It's come to my attention there's an actual R-ZONE game based off Toshinden. Why did I not include it? Well, it's because it's on the R-ZONE! (but I also had no idea) ruclips.net/video/gJ-FK3-u_6M/видео.html
Oh crap! Not the R-ZONE! BTW great Video Mr.McMuscles! I really like PS One-era fighting games, and Toshinden 3 will always have a special place in my heart.I spent hours unlocking all the characters.
I'm just watching this video today and was about to comment that you forgot to mention the R-Zone port of the game. My older sister and I both got an R-Zone for Christmas that came bundled with Battle Arena Toshinden. We grew up watching a VHS tape with a collection of Playstation games that my father's friend made for us, since we did not have a Playstation when it came out. Great video!!! I had no idea there was a 3 or 4!!! I have 1 and 2, now I need to search for the other games.
"Toshinden did nothing new"? It was a freakin' street fighter-like game in 3D! If anyone is wondering why it blowed a lot of people's mind back then, that's why! It had hadoukens in a 3D game! This could mean nothing today, but in 1995, we didn't even know if it was possible!
The soundtrack of this game is Just perfect! Theres a small channel calle ss4shenlong that have made remixes of all themes, and honestly they are perfect.
Oh best believe to me this was a virtual fighter killer. When I received my PlayStation this is one of the first games I ever had. I remember it perfectly. The music was sold amazing the graphics were ahead of its time for me and just looked so amazing and played fantastic to me!!! This game truly has a special place in my heart.❤❤❤
I really enjoyed this partly cause you were largely positive. I can tell you actually like the game(s)/franchise you are talking about without having to gush either. Thanks for an awesome video. The first Battle Arena Toshinden was a fun game to me and my family back in the day so I will always have some fondness for it.
Wanted a Playstation 1 because of this game. I loved it! After part 2 I thought it was done. Nearly 20 years later I never knew this information. Thank you!
The first game is probably my fondest game memory. I made a deal with my parents when I was a kid that I’d work my ass off doing chores for extra allowance so I could get a PS1 at launch. I ended up getting one on release and played the HELL out of this game. I recently booted it up again after decades and had a lot of fun with it.
BAT was almost my first PSX game ever but my parents didn't want me to play any violent game so they got me Raystorm instead. Can't say I'm disappointed tho.
"YOU R NOT (colored red) E." I still remembered those first PlayStation ads. Funny how that model with the weird wink from the Battle Arena Toshinden 2 opening looked nothing like Sofia.
I'm glad somebody remembers Toshinden. It may not have aged well, but it would be fascinating if it came back as an HD Remix with all the best aspects of its original ports.
I played the first two so heavily growing up. They kicked so much ass. I enjoyed the second one more. Those soundtracks are incredible. Excellent work Matt.
I was probably the one Saturn owner at the time bummed that BAT wasn’t available on it. Then one glorious day BAT Remix came out and I was all “tAkE tHaT PLaYSTaTiOn iDiOtS!” - really not my proudest moment.
In a family that could only afford one system, I was super happy myself when we got Remix. Even happier when we got URA. It felt like URA was made especially for us with costume design changes that did away with the mesh transparencies that were criticised in Remix and the brand new characters just for us.
It's always hilarious to me that THIS was supposed to be Sony's crown jewel of the fighting genre, and then people realized that Tekken was just a better game.
Tekken was released a couple months later in the west. For a short time people RAVED about Toshinden. It was all about the graphics. I was there back in the day and I'm not remembering how this looked SO GOOD back then... But we thought it did.
This game was just as mindblowing as Mario64 was at the time of release. Tekken didn't exist yet as Toshinden was the 1st game that was ever released for PS1.
In all fairness this game was really pretty good for being such an early 3D fighter, although it hasn’t aged super well, the first Tekken has not aged particularly well and in my opinion Toshinden is probably a little better.
@@TexasHollowEarth good to see people with good taste in shows (koth) also have good taste in games the OST kicks I has eijis theme as my alarm tone for years
OMG! I still have this game on Platinum. I still have memories of me and my big brother playing it (I used to record the music too) Was blown away when I first encountered the cheat to use Sho Funny thing: if you win near the edge of the ring and they do their victory pose they fall off (Fo's is the best one 🤣) Thanks for the retrospective Matt 👍🏾
Battle Arena Toshinden 1 was one of the first games I ever played on the PS1, and Toshinden 2 was one of the first two games I owned alongside the first Ridge Racer. Big nostalgia hours.
