance had a first encounter with Dark Lord Satella in a quest retrieving a missing girl who fell in love with monster creature. That particular girl will be quite a troublemaker in Rance 03 later part of Story.

As the first part of Leazas Kingdom, Rance started with the City of Custom/Kahthom which are occupied by Helman Army as they start encroaching to Free Cities after Leazas fall. In order to avoid Helman’s army, Rance chose to pass through a Cave guarded by a powerful Devil which turns out to be Fellis from Rance 02 which Rance had signed a Devil’s contract with thus she is recruited to the party.

From there on, Rance successfully liberating many cities after cities from Helman’s occupation and gather enough Armies to oppose Helman 3^rd army through finding Unicorn in sacred forest, breaking free the Mind Control of Helman Generals, gathering resources for Tulip Tank and retrieving Leazas Holy Weapon given to Rance to obtain the Kingdom’s ultimate weapon. Ultimately Rance and his party managed to succeed to repel Helman Army after final Showdown in open battle with Helman 3^rd Army General, Thoma Lipton. However, their true test will be waiting in the Castle of Leazas

The Helman Army Invasion which served as main adversary in Rance 03 is under the lead of Thoma Lipton, one of the strongest Man in Rance Verse leading the Helman 3^rd Army. The Invasion operation is also overseen by Prince Patton Misnarge who still goes in his evil path. From what I recall, Patton decides to invade Leazas to secure his bid for the Crown of Helman Empire which he competed with his Half-sister, Sheila Helman. Due to the assistance of Demon Apostles from Hornet’s faction, this particular Helman invasion to Leazas had initial success despite Leazas formidable defense which had caused failures in previous invasions. However, the Invasion will be ill-fated due to the betrayal of Demon Apostles and accelerated by the attacks from Resistance Army lead by Rance’s Party.

Despite being one of the main enemies in Rance 03, Thoma Lipton is actually one of the more honorable character in Rance verse where there are plenty of bad people despite the humanity is under the threat of Demon Army. Due to the ill-fated nature of the invasion Campaign, Thoma have to give up his life, otherwise he could have been a great asset for Helman and Humanity in Rance IX & X storyline.

Thoma’s underlings however are quite evil befitting stereotypical Evil Invading Army archetype ranging from Minerva Margaret, Thoma’s Power Hungry second-in-command who will later take over Helman’s 3^rd Army and play major role in Rance IX to the typical corrupt Nobility. But to spice things up, Rance 03 had a parody of GTA V Trevor Phillips serve as the Helman enemy who goes to Blaze of Glory in order to thwart Tulip Tank. A rather random moment but amusing nonetheless

Despite the focal point of Rance 03 Remake is with Leazas, the events in Rance 03 mostly take place in Free Cities Alliance region which is Ranceverse parallel counterpart of Italian City States in middle ages. Because Rance 03 timeline mostly takes place when Helman Army extend their invasions to Free Cities after successful capture of Leazas Kingdom.

In the Free Cities, Rance will encounter colorful range of characters including cute girls but most important one will be the priestess of Al Church, Sel Catchgolf who plays a crucial role on later part of story. Despite being a lustful warrior, Rance also able to show pity on Damsels on Distress such as one of the Cities Mayor’s Daughter who had the misfortune to serve as Helman Soldier’s servant and have to satisfy their urges too.

On a sidenote, you can find TADA, Rance series creator cameo as Hanny in one of the Free Cities which he give out some useful hints to progress through the game.

Among the many Free Cities, Kahthom/Custom where Rance 02 storyline took place play a crucial role in Rance 03 Storyline. The 4 Witches of Kahthom, especially Maria and Shizuka played a big role, with Maria use her Invention talent to create the Tulip Tank which serve as important Spearhead in the offensive against Helman Army. Then Shizuka also plays a key role with her relation to one of the Demon Apostle and will serve as key party member in the Leazas Castle showdown.

In Rance 03, Rance worse side mostly are shown through his interaction with Shizuka, as he is thoroughly obsessed to sleep with her which lead to many unnecessary Shenanigans in the game’s storyline. Not to mention the humiliation that Rance forced through on her to catch Demon Apostle Ithere Off-guard. If Rance was not being a massive jerk, he could have made Shizuka fall for him had he played the right cards.

