Flyer of the first game that showcases all the enemies.
Crossed Swords is a Hack and Slash / Beat 'em Up action game made by ADK and SNK in 1991 for the Neo Geo arcade and home systems. The game can be described as essentially Punch-Out!! with RPG Elements. You play as a character from a behind-the-back perspective, dodging and parrying enemies who appear from the foreground. Defeating enemies neats the player experience points and items such as food and money, the later of which can be used to purchase power-ups and new weapons from a traveling merchant at specific intervals.
In ancient Belkania, a Medieval European Fantasy setting, the Demon Warlord Nausizz have unleashed his horde of monsters and armies of worshippers upon the land, and it's up to the player(s), a heroic knight in training, to stop Nausizz. Plenty of enemies abound, from beast-men to giant insects and Nausizz's legion of black knights.
A sequel, Crossed Swords 2, was released 4 years later exclusively for the Neo Geo CD. Nausizz is back, having revived himself from the dead through sheer will, and to spice things up a bit now the player can choose between three heroes - the knight of the first game, a ninja, and a female dancer armed with dual knives. The sequel notably adds a few Japanese-inspired elements, including ninjas and samurai as enemies. New gameplay features include an arena mode allowing players to practice against specific bosses, a dash move and the ability to executive powerful special attack through fighting game-style motion inputs.
The Crossed Swords duology contain examples of:
- Animated Armor: Several of the knight-like enemies of the second game are actually living armours, with no flesh or blood underneath as you realize after defeating them.
- Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: While the first game have both players as knights, in the second they can choose between three different playable heroes, in that order - the ninja (well-balanced in all his stats), the dancer (she's fast, but not as strong) and the knight (the strongest in attacking, but also the slowest).
- Big Bad: Nausizz, the Demon Warlord of the forces of chaos in both games, who started the plagues and wars in Belkana and unleashed his army to wipe out entire populations to enforce his rule. Fittingly he's also the difficult Final Boss of both games.
- Breath Weapon: Most of the bosses and certain enemies in both games breathe streams of flames - the giant caterpillar, the harlequin, frog men, the Death Knight in the colosseum (and in his later Dual Boss forms), and Nausizz himself in his One-Winged Angel form as a giant insectoid monster. In the second game Nausizz takes it even further by turning into a Big Red Devil that breathes a gigantic fireball that can kill you if hit from point-blank.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies:
- You fight gigantic red wasps as Airborne Mooks on a regular basis in the first game (replaced by moths in the sequel).
- Oversized, fire-breathing caterpillars that takes up half of the entire screen are regular Giant Mook enemies in the first game.
- Boss Rush: Both games have you fighting multiple previous bosses, all at once, in a lengthy area before confronting Nausizz the Final Boss in his quarters.
- Call-Back: In the second game, one section have you fighting in a hallway containing portraits of all enemies from the previous game.
- Degraded Boss:
- In the second game's first stage, your very first Rat Man encounter is the armoured Rat Man boss in the first stage, before regular Rat Man enemies started appearing after the boss is killed.
- The Shadow Knight who appears as the boss of the second game's colosseum stage returns as mook enemies later on. There's also two similar knights (using the same sprites) as a Dual Boss.
- Dem Bones: Skeletons appear in both games as low-level enemies, though the first have a stronger skeleton general as a boss.
- Fish People: Fish-men appears as enemies in the first game, with at least one fish-man general as a boss.
- Flying Seafood Special: Giant flying blue jellyfishes appears in the second game, floating out of water surfaces to attack you.
- Frog Men: Frog-humanoid mooks appears in both games as a common enemy, pouncing out of the water to attack. Some of them would occasionally use their tongues for slapping you instead of weapons.
- Gashadokuro: The Skeleton Worm from the second game is the skeleton of a giant with a centipede-like body made of bones, who claws at you with it's bony talons.
- Giant Enemy Crab: One of the bosses of the first game is a giant red crab on a beach. You encounter another crab in a later stage (one which is blue) and oddly enough this one appears in a volcanic cavern.
- Giant Hands of Doom: One of the available power-ups in the second game is a giant fist that when summoned, drops down from the heavens into the arena, dealing massive damage to any number of mooks that happens to be on the point of impact.
- The Goomba: The Rat Men in the first level are the only enemies in the game that don't block at all, letting you go to town on them with no strategy.
