Cross Days

Cross Days (クロスデイズ) is a Japanese erotic visual novel developed by 0verflow with publishing by Stack Ltd. for the PC, released on March 19, 2010. It is the third game in the School Days franchise, succeeding Summer Days.

Gameplay
Cross Days, in typical visual novel fashion, is essentially played by watching and listening to episodic sequences of story and then selecting, or ignoring, clickable actions or responses when they are presented to the player. These choices are intricately linked to alternating routes of plot, moderately changing the direction of the story as each is made, ultimately leading to erotic scenes between characters and one of various endings. In order for the player to watch all the possible endings, he or she will effectively have to replay through the game several times, making different selections along the way.

Like its predecessors, Cross Days is presented with, considerably improved, limited animation. Artwork is noticeably crisper and anti-aliased, colors are far brighter and vibrant and motion is slightly more fluid and articulate. The game is audibly stereophonic with lip-synched voice acting, sound effects and background music.

Setting
Unlike in Summer Days, the story in Cross Days is not rewritten as a spin-off of the original story, but occurs during the events of it, making the game a parallel series to School Days. As such, the undisclosed location of the story remains the same with focus made prominently on campus. All signature characters and their established relationships appear in the game, with a sextet of new cast.

Plot
Yuuki Ashikaga is a high school freshman in his second semester at Sakakino Academy, who from his regular visits to the school library, grows enamored by Kotonoha Katsura, a fellow classman who comes by to read. Despite already having a boyfriend, she genuinely reciprocates his interest. However things get complicated when, following a brief encounter, his sister, Chie Ashikaga, introduces him to Roka Kitsuregawa, an acquaintance who also becomes infatuated with him. Out of jealous spite for her rival, Roka attempts to dissuade Yuuki by claiming to like Makoto Itou, another schoolmate. Her lie dramatically backfires, as Yuuki, aware that Makoto is Kotonoha's boyfriend, goes to ask her about the affair.

Characters
Yuuki Ashikaga (足利 勇気)
 * Reserved and slightly bashful, Yuuki Ashikaga is the unlikely protagonist of the game. A book club member and student in year one of class one, his life at school becomes tangled and confusing when he inquires about, and attempts to resolve, a supposed affair between Roka Kitsuregawa and Makoto Itou, boyfriend of Kotonoha Katsura. Although confident and bright, due to his short height and bespectacled nature, he suffers from an inferiority complex and is easily manipulated, especially by his older sister Chie. Yuuki enjoys reading, playing MMOs and looks up to Kyouichi Kasannoin as his mentor and senpai.
 * Reserved and slightly bashful, Yuuki Ashikaga is the unlikely protagonist of the game. A book club member and student in year one of class one, his life at school becomes tangled and confusing when he inquires about, and attempts to resolve, a supposed affair between Roka Kitsuregawa and Makoto Itou, boyfriend of Kotonoha Katsura. Although confident and bright, due to his short height and bespectacled nature, he suffers from an inferiority complex and is easily manipulated, especially by his older sister Chie. Yuuki enjoys reading, playing MMOs and looks up to Kyouichi Kasannoin as his mentor and senpai.

Yuu (ゆう) Yuu is the feminine pseudonym that Yuuki assumes when he cross-dresses as a female student.

Roka Kitsuregawa (喜連川 路夏)
 * Roka Kitsuregawa is a student in year one of class two who is a member of the woman's basketball team and serves as the heroine of the story. Tender and friendly, she initially comes upon Yuuki in the school library, and following a more developed acquaintance through his sister Chie, becomes attracted to him. Like Yuuki, Roka herself is also short and petite, standing roughly his height and equally as intimidated and timid. She is friends with Chie, Ion Ishibashi and Youka Kira.
 * Roka Kitsuregawa is a student in year one of class two who is a member of the woman's basketball team and serves as the heroine of the story. Tender and friendly, she initially comes upon Yuuki in the school library, and following a more developed acquaintance through his sister Chie, becomes attracted to him. Like Yuuki, Roka herself is also short and petite, standing roughly his height and equally as intimidated and timid. She is friends with Chie, Ion Ishibashi and Youka Kira.

