Rival Schools: United By Fate

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Rival Schools: United By Fate
Cover of the PlayStation version of Rival Schools: United by Fate
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	July 1998 (PSX) September 1998 (PSX)
Genre(s)	Fighting game
Mode(s)	Single player and multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation
Media	CD-ROM

Rival Schools: United By Fate (released in Japan as Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Legion of Heroes (Japanese: 私立ジャスティス学園); shortened to Rival Schools for the PlayStation version), is a fighting game produced by Capcom. Released in arcades and later ported to the Sony PlayStation, it is the first game in the Rival Schools series.

1 Gameplay
2 Ports
- 2.1 Evolution 2
3 Story
4 Characters
5 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The main fighting game is best described as a 3D Marvel vs. Capcom game, with some notable differences. Control wise, the game varies from other Capcom fighting games by only having four buttons (two punches and two kicks) rather than the standard six. A player chooses a team of two characters, and fights against another two character team. The actual fights, however, are one-on-one fights, with the partner only participating by being called in when a player has enough 'vigor' for a Team Up attack, done by pressing a punch and kick button of the same pressure. The Team Ups would be some kind of double team attack by the character and partner, or (for most female characters' Team Ups) would heal the main character or give them more vigor. After the end of a round, a player (win or lose) has a choice to fight the next round with the partner from the previous round, or to keep their main character in play. The 'vigor' meter (essentially a super meter) could go up to 9 levels, with Team Ups costing two levels and super moves from a single person all costing one level of vigor. Much like the Marvel vs. Capcom games, launchers can be done that allow air combos to be performed, with all characters having universal low and high launchers.

The game also had a few defensive techniques.

Tardy Counters acted much like Alpha counters from the Street Fighter Alpha series, allowing a player to immediately counter-attack from a blocking position. However, the restrictions on Tardy Counters are very lax; any hard normal, special or super attack can be used to Tardy counter (Alpha counters are only limited to certain special moves for each character), and Tardy Counters do not cost any extra vigor to perform (Alpha counters required at least a level of super meter to do).
Attack Cancels were another - it allowed a player to cancel an incoming hit simply by timing their own hit with the attack, which would cancel out both attacks (though it does not nullify the remaining hits of a multi-hit move).

[edit] Ports

After its initial arcade release, the game was ported to the PlayStation. The PlayStation version of the game came in two CDs. The first disc included the original arcade game and the standard modes included in most home versions of fighting games. Capcom enhanced the original game with animated introduction and ending sequences, as well as adding voice-over to the story mode in single player. The conversion also added two new characters, Hayato Nekketsu and Daigo Kazama.

The second disc, named the Evolution Disc, featured several new games to complement the arcade original. This disc included several mini-games based on some of the student's activities and the Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki mode, a character creation mode in the form of a date simulation. In this mode, a player would be able to create a student and go through a typical school year. Over this time, the custom character could develop friendships with any of the characters at the various schools, which allowed to give the custom character moves and reveal bits and pieces about the existing characters and their backgrounds. Once the custom character was finished with the school year, it could be used in any of the normal fighting modes, save for the original Arcade game.

Capcom translated most of the games on the Evolution Disc for non-Japanese market, and planned to include the character creation mode (rebranded as "School Life") as well, but later abandoned the character creation mode, citing the amount of time it would take to translate it. The rest of the extra modes on the Evolution Disc were included in non-Japanese translations, though.

[edit] Evolution 2

In Japan, Capcom released an improved version of the game, Shiritsu Justice Gauken: Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 (Japanese: 私立ジャスティス学園熱血青春日記2), exclusively for the Sony PlayStation. The most notable changes including adding two new characters to the game, Ran Hibiki of Taiyo High School and Nagare Namikawa of Gorin High School, as well a completely new, enhanced version of the Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki date sim mode, which allowed Capcom to add more activities and plot detail to the game. Because the game was essentially an enhanced version of the Evolution Disc from the original game, the game is referred to as Rival Schools: Evolution 2 by the game's English fanbase. The '2' in the title caused some American media and fans to mistake the game as a sequel, a misunderstanding which still exists among some fans today.

[edit] Story

The story focused around the investigations by several schools of mysterious attacks and kidnappings on their schools. Initially suspecting, and then fighting amongst each other, the students found that all of the assaults were orchestrated by Justice High School and its top student, Hyo Imawano. Justice's goal is to collect as many students for the school in a plan to take over Japan. However, the schools manage to put their grudges and fights aside to defeat Hyo, ultimately foiling his plans.