Toshinden 4
The master returns
The Master Returns!
Toshinden 4 continues the ongoing story line of its predecessors. However, the usual hero Eiji has now turned villain, turning to the 'dark side'. His son, Subaru, has been left to pick up the pieces, and clean up the now tainted family name. With the assistance of a veteran of the Toshinden wars, you must guide Subaru through many gruelling fights in your search for the reasoning behind your father's transformation. As you'd expect from the game, there's going to be a huge variety of moves you can get Subaru to perform. Skill and timing will be of the essence, if you are to succeed against the game's many adversaries. Apparently a lot of work has been put into making even the most advanced of attacking moves easy to perform. Something of a blessing, when you consider some games require a stupidly complex combination of pad presses to perform a simple move. Things are made even simpler with the introduction of the 'overdrive' mode. This allows players to produce devastating combinations of moves, with only the touch of a button and a directional button.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, I have not seen the game in action, and can only go by the screenshots and artwork I have been given. Certainly the graphics look nice enough, with some really smart looking weapon effects. The player models also look very nicely done, with a good variety of different characters to fend off. The actual surroundings look all too familiar though, with some truly uninspired and unoriginal backdrops. It doesn't help that the screenshots of the game in action aren't of the best quality either. Toshinden 4 is bound to be an instant success, just on the name alone. I just hope this doesn't mean too much of the 'same old same old' syndrome. It's looking nice, but not looking like anything groundbreaking. Release Date - April 2000