I'll admit, I was hesitant to watch this video, because almost anytime you see someone make a video about Toshinden it's pretty much a guarantee that it'll just poke fun at it & act like it was all just a massive mistake. Thankfully, Matt did the opposite by making a very respectful video on the series, while still acknowledging its faults & how rough the games have aged. I am a fan of Toshinden, and really doesn't get the credit it deserves. For example, Toshinden 1 was Tamsoft's very first game, which I think helps make it feel all the more impressive in retrospect. Also, Toshinden seems to be the first fighting game to have a soundtrack with fully-composed songs, i.e. they don't start repeating after no more than a minute. Toshinden 2 is, personally, one of the greatest fighting game soundtracks of all time, with each & every song having so much to them that you'd never actually get to hear just by playing the game, partially because fights don't tend to last that lost, and partially because the music rests after each round, due to it being a redbook soundtrack. Seriously, just listen to Sho's theme from BAT2, and you'll hear a magnificent song that you'd literally never hear while fighting him in the game itself, because it's rare for a round to last longer than 30 seconds. ruclips.net/video/QUQZjSo4j9E/видео.html
I actually think the Gameboy title was the best of the bunch - charming sprites, batshit story with that deliciously poor translation, tones of secret modes, moves and characters - I'd say only 3 played as well on the console releases. Also - my god, the voice acting in Battle Arena Toshinden Remix - a thing of beauty! I captured all of Kayin's story mode a few years ago: ruclips.net/video/5XJiRBnwmZ0/видео.html It's fantastic - he sounds like Groundskeeper Willy!
YESSSSS. My neighbour got the gameboy game for xmas and we played the heck out of it! It was the first toshinden game I played. I even installed it onto my snes classic.
So hype when I saw this posted on Patreon! I played and own D-Xhird, Puzzle Arena Toshinden and Toshinden Card Quest. D-Xhird is a lot like Toshinden 1 with stiffer controls BUT I still enjoyed it. I really dug the Five Star Story like character designs and it looked like they were really trying for a new fighter franchise. It even teased a sequel that sadly never happened. I'm a complete mark for Puzzle Arena Toshinden, I think the game is a lot of fun though the sound effects Chaos makes can be annoying after awhile (but only if you play Chaos!) Toshinden Card Quest is well... ummm... it's not bad especially when you figure out the mechanics. The problem is you have to have a lot of knowledge of Japanese! i managed to play a few rounds of it with the help of Google Translate but boy howdy it looks like you need to have knowledge of Toshinden Lore to not lose turns and what not. Card Quest did have artwork for a teased Toshinden Next which would have been a prequel but it looks like that idea was completely scrapped. Repeating myself a little on Patreon and Twitter here but I can't help it, i'm huge mark for Toshinden and I would love a proper remake of this (with the cast of characters we know and love). When they released Toshinden 1,2 and 3 on the PSN store for PS3 and Vita in Japan, it was best selling classics for quite a while. Interest is there but I think those Senran Kagura dollars are going else where. SIGH
I remember getting part 3 and not being able to get my friends to play it with me. It was one of my favorite fighting games back in the day. Had no idea there was a part 4.
4:12 I absolutely did the same thing. Used a “talkboy” Tape recorder to record and “mix” Toshinden & various other VG tracks in the mid-1990s. Not the least bit sorry about it! 😝
I remember being intrigued about why Eiji was suddenly an edgelord running his own mysterious organization, for what the story was worth. Nothing ever came of it though, since Vermilion was still the true final boss.
Awesome video! Thanks for talking about this franchise.. BAT2 was one of my favorite fighters on the PS1 back in the day. The game play (at the time) was cool, the music WAS awesome and I just really like the cast of characters, especially Vermilion. When you get two players as Vermillion it completely changes the dynamics of the game, it go's from being a fighter to a John Woo film.
Love seeing more Toshinden content! The Shining series has kind of a bonkers history, and the latest game (I think?) is a fighting game, so might be worth checking out.
I still revisit Toshinden (and Bloody Roar) regularly and STILL have the sountracks of the first 3 games on my To-Go playlist when outside the house. It was literally my second fighting series I got into after Street Fighter and even though it's in hibernation it still holds fond memories of it from my childhood (My old BAT1 Ellis playthrough is still one of my higher viewed content on my channel). Personally Toshinden 1 was my absolute favorite and inspired me a lot, while both 1 & 2 had absolutely awesome soundtrracks. I really love when others talk about games of yesteryear that has at least some forms of quality to them like this, so thank you so much for giving this series a spotlight!
Toshinden 1 and 2 were two of my favorite games of all time. There aren't many games I've played more. Tekken was never really all there for me. I've always liked Street Fighter mechanics but in a 3D setting. Being able to roll just felt like the most amazing thing to me years ago. I've played many fighting games since, but somehow none of them ever captured the feeling I got from those first two games.
I totally didn’t connect the dots with these companies. I didn’t know the same company that made Senran Kagura also made one of my favorite early fighting games.
I still love the Toshinden series. Its my nostalgic go-to fighter if I want a quick trip back to the past. Ellis's and Cupido's themes are still two of my absolute favorite tracks in a fighting game. I never got to play 4 for the longest, as I am not getting a PAL PS1 and for some reason any Emulator I used just did not like it.
I think this is one of the fighters that I would have loved to see rebooted for current times. It always disappointed me that is strayed so far from where it started and I would love to kick ass with Ellis again
I would love to see Battle Arena Toshinden franchise to have a great comeback! I also made a Toshinden petition 3 months ago and for the big surprise here Tamsoft Corporation the company who made Toshinden games saw and liked my Toshinden petition :D My channel is all about Battle Arena Toshinden games, i'm a big fan of this Franchise and i know the games are far from perfect but i still love them anyway :) After all these years i still with the same opinion - Battle Arena Toshinden 3 remains the King game of this franchise
Funny to think how long a company founded by a former Toaplan developer has been going on making games since 1992. The last project of that developer at Toaplan, Toshiaki Ohta (who is still president of Tamsoft), was the underrated shoot 'em up Dogyuun.
