''Knights of Xentar'' is an

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

published for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

compatible operating systems in North America by

Megatech Software Megatech Software was the first licensor of anime games in the United States, and the first licensor of hentai games or eroge in English. History Very little is known about Megatech as a company. They were founded prior to 1992. The first thre ...

in 1995. It was originally published as ''Dragon Knight III'' (ドラゴンナイトIII) in Japan. It is part of the '' Dragon Knight'' series of games created by Japanese game developer

ELF An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

, who originally released the game for the

NEC PC-9801 The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and, by 1999, more th ...

computer in 1991, followed by ports for the

X68000 The is a home computer created by Sharp Corporation. It was first released in 1987 and sold only in Japan. The initial model has a 10 Megahertz, MHz Motorola 68000 Central processing unit, CPU, 1 Megabytes, MB of Random Access Memory, RAM ...

and

PC Engine CD The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thoug ...

in 1992 and 1994. In addition to the regular version of the game, the PC port also have an "adult" version with more explicit nudity. The game is a sequel of '' Dragon Knight'' and ''

Dragon Knight II ''Dragon Knight II'' (ドラゴンナイトII) is a fantasy-themed eroge role-playing video game in the ''Dragon Knight'' franchise that was originally developed and published by ELF Corporation in 1990-1991 only in Japan as the first sequel to ...

''. Its gameplay system is different from that of previous installments of the ''Dragon Knight'' series, resembling this of the early ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

'' (even more in the PC version) series instead of first-person-view

dungeon crawler A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "Dungeon#In fiction, dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may ...

, and enabling the player to explore the entire world of the game. Some of the characters were renamed in the English and German localized ''Knights of Xentar'' release, including the protagonist Takeru's name changed to Desmond.

Gameplay

The RPG system is completely different from that of the previous games in the '' Dragon Knight'' series. The player travels with a top-down view on the world map, visiting towns and dungeons (including Strawberry Fields and Phoenix from the first two games, '' Dragon Knight'' and ''

'' respectively). The game's quest is nearly two times longer than the series' first episode. The enemy encounters are random and the battles, depending on the version, are displayed either in a first-person perspective like in the previous games in the series (similar to these in ''

Wizardry ''Wizardry'' is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Sir-Tech, that were highly influential in the evolution of modern role-playing video games. The original ''Wizardry'' was a significant influence on early console role-playing g ...

'') or in a side-view style (like in many other Japanese RPGs from that era such as the early ''

'' entries). The battles are partially automated with the enemies and characters attacking each other in

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

. A battle can be paused at any time to cast a spell, use an item, or change attack style through a list of AI scripts. There are eight levels of attack strength, each with its advantages and disadvantages (for example, more powerful attack levels require more time). The game features cartoonish cut scenes, many of which contain nude erotic images - the girls the main character encounters and helps will often feel grateful and award him with sexual favors. However, there are no explicit hardcore sex scenes in the game and the girls' genital areas are censored as in most eroge (the sound of a toilet flushing is played when the main character supposedly reaches his climax). Visiting a girl for a sexual encounter has the same effect as resting in an Inn for most traditional RPGs: HP and MP are restored. Crude erotic humour is combined with classical fairy takes; the hero for examples save Little Red Riding Hood from rape by the Wolf, and Snow White from rape by the seven dwarves.

