Era, what's your opinion on the Battle Arena Toshinden series?

[Doctrine Dark]

When I was younger, a good friend gave this game to me. It ended up becoming one of my most played games. Loved the character designs, stages, and the way it played. Ring outs was another feature I was fascinated with in those times.

The series has an interesting history. Started out as a PS1 exclusive dubbed the "Saturn Killer", only to end up on the Saturn shortly after.

Earthworm Jim was in the PC version of the game.

Interestingly enough, Capcom published the Arcade version of Battle Arena Toshinden 2.

Most of my experience is based on the 1st game. I played 2 and 3, but I didn't invest any real time into them. The 4th game felt like a game from a completely different series.

I wouldn't mind seeing this rereleased down the line, though I know it seems unlikely.

 

[zanna]

I enjoyed it as a young lad

/cue this websites favorite pastime - port/remaster begging

 

[AuthenticM]

I always confuse this series with the other fighting one that Square made. It was one-hit-kill from what I recall.

 

[OGlol]

As a kid i absolutely loved BAT3, Vermilion was my dude.

 

[Faceless_Caesar]

It's got Ten Count. Who is a totally original character. Please do not steal.

 

[Mandos]

I always confuse this series with the other fighting one that Square made. It was one-hit-kill from what I recall.

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Bushido blade

 

[calder]

One of the 2 games my brother and I bought with our launch PSX in 1995 (good lord). Loved it at the time, but it certainly didn't stick with me in any sense. Even then it was just "the fighting game with swords, kind of like Virtua Fighter but not as good." It sure had some charm of its own though, and was a fun button masher with friends.

 

[Scrappy-Fan92]

Never played the games, but I know they were prolific for a hot minute. Is there fandom consensus on what the best one is?

 

[DimitriLH]

Loved them as a kid.

Recently got to play all of them with a game collector friend. And for anyone wanting to try them, uh.....stay away from 4 and the Wii one.

One through three, while a bit stiff, play alright. Was fun making set up combos with the bomb supers in 3.

Underappreciated OST.

 

[Puddi64]

I only ever played it on the R-Zone in the 90s, which was I think the first "console" and game I ever owned, and it was really hard. That's all I remember.

 

[mopinks]

man

that box art

 

[Doctrine Dark]

As a kid i absolutely loved BAT3, Vermilion was my dude.

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My favorite was Judgement.

Mainly because he was a Jason knockoff.

 

[Magneto]

Let's just say that Sofia was really my kind of character

 

[Starsunder]

My very first 3D fighting game (tekken being #2) back on PS1. Extremely nostalgic for the first game, although I haven't played it in probably ~26 years or more.

 

[kidnemo]

I was starved for any home fighting game at the time so we played it...

...but even then we recognized it wasn't that good.

And now? For me at least? Literally unplayable. Hard pass.

Some fond memories though!

 

[Temtastic Muns]

Average 3D fighting games for its day, but buttrockin' soundtracks that still stand the test of time.

 

[ghibli99]

Played the first one quite a bit, mostly for the novelty of it being a 3D fighting game at home, but spent the vast majority of the rest of the generation with other series, most of which were 2D fighting games on Saturn (although I did also play quite a bit of the Tekken and DOA series on PS1). It just wasn't a very good game, but there wasn't much else at the time.

 

[calder]

My favorite was Judgement.

Mainly because he was a Jason knockoff.

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SEX MAN

ENGLAND

 

[L Thammy]

I don't really have an opinion on it. I know there's Earthworm Jim, I know there's a Wii game which barely resembles the rest, I know there's an anime. I have no thoughts or feelings about this knowledge, however.

My understanding is that Toshinden is just kind of a weird thing that happened because of the gaming industry at the game being obsessed with 3D being the only valid form that a game can take.

 

[Teenage Fansub]

1 and 2 were fun until Tekken 2 came along.

 

[Qikz]

I played this a hell of a lot with my parents and loved it. Haven't played it since the PS1 days though!

 

[IrishNinja]

even as someone who was burned by the saturns launch pricetag, i never got the hype - it looked like another forgettable early 3d fighter

then tekken 2 dropped and it was over for these games

 

[DrFunk]

even as someone who was burned by the saturns launch pricetag, i never got the hype - it looked like another forgettable early 3d fighter

then tekken 2 dropped and it was over for these games

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People were sprung on the 3D graphics at the time. I remember the reviews praising the graphics, ignoring that it played like ass

BAT 2 is good at least.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

The original was a launch game so it got a ton of play. As soon as other, better games came out I quickly forgot about it.

It was fun for the time though.

 

[IrishNinja]

People were sprung on the 3D graphics at the time. I remember the reviews praising the graphics, ignoring that it played like ass

BAT 2 is good at least.

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see i'd heard that 2 was good but assumed it was all hype like 1 had been, need to give that one a shot one day

 

[Version 3.0]

I was super into the first, as one of my Day 1 Playstation games. There was a lot of hype (from Sony) because it made the launch. It was fun, for a while, but it's not a very deep game. It did show off the Playstation's 3D capabilities pretty well, though, especially since the sideways dodging is critical in that game, much more so than Tekken or Virtual Fighter.