21:55 Sonic Shuffle? Also Ura on Japanese stands for: "Opposite side; bottom; other side; side hidden from view; undersurface; reverse side rear; back; behind".
i had the toshinden board game but couldn't understand anything xD Puzzle Arena Toshinden on the other hand.. hoo boy.. that was a bloody addictive game! And the cartoon cutscenes were hilarious
I owned the Windows port, which had an amusing feature. Once installed, you could substitute another audio CD and the game would pull audio from it during matches, based on the timestamp.
I remember playing URA on Saturn with my brother, we didn’t understand anything on how to play, just smashing our controllers :) Sweet memories, thank you Matt
Stumbled upon your channel, consider me a fan. I can’t tell you how much I loved this game as a kid. I remember playing the demo at KB toys and loved it. Then my Grandfather bought me a PSX for Christmas with this game. So many memories playing this with my friends. Loved the anime too, tried to buy the anime at EB games as a 10 year old kid but they wouldn’t let me get it due to nudity. Then my Dad bought it for me a week later, good memories!
Man, this takes me back when I was too young to "play games" and just watching my folks and my uncles/aunts playing this every other weekend in the mid 90's
I loved this game as a kid. I used to play mainly as Duke because when he wins he always says “you fought well” but with the accent the voice actor used it sounded like “you fuck well” which gave 8 year old me endless laughs
Man, thanks a lot for this retrospective! Toshinden might not be the best fighting series but it has marked its era for sure. Cool characters, nice design, I would love to see a reboot. And for me, the 2nd installment has the best fighting game music ever. Whoever composed the tracks on Toshinden 2 is a genius. The themes of Eiji, Mondo, Rungo, Kayin, have this 90s feeling while still being killer tracks up to this day in my opinion, with diverse instruments, mixing electronic, rock and some jazz elements too for some. I often listen to them on my mp3 player.
If I remember correctly, in Toshinden 3 there's an option that lets you choose between 30 and 60fps (At the cost of graphics). I don't really see the difference in framerate, so I always keep it at 30
In my opinion toshinden 3 is one my favorite game of all times. It had a great soundtrack, cool and interesting characters, and unique type of gameplay. I would play that game then other fighting games in my opinion
I loved the Toshinden games when I was a kid. I got the first one when I originally got a PS1, and eventually would seek out the others. I was limited to checking Gamestop for the others, but luckily I eventually got BAT2 and BAT3. The games definitely did not age well, but I liked the characters. I think it would be cool if Soul Calibur just straight up added them to their roster.
Great video, I'm glad someone covered this series so in depth, it's been one of my favorites for a very long time, I recall playing the arcade version of 2 back when I was in Elementary school Just some extra things I'd like to point out regarding some of the games: BAT 3: -I think it's worth to mention that the game also had a "60fps mode", it made the graphics resemble some very archaic PC game in exchange for the aforementioned 60FPS, the textures got very very simplified or plain removed, it was a very strange addition back in the day, and of course the game played even more fluid but maybe too "fast", I don't think it was worth sacrificing the default graphics for 60FPS but also there was not a high demand for a 60FPS mode back in the day. -Some other fun bits to mention about the game, outside of the Soul Bombs and desperation moves are some secret moves that are really out there, one of the most unique moves I remember is Sho having a harakiri move that damages both him and the opponent, the trade off is the big start up and that he receives more damage than the enemy but it's possible to kill the opponent anywhere on the screen with it. -Abel/Veil are a huge shoto reference, from Hadoukens to Shoryuukens to Tatsumakis to even a Shun Goku Satsu move. -I believe David is supposed to be the main character for this rendition of the game, which makes sense since he was one of the few newcomers that weren't an "echo fighter" -The BAT 3 official guide published by Softbank has some amazing illustrations for the entire cast's bios (Some of them used in the video) by the series' main illustrator, character designer and in my opinion the soul of the series, Tsukasa Kotobuki (He was probably worth a namedrop of two in the video, he happens to still be a big name in the anime industry, people familiar with 90's anime such as Saber Marionette should know him very well, he's also the artist of this one relatively popular picture that features Joe Higashi, Terry and an extremely voluptuous Blue Mary), these weren't used in the game in any way whatsoever, but he's quite proud of those and I'd definitely love to see a new game with 3D models that end up being as faithful as possible to his art. BAT Subaru: -I'm going to have to disagree with some point, the game is actually not slow at all (Unless we compare it to BAT3's 60FOS mode), especially if you play a speedy and combo heavy character like Rook or Miyabi, overall it actually feels a bit faster than the previous entries. -Another big detail that makes the game faster is the addition of "Kishin Korin", this is activated when you have a full super bar, you basically activate it like X-factor (All four main buttons at the same time), this mode gives you full health and unlimited supers for the remainder of the round, the downside is that your health starts to drain like crazy. -Finally another thing that forces games to be quick and to remove turtling is the addition of a "collapsing ring" -I also