In Rance 03 due to the Leazas Kingdom serve as the focal point, Rance will get acquainted with many well known individuals in Leazas Army as his heroic feats despite the intention managed to earn respects of Leazas Red and Black Army, Rick Addison and Barres Province.

For those who played Rance 01, you will be quite in a treat as you will see plenty of returning Characters including the waifus that got intimate with Rance in the previous game once Rance’s party liberate Leazas City. Among the many, the Blue haired city guard Menad Shisei got quite a spotlight much to Princess Lia's ire and falls very hard for Rance and maybe Rance 03 is one of the reason why she still gets Doujins from one of particularly dedicated Japanese illustrator. 

It wouldn’t be an understatement if the Demon King is the main threat of Ranceverse as it is the force of evil that are designed to serve as the Threat against humanity. To aid to Demon King’s cause in spreading terrors among humanity, the Demon King is aided by his loyal servants known as Majin/Dark Lords. These Powerful Beings received many kinds of Superpower upon receiving the Demon King’s blood. However, all of these Dark Lords have in common, is the same defensive ability that grants them near Impervious protection called Invincibility Field which is the main source of problem for Humanity to fight against the Demons

Rance 03 serves the title in Rance series where the Dark Lords make their debut. Three of these Dark Lords make their appearance which consist of Satella, Ithere and Noce are coming from Dark Lord Hornet factions which lend their assistance to Helman Army to capture Leazas. However, their assistance is not out of kindness as their true goal is to locate the next Demon King candidate, Miki whom Rance did encounter in Leazas during Rance 01 event in order to quell unrest in Demon World caused by Kayblis faction.

Considering these 3 Dark Lords from Hornet Faction play quite a major in Rance 03, I will briefly include their Profile in this Article’s segment

Satella: Sadistic Female Dark Lord, She is turned into Dark Lord by Demon King Gi to be Dark Lord Hornet’s childhood friend thus truly devoted to her. She specializes in Creating Golems that has formidable fighting power on par with Dark Lord. Surprisingly having a very sensitive body and will have Tsundere relationship with Rance which will fully bloomed on later series.

Ithere: Handsome Young Male Dark Lord who is created during Demon King Gele and skilled both in Swordmanship and Magic. His 3 Female Apostles is the one responsible for Mind controlling Leazas Army officers. Very courteous toward women and develop romantic feeling toward Masou Shizuka after sparing her when she got separated from Rance party. While not particularly loyal to the former Demon King Gele, he quickly reaffirms his allegiance after she is broken free from her seal.

Noce: Secretive Dark Lord who appeared as an old man with muscular Physique. Became Dark Lord during Demon King Gele Era and one of her Strongest Liutenant. Formerly an Earth Dragon before becoming a Dark Lord and a very powerful Close Combatant with his body encased in Rock materials. Joined Hornet’s faction but secretly only loyal to Gele and joined the 7^th Leazas invasion in order to Unseal his true master, Demon King Gele.

Rance’s Party had a serious encounter with these Dark Lords during the storming of Leazas castle which they soon found out any of their offensive attacks completely fail due to the Invicibility barrier. This turn of event soon proceed to the next actor’s appearance.

 

In Rance series, one of Rance steadfast companion is a Demonic Sword named Chaos which is one of the few weapons that is capable of harming Dark Lords and Chaos make his debut in Rance 03. Chaos is sealed deep within Leazas Castle dungeon which is why Rance need to retrieve Leazas holy Equipment which he lost in the early part of Rance 03 story.

After surviving through many of the Deadly traps in the Dungeon, Rance’s party managed to find Demon Sword Chaos. But after being imprisoned for Hundred years, Chaos lacks any power to fullfill its role as Dark Lord slaying blade which he can actually regain by LITERALLY molesting Girls. Having a foul personality doesn’t help either as Chaos is very picky with the girl he chose to molest. After roasting all girls in Rance’s party, the Al Church Priestess, Sel ended up being the poor victim of Chaos in order to save the world from Majin threat.

