Cross days

Roka is talking with Yuuki

The main time of the game is watching episodes of the game history. Periodically, the player must make a choice of several possible options for action, when such a choice is offered, or he may not choose any of the options ^[1] . All decisions made during the gameplay fit into various plot branches, thereby developing the story in a certain direction, making it possible to view erotic scenes and leading to one of the possible endings.

As in previous games in the series, Cross Days uses limited animation ^[2] . The game also uses stereo sound with superimposed voice acting in time with the movement of the lips of the characters ^[3] .

Unlike Summer Days , Cross Days is not an offshoot of the original story; action ^[4] takes place parallel to the plot of the School Days game; the original plot remains the same and the player’s attention is again focused on the school. All the main characters of the game series (including six new ones) and the relations between them also appear in the game ^[5] .

Yuki Asikaga is a first-year student at Sakakino Academy, who began the second semester. He regularly visits the library and falls in love with Kotonoha Katsura, who also comes there to read. Despite the fact that Kotonoha is already in a relationship with another, she sincerely reciprocates the feelings of Yuki. However, things get confused when Tie, the sister of Yuuki, introduces her brother to her friend Roka Kitsuregawa. In an attempt to pretend that it is not so easy to establish a relationship with her, Roka declares that she is meeting with her classmate Makoto Ito. But her lie turns out to be futile, since Yuuki, who knows that Makoto is Kotonohi’s boyfriend, decides to ask her about their romance ^[4] .

The main character of Cross Days is Yuki Asikaga, a young man whose quiet school life goes awry when two girls who do not know about each other fall in love with him, and these feelings affect his relationship with friends and relatives. These girls are Kotonoha Katsura, known in previous games as the object of love by Makoto Ito, and Roka Kitsuregawa, new, who makes efforts to make Yuki jealous, but this only complicates her relationship with him. Minor characters are Tie Ashikaga, the slightly impolite elder sister of Yuki, and Kyoichi Kashannoin, the guy Namami Kanroji ^[6] , who also appeared in School Days ^[7] , but here they play a more significant role ^[8] . Also in the game are Ion Ishibashi and Kira Yoka ^{[9] [10]} .

News of the upcoming release of Cross Days first appeared in December 2008 in Enterbrain's Tech Gian ^[12] . The first screenshots were published showing the plot and characters, as well as the assumption that in the future game it will be possible to have 3D animation, that the plot and the main character will be carefully worked out. ASCII Media Works and Gakken publishers published articles on the game in Dengeki G's Magazine , Dengeki Hime and Megami Magazine ^[13] .

Soon, product advertising began. In addition to periodically informing the public about the development status, 0verflow consistently in the period from November 1, 2008 to May 4, 2009 released non-playable game benchmarks available for download ^[14] . Employees of the company, participating in the Dream Party event, held in Osaka and dedicated to Japanese animation, sold calling cards based on the game Cross Days ^[15] . Meanwhile, stores have already received pre-orders for the game ^[16] . On December 5, 2008, 0verflow announced that the USB - teledildonics kit created by Goods Land and better known as SOM would be fully compatible with the game ^{[17] [18]} . Trial versions of the game were distributed among about 95 retailers ^[19] and were sold including on Komiket ^[20] , which, however, was discovered by 0verflow .

On January 8, 2009, 0verflow announced that, starting from this day, Lantis will broadcast weekly episodic audio shows under the general name Radio Cross Days featuring characters from the game ^[21] . Broadcasting took place every Thursday and came to an end on March 25, 2010. In total, it amounted to 64 issues ^[22] .

The initial release of the game Cross Days was scheduled for February 27, 2009 ^[23] , but the release was postponed a total of 6 times: April 24 ^[23] , June 26 ^[24] , November 20 ^[25] , December 18 ^[26] , January 29, 2010 ^[27] and March 19, 2010, when the game was still released ^{[18] [28]} . The game, which was the most anticipated due to so many delays, was released by various video game publishers ^[29] .

Release History

On March 29, 2010, 0verflow announced that an outdated DLL was installed along with retail versions of the game. The company provided the opportunity to download the updated version of the library via the Internet, and the next day a patch was released that updates the game to version 1.00a ^[22] .

Cross Days has been ported to two other platforms. AiCherry released the game in DVD format on April 28, 2011 ^[2] , and PalaceGame released it on July 29, 2011 for the PlayStation Portable game console ^[30] .