feel like the models are not really Nitoushinden level, they aren't too far from the originals, I felt like as far as 3D fighters with anime influence went, it was one of the better looking ones. -The actual big complain about BAT Subaru was dropping Tsukasa Kotobuki as the main artist and character designer, he was there since day 1 (I recall dropping him a line or two on Twitter a couple of years ago and he expressed a lot of interest on bringing back the series, but who knows what plans does Tamsoft have with the series) -BAT Subaru is in fact a very robust game and I feel like it would've been nice to cover all the mini games it has, off the top of my head it has an arkanoid clone, a tetris/puyo clone and a dance mini game, I was definitely amazed back in the day with how much extra content the game had, only Ehrgeiz and Rival Schools gave me the same feeling of getting the most bang for my buck back in the day . -The roster being composed by teams obviously has something to do with the story being organized in a KOF-like tournament, people are definitely harsh because of he "New Generation" syndrome that also affected SFIII, we know SFIII only made it big until 3rd Strike, with that said, most of the characters are related to old characters in one way or another, so at least there's that, also worth mentioning that Lancelot is actually male, despite what one would assume at first glance. -Eiji's redesign is honestly amazing and I would've loved to see more games where he looked like that, sadly we ended up with the Wii Toshinden (Not sure who was the audience for that one, it definitely didn't appeal to the older fans) As for Toshinden Card Battle, there's not much to say about it other than the game having a lot of info and bios from all the characters in the series (Including URA), usually accompanied by art of Tsukasa Kotobuki himself , so for people who are big fans of the series it's pure fanservice.
Also, much love for acknowledging the soundtrack, I recall recording some songs on tape back in the day and then to CDs, the entire saga (Except for the red headed kid, Wii Toshinden) has amazing songs.
I don’t know if this is canon to the games, but in the godawful anime adaptation, the super generic organization behind the tournament is literally called THE ORGANIZATION. Like they’re not even pretending to try
I've never related to a person more in my life when matt said he recorded the music to listen in his spare time as i did the same when i was young 😁 Great video as alway matt, keep up the good work 👍
It's come to my attention there's an actual R-ZONE game based off Toshinden. Why did I not include it? Well, it's because it's on the R-ZONE! (but I also had no idea)
ruclips.net/video/gJ-FK3-u_6M/видео.html
Oh crap! Not the R-ZONE!
BTW great Video Mr.McMuscles! I really like PS One-era fighting games, and Toshinden 3 will always have a special place in my heart.I spent hours unlocking all the characters.
As someone who once owned an R-ZONE, I can say with utmost certainty, not including it was the right choice.
HEY!!
Uranus was in Bloody Roar 4 too, just sayin
I'm just watching this video today and was about to comment that you forgot to mention the R-Zone port of the game. My older sister and I both got an R-Zone for Christmas that came bundled with Battle Arena Toshinden. We grew up watching a VHS tape with a collection of Playstation games that my father's friend made for us, since we did not have a Playstation when it came out. Great video!!! I had no idea there was a 3 or 4!!! I have 1 and 2, now I need to search for the other games.
btw it's Tomee not tommy.
Dude, what?? That Earth Worm Jim cameo??
This was the first game I ever booted up on my release day PS1. The 3D graphics were mind blowing to me.
"Toshinden did nothing new"? It was a freakin' street fighter-like game in 3D! If anyone is wondering why it blowed a lot of people's mind back then, that's why! It had hadoukens in a 3D game! This could mean nothing today, but in 1995, we didn't even know if it was possible!
Thank you, people don't talk about these games enough!!
A forgotten gem. The PS1 days were good times. Great retrospective man!
The soundtrack of this game is Just perfect! Theres a small channel calle ss4shenlong that have made remixes of all themes, and honestly they are perfect.
Part 2 was awesome have vivid memories of this game
I'll have to check it out. I remember unironically liking the first game as a kid and I'm sure a good part of that reason was the OST.
"super moves were hard to pull off in a match"
*Cries in Geese Howard*
Cannot overstate how phenomenal these games OST’s are.
Oh best believe to me this was a virtual fighter killer. When I received my PlayStation this is one of the first games I ever had. I remember it perfectly. The music was sold amazing the graphics were ahead of its time for me and just looked so amazing and played fantastic to me!!! This game truly has a special place in my heart.❤❤❤
I remember putting the disc in my cd player just so I could listen to the music, it was so good.
The original battle arena toshinden was a fantastic game for its time and very underrated!
Ah Battle Arena Toshinden, the figgting game of my youth! Had such a rocking soundtrack, I loved it!
This episode means so much to me, lol. My sisters and I loved the Toshinden series growing up. The second game's OST is also surprisingly dope
I was a diehard nintendo fanboy when this came out but still spent hours playing it on my sister's ps1. I have a soft spot in my heart for this game
I really enjoyed this partly cause you were largely positive. I can tell you actually like the game(s)/franchise you are talking about without having to gush either. Thanks for an awesome video. The first Battle Arena Toshinden was a fun game to me and my family back in the day so I will always have some fondness for it.
