Box Copy
You are invited...
...to your own demise. Battle the world's toughest fighters in this
"Invitation Only" underworld tourney. Only ONE warrior will survive.
Will it be your destiny?
- The ONLY true
3-dimensional, 360-degree tournament-style fighter. Avoid and
annihilate your opponent before he - or she - does you!
- Four different views
AT WILL. From in-your-face close to the sky-high gaze of the
powers-that-be.
- UNBELIEVABLE: Sweep
kicks, rapid-fire hits, sky-high jumps, #@%$! slaps, killer combos,
and tons of weaponry and special moves.
- Glory! Love!
Revenge! Death!? Pulverize 8 deadly challengers...and whoever or
whatever comes next! Are you up to it?!
Discussion
I still remember the day I got to witness Toshinden for the first time.
Way, way back when I used to go to Japanese Anime meetings, a fellow who
was rather overly-addicted to buying anything imported, plunked down the
cash for an import PlayStation and 4 of the launch games. It wasn't
until he had put in this disc that I realized my soul would soon be
owned by the Sony corporation. Not because of the graphics or game play,
but at the potential it showed for the future of gaming.
Anyway...
Battle Arena Toshinden is and always will be considered the flagship
title of the PlayStation. Why? Because it basically trounced the
visually inferior opponent, Sega Saturn's Virtua Fighter, and provided
Sony with all the evidence they needed to sway the gaming public and
usher in a new breed of mainstream gamers.
Here you have a game with 8 warriors brought together by invitation only
requests to meet and fight each other for the chance to tackle the
ultimate warrior, Gaia. Each fighter has their own weapon, style of
fighting, and personal goal for reaching and defeating Gaia.
Play mechanics are a bit odd; you have the controller motions out of
Street Fighter, but a combo system pace that's far slower. Each player
possess several Special Moves, and 1 Super Move; You're also able to
roll out of the way, and knock opponents off the edge.
Graphically the game shows its age, especially in the character models.
There are a lot of flicker issues in character joints, and most stages
can be reduced to a few rectangles and a circle once the nostalgia wears
off. I still love the perfectly shaped rectangular waterfall.
As much as I'd love to say this is got to be in everyone's library, it
really doesn't. At it's finest hour, Toshinden today is just reminder of
what used to be, and reminds us of the day 3D games took full control of
the gaming world.
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Trivia
- Holy variant
collection, see below!
- All 8 main
characters, the final boss, and all but 1 stage are presented in the
screenshots above.
- The game has it's
own version of Akuma, Sho. In order to reach him, you must beat the
game on normal or harder difficulty without using a continue. Once
Sho shows himself, you may continue all you want. If you beat Sho,
you will get your character's "True" ending. Sho uses Eiji's,
Kayin's, and extra moves in his arsenal.
- The characters have
obviously been dubbed in English from their original Japanese
release, but there are some rather noteworthy adjustments. Sofia was
made less...erotic...while Ellis was made to sound older. Her only
issue is that instead of the adorably young chibi-like voice, we got
this...demon puberty tone ("I Neevah geeeve up!") >_<;;
- While it wouldn't
show by today's standards, Toshinden was actually a huge deal for
Sony on launch day, for several important factors. For starters, the
PSX was $100 cheaper than the Saturn, and here was Sony's first
fighting game showing off better textures, better 3D environments,
and special effects nowhere to be found in Sega's Virtual Fighter.
Ellis' fabric was a huge deal as it was the first time clothing had
true transparency to it.
Secondly, it showed Sony of America was willing to bring over titles
themselves where needed to fill in the voids 3rd parties couldn't
fill at launch. Along with this, they had Kileak (1st Person
shooter), arcade conversions in Raiden Project, and of course
Namco's Ridge Racer.
- Epileptic gamers who
have never played this may want to take heed with the final boss
stage. Gaia's level is a huge transparent checkerboard like pattern
whose individual squares light up in random patterns, all in front
of a giant spinning black hole. It can be quite the eyeful.
- Bernie Stolar, a man
most Sega fans would bitch-slap given half the chance, originally
worked for Sony. He is thanked in the manual.
- Speaking of
bitch-slapping, this may be the first game to ever utter the word on
it's back copy, though admittedly self censored.
- EGM admitted that
this was their most overrated game of all time.
- Every character has
a special Ultra Move you can perform when your meter is red. When
you beat the game, the game will display your character's Ultra
Move, and then show them unleashing it on the end boss.
- I hated the American
cover artwork so bad that I refused to use it for the title banner.
I had to scan in the back of the manual's screenshot at an insane
resolution to make it look right in the above title bar. I mean for
god's sake, they turned Eiji into an ogre and Mondo into an old
geezer...who almost looks oddly female!
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