AliceSoft
AliceSoft is an eroge developer, one of the oldest in existence. Although they are perhaps not as well known as the truly big groups like Type-MOON and Key Visual Arts, AliceSoft has managed to carve out a niche for itself by incorporating interesting and involved gameplay elements that occasionally challenge the player. Where other developers will eschew gameplay in favour of telling a fantastic story or cutting straight to the heart of the matter, AliceSoft embraces it wholeheartedly to the point that many of their works on this wiki could be classified as both Video Games and Visual Novels.
The company began in 1989 making games for the PC-88, MSX and PC-98. These included a Visual Novel known as Intruder and the very first Rance game, chronicling the adventures of everyone's favorite Heroic Comedic Sociopath as he searched for and "rescued" kidnapped girls. They continued to release games in uninterrupted succession until 2008.
Many of AliceSoft's games tend to be either Eastern RPGs, Dating Sims or Turn-Based Strategy Games and have a penchant for sly, subtle jabs at elements of anime and Japanese pop culture in general. Their more beloved titles fall squarely in the Explicit Content category and have high quality soundtracks courtesy of their in-house composers. Occasionally the company will allow its games to be adapted into short OVAs that tend to overemphasise the "porn" aspect of the works.
Alright, let's face it. Most people know of them because of Rance.
Notable AliceSoft titles include:
- The Rance Series
- Rance - Seek the Light
- Rance II - Rebel Girls
- Rance III - The Fall of Leazas
- Rance IV - Religious Heritage
- Rance 4.1 - Save the Medicine Plant!
- Rance 4.2 - Angel Group
- Kichikuou Rance
- Rance 5D - Lonely Girl
- Rance VI - The Fall of Zeth
- Sengoku Rance
- Rance Quest
- Rance Quest Magnum
- Darcrows
- Beat Angel Escalayer
- Beat Blades Haruka
- The Dai Series
- Atlach=Nacha
- Pastel Chime
- Pastel Chime Continue
- Ultra Magical Girl Manana (A serial in Visual Novel form chronicling the adventures of the titular magical girl)