Bell's Review - Toshinden

Bells · 12-26-2009, 04:03 PM

Toshinden for the Wii is a bitter-sweet experience. It's a decent, fast paced, strategic Fighting game buried under a lack of final polish and some weird decisions...

In it's core Toshinden is a 3d Fighter in the same Vein as Castlevania Punishment was and it's somewhat of a light (veeeeeery light, zero calorie even) version of Soul Calibur.

So, how does it play? First of all... no Waggle. At all.

The controls are pretty basic. Analog on the Nunchuk moves your character around. B defends, B Direction rolls, C is Dash. Be is Heavy attack and A is light attack. The analog shoots your One special ranged attack ( Hold B and Press analog for a Uppercut)

And that pretty much it. So what depth there is to it?

The game relies heavily up precision Play. Dodge, Dash, Block and counter at the right time to pull your 3-6 hit combo, miss it and you take it from the opponent. Special attacks are mostly to break the flow from your opponent while you run or get some distance away from him.

That turns out to make a very simplistic gameplay style into something that approaches what we know from Soul Calibur. Mash it and you WILL loose. Learn to read the tempo of your opponent and you can win. This makes for a very balanced fighter that kinda forces you to learn combos, juggles, breakers and counters as those are the only possible ways to actually kill a high level opponent.

Also, you have "Special Mode" that you unleash once you Special Bar has at least 1/3rd of it filled. In that mode you unlock a bigger version of your weapon and your attacks cause more damage. They also become a tad slower (less combos) and with wider range.

So, being as Toshiden rely on a somewhat limited selection of moves and a very specific "Counter" style of gameplay... you can see that it's not long before the Computer Ai becomes predictable and not very challenging. Which means that in the end Toshinden is a game better served if you play with friends instead than against the AI.

....which leads us to that strange design choice i mentioned earlier.

You see... you get points in your battles, and those points are used in the "Combo Maker" section of the game, where you use those points to expand the array of attacks your fighter has and just how powerfull they are. Each character has about 15-20 different moves, of which you need from 200 to 800 points to improve (and most can be improved more than once) per fight you can get about 1000 to 1500 depending on the difficulty level and how well you fought... and there about 20 fighters in the game (a few are unlockables)

So if you are keeping up with the math so far... this means the game makes you Grind. Which is a weird and not very good choice for a fighting game.

This sort of Grind and Improvement system worked on games like DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi series because in that game you would get a ton of points to improve several unique characters who already had a vast array of moves. In Toshinden you must spend a ton of points to improve every single slash in a combo and more more moves to your tiny repertoire.

This makes the game enjoyable with friends only after someone decided to shove a good 8 hours in it improving all characters available!

And that trully is the sad part of this game, because it's not a bad game. It's just not long lasting.

Which then brings me to it's visual presentation.

Character models are detailed, rich, and nice looking. Everyone's mouth moves weirdly. But that's ok... Also, females are strange in this game (as they are in all Toshinden Games i suppose) Mostly because of their breast. While some character will have a normal looking chest, some females simply have "LoLtits". There is simply not other way for me to say it.

But every character has a very unique feel, even though they don't change that much in gameplay, so you can enjoy them all.

But where the character excel, the Background stages don't. Bland, low profile and with simplistic textures, the Places where you fight aren't at all memorable and they take some of the shine away from the whole experience.

How bad ARE the scenarios?

this bad.

The overall music is ok. Nothing that you will keep in your mind for long, and the voice acting (of which there is plenty) is good, audible and diverse. Characters are well defined by their voices and nobody is too creepy or out of place.

Also, the Story mode is peppered with long conversations (all voiced) and quite a few CG animations in a constant pace. While this drags a big and delays the actual fighting, the meat of the game, it's nice to see the producers actually trying to give a sensible storytelling and character development to a fighting game... if they actually manage to do it is another story, but it's nice to see some effort.

In the end, Toshinden is a nice game if you can get it. It's not really worth it's import price tag, but there is a decent chance this wont come to the US just now... if you want a simple, fun and overall "Ok" Fighting game for the Wii, this is actually one of the best choices around for the system right now.

Or you can just grab Soul Calibur 2 for gamecube, because that is actually better and probably cheaper....

ZAKtheGeek · 12-26-2009, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Castlevania Punishment

Is this a joke or did you really really dislike Castlevania Judgment?

mudah.swf · 12-26-2009, 07:15 PM

This was a really odd choice for a revival and it's even stranger that they would abandon the existing cast for the new game. Kayin was cool goddamnit. We need more Scottish characters in fighting games.

Bells · 12-26-2009, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Is this a joke or did you really really dislike Castlevania Judgment?

Somewhat of a Joke... the game is not terrible, but it does feel like a chore rather than an enjoyable gameplay experience (a lot of repetition and very little actual strategy). Plus, the Artistic choice is really atrocious. They could simply call it anything but a Castlevania game and it would all be juuuuuuust fine.

mudah.swf · 12-27-2009, 11:06 AM

If someone is really starved for Wii fighting action, Naruto Clash of Ninja Rev 3 is supposed to be pretty decent by Naruto fighter standards. It even has online play. Don't forget there's Tatsunoko vs Capcom on the way in January, which will probably be the best fighter on the system for a good long while, unless you count the GGAC port.

