Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (PS1) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Playmates Interactive's 1996 3D versus-fighting game for the Sony PlayStation, Battle Arena Toshinden 2.

The video shows the "Full Battle" mode played through on difficulty level six with Kayin, and includes the secret end boss battle against Vermilion.

Poor, poor developer Tamsoft. Their PlayStation mega-hit launch title Toshinden wowed everyone just a year earlier with its super-smooth goraud-shaded 3D fighter. It was a huge system seller, and made money hand-over-fist. So why did we not hear more about its direct sequel(s)?

Well, by 1996, the gaming landscape had shifted pretty dramatically. Studios had their first projects out, and now having been acclimated to making games in 3D and being armed with more knowledge of the 32-bit hardware, game quality started improving in leaps-and-bounds seemingly overnight.

The fighter genre saw this as much as any other: just look at what Namco managed. The original 1995 Tekken grew into 1996's Tekken 2 and Soul Blade, and calling the improvements massive would be quite an understatement. Sega did much the same from Virtua Fighter to VF2. Tamsoft didn't quite follow this same path, though - Battle Arena Toshinden 2 wasn't bad, but the biggest selling-point of the original - its graphics - had been since been surpassed, and BAT2's just couldn't match the quality of other studios' outputs. They are quite a marked improvement over the original, but they were no longer good enough to distract from the same creaky fighting engine driving the action. There were a couple of characters and moves added, but the game didn't change very much at all beyond its facelift. People moved on.

Well, I'm glad that I didn't. I had this one for Windows 95 and I thought it was fantastic. I didn't like the style as much as the first one - it's even tackier now than before - and the soundtrack was somewhat less awesome, but it was still a solid 3D fighter with easy-to-pull specials, good looking character models, and smooth animation. The absurd Engrish phrases and grunts still abound, and the awkward camera creates some really amusing moments when it gets stuck, which is something it's quite prone to doing, especially during win poses.

If you liked Toshinden, even after it was killed by later 3D fighters, you'll find more of the same to like in this one. If the instant you saw Tekken 2 you promptly forgot this one existed, you're probably better off leaving it that way.

I, for one, am a fan.
_____
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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