Battle Arena Toshinden 1 still has one of my favorite video game soundtracks of all time, specially Duke's theme.
just realized that too. after over 20 years xD
Wanted a Playstation 1 because of this game. I loved it! After part 2 I thought it was done. Nearly 20 years later I never knew this information. Thank you!
Toshinden 3 was my absolute favorite gameplay wise.
Same here 👍
The first game is probably my fondest game memory. I made a deal with my parents when I was a kid that I’d work my ass off doing chores for extra allowance so I could get a PS1 at launch. I ended up getting one on release and played the HELL out of this game. I recently booted it up again after decades and had a lot of fun with it.
I grew up playing Toshinden and watched that awful anime almost every weekend on some random cable channel
I had this on gameboy and remember it fondly, it was surprisingly decent
It's one of the better GB fighting games.
@@shadowflash705 THE best, if you ask me 😉
The soundtrack always being my favorite. Especially Toshinden 2
Honestly, this feels like a precursor to the games like Street Fighter EX and Rival Schools, taking 2D mechanics but putting them on a 3D playfield.
The first game had the best ost of them all.
I fucking love Battle Arena Toshinden and it's anime movie and I don't care what anyone says: that first game is still fun as hell.
I LOVEDD TOSHINDEN... OMG That was my game. Soul Calibur feels like the spiritual successor.
Played 1, 2, and URA. Used to love these back in the day.
BAT was almost my first PSX game ever but my parents didn't want me to play any violent game so they got me Raystorm instead. Can't say I'm disappointed tho.
"Playing a lot like Castlevania Judgement" damn no need to go in so hard that's brutal
"YOU R NOT (colored red) E." I still remembered those first PlayStation ads. Funny how that model with the weird wink from the Battle Arena Toshinden 2 opening looked nothing like Sofia.
Refreshing to a new Matt post just warms my heart. :)
I'm on time FOR ONCE!
One of my very first games growing up. To this day i still have my copy , love this game and it’s music so much !
I'm glad somebody remembers Toshinden. It may not have aged well, but it would be fascinating if it came back as an HD Remix with all the best aspects of its original ports.
I played the first two so heavily growing up. They kicked so much ass. I enjoyed the second one more. Those soundtracks are incredible. Excellent work Matt.
I was probably the one Saturn owner at the time bummed that BAT wasn’t available on it. Then one glorious day BAT Remix came out and I was all “tAkE tHaT PLaYSTaTiOn iDiOtS!” - really not my proudest moment.
In a family that could only afford one system, I was super happy myself when we got Remix. Even happier when we got URA. It felt like URA was made especially for us with costume design changes that did away with the mesh transparencies that were criticised in Remix and the brand new characters just for us.
It's always hilarious to me that THIS was supposed to be Sony's crown jewel of the fighting genre, and then people realized that Tekken was just a better game.
Tekken was released a couple months later in the west. For a short time people RAVED about Toshinden. It was all about the graphics. I was there back in the day and I'm not remembering how this looked SO GOOD back then... But we thought it did.
This game was amazing back in the day if they kept going and didn’t do the cheesy intro at on the second one this game woulda been that much bette
This game was just as mindblowing as Mario64 was at the time of release. Tekken didn't exist yet as Toshinden was the 1st game that was ever released for PS1.
Tekken looked like dogshit to me compared to this game back then. Tekken 1 and 2 were just Virtua Fighter clones that had 3D graphics and 2D gameplay.
In all fairness this game was really pretty good for being such an early 3D fighter, although it hasn’t aged super well, the first Tekken has not aged particularly well and in my opinion Toshinden is probably a little better.
Oh dude you have no idea how happy I am right now this was literally my first ps 1 game ever
@@TexasHollowEarth good to see people with good taste in shows (koth) also have good taste in games the OST kicks I has eijis theme as my alarm tone for years
Masami Obari is one of my favorite anime director, yes the movies aren't great by any means, but I do love the animation style and the uh content.
Toshinden 3 was probably my first video game, so many memories
OMG! I still have this game on Platinum.
I still have memories of me and my big brother playing it
(I used to record the music too)
Was blown away when I first encountered the cheat to use Sho
Funny thing: if you win near the edge of the ring and they do their victory pose they fall off (Fo's is the best one 🤣)
Thanks for the retrospective Matt 👍🏾
A heart/pin worthy comment
And love the victory fall out Mondo's was good too
Hahah finally someone mentioned the victory pose ring out 😂
Battle Arena Toshinden 1 was one of the first games I ever played on the PS1, and Toshinden 2 was one of the first two games I owned alongside the first Ridge Racer. Big nostalgia hours.