12-26-2009, 04:03 PM	#1
Bells That's so PC of you Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In a Server-sided Dimension where time is meaningless Posts: 10,490	Bell's Review - Toshinden Toshinden for the Wii is a bitter-sweet experience. It's a decent, fast paced, strategic Fighting game buried under a lack of final polish and some weird decisions... In it's core Toshinden is a 3d Fighter in the same Vein as Castlevania Punishment was and it's somewhat of a light (veeeeeery light, zero calorie even) version of Soul Calibur. So, how does it play? First of all... no Waggle. At all. The controls are pretty basic. Analog on the Nunchuk moves your character around. B defends, B Direction rolls, C is Dash. Be is Heavy attack and A is light attack. The analog shoots your One special ranged attack ( Hold B and Press analog for a Uppercut) And that pretty much it. So what depth there is to it? The game relies heavily up precision Play. Dodge, Dash, Block and counter at the right time to pull your 3-6 hit combo, miss it and you take it from the opponent. Special attacks are mostly to break the flow from your opponent while you run or get some distance away from him. That turns out to make a very simplistic gameplay style into something that approaches what we know from Soul Calibur. Mash it and you WILL loose. Learn to read the tempo of your opponent and you can win. This makes for a very balanced fighter that kinda forces you to learn combos, juggles, breakers and counters as those are the only possible ways to actually kill a high level opponent. Also, you have "Special Mode" that you unleash once you Special Bar has at least 1/3rd of it filled. In that mode you unlock a bigger version of your weapon and your attacks cause more damage. They also become a tad slower (less combos) and with wider range. So, being as Toshiden rely on a somewhat limited selection of moves and a very specific "Counter" style of gameplay... you can see that it's not long before the Computer Ai becomes predictable and not very challenging. Which means that in the end Toshinden is a game better served if you play with friends instead than against the AI. ....which leads us to that strange design choice i mentioned earlier. You see... you get points in your battles, and those points are used in the "Combo Maker" section of the game, where you use those points to expand the array of attacks your fighter has and just how powerfull they are. Each character has about 15-20 different moves, of which you need from 200 to 800 points to improve (and most can be improved more than once) per fight you can get about 1000 to 1500 depending on the difficulty level and how well you fought... and there about 20 fighters in the game (a few are unlockables) So if you are keeping up with the math so far... this means the game makes you Grind. Which is a weird and not very good choice for a fighting game. This sort of Grind and Improvement system worked on games like DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi series because in that game you would get a ton of points to improve several unique characters who already had a vast array of moves. In Toshinden you must spend a ton of points to improve every single slash in a combo and more more moves to your tiny repertoire. This makes the game enjoyable with friends only after someone decided to shove a good 8 hours in it improving all characters available! And that trully is the sad part of this game, because it's not a bad game. It's just not long lasting. Which then brings me to it's visual presentation. Character models are detailed, rich, and nice looking. Everyone's mouth moves weirdly. But that's ok... Also, females are strange in this game (as they are in all Toshinden Games i suppose) Mostly because of their breast. While some character will have a normal looking chest, some females simply have "LoLtits". There is simply not other way for me to say it. But every character has a very unique feel, even though they don't change that much in gameplay, so you can enjoy them all. But where the character excel, the Background stages don't. Bland, low profile and with simplistic textures, the Places where you fight aren't at all memorable and they take some of the shine away from the whole experience. How bad ARE the scenarios? this bad. The overall music is ok. Nothing that you will keep in your mind for long, and the voice acting (of which there is plenty) is good, audible and diverse. Characters are well defined by their voices and nobody is too creepy or out of place. Also, the Story mode is peppered with long conversations (all voiced) and quite a few CG animations in a constant pace. While this drags a big and delays the actual fighting, the meat of the game, it's nice to see the producers actually trying to give a sensible storytelling and character development to a fighting game... if they actually manage to do it is another story, but it's nice to see some effort. In the end, Toshinden is a nice game if you can get it. It's not really worth it's import price tag, but there is a decent chance this wont come to the US just now... if you want a simple, fun and overall "Ok" Fighting game for the Wii, this is actually one of the best choices around for the system right now. Or you can just grab Soul Calibur 2 for gamecube, because that is actually better and probably cheaper.... __________________ *BELLS STORE : Clothes! You wear* them! Free US Shipping Subscription System? WTF?! Zazzle Black!**

12-26-2009, 07:15 PM	#3
mudah.swf Rocky Wrench Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: England Posts: 1,294	This was a really odd choice for a revival and it's even stranger that they would abandon the existing cast for the new game. Kayin was cool goddamnit. We need more Scottish characters in fighting games.

12-27-2009, 11:06 AM	#5
mudah.swf Rocky Wrench Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: England Posts: 1,294	If someone is really starved for Wii fighting action, Naruto Clash of Ninja Rev 3 is supposed to be pretty decent by Naruto fighter standards. It even has online play. Don't forget there's Tatsunoko vs Capcom on the way in January, which will probably be the best fighter on the system for a good long while, unless you count the GGAC port.