This game's existence is a bit of a mystery: the Toshinden series isn't exactly fondly remembered, and the only reason it was every really popular at all is because it was one of the first 3D fighting games to come along. So why then, a whole decade after the last Toshinden, did Tomy decide to not only release a game using that name, but release a game with no other connection to the series. It doesn't play like the others, it has none of the characters, and it's not set in the same world. It doesn't even have the same developers as the original series! (Those were developed by Lunatic Obscurity stalwarts Tamsoft, this is by Dream Factory, of Tobal and Ehrgeiz fame, and could very well be their worst game!)
So, if it doesn't play like the other Toshinden games, how does it play? Well, it's an odd one. You can use the analogue stick to run around the arena in all directions, and you only have two normal attack buttons: weak and strong. Rather than special move motions, you have a special and a super, each mapped to a button of their own. I'm not normally a fan of these kinds of super-simplified fighting game controls, though can sometimes work, as in the Senko no Ronde games, or to a lesser extent, the Playstation 90s anime homage festival that is Evil Zone/Eretzvaju. In this case, though, the best thing you can say about the controls is that they're not the worst thing about the game.
The actual worst thing about the game is a decision so stupid and antithetical to the nature of fighting games that I can barely believe they did it: all of the playable characters start out with weak, puny movesets, and you're expected to grind in single player to earn points to buy their moves and combos. To make matters worse, despite this being a game that never had online play, there are only two single player modes: story mode, where you can't pick your character, and surival mode, where you endlessly fight randomly-selected opponents on randomly-selected stages until you lose. It's barely a step above Bomberman Act Zero on X Box 360!
Now, this game isn't completely worthless: I will admit that it looks great, with the character models and textures being particularly appealling. But obviously, that's not enough to make up for how much of an absolute chore it is to play, so obviously, I'm not going to recommend that you bother with it. It's a shame, too, I was really hoping this would be a nice little unsung hero of the Wii's library.
Wow... y'know, they did also do Kakuto Chojin, and if you can't believe they made the stupid decision to put moves behind a grindy "paywall" (of in-game currency but still paywall) here, than you must not have played THAT game, because they did something similar there.
ReplyDeleteTheir big stupid decision in KC was to split the character's movesets into two fighting styles. The Kakuto one which was simplistic to the point of being worthless and very unengaging, and the Chojin ones which actual resemble a proper 3D fighting game. The way you unlock their Chojin style? By beating the story mode for said character, of course! So you have to grind through single player multiple times to access the full movesets for each character, so that you can play the game with the moveset/controls that make playing the game entertaining at all. It really goes to show just how few reviewers at the time even bothered though, and just opted to judge it on initial impressions - man, what a stupid (and very similar!) decision. Is Toshinden's method slightly worse or slightly better than how they did it there? Honestly, at best, it's a lateral move :P
After Ehrgeiz they really got into making grindy experiences. Crimson Tears took forever to make progress in too... and I've never played Applessed EX, but knowing what I know about everything else they did from the PS2/Xbox/Wii era, I'm sure that games got some obnoxious grind to it as well :/
Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing TamSoft return to making a budgety fighting game again - even a new title bearing the Toshinden name, though I don't know what would be gained from that. I'm just sick of THEM pumping so many garbage games in the "busty little anime girls doing things" genre that only they seem interested in occupying currently (like Senran Kagura, Valkyrie Drive, and Kadokawa Jet Girls).
i actually really liked crimson tears, up until i got to the boss rush dungeon. it had a really cool atmosphere.
Deletealso, what a coincidence: i just postd about one of tamsoft's latter-day booby games!
I really liked Crimson Tears' aesthetic. It's very "'90s cyberpunk anime," which is super rare to see in 3D games. I guess the heyday of cyberpunk anime was in the early '90s so the 16-bit machines got the bulk of games that looked like that, but Crimson Tears does a pretty good job representing. It's tedious to get through though. There's only so many configurations the levels can throw at you, so few of the room layouts have good camera angles that don't just result in fighting things out-of-frame, and it takes so many runs to strengthen your characters. Oh well... at least it looks cool and has some nice music :)
DeleteAnd yeah I saw that; Drive Girls. Completely forgot about that one. They make far too many booby girl games :P