Idea Info Name: Cross Mercenary Index: Primary Category: Platform Submitted: 12/6/2002 6:05:23 AM Written By: jayson

The stages in Cross Mercenary require running, jumping, dive-rolling, and shooting, but you also have intense close range combos and magic attacks. How energetic the characters look when they attack and how hard it looks like they hit makes the gameplay more exciting. Motion capture is recommended. All the fixed camera angles are suspenseful but catch all three party members, so there's no divided screen. When the last blow in a combo lands enemies fall back in slow motion like in a wire-fu action flick. Characters gain experience and level up in this game. More experience is granted for using chain combos. Back-and-forth is when two characters take turns batting an enemy back and forth. Bump-set-and-spike is when one person hits an enemy to the second person and the second person hits it to the third person who deals the ending blow. Around-the-world is passing the enemy around in a continuous triangle.  The action pauses when you go into your inventory to use an item. Houses and buildings take damage. Enemies attack in waves of up to thirty at a time and constantly get bigger, stronger, and learn new attacks. The numeric HP figures are replaced by bars and instead of MP you have a stock of prisms that automatically get used per spell. You assign your spells to buttons and to cast them you lock onto the desired target then hold the button as long as it takes to charge the spell and release it. When your stock is used up, you can get more prisms from the general store. Other kinds of stages where you just control the main character are puzzle-oriented. The other two players can sit back and give advice or take turns trying to solve the puzzles. 
You get moments between stages for exploring new areas and key interactions. The main places to visit are; the general store to stock up on items, the pub to talk to your party members, syndicate headquarters to run errands, the police station to check up on wanted rewards, and city hall to make donations to repair the city. How you act here affects the main character's personality status and that decides which third character joins your party and what areas you get to explore. Your personality attributes are fame, morals, charm, and knowlege. Your personality level goes up when you lose or gain ten moral points. Depending on the second and third party members you earn you can go on one of eight possible quests. A mini game called peace time occurs at three points in the quest. Here, your party is stationed at an inn for three days and you start out with 100 AP (activity points) each day. You use up AP to visit your party members, get clues about their interests and dislikes, and do things to strengthen bonds with them. The gameplay, freedom, and added features are the main focus even if it means sparing graphics to develop it to its fullest.
The events take place in a post apocalyptic earth that is divided into three states of development. Mid Earth is set back 100 years, Icarus is a floating continent ages ahead of the 21st century, and Whiro is where the demonic beast men reside. The biggest region and the focal point of the game is Mid Earth. This is where you can visit the general store, the pub, syndicate headquarters, the police station, and city hall. With low morality you gain access to the black market and a blackjack mini game at syndicate headquarters. With high morality you gain access to the hospital where you can find a key character, and the orphanage to make donations in return for rare items.  The areas you start out with in Icarus are the common area, the fortune-teller's booth, and the magic store where you get spell pendants that teach a spell when worn for five level-ups. With low morality you gain access to Imperfecto's coffin where Imperfecto may join your party, and the dark magic store where you can buy pendants that teach dark spells. With high morality you gain access to the holy magic store where you can buy defensive and recovery spell pendants. The areas you start out with in Whiro are the tavern, the gym where you purchase special training items, and the colisseum. High morality does not gain anything here. With low morality you gain access to the assassins' guild where you can go on assassin missions.
Here is a rundown of the main story. You are Cross, nineteen-year-old son of the late Jack Errand the greatest bounty-hunter that ever lived. He was human and your mother was Whiro, endowing you with their strengths without their demonic traits. Your ambition is to surpass your father. You have a rival named Jesse, a Whiro that trained in the same academy as you and is your superior in every way. Anyhow, you are in the pub in Mid Earth minding your business when you are apprehended by government agents and taken to the president. The world is being overrrun with alien beasts coming from a planetoid that's orbiting the earth and you are the best qualified person to lead the strike against them. You are given a choice between Atletisma, a lady fencer from Icarus, or Medina, a Whiro girl with exceptional fighting skills, to have in your party. After the first stage and your first fight against Jesse, you find launch site ruins but need a third person to activate it. Choose a third party member and then there is another stage. Then you have to defeat the third party member's arch enemy and fight Jesse a second time. Then you have to defeat the second party member's arch enemy. After that you visit your father's grave and his ghost teaches you "burning fist." You fight Jesse again and can deal more than 0 damage this time because you use "burning fist." You see Jesse fall into a ravine. With Jesse out of the way, you and your two partners reactivate the launch site ruins and travel to the planetoid. You have three days to stop the alien spead or else the military will nuke it.
