User:Kung Fu Man/ToshindenList
Conception and design
[edit]When Tamsoft was initially development their 3D fighting game Battle Arena Toshinden, when first developing the cast director Shintarō Nakaoka started with a basic concept taking inspiration from the duality of Ryu and Ken Masters of Capcom's Street Fighter series. Working with character designer Miho Furukawa, he then followed with developing certain character archetypes to provide a variety of physiques to the game, such as the "big man", the "guru", and the "lolita". As development progressed others added their own elements, such as programmers adding unique animations to characters to give them more visible personality, while one core person was assigned to each character to assist with the planning stage.[1]
The character designs were finalized and drawn by Tsukasa Kotobuki, who also provided input on the development process.[2] The game's publisher Takara initially sought to have Masami Obari for this role, but he was unable to due to obligations on another project and suggested Kotobuki instead.[3] According to Battle Arena Toshinden URA director Norihiro Hayasaka, with the original game there was a noticeable discrepancy between the artwork Kotobuki would do for the game's characters and select screen and the character models themselves, particularly in how Kotobuki drew the female characters as slender with large breasts. Hayasaka pushed for the models to be closer to Kotobuki's art in terms of silhouette as a result, but also keep sharp edges to retain a style unique for Toshinden.[4]
Introduced in Battle Arena Toshinden
[edit]| Name | Description | Voiced by |
|---|---|---|
| Eiji Shinjo (エイジ・シンジョウ) | The main protagonist of the series. A young Japanese traveling swordsman/adventurer who seeks to find his long-lost older brother, Sho. Eiji progresses through the tournament and ultimately comes face-to-face with the tournament's sponsor, Gaia | |
| Ellis (エリス, Eris) | A cheerful and kind-hearted Turkish orphaned dancer of a traveling theater troupe who seeks to discover whether or not her long-lost missing father is still alive. | |
| Cupido (クピードー) | A character exclusive to the Sega Saturn version of the game and acting as its final boss, and Sho's wife.. She wears black tights, high riding underwear over them, red bracers with a matching cape, and a red midriff shirt under the cape. Cupido has purple hair in a bobcut, fights using a rhomphaia, and is described as "a woman living as a man".[5]
Kotobuki originally designed the character as a man, but the development team later changed Cupido to female, much to his surprise. Her design is meant to resemble a female version of Sho, with a crimson color theme, while she was given a short shaved haircut to create an androgynous look.[5] |
|
| Duke B. Rambert (デューク・バルテルミ・ランバート) | An arrogant French knight who seeks to find and defeat Eiji to avenge a past loss to him. | |
| Fo Fai (ホー・ファイ) | An elderly Chinese magician who is secretly a cold-hearted serial killer. Fo Fai enters the tournament to satisfy his bloodlust. | |
| Kayin Amoh (カイン・アモウ) | A Scottish (later retconned as English) swordsman/bounty hunter, a friend and rival of Eiji. He seeks to avenge the death of his foster father, who was killed by the previous tournament's champion from last year. | |
| Mondo (門土, モンド) | An emotionless Japanese ninja warrior who infiltrates the tournament under the orders from a rival group of the Secret Society. | |
| Run-go Iron (ラングー・アイアン) | A strong yet kind-hearted American miner who seeks to rescue his wife Lila and his son Christopher from the Secret Society. | |
| Sofia (ソフィア) | A whip-wielding blonde Russian woman who works as a private detective. She seeks to find and recover her long-lost memories. |
Introduced in Battle Arena Toshinden URA
[edit]| Name | Description | Voiced by |
|---|---|---|
| Ronron (ロンロン) | Ronron is a scientstic who was working on the Replicant before it escaped. She now chases after it despite being ill-suited for fighting, and uses a stungun/hammer hyprid when fighting. Lonlon is a Chinese a woman with thick glasses and a ponytail lifted to the side. She wears a a white shirt and matching stockings, a short red skirt, a yellow tie, and a backpack. Her appearance was based on Akira Toriyama's Arale-chan character, and was intended to portray a normal girl shoved into the tournament. Her attacks meanwhile were meant to be comedic but also sexy.[5] |
Introduced in Battle Arena Toshinden 3
[edit]Toshinden 3 not only featured characters returning from the previous games minus Fo Fai, but several new characters. Many of them however shared the same movesets of existing fighters, such as Zola being based off of Sofia.