- Gratuitous Ninja: The second game has ninjas as recurring enemies halfway through, despite the Medieval European setting. One of the three playable heroes is even a ninja.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: For certain enemies in the second game.
- The pail-head knights, being living armours, breaks apart from the waist after they're killed. In some cases, the lower half will run off-screen comically while the upper simply dies.
- The Devil's Eye and Acid Papilion enemies splits vertically upon being slain.
- Intrepid Merchant: In the second game, after completing a level, a red-clad gypsy lady will suddenly teleport into the area from seemingly out of nowhere, and sell you weapons and power-ups before leaving. Averted in the first though, the merchant at the end of each stage is in a shop and it's implied your heroes travelled there after each battle.
- Knight in Shining Armor: You play as a heroic knight (or two in two-player mode) in the first game, out to stop Nausizz and his legion of chaos. Fittingly enough, several members in Nausizz's army (and a few bosses) are Black Knights. The sequel mixes stuff a bit allowing you to play either as the knight, a lady dancer, or a ninja.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Your shield with fend off all attacks thrown at you in both games, from simple sword-slashes to fireballs, flung projectiles, and thunderbolts. However, many a Shield-Bearing Mook can use their shields to block your weapons, too.
- Magic Knight: Evil mages armed with scythes are a recurring enemy in the second game, where they can cast attacking spells in tandem with using their weapons to rough you up.
- Metal Slime: In the first game, black rats have high health and will typically escape after a single strike. Defeating them will reward the player with a high-health recovering item.
- Moth Menace: Acid Papilions in the second game are giant moths who attempts stinging you with their poison.
- Noble Demon: Nausizz complements your skill if you make it to him. In the first game he actually sends the Princess home unharmed before you even arrive to his chamber, out of respect for your bravery.
- Oculothorax:
- The first game have giant eyes in floating mouths as mooks. It can create a circle of smaller eyes around it for good measure.
- Red Devil's eye enemies from the second game are eyeballs with tentacles.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The very fist stage of the first game have you entering a village currently being plundered by the forces of chaos, running into a fleeing villager who pleads for you to save their land... moments before the villager gets killed by a rat man. You then proceed to clean up the forces of evil in the burning village.
- Rat Men: Armoured rodent-men are a recurring enemy type in both games. The second one notably have a heavily-armoured rodent man (called a Hyper Rat) as the first boss.
- Resurrective Immortality: The reason why Nausizz returns in the sequel - after being slain, he can revive himself through sheer will within decades, since he's a Demon Warlord.
- Samurai: With the second game throwing Japanese fantasy elements into the mix, you get a samurai clad in red armour as a dangerous boss halfway through, one who can pull a Flash Step while attacking you. There's also a samurai in blue later on as another equally difficult boss.
- Sequential Boss: Nausizz, the Final Boss of both games, and he's as difficult as you'd expect a Final Boss to be. In addition to the Boss Rush he puts you through, he's a difficult fight on his own and takes plenty of hits to slay, before pulling a One-Winged Angel turning into a huge insectoid monster with a new health bar. The first game ends with Nausizz's monster form defeated, but in the second he gains a third form - a Big Red Devil with horns and wings and a powerful fireball attack that can One-Hit Kill you.
- SNK Boss: A rather literal example with Nausizz, in both games - but especially in the sequel when he throws a fireball larger than you that can inflict a One-Hit Kill.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: The skeleton general boss from the first game can spin his sword in circles to block your blows. As does the red mages from the second with their scythes.
- Stripped to the Bone: The second game have a power-up that, when used on human mooks, will turn them into uniformed skeletons. Before crumbling apart.
- Sword Beam: In both games, getting enough power for your weapons allows you to fire an energy bolt with each swing. It's a good way to hit enemies in the background otherwise out of reach.
- Talking Animal: The level "Evil Turtle of Guld Marsh" have a giant mata-mata turtle who can talk as it's boss. Said turtle will taunt you as you enter it's marsh before the boss fight commences.
- Villainous Harlequin: Nausizz's main enforcer in the first game is a harlequin who attacks you with projectiles and have the ability to teleport.
- We Will Meet Again: Nausizz in both games will leave after he's defeated, while taunting the players with this. The second game have him stating outright (after you finally killed his third and final form) that as a Demon Warlord, he lives to inflict agony and pain on others, will continue to exist no matter how many times he's killed, as long as peace exists he will return to disrupt it.
