In my opinion, one of the great tragedies of growing up is that, once you become a teenager or thereabouts, it is no longer socially acceptable for you to watch cartoons. I remember when I found this out . . . I was in my living room with some college buddies not too long ago and I showed them my old Transformers cartoon collection on Betamax. One of them said, almost incredulously, "You still WATCH those?" I didn't reply . . . fearing the thought of being associated with weenie-dom for the rest of my life. But the answer was yes, I still watched them. Why the hell not?
Now I'll get to the point. Not ten minutes after this exchange occurred, this same college buddy spotted a couple of Japanese anime movies sitting on top of my VCR and almost had a heart attack and died right there in my living room. "Cool beans! Can we watch those?" he said. So we did. I've been a huge fan of anime since I saw my first Robotech episode on Saturday morning when I was 5 or 6. These cartoons, which generally have more mature subject matter than American cartoons, seem to be much more appealing to the older generation. It's not just because anime women have (excessive) cleavage, though. The artistry is just so much more gorgeous than what we're used to. If you haven't already seen for yourself, I advise you to do so immediately if not sooner.
Fortunately, since finding anime videos where you live may be difficult, you may still be able to check it out on your computer. Megatech Software has made a habit of supplementing their PC games with anime art of superb quality. Their latest release is a console-esque RPG entitled Knights of Xentar, and those of you who purchase it to see the artwork within might just get hooked on the game, which itself is pretty good. If you've ever played any of Sega's Phantasy Star or Squaresoft's Final Fantasy games, you already know how to play Xentar. You assume the role of Desmond, a young knight who gets mugged and sets off to find the things that were stolen from him. This long journey involves visiting a lot of cities, talking to a lot of people, getting . . . uh . . . "intimate", and finding some friends to assist him.
The whole game uses a simple, menu-driven interface which lets you check inventory, cast spells, save and load games, toggle certain options, and the like. The CD version of the game contains full digitized speech for every character. This is pretty cool if you have the right equipment, but unlike most games with the same feature, you may want to toggle it off. The voice actors are absolutely horrible and you'll crack up when you hear them trying to fake certain accents. Oh well. As you trek through the wilderness, you'll come across hordes of creatures so vile that they . . . uh, scratch that. The creatures you come across aren't vile at all. They MIGHT be vile if their sprites were larger and more detailed, but this is a happy, cartoony game, and many of the monsters resemble green blobs, Elvis impersonators, and naked female faeries. Whose idea was this?
Since the gameplay is so repetitive (walk ten steps, fight, repeat) outside of cities, it is INSIDE the cities where the game gets fun. Here, you'll have a chance to meet a babe or two, get a quick anime fix, and maybe find out where you're supposed to go next. The funny thing is, most of the conversations you have with girls boil down to sexual topics, and the most common sexual topic in Xentar is how small our hero's . . . uh . . . well, you can probably guess. It's important to remember, though, that it's not the size of your wand that counts . . . it's the magic you make with it.
There's no doubt that Knights of Xentar will leave you laughing . . . depending on what your idea of humor is, you'll either be laughing AT it or WITH it. Given the rather biased sexual content, it seems more suited for men, but that's your call. All in all, I still think that video game RPGs are more fun to play and definitely more of a challenge than Xentar, but they don't have the gorgeous art that Xentar has. If you like "action RPGs", you should check out Xentar to see how they are on the PC.
