As I opened the case to the game, a receipt fell out, and looking at it, it made me remember that DK3 was one of the last batch of games that I bought on
the day that I left Japan 4 1/2 years ago. I paid 880 yen for it at the time, and I wouldn't have paid much more because I knew this game was a censored version -- and I hate censored stuff, and it also had a US PC release (which I never played, but recall seeing ads of). But thought, "Meh, 880 yen." As it's a mildly adult-themed RPG, I thought it'd be gimmicky and didn't expect all that much from a gameplay point of view. (As an aside: I hate the term "hentai" being incorrectly used for Japanese adult material -- you'd sound f*cking retarded if you went up to a store counter in Japan and asked where the "hentai" section is located.)
Boy, I was pleasantly surprised after playing thorough it. The girl factor is just a little extra eye candy of top of a solid, well-playing RPG. The game doesn't have all this jazzy stuff of some of its peers, but what it does, it does well. It has a nice, quick pace, and it doesn't bog itself down with anything unnecessary. And what it does add compared to others (other than scantly-clad girls with gratuitous panty shots) is awesome characters that are easy to like, *brilliant* voice acting, and absolutely hilarious script & humor.
The presentation in-game is nothing fancy. It looks like a number of other JRPGs with SD-sized characters walking about. The development team did do little nifty things like changing up the player's armor color depending on his equipment (and being totally naked if equipped with nothing!). The battle scenes have colorful backgrounds, which is a nice change after a number of plain-black background RPGs I've played through over the past few years. The peon enemies are mostly girls representing some random monster (or not). One that made me laugh was a peon that literally flashes her high beams as an attack. On the other hand, a lot more polish has been applied to the cutscenes -- albeit they come in just one or two shots at a time -- you're consistently treated to a number of chicks in compromising positions, not to mention a number of rather mean-looking villains.
The music certainly on the top tier of PCE RPGs when it comes to the the soundtrack, as there are some cool pieces, especially in the dungeons. There was a special thanks note to T's music in the credits, so I'm not sure about the level of their involvement, but either way, the music in DK3 doesn't hurt T's reputation at all.
Now, the real reason to get this game is unfortunately, not a good enough reason for many gaijins. The script and the voice acting in this game is absolutely fricken hilarious. In fact, this is the most humorous RPG script I've
ever read. The main character is a total perv, but he can kick ass too, much like a medieval fantasy version of City Hunter Ryo Saeba. As a matter of fact, the voice immediately reminded me of him, and I soon found out it's the same voice actor as that of Ryo Saeba's. Even though I'm not a big fan of the anime version of City Hunter (but a huge fan of the manga), this voice actor is spot on in representing an "ass-kicking perv". This does carry over somewhat just from his intonation, but one is really, really missing out if they don't understand what is being said in the game. A lot of voiceovers also meant that I had an added bonus factor -- it made it made it much easier for me to understand (rather than only mentally reading out all the text, with kanji and all). Just some of the dialogs below made me laugh out loud, and it's a real shame that this would be lost on the majority of the import playing crowd.
This is a game ripe for fan translation, as ALL voiceovers is accompanied by a script, so just translating the script will allow the player to get 100% of what's going on (unlike, say Xak III or Ys IV, which isn't the case with its voiceovers -- not that I'm complaining about the effort put in to those titles
). All this can be remedied, as you can just play the US PC version (Knights of Xentar), but I have no idea whether the translation or voiceovers did any justice to the original. Now, I'd imagine this will be similar for parts I & II, which I now will definitely get a hold of sometime in the future.
The gameplay, as I mentioned, is quick-paced and takes a no-nonsense approach. There are no unorthodox elements in the commands or how you go about the game. The game pace reminds me a lot of Dragon Slayer I -- moving speed, battle speed, and the game duration as well. It never drags on, and even grinding isn't too bad as you gain levels relatively quick and your efforts pay off rather quickly. And though there's nothing complex about the gameplay, there are some random hidden bits around and a few multi-route areas, so an existence of a FAQ -- even though it's for the Knights of Xentar US Release -- is very welcome, and the FAQ is good enough to get you through the game, even though there are some minor differences here and there.
All in all, a very good RPG that doesn't get enough talk with the PCE crowd. Check it out if you get a chance, or at least give the US DOS version a try at some point.
And I'm just sayin, fan translation groups -- take a good look at this one.
Collection of my other reviews over the years:
Aurora Quest: Otaku no Seiza in Another World
Ane-san
Babel
Bakushō Yoshimoto Shinkigeki
Blood Gear
Cosmic Fantasy 1
Cosmic Fantasy 3
Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes
Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes II
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari
KO Seiki: Beast Sanjūshi
Kūsōkagaku Sekai: Gulliver Boy
Nekketsu Legend Baseballer
Tengai Makyō: Itōryōdan
Valis I~IV
Xak I & II
Xak III
Topic: REVIEW: Dragon Knight III (Read 238 times)
