During the early stages of the PSone's lifespan,Battle Arena Toshinden was a fun 3D fighting game.
However,it was eventually overshadowed by much better fighting games and became forgotten.The game feels like a 3D version of Street Fighter that allows the characters to use weapons.
Eiji Shinjo is a Japanese character who is a traveller and he can shoot projectiles,he has a powerful attacking/counter attacking move similar to the shoryuken from street fighter(except Eiji Shinjo uses a sword while executing the move)and he also has an attack where he jumps high in the air and launches a powerful kick at his opponent(does he remind you of Ryu)?
Kayin uses a fighting style similiar to Eiji,except his jumping sword attack goes more horizontally than Eiji's,plus Kayin can shoot projectile attacks and also has a powerful kicking move where he somersaults and hit's his opponent with a powerful kick(does he remind you of Ken)?
The other characters in the game that I remember are:- A French knight,a muscular American miner who uses a giant club,a little,an eldery Chinese man who uses claws,a pretty,blonde haired Russian woman who dresses very seductive and uses a whip as a weapon.To be honest,I don't remember the other characters.
The combat relies a lot on delicate timing but the characters feel a but unbalanced(Eiji and Kayin have big technical advantages over the other characters)and Rungo can use his strength to his advantage but some of the other characters are easy to overwhelm with Eiji or Kayin.However,some Eiji vs Kayin battles were quite fun because their technical styles created some entertaining battles and the delicate timing for their moves made some of their battles nearly as fun as a Ryu vs Ken battle in Street Fighter.
You can win by either KOing your opponent or by knocking them out of the ring(to make the battles a bit more unpredictable).
The final boss is very huge,cheap and tough to beat.
The graphics are on par with the early PS games.I like some of the soundtracks for the game because sound of them soundern electronic,have a rock sound,traditional asian style or almost spiritual.
Overall-I think this was a fun game to play during the early stages of the PSone's lifespan,but it became very redundant compared to some of the much better fighting games released later on.