Battle Arena Toshinden 2

About Battle Arena Toshinden 2

Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (1995) is Tamsoft's 3D weapon-fighting sequel, launched in arcades on Sony's ZN-1 board with an Overdrive meter, faster play and a deeper conspiracy story.

Battle Arena Toshinden 2 in Depth

The final match of the last Toshinden tournament, between Eiji Shinjo and sponsor Gaia, was interrupted, and only the participants and the tournament's hosts, the Secret Society, knew why. Gaia, one of the Society's Divine Four, had used his tournament to try to recruit fighters against the Society's ruler, the Master, whose Gerard Foundation had turned from protecting the world to controlling it. He banned deliberate killing and invited martial artists from "the everyday world" to make the tournament more palatable and win sponsors, but failed to persuade any of the warriors to join him. Gaia returns demoted and without his armour, while Chaos and Tracy join the starting roster.

The core play is unchanged from the first Toshinden, but the sequel adds a simple combo system and an Overdrive gauge, along with mechanics tuned for faster play. The 3D movement was rebalanced: dodge-rolling no longer makes a character briefly immune, so it is no longer possible to roll straight through deadly attacks. Downed opponents can now be attacked, and ring-outs return, with the rule that when both fighters fall out at once, the one who lands last wins. Backgrounds were made more detailed by using layers of 2D parallax scrolling, as in Tekken 2, instead of the original's 3D backgrounds.

Making Battle Arena Toshinden 2

Tamsoft developed it and Takara published it, planning an arcade-first release for October or November 1995 on Sony's ZN-1 hardware, followed shortly by a PlayStation port. Game Machine listed it as Japan's tenth most successful arcade game in February 1996. Critics generally found it good but too little improved over the original in play and graphics, falling short of Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken 2; Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviewers were more positive, praising the graphics and new character Vermillion. The Saturn received its own spin-off, Battle Arena Toshinden URA, with a new story, arenas and four exclusive characters, and Battle Arena Toshinden 3 followed.