Chie Ashikaga (足利 知恵)
 * Willful yet caring, Chie Ashikaga is the older sister of Yuuki who, like Roka, is a member of the woman's basketball team. She introduces her brother to Roka in the beginning of the game, initiating the first love triangle of characters and the basis to what eventually becomes a misunderstood affair between Roka and Makoto. Chie is good friends with Ion, Youka and is jealous of Nanami Kanroji's athleticism. Though very brief, Chie, with much shorter hair, makes a cameo appearance in episode 10 of School Days, "Mind and Body" (心と体), as the student responsible for videotaping the activity of the rest area during the school festival.
 * Willful yet caring, Chie Ashikaga is the older sister of Yuuki who, like Roka, is a member of the woman's basketball team. She introduces her brother to Roka in the beginning of the game, initiating the first love triangle of characters and the basis to what eventually becomes a misunderstood affair between Roka and Makoto. Chie is good friends with Ion, Youka and is jealous of Nanami Kanroji's athleticism. Though very brief, Chie, with much shorter hair, makes a cameo appearance in episode 10 of School Days, "Mind and Body" (心と体), as the student responsible for videotaping the activity of the rest area during the school festival.

Ion Ishibashi (石橋 伊穏)
 * Ion Ishibashi is student and member of the woman's basketball team. She is an androgynous friend of Chie who also smokes.
 * Ion Ishibashi is student and member of the woman's basketball team. She is an androgynous friend of Chie who also smokes.

Youka Kira (吉良 洋佳)
 * Passive and sagacious, Youka Kira is a student. She is a friend of Chie who also smokes.
 * Passive and sagacious, Youka Kira is a student. She is a friend of Chie who also smokes.

Kyouichi Kasannoin (花山院 恭一)
 * Kyouichi Kasannoin is a student in year one of class one who is the boyfriend of Nanami Kanroji. Enjoys playing eroges, works part-time as a tutor and looks to Yuuki as his kouhai.
 * Kyouichi Kasannoin is a student in year one of class one who is the boyfriend of Nanami Kanroji. Enjoys playing eroges, works part-time as a tutor and looks to Yuuki as his kouhai.

Ai Yamagata (山県 愛)
 * Returning from Summer Days, Ai Yamagata is a student in year one of class three. She is good friends with Sekai Saionji, Hikari Kuroda and is an acquaintance of Makoto and Otome Katou from middle school.
 * Returning from Summer Days, Ai Yamagata is a student in year one of class three. She is good friends with Sekai Saionji, Hikari Kuroda and is an acquaintance of Makoto and Otome Katou from middle school.

Development
Cross Days was officially announced by 0verflow on their website on October 12, 2008; the game would be released as a regular edition and limited edition bundled with a PVC figurine of Kotonoha. Enterbrain notably followed up on the game in their December 2008 issue of Tech Gian, published October 21, showing first ever screenshots, reporting on the story and characters, and mentioning that Cross Days would contain 3D animation with a meticulously reworked plot and male protagonist. ASCII Media Works and Gakken later published similar articles in their respective issues of Dengeki G's Magazine, Dengeki Hime and Megami Magazine on October 30.

Promotion began shortly after. Besides periodically keeping the public informed on development and characters, 0verflow consecutively released downloadable, non-playable benchmarks of the game from November 1 to May 4, 2009. After briefly selling telephone cards at Dream Party 2008 in Osaka on November 16, the company began pre-orders on November 21, giving out limited character bookmarks to customers. Stores doing likewise reportedly filled reservations in days. Peculiarly, on December 5, 0verflow announced that a set of USB teledildonics, collectively known as SOM, would be compatible with Cross Days, manufactured by Goods Land.

Trial versions of the game, released to about 125 select retailers, were disclosed by 0verflow on December 26 and at Comiket 75. On January 1, 2009, 0verflow announced that, like School Days, Lantis would be airing a weekly, episodic Internet radio drama of the game's characters, titled Radio Cross Days, starting on January 8. Broadcasts were made regularly on Thursdays, finishing up on March 25, 2010 with 64 sessions aired; a compilation album of these broadcasts is scheduled for release. Additionally, the company will be publishing an album of the game's soundtrack on April 21, 2010, having been postponed from February 27, 2009.

Release
Prior to its release date on March 19, 2010, Cross Days had been postponed a total of six times: February 27, 2009, April 24, June 26, November 20, December 18, and January 29, 2010. Like Summer Days, the much anticipated game was released to several promotional campaigns, many of which were intercity screening venues that spanned operation from March 5 to 14.

Patches
On March 29, 2010 0verflow announced that an outdated DLL had been released with retail versions of the game. A 372 KB replacement DLL was provided via download. The following day another patch was released to bring copies of the game up to version 1.00a.

Trojan scare
Shortly after Cross Days was released, unlicensed copies of the game began to aggressively circulate Japanese peer-to-peer networks. In conjunction with these releases, a trojan horse, disguised as the game, began to propagate in suit. Users duped into running the bogus installer had private data collected in the background and in the foreground as a questionnaire; the entirety of which was published to a blog for public access after submission. Those wishing to have their information taken down reportedly had to acknowledge to viewers that they attempted to download the game illegally. Interestingly, the intrusive nature of the trojan was mentioned in the installer's software license agreement.