Sengoku Rance and Eiyu*Senki Gold: what two strategy games teach about building a cast

Disclosure. Veilwright Studio is making a management game, Wildheart Sanctuary, so it is a small competitor to the studios named on this page. Both games were played by the author. Nothing is scored, and nothing was received for the coverage.

Two games taught me what I want from a strategy game with a large cast: Sengoku Rance and Eiyu*Senki Gold. They are both adult games, and both are games first. You could remove the adult content and still have something with systems, choices and a campaign you want to see through. That is rarer than it should be, and it is why I am writing about them from a design point of view.

This page covers what each game is, how they play, where they differ, what I would change and what I took from them. The facts come from the sources at the end. The opinions are mine, and are marked as such. I am building a management game, Wildheart Sanctuary, so the studio is a small competitor of the studios named. That is why the disclosure sits at the top of the page.

Key points

• Both are strategy games with a large cast. An army, missions, troop types, hero skills, places to grind and story turning points.
• Sengoku Rance gives you the map. You choose which nation to attack, when and how to grow your roster.
• Eiyu*Senki Gold gives you a path. The choices are more limited, but the systems underneath are solid.
• The feeling that carries both is “you have a team”. Each character does a different job for you.
• The tone decides what a story can get away with. Rance carries an absurd premise because it knows it is absurd. Eiyu*Senki Gold is more serious, and its premise strains under that.

The two games

Sengoku Rance

Sengoku Rance is the seventh main game in the Rance series by AliceSoft. Wikipedia records it as released in Japan in 2006. The hero, Rance, goes to Nippon, an archipelago modelled on Japan’s Sengoku (Warring States) period, and takes command of the Oda clan with the aim of unifying the island under it. The same article credits an earlier game in the series, Brutal King Rance, with introducing the grand-strategy style it uses, and lists it among AliceSoft’s best-selling titles and a common starting point for newcomers.

It reached Steam with English support on 2 October 2026, according to Automaton and Wikipedia, twenty years after the Japanese release.

The series is long. Wikipedia counts ten main titles, from Rance: Quest for Hikari in 1989 to Rance X: Showdown on 23 February 2018.

Eiyu*Senki Gold

Eiyu*Senki Gold - A New Conquest is a turn-based strategy game developed by Tenco and published in English by JAST. The Steam page dates its release to 25 June 2021 and describes the premise: a young man with no memory is found on the shores of Zipang, a country kept isolated by the legendary hero Yamato Takeru, and Masamune Date sees him as a way to challenge Takeru, open the borders and start a campaign of conquest. In the game’s opening, which no route avoids, Masamune finds him on the beach, adopts him as her brother and makes him king, then sends him to take over Takeru’s country and after that the world.

The same page lists more than 70 recruitable characters, side quests that build loyalty and unlock romance, more than 150 craftable items and a New Game Plus mode. Its user rating was Very Positive, at 85% of 399 reviews, when I read it. A fan-maintained database dates the Gold edition of the original Japanese game to 2014. The Steam release is the English edition.

How I came to them

I started with Sengoku Rance, and it is still my favourite. I have since played most of the series. Over the years I have noticed that most people who love the Rance series have one thing in common: their favourite game is the one they started with. That is an interesting pattern, because it suggests the games are consistently good. I cannot know what causes it, but my guess is that a first experience marks you because it shows you what is possible.

What it shows is a tone. Rance is serious and seriously stupid in equal parts. The team behind it is not afraid to experiment with mechanics or with the writing, and each game feels like a different experience. That is the reason I kept going.

I found Eiyu*Senki because I loved Rance and started asking what else was out there that is more than common tropes, quick gratification or a glorified visual novel. I wanted games with meat on them: impactful mechanics, a genuine game and not an adult animation with some interactive moments strapped on. I am glad I found it. Like Rance, it is a game you can enjoy without the adult part.

How they play

They are, in many ways, the same game. Both have an army, missions, different troop types, hero skills, places to grind and important story turning points. Both give you ways to get stronger, to increase bonds, to build formations and to find smart ways past the enemy, and in my experience both feel balanced.

The difference that matters

With Rance you are presented with choices throughout your journey. You pick which nations to attack and when, and how to grow your roster. It has replay value and takes a great many hours from you.

Eiyu*Senki Gold does not give you that freedom. Its choices are limited and you cannot choose where to attack with the same latitude. The gameplay is still solid, and there is plenty to sink time into. I do not count the smaller freedom as a flaw. It is the tradeoff between a sandbox and a campaign, and Eiyu*Senki Gold picks the campaign.

What carries a cast

The cast of a game like this does not work because of one scene. It works because of a dynamic. Each character is different and serves a different purpose. Some take care of you, some joke around with you and some just want to watch the world burn. What carries a game like this in the end is the feeling that you have a team.

That is a design lesson as much as a writing one. A big roster only works if each member does something the others do not. If two characters would be interchangeable in a battle, in a scene or in the way they talk to you, one of them is wasted.

What I would change

This section is opinion.

The story of Eiyu*Senki Gold. It needs a lot of suspension of disbelief. The opening described above is unavoidable, and a stranger becoming a king and a world conqueror within minutes is very surreal. Things like that worked in Rance, because Rance has an absurd tone that makes them part of the joke. Eiyu*Senki is too serious for the premise to sound natural.

The lesson is about tone. A story has to match the tone around it. Rance can carry a ridiculous premise because it knows it is ridiculous, and a game that wants to be serious has to earn its premise some other way.

What I took from them

I would not say I stole a mechanic from either. What I agree with is the philosophy:

• Players should have choices. They should feel they are heading toward a goal with agency.
• There should be systems to sink hours into. A long game needs depth, not only length.
• It should feel like a game. Not an adult flash game from 2000, but a modern, high-quality game.

Wildheart Sanctuary is a management game and not a strategy game, so none of this is a copy. The point is the shared standard. A game should hold up when the adult part is taken away. That is also why the first version has three residents and not eight: a small cast with different jobs is better than a large one that repeats itself, and that trade is explained here.

Where to start

These are games I have played, not ranked or scored, in line with the studio’s recommendations policy. Both are for adults.

• If you want freedom and a long campaign: Sengoku Rance. The one I started with. Expect to spend many hours on it.
• If you want a guided campaign with a big cast: Eiyu*Senki Gold. More limited, and still a solid game with plenty to do.

If you like monster girls specifically, our guide to monster girl games covers that side of the genre.

What is still unknown

• The exact English release dates of the earlier Rance games. Sources disagree, so this page gives only the Steam date of Sengoku Rance and the Japanese year.
• The original Japanese release date of Eiyuu*Senki. A fan database gives 2014 for the Gold edition, and the base game’s date is not confirmed by a source I trust.

How this page was put together

The dates, developers and descriptions come from the sources listed below, read on 9 October 2026. Both games were played by the author, and all the opinions are the author’s own. Wildheart Sanctuary is this studio’s game, in testing and not released, so nothing said about it here is independent.

To report an error, see the corrections standard.