Game:

Rival Schools: United by Fate (1997)

Duration: 13:18

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What can be said about Second Cross? It's an old commercial doujin fighting game made with the FM95 engine back in 2000/2001, retailed for about 3000 yen, had practically no information or hype when it launched, was barely finished (as there are many manual errors, unlisted moves, and missing character bios), and is one of the rarest doujin I own (it's not even listed on Kakuge or Arunau), perhaps besides my Magical Zone and TokiMemo doujins, probably having copies in the hundred figures. It's also one of the most tragically forgotten games made with the FM95 engine and one of the most ambitious doujin out there, especially for its time of release.

While there's a lot of technical things that can be said about the game, it would take too much room to explain it here. All I can say is that the developer no longer makes games (is a prolific hentai artist and does a lot of quality NSFW 18+ content these days as well as Touhou works), a "First Cross" might have existed but his websites don't allude to it AT ALL (not even in the earliest Wayback Machine entries) so I almost want to think that it doesn't even exist, finding screenshots for the game prior to this video was like finding hay in a needlestack (as aside from maybe two in the greatest depths of the devs site, they didn't exist), and that I bought it more for what I didn't know about it than what I did know. Let's talk about this "phantom" game a little.

Second Cross is a "Crossover" fighting game based on characters pooled together by different members of Team Daneko. Featuring almost 30 characters (28, which was basically unheard of for a doujin back then and even now it's practically unheard of), the game is comprised of mostly original characters, mostly original (from what I can discern) music and voice-overs, mostly original fighting styles, and the game features a variety of gameplay mechanics which make for a surprisingly deep fighter. None of the characters feel lazy or rushed, and all of them have many special attacks. Characters' abilities come in five main categories: E/Easy, P/Power, S/Standard, T/Technical, and G/Guest. Easy have two attack buttons and gain two special stock. Power (who are more the standard as there are more of them than anyone else) have three attack buttons and three special stock. Standard have four attack buttons and five special stock. Technical are for pros and have access to all six attack buttons and gain nine special stock (but it fills slower). Guest characters along with a few others have exceptional traits.

The graphics are great for a FM95 game back in early 2000s, and even has its own makeshift anime intro with singing. Even games like Vanguard Princess don't have one... the song is "Chain" sang by "REM"... it says coming soon in the intro... you can tell this game was barely finished. The music is high quality and the game is more or less fully voiced. I could continue talking about this game, but you probably just want a download link right? Well, I did compress this one and it sold out eons ago, so I have no qualms distributing it. You can get it at:

http://www.mediafire.com/?9ah4sh25c17et1f

It's a little over 100MB compressed, about 450MB uncompressed (HUGE for a FM95 game btw). Enjoy.

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