I'll admit, I was hesitant to watch this video, because almost anytime you see someone make a video about Toshinden it's pretty much a guarantee that it'll just poke fun at it & act like it was all just a massive mistake. Thankfully, Matt did the opposite by making a very respectful video on the series, while still acknowledging its faults & how rough the games have aged. I am a fan of Toshinden, and really doesn't get the credit it deserves. For example, Toshinden 1 was Tamsoft's very first game, which I think helps make it feel all the more impressive in retrospect. Also, Toshinden seems to be the first fighting game to have a soundtrack with fully-composed songs, i.e. they don't start repeating after no more than a minute. Toshinden 2 is, personally, one of the greatest fighting game soundtracks of all time, with each & every song having so much to them that you'd never actually get to hear just by playing the game, partially because fights don't tend to last that lost, and partially because the music rests after each round, due to it being a redbook soundtrack. Seriously, just listen to Sho's theme from BAT2, and you'll hear a magnificent song that you'd literally never hear while fighting him in the game itself, because it's rare for a round to last longer than 30 seconds.
ruclips.net/video/QUQZjSo4j9E/видео.html
By far my favorite video you’ve done so far. The info and gags were all top notch!
Toshinden was up there with street fighter and mortal kombat in my house, even if it shouldn't have.
Music is still sick.
I actually think the Gameboy title was the best of the bunch - charming sprites, batshit story with that deliciously poor translation, tones of secret modes, moves and characters - I'd say only 3 played as well on the console releases.
Also - my god, the voice acting in Battle Arena Toshinden Remix - a thing of beauty! I captured all of Kayin's story mode a few years ago:
ruclips.net/video/5XJiRBnwmZ0/видео.html
It's fantastic - he sounds like Groundskeeper Willy!
YESSSSS. My neighbour got the gameboy game for xmas and we played the heck out of it! It was the first toshinden game I played. I even installed it onto my snes classic.
I have the original disc in my home , its so good this game i love it
Shit like this is why I love you, Matt.
toshinden and especially toshinden 2 had straight fire music!
So hype when I saw this posted on Patreon!
I played and own D-Xhird, Puzzle Arena Toshinden and Toshinden Card Quest.
D-Xhird is a lot like Toshinden 1 with stiffer controls BUT I still enjoyed it. I really dug the Five Star Story like character designs and it looked like they were really trying for a new fighter franchise. It even teased a sequel that sadly never happened.
I'm a complete mark for Puzzle Arena Toshinden, I think the game is a lot of fun though the sound effects Chaos makes can be annoying after awhile (but only if you play Chaos!)
Toshinden Card Quest is well... ummm... it's not bad especially when you figure out the mechanics. The problem is you have to have a lot of knowledge of Japanese! i managed to play a few rounds of it with the help of Google Translate but boy howdy it looks like you need to have knowledge of Toshinden Lore to not lose turns and what not.
Card Quest did have artwork for a teased Toshinden Next which would have been a prequel but it looks like that idea was completely scrapped.
Repeating myself a little on Patreon and Twitter here but I can't help it, i'm huge mark for Toshinden and I would love a proper remake of this (with the cast of characters we know and love). When they released Toshinden 1,2 and 3 on the PSN store for PS3 and Vita in Japan, it was best selling classics for quite a while. Interest is there but I think those Senran Kagura dollars are going else where. SIGH
OH SHIT I SAW MY NAME IN THE CREDITS JUST NOW THANK YOU SO MUCH MR. MCMUSCLES ARRRRGGG!
I LOVED this game and it’s sequel. Unapologetically. Simple fun. Characters came through.
I'm shocked you left out that part 3 was one of the first games to have a 60 frame per second mode. Part 3 is my favorite fighting game. Great video.
Loved this game. The music was so damn good. Ellis stage and Duke stage were my fave. The damn guitar solos.
I love your retrospectives, very happy to see a new one
I remember getting part 3 and not being able to get my friends to play it with me. It was one of my favorite fighting games back in the day.
Had no idea there was a part 4.
Sometimes ignorence is a bliss 😅
Yeah, I played Puzzle Arena Toshinden from time to time. If you lose as Duke several times, you can play as his butler Sebastian with a special code.
I played battle arena toshinden when I was super young on ps1 and I havent been able to find what it was called until now. The memories
4:12 I absolutely did the same thing. Used a “talkboy” Tape recorder to record and “mix” Toshinden & various other VG tracks in the mid-1990s. Not the least bit sorry about it! 😝
I remember being intrigued about why Eiji was suddenly an edgelord running his own mysterious organization, for what the story was worth. Nothing ever came of it though, since Vermilion was still the true final boss.
Awesome video! Thanks for talking about this franchise..
BAT2 was one of my favorite fighters on the PS1 back in the day. The game play (at the time) was cool, the music WAS awesome and I just really like the cast of characters, especially Vermilion. When you get two players as Vermillion it completely changes the dynamics of the game, it go's from being a fighter to a John Woo film.
I'm glad he included the wii Toshinden game. To this day I was confused if this was an official Toshinden game or not... and I guess it was?
I had fond memories of playing BA Toshinden 2, their OST is still a bop
We're all connected mentally man. I swear this is the 3rd video *today* that fit into exactly what I was thinking about.
I remember loving Toshinden Subaru and completing it more than one time. It had a fucking lot of unlockables.
Love seeing more Toshinden content! The Shining series has kind of a bonkers history, and the latest game (I think?) is a fighting game, so might be worth checking out.