In his replenished state, the Demon Sword Chaos soon prove his worth for his trouble as he casually delivers serious injury to Dark Lord Ithere which he noticeably takes pleasure in and revel in a chance to kill Dark Lord Noce. Surprisingly Chaos and Rance quickly become good partners due to their similar personality and their teamwork will go along way through the rest of Rance series. 

At the end of Journey of Rance 03, Rance’s Party will confront Dark Lord Noce and Demon King Gele as the final confrontation. Against unfavorable odds, Rance’s Party managed to triumph over Noce but Demon King Gele is a different matter. Despite being reduced to her 5% Power and in a Weakened state, Gele is still an Extremely Powerful being that invoke the feeling of Terror and Despair to strongest humans through her presence.

Standing upon Noce’s carcass which reverted to his original form, for some reason Gele retreats to alternate dimension after absorbing Noce’s Blood soul which Rance give chase under encouragement by Chaos. Normally a human will not survive a 1-on-1 encounter with Demon King but this is the moment that establish Rance’s Legendary feat in the series and VN.

In Rance Universe, all living being strength potentials are limited to Level Caps with Human beings over level 50 are considered very powerful. Some humans managed to reach Level 100-200 but Rance is being the anomaly has a level cap of 9999 which is unheard of throughout the history of Continent. Due to the circumstances of interdimensional space that Rance caught in from giving chase to Gele, His Level quickly surges to the Level Cap which grants him strength that can easily surpass the former Demon King. With his newfound power surge, Rance defeated Gele and being the Kichiku warrior, he obviously have his way with Gele despite the latter being the most dangerous existence for Humanity. Rance and Gele and surprisingly have a good time together and the latter soon got amused by this Brutal warrior who consider her as cute and take a liking to Rance, to the point of wanting him to stay with her in the Interdimensional space after living in Solitude for thousands of years. Gele even explicitly stated that she doesn't mind for Rance to have his way with her body as long as Rance stay with her in the Dimensional Space she trapped in. If it is not an expression of affection from a Being that exist only to obssess with inflicting maximum despair toward humanity, I don't know what it is.

Rance for a moment considered such option considering Gele gave one of the best experiences he had. However, Rance soon changed his mind after a portal back to his world reopened with his Slave Sill desperately wanting her master return to her side and thus abandoned Gele to her fate. Kinda feel bad that Rance have to forcefully leave Gele who wailed like a Child for Rance to stay with her. because I felt that Gele do have a fraction of genuine of affection toward Rance due to him treating her like human and felt the warmth after more than a millenia despite it was done "physically".

Rance: No good Gele chan, dont compare the Great Rance with your long gone boring man!

Gele: There is no way out from this dimension, once again I will be alone, same goes to you Rance

Gele: How is it, go ravish my body, violate it more.., the pleasure is way better than a human body right?

Gele: Not even a problem if this body of mine will be ravished by you for thousand years

Gele: Dont go.. don't go Rance!

Rance: Apologies Maou chan, after thinking it over, I am not a man that can be tied down with a single woman

Gele: Even you abandon me, Rance..

Edit: Given the importance of Gele's interaction with Rance in Rance 03, the only compromise I could do is to cut out the scene up to the Text box only because Rance and Gele's dynamics is really established through this short yet intense interactions. Not exactly the most romantic one, but it is the best one that can came out from Ranceverse Cruelest Demon King.

Due to the NSFW design of Gele mainly due to being completely naked, I can’t really put much of her interaction with Rance despite being one of the peak moments in Rance 03 for a reason and I break through the Language barrier of this game solely to witness this part personally. She is actually one of the main reason I decided to create this article which is worth it in the end. Seriously, don’t skip Rance’s event with Gele part if you ever play Rance 03.

Gele despite being an extremely cruel being is one of the best Waifu from Rance series. If it is not for her Demon King status, Gele could easily give other Rance's Top Waifus a serious competition as a human just to indicate the quality of her base design.With his abilities, Rance actually have what it takes to tame Gele in some way and make this cruel Demon King as part of his harem, which is easily the best feat of an Erogame protagonist could wish for. It is just unfortunate we never get to see any continuation of Gele in Rance X and the Alicesoft team for Rance series are no longer in the productive age which make any sort of continuation for this legendary series run slim. At very least we do have a Top Tier doujin that cover the aftermath part for Rance and Gele relationship.