Trojan Action

On April 15, 2010, about a month after the game was officially released, the BBC announced the spread of a virus that infiltrated P2P networks under the guise of unlicensed copies of erotic games ^[31] , among which, according to SPAMFighter , was Cross Days ^[32] . Users who downloaded such a copy to a computer and tried to install, first, at the request of the ransomware virus, entered personal information, and then their browsing history went into the public domain ^{[31] [33]} . NetAgent Proprietary Protection Company reported that at least 5,510 computers were infected with the virus ^[34] . Users who wanted to remove information from the public domain could do this, but thereby they had to admit that they tried to illegally download the game ^[35] . SPAMFighter reported that the intrusive nature of the virus was due to the specifics of specific software ^[32] .

Cross Days for Windows ranks third in the list of best-selling games within a month from the date of release according to Getchu.com , the main distributor of visual novels and local anime works ^[36] . Then, by the end of the first half of 2010, the game received 12th place ^[37] , and by the end of the year it already had 31st place ^[38] . The DVD game was designated as one of the best-selling games by the end of the first half of 2010 ^[39] , and by November-December 2010, its position dropped to 47th place ^[40] . In addition, during the same time, the Cross Days version for PSP ranked 15th on the list as the best-selling console game ^[40] .

Manga

Based on the plot of the Cross Days game, a manga was written by Yoko Kagura and illustrated by Homaryo Sakazuki. On April 4, 2010, 0verflow announced that the debut of the manga will take place on April 26 in Comp Ace magazine ^[41] . Manga spread until August 2010. Kadokawa Shoten published the manga in two volumes, the first of which was released on November 26, 2010 ^{[42] [43]} , and the second on June 25, 2011 ^{[44] [45]} .

Books and Publications

In addition to the manga, other prints were created based on the original game. The first such print publication was a game guide that also included art from the game, created by character designer 0verflow Junji Goto and entitled Cross Days Visual Fanbook ( Japanese ビ ジ ュ ア ル ・ フ ァ ン ブ ッ ク vizuaru fanbook ) . The guide was published by Kinema Junpousha in August 2010 ^[46] . The next three editions were light novels . All of them were created by various authors, but the covers for all three editions were drawn by Goto, and Jet Yovatari was involved in the illustration of the novels. Each book retold the story of the game in different ways. The Cross Days novel, created by Mitsuki Mizusaki, was published by Harvest Books on September 15, 2010 ^[47] . Another novel called Cross Days ~ Omona ru uso, Omona ru omoi ~ ( ク ロ ス デ イ ズ ~ 重 な る 嘘, 重 な る 想 い ~ ) was released on October 22, 2010 by Shueisha , authored by Hiro Akizuki ^[48] . And the third Cross Days novel Kitsuregawa Michi Natsu no koi no Ruru ( Japanese Cross Days Days 連 川路夏 の 恋 の ル ー ル ) was written by Yoko Kagura, the author of the game’s manga adaptation, and published on October 29, 2010 Kill Time Communication ^[49] .

Audio CDs

As with School Days and Summer Days , the original soundtrack from Cross Days is spread separately from the game. The release of the album with the soundtrack was scheduled for February 27, 2009 ^[50] . Due to numerous delays in the release of the game itself, the release of the album was initially delayed until June 26, 2009 ^[51] . However, after this date, the fate of the album remained unknown until 0verflow announced on April 16, 2010 ^[22] that it would be released on April 21 ^[52] . The album contained all the background music from the game, as well as songs that were performed by Yozuka , Kotaro Odaka and Ririk. There were a total of 25 compositions ^[51] .

The radio show Radio Cross Days was broadcast from January 8, 2009 to March 25, 2010 and was the second and last audio compilation created for games by Lantis . The radio show was divided into 64 parts ^[53] and later released on two discs, June 23 and July 21, 2010, respectively. Each disk contained 32 parts.

Significant efforts were made to promote the not yet released Cross Days game on the market, which included the sale of goods created based on the game. For example, a limited edition of the visual novel was supplied with the Kotonoha statuette ^[11] . Also, 0verflow and its partners sold wall scrolls ^[54] , Zippo lighters ^[55] , curtains and other goods created based on the game ^[56] .

• Cross Days game at 0verflow (jap.)
• Cross Days on AiCherry (jap.)
• Cross Days game on PalaceGame (jap.)
• Game on World Art