| Name | Description | Voiced by | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abel (アベル) | Abel is the game's antagonist, and leader of the Organization, a group that seeks to remake the world in their image, having augmented his body and abilities to this end. Unlike other characters, he fights with his bare hands. He is a muscular man with a black bodysuit that exposes his chest and arms, red leggins, and orange hair peeking out of a black turban.[6]
The game originally only featured one boss character, someone they wanted to portray as stronger, to this end considering to have the character dual wielding weapons while wearing religious vestments. The concept was eventually split into two separate characters, Abel and Veil. Because Abel fights with his bare hands, as his design evolved his outfit was gradually made lighter.[7] |
||
| Adam (アダム) | Adam is a large yellow robot, acting as Abel's bodyguard. He wishes to become human, and worships the Organization's god in hopes his dream can become reality. He is a counterpart to Rungo Iron, though fights with a cannon instead of a club.[8] Adam went through several design concepts of varying types, with some wielding a club instead of his finalized cannon while others resembled a construction robot.[9] | ||
| Atahua (アタワ) | Atahua is a black man from Peru, dressed in tribal attire. The descendant of an ancient empire, he joins the series' Organization in hopes of restoring his people to glory. He fights using two bladed flutes, and acts as a counterpart to Ellis.[10] Early designs were intended to give a more intimidating appearance, and wielding hatchets instead.[11] | ||
| Bayhou (バイホウ) | Bayhou is a large white monkey from China, who watched Fo Fai train and eventually killed him using the martial artist's own techniques. He uses Fo Fai's claws, and wears a back-mounded basked with a human skull tucked inside. Bayhou is hunted by the Organization for unknown reasons.[12] In-game, one of Bayhou's alternate outfits changes his appearance to that of Fo Fai, but with a large red gash across his back.[13] | ||
| Cuiling (スイレイ) | Cuiling is a woman from Hong Kong who was trained as an assassin at a young age. After the conglomerate she was staying with was destroyed, she began to work for the Organization. Wielding long claw weapons, like Bayhou she fights similarly to Fo Fai, who in her backstory trained her for a time.[13]
An early concept for her character had her acting as a more direct counterpart to Bayhou, being a dark colored and genetically modified monkey. Other early concepts would have had her be silent and emotionless, wearing an outfit that incorporated bells. These bells were later included in her finalized design.[11] |
||
| Judgment (ジャッジメント) | Judgment was a childhood friend of David before being transformed into a mute killing machine by the Organization. Though he follows their orders, he is hesitant to fight David. Hailing from England, he wears an orange and blue straightjacket outfit, with a burned appearance hidden beneath a hockey mask on his face. He fights using a long chainsaw, and is a counterpart to David.[14] | ||
| Leon (レオン) | Leon is a tall American man with a red outfit and pink bandana that fights using a one-handed sword. Acting as an underling for Abel, he attacks Eiji to sacrifice him for one of the Organization's rituals, but in the process develops a love for fighting. He is the game's counterpart to Eiji.[15] While his finalized appearance resembled a pirate, early designs resembled a dancer, and had a more timid appearance.[11] | ||
| Miss Til (ミス・ティル) | Early designs of her character were significantly different, resembling a Japanese shrine maiden with two lit candles in her hair, and armed with a singular long dagger.[9] | ||
| Schultz (シュルツ) | Schultz is a member of the series' antagonists, the Organization, clad in a black outfit that covers the top of his head and featuring red lipstick with blue fingernails. A tall German man with a long thing mustache, he is a priest and mad scientist who assists with the Organization's rituals and uses his own body as material to cast spells. Schultz fights using a heavy scythe and is a counterpart to previous character Chaos.[16] His character design was intended to invoke imagery of a grim reaper.[7] | ||
| Ten Count (テン・カウント) | Ten Count is a British assassin for the Organization, with his name coming from the head start he gives his victims before hunting and killing them. A tall man in a white suit with matching fedora, he fights using an arming sword, and is a counterpart to Kayin Amoh who he hunts down during the course of the game's story.[17] His appearance and mannerisms reference those of real-life musician Michael Jackson.[18] However, early designs featured a very different outfit, illustrating throwing knives and and were based on depictions of archer William Tell.[11] | ||
| Toujin (トウジン) | Toujin is a Japanese man with a long nose, similar to a tengu. He seeks the secret to immortality to save his dying wife, and approaches the organization to this end. Dressed similarly to a Japanese monk, he wields a kiseru and acts as a counterpart to Mondo.[19] Early designs for Toujin resembled a Japanese priest instead, and lacked the tengu reference of his finalized design.[9] | ||
