Well, Takara has managed to completely outdo themselves on this title. Not
only have they fixed every flaw from previous Toshinden games, they've also
added a truckload of new features that, IMHO, really elevates Toshinden 3
to "classic" status. 

I've only been playing for a few hours, and only in Versus mode against
human opponents, so this isn't nearly a full review. Instead, I'll try to
highlight the improvements and new features present in Toshinden 3.

First off, the intro is REALLY cheesy. If you thought #2 was bad, wait
until you see this...:) Frankly, I'd much rather see more actors than this
terrible CGI rendered stuff. Ah well. Okay, improvements: Saving of data is
supported! It looks like it will save all your current options as well as
whatever characters you have unlocked. When you get to the character select
screen, ALL the characters have boxes, even those you haven't unlocked yet
(shown with question marks). No more cycling through the random select box
to choose the bosses! Next, all the overly complicated special move
triggers have been drastically simplified. No more "Half circle back, half
circle forward" nonsense. This makes the game a lot more fun to play, IMHO.
Overdrive moves don't even have trigger sequences, you just hit two buttons
at once! Desperation moves are pretty much identically triggered for each
character (forward, back, forward, triangle) and can apparantly be used
only ONE time per match (no more infinate Sophia spins!). 

Okay, new stuff: Where to begin? Every character has simple Tekken-ish
combos of four or so button presses, you can juggle characters in the air,
off of walls and off the ground. Each character has one or more "power"
attacks that render them temporarily invincible and let them cut through an
opponents incoming attack & hurl them to the far wall. If a character is
thrown into a wall, they can rebound off it and leap back to counterattack.
All the really powerful special attacks (like desperations, overdrive
attacks, etc) black out the background to highlight the graphics and
lighting effects of the attack. Even with all these over the top graphic
effects (trails following weapons, lighting effects, texture maps
everywhere), the frame rate seems quite a bit better than Toshinden 2. Each
character has a "super" attack that they can perform twice for each round
in the match (ie- if you are playing one round, you get two supers. If you
play two rounds, you have four). Its effect is different depending on
whether its triggered in the air or on the ground. Characters that have
guns (Vermillion, David & Nagisa) each have "clips" shown above their
health meters. They can only shoot until they empty their clip. Nagisa can
reload, but only by using his overdrive attack. That should deal with the
unbalancing effect Vermillion had. The game plays much faster and more
furiously than either of the other Toshindens, and is much more fun as a
result. If you want to get really crazy, you can play in 60fps mode. This
turns off ALL texture maps on the backgrounds, and all gouroud shading on
the characters, although they keep their texture maps. While this mode is
pretty ugly, due to the gradient-fill boxes that make up the background, it
_is_ lightning fast and easier to follow (more frames per animation,
weapons and effects are much more visible against the plain background,
etc.). 

Anyway, it's getting late, so I'll quickly describe the initial 14
characters (looks like they each fight a mid-boss & then one or two boss
characters). 

Eiji: Pretty much the same but with way cool special effects.

Kayin: Again, much the same, but very kick-oriented. He even uses a kick as
his "parry" move.

Bayhou: My guess is this is actually Fo, under some sort of curse. He's a
white furred baboon critter with a cowl and claws strapped to his hands.
All his moves are Fo's. To taunt, he turns his back, lifts his tail and
gestures at his bare rear while going "Oogie Oogie". Really fun to annoy
people with...:)

Rungo: Very cool looking with a nasty parry. Slow as ever, but he seems a
LOT stronger. Summons a giant boulder out of the ground to shove opponents
into the ceiling. 

Mondo: Has a cool new move where he leaps into the air, spins his spear to
create a flaming shield while hurling fireballs in all directions.

Duke: YIKES! He's incredibly fast now, and his moves are much easier to
activate.

Ellis: Not nearly as cheap as she used to be, she can't just slide & stab
forever. Specials summon giant heart images to throw at opponents or
surround herself with. Her daggers are much longer now, but her costume is
about the same as in Tosh2.

Sofia: Hubba hubba! She's wearing nothing but a ribbon wrapped around her
legs and across the front of her boobs! The whip looks great with trails
following it constantly. 

Tracy: Frankly, I don't think she looks as good as in Tosh2, but she's
still a great character. She throws giant diamond shaped bursts of energy
as a super move, very cool and nasty.

Chaos: Oddly enough, all of his attacks seem toned down now, compared to
the increase in everyone elses...His running "grater" attack is great for
tracking opponents, and he has "vomit" attacks that we haven't quite
figured out the use of yet...

Gaia: He's friggen HUGE!!!!! I swear he's TWICE the size of Rungo, and
looks great! The design is the same as Tosh2, but he carries his bulk
visibly, hulking over the other characters menacingly. His sword is also
cooler looking, and has an fantastic reach.

Nagisa: A big guy, looks like a hong kong action film cop. Great looking
character, has an estending baton and a big, heavy gun. When he throws, he
hurls his opponent into the air and blasts them with his pistol. He pulls
his gun, ejects the clip, reloads and empties the new clip (twice!) at his
opponent for his overkill move! His taunt is to contemptuously fire a shot
into the air.

David: Looks like he could be Vermillions brother. Tall, lanky and wearing
a trenchcoat. He uses a long, heavy chainsaw as his main weapon, but can
taunt by firing his pistol at his opponent (also uses it after a throw to
pump a shot at the victim). He's a lean, mean, combo machine. His moves
seem slow and awkward, but once he gets moving, he just keeps going like an
insane vegomatic, chainsaw buzzing and whining the whole time. 

Shizuku: Looks like a geisha. Uses some sort of long cane or whip to fight
with. Has lots of "magic" attacks with giant fireballs, invisible attacks,
etc. Seems creepy for some reason (might just be the CGI intro prejeducing
me though, she looks like an eerie china doll in it).

That's all I can think of for now, I'll try to post more information after
I've played it some more. If you have any specific questions, email me and
I'll try to answer 'em.  


SPOILER:
















Just played through the game a couple of times...WOW! Yes, the fourteen
hidden characters are basically variations on existing characters (ala
Tekken), but quite often the variations are really big! Characters without
guns get throwing weapons with ammo, entire animation sequences are redone
(new walk cycles, new special attacks, limbs in completely different
positions, holding weapons differently, etc), bodies are completely
redeigned, sexes sometimes change, etc. And- These "extra" fourteen
characters _aren't_ midbosses, they're your opponents! You don't fight ANY
of the main characters, just their "opposites"! VERY clever idea on Takaras
part, it made the entire game an adventure! And that's not all, there are
THREE boss characters. Vermillion (of course), Abel (big Dragonball Z type
guy who fights without any weapons) and, of course, Sho! When you beat the
game, your characters opposite becomes available in all game modes. If you
use them in story mode, you ONLY fight the MAIN characters! I've only got a
couple so far: Judgement (Davids), a chainsaw weilding psycho wearing a
hockey mask. His chainsaw blade leaves blood trails in the air! I also got
Cuiling (Bayhous): A female Fo! Better yet, ALL of her animations are based
on Tosh2's version of Fo, NOT on Bayhou! Cool!

I'm betting that to get Vermillion, Abel and Sho, you have to beat the game
with all the "opposite" characters or something similar....

- Patrick Dolan