But even so, once Tekken arrived, Toshinden was forgotten. I know it hung around with some sequels, but I didn't care, and I never got the impression anyone else did, either.

 

[AuthenticM]

Bushido blade

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yeah that, thanks.

 

[Druffmaul]

I had no intention whatsoever of buying a Playstation. Oh, big corporation Sony thinks they can compete with Nintendo and Sega, even though they know nothing about video games. Pfft, it's going to be the CDi and the 3DO all over again. Then one day in the summer of 1995 I went into Toys R Us, probably to buy a game for my Saturn which was still pretty new at the time, and there was a Playstation kiosk set up with some playable demos. I walked up and a kid was playing Toshinden. I thought it looked like a generic fighting game with kinda neat 3D graphics, and then the little old man character (Fo? Fu?) conjured his big magical translucent purple ball and whoa! There's something you don't see every day. I waited for the kid to finish and then stepped up and played the demos for Jumping Flash and Wipeout, and that's when I decided to buy a Playstation. I grabbed a pre-order voucher and paid for it along with whatever Saturn game I got that day.

When launch time came around a few weeks later, Jumping Flash and Wipeout were still a couple of months from release. There wasn't really any other launch game I wanted much, so with a shrug I bought a copy of Toshinden. I went home and set up the Playstation, popped in Toshinden and played it for a couple hours, was taken aback by how sucky and unfun it was, and pretty much forgot about my Playstation again until Jumping Flash finally hit retail, and then Wipeout. Jumping Flash and Wipeout man, now THOSE were video games.

 

[BassForever]

My friends and I had fun going back to them and messing around, but they're no SC or Tekken

 

[Osu 16 Bit]

The first two were good for their time. Quickly fell out of relevancy once better games like Tekken 2, Virtua Fighter 2, Soul Edge, and Dead or Alive came out or got home ports. They're in a weird space where they're 3D but kind of play like 2D games. Feels like shit lol.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bwx01foVgI

Some real bangers on the soundtrack though.

 

[Eoin]

It was a graphical showcase that had very little going for it other than the graphics, which were very quickly surpassed by games that looked and played much better.

After the first game it felt like one of those series that continued to get made because the first game sold well due to circumstances that were entirely unrepeatable, with the publisher being unable to accept that.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

man

that box art

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[VariantX]

I straight up hated them when the novelty of 3d wore off. Hated how my characters felt when they move and it felt so bad to play. Toshinden 2 was at least a much better and more responsive game than the first but I just didn't jive with how those games played overall. Soul Edge/Tekken/VF pretty much killed those games to me.

 

[MimosaSTG]

I loved the series as a kid, but I slowly started realizing how mediocre the gameplay was as I got older. I remember importing the 4th one and immediately regretting it after playing it for about 15 minutes...

 

[L Thammy]

I forgot that Masami Obari was involved with Toshinden. Unfortunately they made the amateur mistake of having him draw people.

 

[Jer]

even as someone who was burned by the saturns launch pricetag, i never got the hype - it looked like another forgettable early 3d fighter

then tekken 2 dropped and it was over for these games

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Yeah this was me. Enjoyed Battle Arena Toshinden 2 when I didn't know any better. Tekken 2 dropped, I felt like I was playing the future, never played a BAT game again.

 

[Sign My Guestbook!]

An interesting artifact with good-bad 90s cheese music and funny voices. Played it quite a bit as a kid and unlocked all the secrets, but it's not a good game. Tekken 100% ate its lunch and for good reason.

 

[akilshohen]

The first two were good for their time. Quickly fell out of relevancy once better games like Tekken 2, Virtua Fighter 2, Soul Edge, and Dead or Alive came out or got home ports. They're in a weird space where they're 3D but kind of play like 2D games. Feels like shit lol.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bwx01foVgI

Some real bangers on the soundtrack though.

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This is my favorite from the OST.

I only played the first... Actually bought it off of Amazon a year or two ago.

 

[Ensoul]

Wow this brings back memories. I think I enjoyed the games well enough but if I remember correctly the controls weren't particularly good and it was a struggle to do special moves

 

[-Tetsuo-]

it sucks

 

[Radogol]

My favorite was Judgement.

Mainly because he was a Jason knockoff.

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And a short king apparently.

 

[Kain]

The games play like shit but the OST are fucking GODLY

On mobile so lazy to post examples but trust me on this, Toshinden 2 OST is magic

 

[Nameless]

It was sorta cool just due to how few 3D fighters there were at the time, particularly on home consoles, but next to the Tekkens and Virtua Fighters it was clearly several step downs. My personal favorite old school B-Tier 3D Fighter was Iron & Blood!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy4uSi8ykJA

 

[kimbo99]

IMO it peaked on Gameboy.

 

[Red]

I played the gameboy version an obscene number of hours.

 

[Dodongo]

I played the shit out of BAT2

 

[TheMadTitan]

It's one of those series' I always wanted to get growing up and eventually never bothered, even when I was browsing retro game stores and picking up copies of PS1 games on the cheap.