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hentaiRPG, originally Dragon Knight III (1991) on several platforms, English translation 1994, DOS/VGA.
Maybe you're in the mood for a role-playing of epic proportions. Well…maybe not epic, but you're sure to have a smile on your face by the time you're done with it. Your name is Desmond. Don't like it? Then use you own. You're Desmond (place name here if you perfer), Slayer of Monsters, Avenger of the Wronged, and Lover of Easy Women. Ever seen a resumé like this? After having more than your share of very wicked ale, you end up in the small town of Squalor Hollow where trouble's brewing. Being the hero type and having a few adventures under your belt, you're sure you can clean up the riff raff here. Or can you? Is Xentar's woes due to some brigands or could the emergence of monsters and demons point to something more sinister. Find out and be sure to rescue the occasional maiden is distress.
Knights of Xentar was the second Megatech release after Cobra Mission. This time the Japanese original is well known: Dragon Knight 3 (1991). There have been five Dragon Knight Games in Japan, but this is the only one that ever reached the West. It has suffered more under the translation than Cobra Mission has. Megatech released it as a NR-13 version, with an NR-18 patch available for $5 extra. Even this patched version did not include all the graphics from the original.
Knights of Xentar is more difficult to get to work on a modern computer then Cobra Mission. It can only run in DOS mode, freezes sometimes in combat, and I never was able to quit it with anything else but Ctrl-Alt-Del (unless I died). It's advisable to save really often; besides, the game is over as soon as one of your group dies, no "unconsciousness" or "reviving"! I suppose that this was added by Megatech, just like the MP system for Luna. You can have as many parallel savegames as you like. there are no slots.
The graphics, on the other hand, are somewhat more advanced. It is still top-down, but shows the walls too, creating some sort of perspective—the view typical for SNES games. As for the gameplay, the adventure element is stronger here, maybe natural for a fantasy RPG. There is more to discover, the whole game seems larger. And it seems to have more fans.
It depends on which aspect of the game you are interested in. If you are interested in classic "hentai" games, there are, of course, the other Megatech games; there is Mad Paradox, another RPG, and there are several hentai adventure games, including Runaway City and Immoral Study.
If you are looking for console-style RPGs to play on the PC, these are rare. Cobra Mission sure qualifies, in many aspects it is more interesting than Knights of Xentar, though it is less popular. Mad Paradox qualifies too, to a certain extent. Its game mechanics are rather poor, but it still is fun to play in its own way even if you are not interested in the erotic pics.
If you are interested in learning Japanese too, be sure to check out Slime Forest, a free console-style RPG that teaches you kana and basic kanji.
There are not many console-style RPGs written for the PC, or for any other computer platform. A better idea might be to just download an SNES emulator and try the numerous RPGs for this platform, or to download RPG Maker 2000 and check out the games folks have created with it. Some of them are quite playable.
There are two anime videos, 1991 and 94, basing on the games. There is also a manga series by Ohkami Mineko, but I seems to have no connection at all with the games:
Dragon Knights is a fantasy spoof featuring heroes Rath, Rune, and Thats, who become the Dragon Knights of Fire, Water, and Earth. They squabble constantly, as the three have very different goals—half-demon Rath hunts down and kills other demons, the elf Rune seeks to free his love Queen Tintoretto from eternal sleep, and Thats is after money, plain and simple.—Shoujo Manga
The manga series ran for ten years, but I could not find out when exactly.
Peter Karsanow wrote a very extensive guide for this game, you can find it on his Bishoujo Games Help. There used to be a HTMLized version on the web, but it is gone. There is another short walkthrough by The Chanman, which I have HTMLized and put up here. It is good for a quick overview. I have no ideas whether the email adresses are still valid and you can still get the hacked savegames.
There was a German version, which was NR-13 only. There is an unofficial patch that will restore the full graphics as in the US NR-18 version, but I don't know where you can download it now. I found no dedicated German fan page, though it is mentioned on many big game sites. Games Guide has the original German release text. An in-depth FAQ or walkthrough does not exist. In a Google search in 2004, only 117 of the 2360 found pages were German.
The game itself is not filled with adult content but it still has some of it and had to be included under the adult section. Graphics—Japanese standard, sound—ughhhh…it was the sound that made me give this game a score of 69% and not more.
On its own, Xentar is a decent, very simple RPGs that fans of console classics may find appealing for an hour or two. Compared to Cobra Mission, though, it is major disappointment, and a game that is neither the best of Hentai, nor RPG. Stay awayfrom this game unless you are curious about this kind of game, or really like Hentai in general.
It's a shame that MegaTech Software no longer exists. If the gaming industry can come up with something half as entertaining and innovative as their products, our world would probably be a better place.
Overall, while Knights of Xentar is not as diehard and serious as most other console-style RPGs on the market, it manages to be interesting enough to keep a RPG fanatic going from beginning to end. It's highly perverted and has lots and lots of sex and half-naked anime girls (how many times have I used that term so far?), so if you're the sort of person who think sex is evil and hates randy humor, you might want to fear this game. However, if you like such things, then look no further. If you're just looking for hentai and don't care about the actual game, then I would also recommend you avoid this game, because as aforementioned, it's far from just another excuse for hentai (though you seem to run into it repeatedly). Ultimately, if you can manage to take Knights of Xentar as a spoof, look past a bunch of softcore hentai (or at it, if that sort of thing floats your boat) and you'll find a comical and entertaining little RPG.
Overall I'd say this game was made for the guys and not the gals. KoX is loaded with beautiful women and decent gameplay and in my book that's good enough for a buy. Average RPG, but excellent art, if you're an art nut as well as an RPG Fan (you knew I was going to say it) you can't go wrong with this game. It's not for the young or faint of heart so if you are either, stay away. Otherwise go for it! Too bad Megatech software (who ported KoX) is dead, I really think they had a good thing going and more games like KoX would have made computer gaming a lot more exciting.