Toshinden 4 Game Sample - Playstation
0Original Air Date: November 30th, 2008 (Revised Today! 10+ minutes of additional footage.)
This is a game sample for the subpar Toshinden 4, which was so subpar that it didn't even get the green light in the U.S. and was only released in Japan and PAL territories (where it seems it was more well-recieved there than in Japan, with three different print runs). The game did try to have a few neat extras, a lot of features, numerous new game mechanics, and it does have a decent soundtrack, but for the last game in the series (excluding the Wii game, which isn't really related to the original series), it takes too many steps backwards and just looks dull compared to prior Toshinden games while not exactly keeping up with other fighters of the time as well.
The game is sluggish (like basically nearly every BAT game, but more so here) and there are times when you'll push the buttons and your character won't attack, the character roster is just "meh", and I don't really like the whole "Team Story Mode" idea. However, the good thing is that there are lots of new modes, new mini-games, new extra goods like funny weapons and gear, new arena types (some have ring-outs, others don't, and some stages begin to crumble as you fight), the ability to free-run, parry attacks, counter attacks, the ability to execute free-flowing combos, the powerful new Kishin Kourin Overdrive which gives a whole new meaning to "desperation", and a more concentrated cast (not like the inflated roster in BAT3).
Each of the game's thirteen characters at least possess a decent number of attacks that can be chained into several simple, intermediate and advanced chains (10+ hits, nothing particularly outlandish), but the bad or average characteristics just seem to outweight the good here. This game isn't "Killing Zone", "Cardinal Syn", or "Iron & Blood" bad, but it's not very good even though when you look past the visuals and dig deep enough, you can see that there was a modest effort at various points in the game's development. If you are a major BAT fan or if you enjoyed BAT3, then I'd give this a try. If you liked BAT1&2 and played BAT3 and didn't like it, you're probably not going to like this. If you hate that the only past playable characters are Eiji, Naru, and Vermilion, avoid this at all costs.
This is a video showing some stuff in the game (some matches with Subaru in Survival and some of Team Story Mode). Enjoy.