I still revisit Toshinden (and Bloody Roar) regularly and STILL have the sountracks of the first 3 games on my To-Go playlist when outside the house. It was literally my second fighting series I got into after Street Fighter and even though it's in hibernation it still holds fond memories of it from my childhood (My old BAT1 Ellis playthrough is still one of my higher viewed content on my channel). Personally Toshinden 1 was my absolute favorite and inspired me a lot, while both 1 & 2 had absolutely awesome soundtrracks. I really love when others talk about games of yesteryear that has at least some forms of quality to them like this, so thank you so much for giving this series a spotlight!
Toshinden 1 and 2 were two of my favorite games of all time. There aren't many games I've played more. Tekken was never really all there for me. I've always liked Street Fighter mechanics but in a 3D setting. Being able to roll just felt like the most amazing thing to me years ago. I've played many fighting games since, but somehow none of them ever captured the feeling I got from those first two games.
I totally didn’t connect the dots with these companies. I didn’t know the same company that made Senran Kagura also made one of my favorite early fighting games.
One of the Best Fighters Ever... would love a reboot
audible gasp!
BAT was the first playstation game I ever played
I still love the Toshinden series. Its my nostalgic go-to fighter if I want a quick trip back to the past.
Ellis's and Cupido's themes are still two of my absolute favorite tracks in a fighting game.
I never got to play 4 for the longest, as I am not getting a PAL PS1 and for some reason any Emulator I used just did not like it.
I think this is one of the fighters that I would have loved to see rebooted for current times. It always disappointed me that is strayed so far from where it started and I would love to kick ass with Ellis again
Toshinden 3's intro is actually in my Top 2 favorite game intros of all times. Right up there with Tekken 3.
I would love to see Battle Arena Toshinden franchise to have a great comeback! I also made a Toshinden petition 3 months ago and for the big surprise here Tamsoft Corporation the company who made Toshinden games saw and liked my Toshinden petition :D
My channel is all about Battle Arena Toshinden games, i'm a big fan of this Franchise and i know the games are far from perfect but i still love them anyway :)
After all these years i still with the same opinion - Battle Arena Toshinden 3 remains the King game of this franchise
Funny to think how long a company founded by a former Toaplan developer has been going on making games since 1992. The last project of that developer at Toaplan, Toshiaki Ohta (who is still president of Tamsoft), was the underrated shoot 'em up Dogyuun.
I'd love to see this game modernized, but that will never happen. It's a forgotten gem.
21:55 Sonic Shuffle?
Also Ura on Japanese stands for:
"Opposite side; bottom; other side; side hidden from view; undersurface; reverse side
rear; back; behind".
i had the toshinden board game but couldn't understand anything xD
Puzzle Arena Toshinden on the other hand.. hoo boy.. that was a bloody addictive game! And the cartoon cutscenes were hilarious
This was my before Tekken lol.
Battle Arena Toshinden 2 was one of the first fighting games that my brother and I played together. This video was pure nostalgia ride. Thanks Matt
I owned the Windows port, which had an amusing feature. Once installed, you could substitute another audio CD and the game would pull audio from it during matches, based on the timestamp.
I remember playing URA on Saturn with my brother, we didn’t understand anything on how to play, just smashing our controllers :)
Sweet memories, thank you Matt
Stumbled upon your channel, consider me a fan. I can’t tell you how much I loved this game as a kid. I remember playing the demo at KB toys and loved it. Then my Grandfather bought me a PSX for Christmas with this game. So many memories playing this with my friends. Loved the anime too, tried to buy the anime at EB games as a 10 year old kid but they wouldn’t let me get it due to nudity. Then my Dad bought it for me a week later, good memories!
Puzzle Arena Toshinden and the Gameboy Toshinden were the best-playing titles in this series.
Man, this takes me back when I was too young to "play games" and just watching my folks and my uncles/aunts playing this every other weekend in the mid 90's
I grew up playing Toshinden and Tekken. How nice for you to talk about it!
I loved this game as a kid. I used to play mainly as Duke because when he wins he always says “you fought well” but with the accent the voice actor used it sounded like “you fuck well” which gave 8 year old me endless laughs
Man, thanks a lot for this retrospective! Toshinden might not be the best fighting series but it has marked its era for sure. Cool characters, nice design, I would love to see a reboot. And for me, the 2nd installment has the best fighting game music ever. Whoever composed the tracks on Toshinden 2 is a genius. The themes of Eiji, Mondo, Rungo, Kayin, have this 90s feeling while still being killer tracks up to this day in my opinion, with diverse instruments, mixing electronic, rock and some jazz elements too for some. I often listen to them on my mp3 player.
If I remember correctly, in Toshinden 3 there's an option that lets you choose between 30 and 60fps (At the cost of graphics). I don't really see the difference in framerate, so I always keep it at 30
I always play it at 60 frames, thinks it feels much more fluid, and the graphics aren't that great to begin with anyway 😅
For me the best Toshinden game is Toshinden 2. I still have it
Likewise. I still play it every once in a while
In my opinion toshinden 3 is one my favorite game of all times. It had a great soundtrack, cool and interesting characters, and unique type of gameplay. I would play that game then other fighting games in my opinion
I loved the Toshinden games when I was a kid. I got the first one when I originally got a PS1, and eventually would seek out the others. I was limited to checking Gamestop for the others, but luckily I eventually got BAT2 and BAT3. The games definitely did not age well, but I liked the characters. I think it would be cool if Soul Calibur just straight up added them to their roster.
