Knights of Xentar

The Good
Adult RPG is a genre virtually unknown in the West, save for Cobra Mission and this game. Like the rest of hentai industry, this genre is represented by particularly crude and unimaginative design, compared to which regular Japanese RPGs seem like the epitomes of sophistication.

The one good thing in Knights of Xentar is, curiously, the English translation. The writing is surprisingly good, so good in fact that I found myself interested in the dialogues way more than in anything else in this game. Those conversations can get very funny, and it seems than the creators' inspiration for silly jokes can never be drained. Whatever Desmond or his sidekicks Rolf and Luna say is almost guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

The real-time battle system is somewhat fun, though it is woefully simplistic. In order to spare you the tedium of "clicking" attacks, the game assigns you a role of a party manager. Basically, you watch the battles, interfering when you want to cast a spell, use an item or change your strategy (at this point, the game pauses automatically). You don't have to care about simple physical attacks - Desmond and Rolf will do it for you. You control Luna with her offensive and healing spells, items, and basic attack choices: there are eight attack gauges, from the weakest to the strongest. The stronger your attack is, the more time you need to perform it - but the damage will be higher, of course.

Elf is generally among the less offensive hentai developers; in this game, like in most of their titles, the adult content does not go beyond erotic pictures. Sexual situations are strongly implied and described, but not shown on screen. And I suppose we should thank this particular Japanese developer for not including a tentacle rape scene in this game.

The Bad
Knights of Xentar is a very basic Japanese RPG, with means incessant random battles, automatic leveling up, simplistic customization and all the other limitations of the genre. It is extremely bare-bones, sorely lacking those extras that made the Final Fantasy games of its time rewarding. Formulaic to the extreme, it takes you on uneventful trips punctuated by maddeningly frequent fights during which nothing is required besides having the right level, the latest equipment, and occasional quick interference on the player's part.

Dungeon design is horrendous. After having wandered on a plain, needlessly zoomed-in world map, tired of never-ending pointless battles, you are forced to go through linear, featureless corridors offering more of the same. Like most other hentai RPGs, Knights of Xentar is aesthetically displeasing. There is not a single interesting or even colorful location in the game. The visuals, despite a certain fake 8-bit charm, are utterly amateurish and unattractive, lacking detail and taking the sadly known blockiness of the Japanese video game art of the time to the next level.

Since this is a Japanese adult game, the erotic scenes are, by and large, completely meaningless. The quantity of Desmond's amorous encounters is hardly matched by their quality. The women are, as always in this type of games, too similar - they behave more or less the same, and they even look the same. I haven't met even one girl with normal breasts in Land of Xentar - silicon must be a popular product there. There are no real situations preceding an erotic adventure - they all appear out of nowhere, as obligatory part of a town quest, all resembling each other, without a real purpose.

The Bottom Line
Knights of Xentar really has only one thing going for it - the vivid, humorous writing. Everything else in the game is quite forgettable. Seeing as this is one of the most solid hentai RPGs gameplay-wise, it would be advisable to disregard this sad sub-genre altogether.

The Good
This is my second Hentai/RPG game (worth mentioning). The first being Cobra Mission. Well compared to Cobra Mission, me thinks Cobra Mission is better (though I don't recall why). Anyway, Knights of Xentar or Dragon Knights III (they didn't translate Dragon Knights 1,2 and 4 to English, the bastards!) is a very high quality RPG game. Kind of unique, that being also a hentai game. You don't find many quality games that combine adult and real gaming in one package. Knights of Xentar however, is a rare example that not all Japanese hentai developers are inborn perverts (hahaha, Arigato Sukebe-san).

Most of all, Knights of Xentar introduced a compelling story line. I don't recall what the story was now, but I do remember this was a very looooooong game to play, of which long does not refer to repetitive actions of own actions, but long refering to the story plot.

The battles were standard but sufficient. Very simple combat system and very simple magic spells. But they were fun enough not to be too complicated nor to boring. For games like Knights of Xentar, the Adult scenes were to me a bonus, as to my personal opinon, without it, it would still be a magnificent games (though fellow gaming buddies might disagree on that subject...ehem...men...yes we are all born bastards. Thank you).

Well they made Knights of Xentar IV/ Dragon Knights IV...of which I played but don't understand a single word of it. Ich verstei nich spreche Nippon. Anyone know any more Hentai RPG's out there...??? Hmmm....

The Bad
The fact that (then) my mom was wondering why I suddenly kept my room locked all the time...muahahahaha

The Bottom Line
This is a RPG/Hentai Classic. Above all, this game goes into the legendary hall of fame, in my book.

The Good
Many have called Knights of Xentar a ''hentai'' game, which roughly means anime-style porn. It is true that there are many scenes of half-naked anime girls, and countless explicit sexual allusions in this game, but it is far from being just an excuse for half-naked anime girls and lots of sex. Knights of Xentar's other, more serious side produces a somewhat serious RPG that has a somewhat serious storyline and a rather fun gameplay system.

The Bad
The graphics are quite outdated, and look very much like the graphics for the NES Dragon Warrior/Quest games. The storyline, once you fully understand it, basically just amounts to the usual old good vs. evil business

The Bottom Line
What? An adult game with a purpose? Isn't that like a porno movie with a plot? Well, this game has one. I found the game itself to be superior in play to many of the old 'Forgotten Realms' games I've played, and the nime graphics in this one are not only excellent but, well... graphic ;) If your over 18, and like games with a bit of spice, this is a must-have.