Plot

The main character is a young wandering hero warrior named Desmond (タケル, Takeru). After liberating Strawberry Fields (now called Arcadia) from a demon's curse and saving the girls of city of Phoenix from an evil witch queen in his previous adventures, Desmond finds himself in a situation unworthy of his heroic status: robbers have taken all his possessions, including his legendary armor, his magic sword, and even his clothes. So the first task for the unsuccessful hero is to get some money. Luckily, the mayor has an assignment for him, for which he is also willing to pay. Desmond accepts the assignment without knowing what it will lead to - traveling all over the world, fighting fearsome enemies, encountering beautiful women, and solving a mystery that will also reveal the secret of his own true identity. In his journeys, Desmond is repeatedly attacked by demons. In the process, his companion Rolf (バーン, Bān) from ''Dragon Knight II'' and the sorceress Luna (ルナ) from ''Dragon Knight'' join him. He dreams of a woman who later turns out to be the goddess of light Althea (メシア, Meshia). She and the god of darkness Deimos (ディード, Dīdo) have made an agreement that they would decide the fate of the world through a duel between their respective children. Desmond is the son of Althea and his friend, the black knight Arstein (アルスティーン, Arusutīn) is the son of Deimos. Since Arstein does not want to kill his friend Desmond, he gets Desmond to kill him. Since Deimos does not stick to the agreement and attacks Althea, the group has to fight against him in the end. After Deimos is destroyed, Desmond is offered an ascension to the council of gods, but decides to stay in the mortal world. He marries Luna, and Arcadia's ruler Princess Diana（ネイナ, Naina）builds them a great palace. Rolf marries Marie (from ''Dragon Knight II'').

Release

''Knights of Xentar'' was the second

hentai Hentai is anime and manga pornography. A loanword from Japanese, the original term ( ) does not describe a genre of media, but rather an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of . In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exis ...

RPG released by

after '' Cobra Mission'' and remains the only ''Dragon Knight'' game to be ever released outside Japan. A

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

"full talkie" version was also produced. The game has been originally released in Japan for different platforms between 1991 and 1994. A soundtrack CD was also released in 1992 and 1994. Megatech could not use the title "Dragon Knight" in the West due to copyright reasons.Spotlight Play
/ref> In their version of the game, the names of the two main characters were changed: Baan as he was known in the Japanese version was changed to Rolf and Takeru, the main hero of the game, was changed to Desmond. The dialogue was also modified, having a major localization overhaul in the same manner that

Working Designs Working Designs was an American video game publisher that specialized in the localization of Japanese role-playing video games, strategy video games and top-down shooters for various platforms. Though the company had published many cult hits, it ...

approached in translating several JRPGs. For example, the North American release's dialogue included many American pop culture references and jokes, and several times broke the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

with the Megatech script writers even joining in the heroes' conversation. Desmond's partners Rolf and Luna, and even some of the girls, Desmond meets make fun of him cruelly for his small penis and body odor problem (not existent in the Japanese version). Megatech released two versions of this game: NR-13 and NR-18 (USK 12 and USK 16 in Germany), and the NR-13 version can be upgraded to the NR-18 via a

software patch A patch is a set of changes to a computer program or its supporting data designed to update, fix, or improve it. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, with such patches usually being called bugfixes or bug fixes. Patches ...

. The NR-18 version is the uncensored version whereas the NR-13 is censored in that all the nude girls had their private parts covered up by hands or clothing and some of the crude, crass dialogue was edited as well.

Reception

The X68000 version of ''Knights of Xentar'' (''Dragon Knight III'') proved popular among the computer's userbase in Japan. Japanese magazine ''

PC Engine Fan PC Engine Fan was a Japanese magazine dedicated to the PC Engine, published by Tokuma Shoten. It ran from 1988 to 1996. History The first issue of ''PC Engine Fan'' was published in late 1988. The magazine originated as a section in ''Family Compu ...

'' commeded the PC Engine CD conversion for the characters, music and controls. ''Joypad''s Grégoire Hellot gave the PC Engine CD release a highly positive outlook.

References

External links

Official website''Knights of Xentar''
at

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...

''Dragon Knight III''
at Hardcore Gaming 101 * {{ELF 1991 video games 1995 video games Bishōjo games Censored video games DOS games

Dragon Knight III ''Knights of Xentar'' is an erotic role-playing video game published for MS-DOS compatible operating systems in North America by Megatech Software in 1995. It was originally published as ''Dragon Knight III'' (ドラゴンナイトIII) in Japan. I ...

Eroge Fantasy video games FM Towns games Japanese role-playing video games NEC PC-9801 games Single-player video games X68000 games TurboGrafx-CD games Video game sequels Video games developed in Japan