Project Justice
Genres
Summary
Project Justice is the follow-up to Rival Schools: United By Fate. The combat system in Project Justice is based on the original Rival Schools, with some key modifications. The game remains a team-based fighter, but now features teams of three characters instead of two. This allows for an additional Team-Up attack during battles and introduces a new move called the Party-Up, triggered by pressing any three attack buttons. The Party-Up is a three-character attack that changes depending on the school of the character who initiates it. The third team member also enables players to cancel an opponent's Team-Up Special by performing their own Team-Up command. This triggers a brief duel between one character from each team. If the player who started the sequence lands the first successful hit before time runs out, the Team-Up they are in will be canceled, and the match returns to normal; if the opponent lands the first hit or time expires, the Team-Up continues as normal. In addition, the 'vigor' meter in Project Justice is capped at 5 levels (down from 9 in Rival Schools), with Party-Ups requiring all 5 levels, Team-Ups still costing 2 levels, and any attempt (successful or not) to cancel a Team-Up costing 1 level. Like the first game, the Dreamcast version of Project Justice released in Japan includes a character creation feature that lets players design their own fighters, usable in all modes except for single-player. However, in Project Justice, character creation is presented as a board game set during an inter-school festival, rather than a dating simulation as in Rival Schools. As with the School Life Mode in the original Rival Schools, this board game is not included in non-Japanese versions of Project Justice due to the extensive translation required. Instead, these international versions feature several unlockable sub-characters created using the character parts from the Japanese version.
Storyline
One year has passed since the events of *Rival Schools: United By Fate*, and life in Aoharu City has returned to normal. Batsu Ichimonji, Hinata Wakaba, Kyosuke Kagami, and the rest of the fighters have resumed their everyday school routines, savoring the peace that followed their last battle. But peace is never lasting, and soon the fighters will be drawn into a new conflict. Kurow Kirishima, a cold and merciless ninja assassin from a secretive organization known as the "Reverse Society," has set his sights on the Imawano family. His goal is to eliminate them and their allies in order to advance his own ambition of ruling Japan. To achieve this, he attacks Raizo Imawano—the principal of Justice High and Batsu's father—to disable him and remove any opposition. Next, Kurow sends his older sister Yurika Kirishima and his loyal follower Momo Karuizawa to infiltrate the group of fighters, sowing discord and mistrust among them. His third move is to brainwash Gedo gang leader Daigo Kazama, forcing him to command his gang to attack multiple schools and further destabilize the situation. Finally, Kurow plans to ruin Batsu's reputation by posing as his doppelgänger, known as Vatsu, and inciting attacks that make the fighters believe Batsu is the enemy. Batsu and his friends must stand up against Kurow's sinister scheme and prevent their bond from being shattered by the treachery of a deadly ninja assassin.
