Exile (エグザイル, Eguzairu, originally stylized XZR) is an action role-playing video game series developed by Telenet Japan.

A sequel exclusive to the Super CD-ROM2 format, titled Exile: Wicked Phenomenon, was released in 1992, which was also localized by Working Designs for the North American market.

The original computer versions were notorious for featuring various references to religious historical figures, modern political leaders, iconography, drugs, and time-traveling assassins, although some of these aspects were considerably toned down or omitted in the later console games, with the English versions rewriting all the historical religious organizations into fictional groups.

The game then starts in Baghdad, where Sadler rescues Rumi, and follows Sadler to Persia and then Babylon, where he must defend the Euphrates River from pollution by an oil magnate, encounter the Assyrian queen Semiramis and Babylonian goddess Ishtar, and visit the Tower of Babel in search of unicorns, before heading to Alexandria, becoming baptised in a Jewish village, and searching for Ouroboros.

[1] Likely because of its controversial ending, Telenet chose not to port the original XZR when they decided to bring the series to home consoles three years later, opting to remake the sequel instead.

Sadler meets the head of the Knights Templar, Hugues de Payens, and helps him search for the Holimax, a holy artefact.

Given the rules from NEC, it was a pretty sensitive subject, so direct references had to be changed", explained Vic Ireland, who worked closely with the game's localization.

"Exile II: Wicked Phenomenon"), the final game in the series, was released in Japan for the Super CD-ROM2 add-on on September 22, 1992.

[11] While the previous games featured heavy religious elements, Sadler is now striving to defeat chaos and solve the mystery of an ancient tower.

[1] The protagonist of the series is Sadler (voiced by Kaneto Shiozawa in the Japanese CD-ROM version and by Blake Dorsey in English), a young warrior from the village of Assassi who excels in swordsmanship and martial arts.

The hideout screen consists of a menu in which the player can plan out Sadler's next course of actions by viewing his current companions, belongings, and stats, before choosing the next location to visit.

In addition to conventional items such as a potions and medical herbs, Sadler also uses narcotics such as hashish, coca, opiates, LSD, marijuana and peyote to heal himself or increase other attributes.

Exile, the console version of XRZ II, replaced most of the illicit drugs with fictionalized equivalents (e.g. Opiates became Heartpoisons), that lack the negative side effects of their original counterparts.

Exile: Wicked Phenomenon revamps several aspects of the previous games, ditching the hideout screens and adding the option to switch between Sadler or any of his companions (Rumi, Kindi and Fakhyle) during action segments, using each of their unique abilities.

Wicked Phenomenon also brings back all the illicit narcotics missing in the original Exile, with the English version of the game using altered spellings for their names (e.g. cannabis became "cananavis").

He wrote that "Exile is a solid game that successfully marries action and role-playing", but said that it was not as deep of an adventure as Ys I & II.