| Veil (ヴェイル) | Veil is a destructive being that was sealed within Abel, trapped there after he failed the Organization. Freed during the game's climax, he seeks to cause destruction. Wearing black armor, his eyes are red with blue makeup around them and orange hair on his head. He fights using two pink energy blades.[20]
The game originally only featured one boss character, someone they wanted to portray as stronger, to this end considering to have the character dual wielding weapons while wearing religious vestments. The concept was eventually split into two separate characters, Abel and Veil. Several ideas were considered for his weapons, including beam sabers, with the earliest version based off Ripper's character design. His outfit also went through various incarnations, including heavy religious attire, before being changed to armor fastened with belts and screws.[7] |
||
| Zola (ゾラ) | An opera singer from Austria, she hunts down beautiful people and acts as an assassin for the Organization. She is large breasted woman with pink hair, dressed in a black catsuit with plunging cleavage, spiked pauldrons, and a cat-themed mask with wide ears. She fights using a claw on her left hand a weighted whip in her right, acting as a counterpart to Sofia.[21] Zola's outfit was inspired by the characters Catwoman and Lady Doronjo, with her animations referencing the former. Early versions were going to have her fight using a snake as a weapon, before switching to a long thin whip similar to ones used by jockeys.[18][9] |
Critical reception
[edit]As the series progressed, media outlets took issue with the differing versions of the games that would exclude certain characters while introducing new ones. In particular, Toshinden URA received disdain for this aspect, with some reviews calling Ronron one of the worst characters in fighting games in general.[22][23][24]
References
[edit]- ^ Toshinden 1&2 Official Materials Book 闘神伝1＆2 設定資料集 (in Japanese). Tokuma Shoten. 1995. pp. 84–85. ASIN B0036QY35S.
- ^ 闘神伝2 究極宝技の書 [Battle Arena Toshinden 2: Book of Ultimate Treasure Technique] (in Japanese). Famitsu. 1996-03-08. p. 76. ISBN 9784893664761.
- ^ Kotobuki, Tsukasa [@t_kotobuki] (June 15, 2018). 正確には大張さんがタカラから依頼されたのは移植版サムスピのパッケージで、当時劇場版監督で忙しかった大張さんがそれを自分に振ってくれたのだけど途中でその移植話自体が無くなってしまい、代わりに自社開発中の次世代ゲーム機ソフトの件でご相談がと再依頼されたのが闘神伝のキャラデです。 [To be precise, Obari was originally asked by Takara to design the packaging for the ported version of Samurai Shodown, and at the time he was busy directing the feature film, so he passed the job on to me. However, the porting talks fell through midway, and instead he was consulted again about the next-generation game console software that they were developing in-house, and so he asked me to do the character design for Toshinden.] (Tweet) (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2025-05-08 – via Twitter.
- ^ エリスとソフィアの新コスチューム&OP画面! [Ellis and Sofia's new costumes and opening screen!]. Sega Saturn Magazine (in Japanese). Vol. 14. SoftBank. August 23, 1996. pp. 82–83. T1023404080545.
- ^ a b c 紅き美戦士クピードー見参! [The Beautiful Crimson Cupido Appears!]. Sega Saturn Magazine (in Japanese). Vol. 12. SoftBank. December 1995. p. 70. T1023404080545. Cite error: The named reference "ss-magazine-1995-12" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 132–135. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ a b c 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. p. 149. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 40–43. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ a b c d 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. p. 148. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 48–51. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ a b c d 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. p. 147. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 60–63. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ a b 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 64–67. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 112–115. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 16–19. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 96–99. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 24–27. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ a b "Battle Arena Toshinden 3". PlayStation Plus. No. 17. Dennis Publishing. February 1997. pp. 76–78.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 56–59. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 136–139. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ 闘神伝3 オフィシャルガイド [Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Official Guide] (in Japanese). PlayStation Books. March 1997. pp. 32–35. ISBN 9784797302110.
- ^ "Review Crew: Toshinden URA". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 90. January 1997. p. 61.
- ^ "Toshinden URA". Next Generation. No. 27. March 1997. p. 92.
- ^ "ProReview: Battle Arena Toshinden URA". GamePro. No. 100. January 1997. p. 114.