While being a character from Visual Novel series that had small Screentime, Gele’s archetype is quite influential and had some known iterations. For instance, Fate/Grand Order Kama Assassin 3^rd Ascension and Honkai Impact 3 Herscherr of Void owed their design from Gele if you can notice traits. There are probably other series that had their character designs based on Gele, but those two are the prime example of Gele’s Archetype offshoots.

Demon Kings are the most feared being in Ranceverse as they represent the Penultimate Terror that Human will never able to overcome. but there is a reason why Gele being the most infamous Demon King that inflicts a very deep Trauma toward humanity. Before becoming Demon King, Gele was a very intellectually gifted Female Human. But she had the worst fortune of encountering some Scum of Humanity that is responsible for the birth of the cruelest Demon King.

To put it simply Gele got horribly violated which completely broke her and the perpetrators proceeds to leave her to die after having her limbs torn off. The ordeal that Gele went through are just bad enough to have a passing by Demon King taking pity on Gele and immediately decides her to be his successor and save her. Upon her transformation into Demon King, Gele’s trauma amplified her hatred toward Humanity manyfold and soon Humans experience the Darkest period of their history.

The Demon Kings that came before Gele simply cause widespread destructions which do inflict millions of casualties. However, when the human population got lower than certain threshold, The Demon King will encounter Humans that can slay them due to Hero System designed by the Creator of Ranceverse. Being imparted such information from the previous Demon Lord, Gele soon designed a very sinister plan that give humanity worse experience than death for 1 Millenia.

Under Gele’s rule, No Human Kingdom can be established and Humans ended up being the Plaything of Monster Race. Many of the so called “human farm” are established where the people are treated no better than cattle and so many despairs are inflicted through this method. Pockets of Human settlements do exist but the threat of Monster attacks always loom around.

It is during Gele’s reign that a particular Legendary Adventurer team called Legendary Five rose up to find means to thwart Demon King Gele’s reign. While this Adventuring Party ultimately failed in defeating Demon King Gele, they obtained something else and all of them still live until the present in some ways even after more than a Millenia has passed.

In Rance 03, you get to see 2 of these Legendary 5 members. Chaos the Demon Sword that become Rance’s Partner is one of the Legendary 5 who is a legendary Thief that got turned into sword after wishing for finding means to destroy the Demon’s Invincibility Field. And then British, a middle-aged man who got trapped within Concrete wall which Rance could bully in Rance 01 is actually the leader of this team. The player could obtain some insight of Gele’s reign if they interact with British at certain point and here are some of the Lore dumps that I obtained from my playthrough 5 years ago.

After I finished on the heavy parts of this Rance 03 Article. Before wrapping this article up, I will do brief highlights on the main character of this game that I find noteworthy starting with Rance.

Just like any of his game’s iterations, Rance is a skilled adventurer who is very confident to the point of getting too cocky that ends up bad for him. What makes Rance 03 Remake different among many Rance game is that Rance got voiced in by a talented Seiyuu who is most likely Yuuichi Nakamura.

The voice acting for Rance really elevate the experience in Rance 03 making it one of the most immersive title of this legendary series. Players get to see more lively renditions of this Legendary adventurer whose primary drive is sleeping with many beautiful women and behave like gigantic asshole. But more often than not, Rance’s actions do save many Nations and benefit humanity in Ranceverse as a hole. Rance 03 is the first experience where players get to see the first major achievement from this Legendary Erogame protagonist among many others which not many Isekai protagonists could match up to.

One of the most loyal companions of Rance is his Slave, Sill Plain who served as backline support with her mage ability. Just like other Rance titles, In Rance 03 Sill Plain always still get bullied by Rance but their bond will remain to be the strongest. As Sill completely put her faith with Rance which the latter do reciprocate by giving his utmost effort and never failing to save Sill when she got into dangerous situation.

