I had high hopes with D-Xhird when I saw pictures of it on gaming magazines and stated that gameplay will be a reminiscent of Battle Arena Toshinden and boy was I disappointed when I finally played it.
D-Xhird is a 3d fighting game from Takara whose previous games include the Battle Arena Toshinden series. D-Xhird also uses the same fighting engine as the toshinden series but didn't not quite have the fast pace action that made the playstation original great. D-Xhird is like a side-story of the Toshinden series, it has a small piece the connects it with the Toshinden storyline, think of it as the follow-up to the second Toshinden game on the sega saturn, Toshinden URA but with no direct ties.
The graphics are average, there are some lighting effects when you use powered-up attacks and some transparency effects but they're far from being impressive. Polygon models on the characters are not good, on par with Toshinden URA but a bit blurry looking at times. Fighting stage environments are plain-looking much like the playstation's Toshinden 3 and Saturn's Toshinden URA, compose of caged-arenas and open area arenas. Overall all the graphics are average nothing impressive, on par with some Toshinden games, character polygon models are not on par with those of Virtua Fighter 2. Music is good, like most fighting game soundtrack out there, they are compose of rock music with some heavy and light guitar riffs. Sound effects are also good, you can here some good clashing swords sounds and lightning and wind sounds on some stages. There's also variety when it comes to character selections, there are ten available characters with varying personalities, weapons, and styles, from the start and you'll unlock more as you progress and play the game more. One character is even an old time favorite from the Toshinden series. As you unlock more characters, their fighting stage is also unlocked giving you more variety. There are also secret modes to unlock which adds even more variety and some replay value. So the game has some good points and weak points but what about the one thing that makes a game great, the gameplay, well all I can say is that gameplay is bad. There's shoddy collision detection, when you hit an opponent sometimes they take damage and sometimes they don't and that really sucks. Slow response time when executing a move, sometimes a punch takes a second to see the animation after already hitting a button, this makes doing combos, special moves, and powered-up moves frustrating. And the pace of the game is slow with all that shoddy collision detection and slow response time, which makes it boring to play even if you want to just unlock the characters or a two-player mode.
So my verdict, graphics are average, music and sound-effects are good, variety and extras make up for some replay value, and gameplay is boring, a big letdown. The only reason I gave it an average score is because it gave me some urge to play it with its interesting storyline which is although japanese can be followed easily and is presented well, and to unlock those secret characters and modes. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you're a big Toshinden fan, you might wanna check it out for its Toshinden-style gameplay and some pieces that connect it with the Toshinden mythos. Fighting games fans which crave the flashiness of capcom's versus games or the fast-paced weapon fighting action of soul calibur or last bronx, avoid this game, it will only disappoint you.