Toshinden 4 (闘神伝 昴, Toshinden Subaru in Japan) is the fourth and final installment of the Battle Arena Toshinden series. Unlike previous installments, it's was only released in Japan and the PAL region. The game features 9 playable characters in the beginning, with 4 unlockable. Toshinden 4 introduces a team format featuring teams of 3 characters, however, like the previous games, still only 1 character fights at a time. This is the last Toshinden game to be produced and released by Takara.
Story[]
Ten years after the events of Battle Arena Toshinden 3, Eiji Shinjo, who is now the new leader of an organization called the "Gerard Foundation", has organized a fourth Toshinden tournament which revolves around the gathering of four holy weapons that can be used to either save the world or destroy it. Eiji's old enemy, Vermilion, is after the four holy weapons for his own malevolent ambition and that many fighters from within the tournament, including Eiji's own nephew Subaru, will find themselves getting caught from within the conflict itself. Can Eiji stop Vermilion before it's too late?
A plot point introduced in this game focused on the Four Sacred Arms. Though seen in full since Battle Arena Toshinden 2, their relevance was never previously brought up. Each weapon bears a reference to one of the Chinese cardinal beasts, Byakko, Suzaku, Seiryu and Genbu. The weapons also seem to change appearance depending on the user. While the Byakko no Tachi (White Tiger Fang) is usually seen as a rather plain katana, the Seiryu no Yari (Azure Dragon Spear) was a long leaf tipped spear while held by Mondo, yet altered to an ornate golden rod in the hands of Eos. As a purely cosmetic addition, when using a certain attack, an image of the beast associated with the weapon will display in the background.
Plotwise, it was said that when all four weapons were gathered together, they would bestow tremendous power on a person. Most characters in the game have their endings based around uniting the weapons and receiving the power of them. In some endings, they use this power to speak to a parent or loved one. However, Eiji's ending reveals the true nature of the power behind the weapons: It is the "Toshin", or god of fighting. This being is definitely not the one worshipped by the Organization of Toshinden 3, Agon Teos, since Vermilion makes a clear distinction between the two in his own ending.
Characters[]
Team 1:
- Subaru Shinjo - The main protagonist of the game. The son of Sho Shinjo and Cupido, Subaru is a traveling swordsman who seeks to locate the whereabouts of his missing uncle, Eiji.
- Naru Amoh - The main deuteragonist of the game and Kayin Amoh's foster daughter who was last seen as a playable character in Toshinden 3 (albeit when she was a small child). Now that she's a teenager, Naru joins forces with Subaru and Rook in order to participate in the tournament, hoping that she'll be able to figure out on what had happened to her foster father, who had disappeared after the events of Toshinden 3. Although in her ending, it reveals that her foster father had died after the events of Toshinden 3 upon speaking to Naru in a ball of light being formed by the four Sacred Arms and realizing that her search for her foster father's whereabouts is all for nothing.
- Rook Castle - A nunchaku-wielding American youth who dreams to meet and test his own fighting skills against his idol, Eiji Shinjo from within the tournament. Aside from that, he also wants to find a mysterious ninja girl who had defeated him in a street fight from within the past.
Team 2:
- Puella Marionette - A young petite Swiss girl who fights to defend the world's peace while wielding the Suzaku Bow (the same weapon that Uranus had used from within Toshinden 2). It is strongly implied from within her backstory that Uranus was her late mother.
- Lancelot Lakeknight - A noble yet cowardly English fencer who seeks to improve himself after a past battle against Naru.
- Fen Barefoot - A young Brazilian boy/fisherman who seeks revenge against Genma for the death of his grandfather. He has a pet pig named Wolfy who accompanies him wherever he goes and that Wolfy is able to attack if given a command from Fen.
Team 3:
- Genma - A mysterious yet malevolent Chinese sorcerer who seeks to gain the four holy weapons for his own personal greed. He is extremely old, more than 2,000 years old.
- Miyabi - A young Japanese kunoichi who was kidnapped by Genma and brainwashed into becoming his personal servant. Miyabi is actually the mysterious girl that Rook Castle has been searching and the one who defeats him in the past.
- Bang-Boo - A Cuban cyborg who has been programmed to work for Genma and Miyabi.
Team 4 (unlockable characters):
- Eiji Shinjo- is the leader of the Gerard Foundation, the uncle and master of Subaru Shinjo and the brother of the late Sho Shinjo. He uses this organization to get the four Sacred Arms by announcing the fourth Toshindaibukai tournament as well as testing the skills of his nephew Subaru. Following his defeat by Subaru and his group, his former sword, the Byakko no Tachi was chosen Subaru as its true master and later battling Vermillion in their final bout which Eiji kills him in the end.
- Eos - An Italian angel-esque altered human who works with Eiji from within the Gerard Foundation. She keeps her eyes closed and rarely opens them.
- Zero - A Greek synthetic human who also works with Eiji from within the Gerard Foundation.
Team 5 (unlockable character):
Release[]
The game was released a total of three times in Europe; it originally came out on June 30, 2000, and was re-released on The White Label Range on April 12, 2001, and was re-released again by Play It On, November 20, 2003.
Trivia[]
- The gameplay mechanics as opposed to the previous Toshinden games, is similar to the gameplay of Tobal and Tobal 2, and the Soul Calibur series where either side of their group during the one-on-one match or an actual one-on-one match would knock them out of the ring which resulted of their default win.
- This is the last and final Toshinden game to be produced and released in arcades and as the worst game to be flopped since Toshinden 3 has been the most popular game before this.
Gallery[]