On one note, my impression for Sill Plain in Rance series is that she cries a lot in comical manner which is simply translated as *sob *sob back in Sengoku Rance and Rance 03 lets the player witness this iconic trait to be voiced and the Seiyuu did a great job.

Formerly one of the main antagonists in Rance 01, after Rance gave a thorough disciplining on her. Lia Parapara Leazas, the ruler of Leazas Kingdom is strongly in love with Rance to the point of desiring marry him. Being the main Damsel in Distress of Rance 03, Lia’s affection toward Rance increased manyfolds as her love interest managed to successfully saved her like a Knight in Shining armor.

Lia is well known to be a very capable ruler of her Kingdom in Ranceverse. Yet, In Rance 03 the players get to have a good glimpse of Lia’s Irrational side when it comes to Rance being very flirty and proactive towards him. Yet with Lia’s personality, her possessiveness will grow strong in the events of Rance 03 as she found out that she will compete with many girls for Rance’s heart and took measures to prevent more girls falling for her love interest.

Interestingly Lia do join Rance’s party in combat which she commands her Pet Dragon Harumaki for attacks which can surprisingly deal some kind of damage despite her low-level cap. After Gele, I find Lia’s interactions with Rance is the second-best thing that Rance 03 Remake have in store so for those who are going to play this game, don’t miss this part!

Among many Rance’s early Side Waifus, Pulptenks Flanders had quite a special place when it comes to appeal. She fell in Love with Rance so hard after she was rescued by him from Bandit Capture and her affection grew even stronger in Rance 03. By the time Rance freed Leazas City, Pulptenks is very madly in love with Rance to the point of fabricating a story that she got violated by Helman Soldier then goes fully lovey dovey toward Rance and even tried to trap Rance into signing marriage registration.

It is due to Pulptenks lovey dovey interaction with Rance that Lia grew Paranoid of getting more competitions from Girls to win over Rance and put a media blackout to Rance’s exploits. Obviously, It didn’t work as shown in later Rance series.

To be Honest, Pulptenks is one of the lowkey Rance’s Top Waifus that were meant to be designed as throwaway waifus that lasted for one title. But her character design is pretty good enough to one of the mainstay side waifus and it is such a waste that we never get to see her on later Rance series. If Rance series ever get any continuation, I just wish Pulptenks get to join Rance’s Harem.

Wow I never expected to write another 4000+ words article which is one of the lengthier post in Realm of Darkness! But Rance 03 definitely deserves it and I don’t mind spending the effort because I consider it to pay the overdue debt that have lingered for over 5 years.

Rance 03, especially the remake version is one of the Rance series cornerstone because it Introduce some of the best Lore elements of the Rance series that will become mainstay importance throughout the series until Rance X. Despite not having great replay value compared to Sengoku Rance, I enjoyed what Rance 03 Remake have to offer and obtained what I see. I decided to finish Rance 03 because I want to see how the waifu characters interaction in this game turn out which have Gele, Lia and Pulptenks being the Top 3 doesn’t disappoint at all!

Apparently we are supposed to have Rance 4 remake which will cover another major part of Ranceverse Lore. Rance 04 particularly dwell on Holy Magic Sect legacy which got plenty of magic powered Giant Robots hidden on flying continent that will have influence on Rance VI and IX. Rance 04 also will feature Holy Monster Girl Wenlina debut who is another one of the Top Rance’s waifu and one of my main priority to play Rance X. Given it has been 7 years since the Rance X which is the final title of Rance serie. I suppose Rance 04 remake chance is rather slim, since the Rance Production team are most likely in their 50s and 60s which severely limit their Productivity. But I do hope Alicesoft could still bring more for this Crown Jewel VN series known as Rance, which when it comes to quality and continuity actually surpass Muvluv and Fate by far margin.

As for the Rance 03 Remake translation, while we still don’t know when It will come out. I can assure that Rance 03 Remake will be still quite fun despite being 10 years old game because Alicesoft did their utmost effort to make this remake Gameplay to be on par with AAA Mainstream 2D JRPG. Lastly I hope this rather lengthy article will serve its purpose to spark interest for Rance series despite being spoilerific.