The rest of the stages take place on the planetoid. After a few stages you find a light side of the planetoid where there exists a kingdom of peaceful aliens. Then Jesse arrives shortly behind you and convinces the kingdom of light that you are there to destroy them and you get locked up for two of your three days. Jesse destroys the shuttle he arrived in and heads for yours so that he can strand you on the planetoid when it gets nuked. You escape the dungeon and get to your shuttle before Jesse can steal it in the next mission and fight him for the fourth time. Then Jesse sees an opportunity to out class you again. He challenges you to a hostile race to see who can destroy the queen alien first. The next stage takes place in the volcanic canyon where the alien nest lies. When you find the queen's lair Jesse is blocking the entrance and you have to fight him a fifth time. After he is unconscious you fight the queen alien. Then as the queen alien realizes she is losing, she decides to merge with Jesse but Jesse's will is stronger than hers and he becomes the dominant personality. After defeating the fused nightmare, you have ten minutes to escape the nest, get to your shuttle, and start it up before the military launches the nuclear missile. When you succeed, the missile is aborted and you land safely. Then a giant ball of flesh emerges from the planetoid and enters earth's atmosphere. When you investigate the crater you find Jesse evolved into a super being. This is the final boss. In the end the planetoid peacefully floats away. You can choose a) "I have a bad feeling about this, nuke it anyway," or b) wave goodbye. In ending a) you see the tragic destruction of the light kingdom. In ending b) a clone of super being Jesse hatches from an egg on the planetoid and gathers a giant ball of energy aimed at the earth...
Now for some character descriptions. Cross has blonde hair that hangs down in the front and has it tied in a tail in the back, he's short with a narrow torso and big shoulders and biceps, wearing a beige muscle shirt and a matching pair of baggy pants, worn with a thick black belt, tucked into a pair of brown boots. His stance and the way he tilts his head to the side suggests a cocky attitude.
Atletisma has short pink hair slicked to the front, wearing a white skin-tight suit, clothes people on Icarus consider normal, with a knife sheathed on the outside of her right thigh. Atletisma is bent on justice and acts like she has icewater running through her veins. If she is in the party then Cross has his sights set on her but she is not interested.
Medina is a Whiro girl, entailing that she is covered in short blue fur, her ears are pointy, she has clawed hands and feet, a tale with a spade at the end, and her hair grows like snakes in long thick clumps that come down to her waist. Another trait that Whiro have in common is the whites of their eyes are black and their pupils are white. Aside from that, she has an hourglass figure and an innocent-looking face. Her playful stance and big smile suggest she's carefree and almost never takes anything seriously. If she is in the party then she has her sights set on Cross but he is not interested.
Thomas is a possible third character. His criteria is low knowlege and low fame. He a male Whiro, standing seven feet tall, swolen with muscle. His wrists and ankles are bandaged, indicating he can kickbox. He totes two enormous handguns with recoil so powerful regular humans can't shoot them. His body language suggests he has been pushed to his limit. His arch enemy is Chester, the master of illusion.
Chester is also a possible third character. If he is in your party then you must fight Thomas. His criteria is high fame and high morals. Chester is a chivalric old crank, he has a pointed moustache, conservative hair, and dresses like a gaudy magician right down to the bow tie and white gloves. He also sports a red cape, a pair of bifocals, and an ascot. Chester tends to stand back with his arms folded. He looks too arrogant for his own good.
A personal favorite of mine is Imperfecto, the last existing vampire. He has white hair in points going to the back with one point hanging in the front. Imperfecto sports a black bodysuit, an elaborate breastplate and shoulder plates, and a black cape that always holds an arched shape. His cape can take the form of knives, Cerberus heads, and a giant claw. The criteria to earn him is low morals, high knowlege, and high fame. His eyes look malignant and he always has his arms open, palms facing up, calmly awaiting his next foolish challenger. He wants to take over the world and bring back his fellow vampires and demon hoards but first he has to settle an old score with Magi.
Last on the list is Magi, a floating spirit that belongs to the body of an old holy mage in the intensive care unit. The criteria for him is high morality and low fame. Judging by how his limbs hang and sway he appears to be dangling by the back of the neck. He wears a flowing white coat with blue trim over a matching outfit with blue boots. There are always three various-sized balls of energy circling him. Magi and Imperfecto fought a long time ago. Imperfecto badly wounded Magi and he sealed Imperfecto inside his coffin.
There are eight possible parties that you can get and each one has a different quest. You gain access to different areas and get different dialogue. For instance, Atletisma and Imperfecto would bicker because their values conflict. Medina or Chester adds an element of humor. The most serious combination you can get is Cross, Atletisma, and Thomas.
The last thing to address is leveling up, special training, and power-ups. Each level-up increases speed, strength, defense, and HP by two points. Special training speeds up the process. You can buy and equip special training items and spell pendants as accessories. The special training items are wristbands, ankle weights, and backpacks. The system is simple; you wear a special training item for five level-ups then reap the benefits. Wristbands reduce speed by a fourth when equipped and double strength after five level-ups. Ankle weights reduce speed by half then increase speed by a fourth. Backpacks reduce speed, strength, and defense by half then double all three. Once a character has trained with an item it won't work again. You have to purchase a heavier weight if you want to train further. Naturally, special training items cost a lot of money. Every aspect of Cross Mercenary is about setting goals and making choices.