Aeris my Goddess

For all the shit people talked and still talk about FF7 (and I was guilty of it too, as a teenager who was totally  into JRPGs before they were cool) its popularity and enduring presence make sense to me. Cloud's story is the story of a dorky loser becoming an admirable man and learning that he doesn't have to live in the shadows of his fantasy hero idols (Sephiroth, Zack) or pine for a Perfect Lover (Aeris) because the girl next door (Tifa) has been there for him all along. Of course that resonates with nerds. It's a game about them.

In either case I also think Sephiroth is a well-executed villain in the way that he seems like he's always one step ahead of the party and so dangerous that you're not sure you want to catch up to him, and when you finally do something terrible happens. And I think there's a theme of reconciliation with one's own self and dreams that connects rather slyly to the game's other theme of reconciliation with nature and the earth.

A lot of the game is terrible, almost all of its spinoffs are ridiculous over the top garbage, and it's aged poorly to boot. But I think I understand why it struck such a chord with so many people, and I don't think it's a stupid game at all.

Ironically, most of the people who still love it to death and draw pictures of it and write fanfiction about it completely missed most of what I was talking about.

BACK WITH A REVIEW

Rance Quest, which will be Rance VIII for the series, will be a full 3D questing RPG.
You pick up quests and achieve them as you progress.
If you fail on a quest you still retain the EXP, but have to restart the quest from the start
Any quests you have already completed are repeatable, so any events and items you missed in the quest can be salvaged later.
Rance heads to the forest of Kalar to undo the curse on Sill...

Characters shown on the TG magazine scan
Sachiko Centers: Schoolgirl saved by rance while being attacked by monsters.
She ends up in his party as a defender. Her dream is simply to become an ideal housewife.
Crookoo Mofus (kurukkoo is how pigeon crying is written in Japanese): A mysterious girl exorcising evil spirits living in the Kalar forest.
Suzume: the Super-kunoichi who aided Rance in the last game. She tags along as his guardian this time.
Reset (Lisette) Kalar: Cute, cheery kalar girl. The description doesn't say if she's related to Rance, possibly to avoid spoilers to new comers to the series.
(In her introduction to the series in Kichikuoh Rance, she's the daughter of Rance and Pastel, the queen of Kalar.
It's not clear if this plot has been carried over to this canon entry yet, but hopefully. Or Alicesoft will have thousands of angry oldschool fans to deal with)
Aegis Kalar: A soldier who guards the Kalar forest from human invaders who come to hunt their crystals.
(The crystals on the forehead of a Kalar turns from red to blue when they lose virginity.
They possess massive magical powers, prompting these human poachers to come rape Kalar and take their crystals for money. A Kalar dies when she loses her crystal)

The three girls from Iceframe are back!
The evil lesbian bitch Megadeath (green hair), The sleeping beauty Cessna (blue), and the nurse Prima (silver).
They were the original members of Iceframe in Rance VI