I'm stoked someone did a retrospective Battle Arena Toshinden 3 was one of my favorite games of all time
This was my first next gen is here experience with PSX, I'll remember it for life.
I love the gameboy port.
Great video, I'm glad someone covered this series so in depth, it's been one of my favorites for a very long time, I recall playing the arcade version of 2 back when I was in Elementary school
Just some extra things I'd like to point out regarding some of the games:
BAT 3:
-I think it's worth to mention that the game also had a "60fps mode", it made the graphics resemble some very archaic PC game in exchange for the aforementioned 60FPS, the textures got very very simplified or plain removed, it was a very strange addition back in the day, and of course the game played even more fluid but maybe too "fast", I don't think it was worth sacrificing the default graphics for 60FPS but also there was not a high demand for a 60FPS mode back in the day.
-Some other fun bits to mention about the game, outside of the Soul Bombs and desperation moves are some secret moves that are really out there, one of the most unique moves I remember is Sho having a harakiri move that damages both him and the opponent, the trade off is the big start up and that he receives more damage than the enemy but it's possible to kill the opponent anywhere on the screen with it.
-Abel/Veil are a huge shoto reference, from Hadoukens to Shoryuukens to Tatsumakis to even a Shun Goku Satsu move.
-I believe David is supposed to be the main character for this rendition of the game, which makes sense since he was one of the few newcomers that weren't an "echo fighter"
-The BAT 3 official guide published by Softbank has some amazing illustrations for the entire cast's bios (Some of them used in the video) by the series' main illustrator, character designer and in my opinion the soul of the series, Tsukasa Kotobuki (He was probably worth a namedrop of two in the video, he happens to still be a big name in the anime industry, people familiar with 90's anime such as Saber Marionette should know him very well, he's also the artist of this one relatively popular picture that features Joe Higashi, Terry and an extremely voluptuous Blue Mary), these weren't used in the game in any way whatsoever, but he's quite proud of those and I'd definitely love to see a new game with 3D models that end up being as faithful as possible to his art.
BAT Subaru:
-I'm going to have to disagree with some point, the game is actually not slow at all (Unless we compare it to BAT3's 60FOS mode), especially if you play a speedy and combo heavy character like Rook or Miyabi, overall it actually feels a bit faster than the previous entries.
-Another big detail that makes the game faster is the addition of "Kishin Korin", this is activated when you have a full super bar, you basically activate it like X-factor (All four main buttons at the same time), this mode gives you full health and unlimited supers for the remainder of the round, the downside is that your health starts to drain like crazy.
-Finally another thing that forces games to be quick and to remove turtling is the addition of a "collapsing ring"
-I also feel like the models are not really Nitoushinden level, they aren't too far from the originals, I felt like as far as 3D fighters with anime influence went, it was one of the better looking ones.
-The actual big complain about BAT Subaru was dropping Tsukasa Kotobuki as the main artist and character designer, he was there since day 1 (I recall dropping him a line or two on Twitter a couple of years ago and he expressed a lot of interest on bringing back the series, but who knows what plans does Tamsoft have with the series)
-BAT Subaru is in fact a very robust game and I feel like it would've been nice to cover all the mini games it has, off the top of my head it has an arkanoid clone, a tetris/puyo clone and a dance mini game, I was definitely amazed back in the day with how much extra content the game had, only Ehrgeiz and Rival Schools gave me the same feeling of getting the most bang for my buck back in the day
.
-The roster being composed by teams obviously has something to do with the story being organized in a KOF-like tournament, people are definitely harsh because of he "New Generation" syndrome that also affected SFIII, we know SFIII only made it big until 3rd Strike, with that said, most of the characters are related to old characters in one way or another, so at least there's that, also worth mentioning that Lancelot is actually male, despite what one would assume at first glance.
-Eiji's redesign is honestly amazing and I would've loved to see more games where he looked like that, sadly we ended up with the Wii Toshinden (Not sure who was the audience for that one, it definitely didn't appeal to the older fans)
As for Toshinden Card Battle, there's not much to say about it other than the game having a lot of info and bios from all the characters in the series (Including URA), usually accompanied by art of Tsukasa Kotobuki himself
, so for people who are big fans of the series it's pure fanservice.
Also, much love for acknowledging the soundtrack, I recall recording some songs on tape back in the day and then to CDs, the entire saga (Except for the red headed kid, Wii Toshinden) has amazing songs.
I don’t know if this is canon to the games, but in the godawful anime adaptation, the super generic organization behind the tournament is literally called THE ORGANIZATION. Like they’re not even pretending to try
Fun fact: Ellis was the first character I ever saw in a Rule #34 art.
I've never related to a person more in my life when matt said he recorded the music to listen in his spare time as i did the same when i was young 😁 Great video as alway matt, keep up the good work 👍
I absolutely love the Battle Arena Toshinden series owning all but 3 (BAT 4, BAT Kids, Wii Toshinden) There fine games with good music and also Sofia