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
PC88,
MSX and
PC98. 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
- The Miki-chan series (Made back when they were called Champion Soft)
- Darcrows
- Beat Angel Escalayer
- Beat Blades Haruka
- The Dai Series
- Daiakuji
- Daibanchou/Big Bang Age
- Daiteikoku
- 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)
- Mamatoto ~A Record of War~
- Widenyo (essentially Mamatoto, but with the story removed, a larger playable field in place, and more characters to obtain.)
Tropes That Apply To This Company
- Author Appeal: TADA, the Director of the Rance Series, Executive Vice President, the chief of the Game developing department, and the one in charge of marketing the AliceSoft brand, likes silly girls, Meganekko, RPGs, Global History (especially Pre-WW 2), Romantic Comedies, both insulting and comforting girls, Cute Monster Girls, Battleships, and Military Planes. All of these elements have appeared in AliceSoft games one way or another.
- After Tori left the company due to health reasons, TADA made a post for applicants for her position. While he didn't list any of the above likes as being requirements for the job, they were listed as requirements for being his best friend.
- Author Avatar: TADA once again. He calls himself "King Hanny" around the office and shouts "Moe!" when he sees a cute girl in glasses, so the haniwa are basically an exxagerated version of him.
- Doing It for the Art: TADA stepped down from being President of AliceSoft to make the last few games of the Rance Series, the best thing AliceSoft has ever made.
- Even though he has officially left the company due to health reasons, Shade (their in-house composer) said that he's making sure he sees the Rance series through to the end, because he can't see it going on without his scores.
- Mascot: Alice-chan, the lovable little girl who serves as narrator (in the Rance series), dev room operator (in most of the games), and is on the company's logo.
- Most Writers Are Male: Averted in the Rance series of all things. Tori (main writer for Rance 2-7) is a woman, and came up with most of the traits that define Rance as a character.
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