CHUJI & CO. IS BACK!
MEANER AND BETTER
Fans of Tobal No. 1 can rejoice
once again! The sequel to
Squaresoft's premier fighter is
finally here! Tobal 2 is bigger,
better, meaner AND it's ready
for the PlayStation's analog
controller when it ships.
STUFF WHICH DREAMS
ARE MADE OF
When you
start off the game, the first thing
you would notice is that the
characters are incredibly
smooth. Gone are the blocky
characters from Tobal No. 1.
Even the backgrounds have
improved significantly. Usually,
sequels to games are basically
re-hashes with more characters
thrown in. not so for Tobal 2.
The "Fight Engine" in this game
feels as if it's been rebuilt from
the ground up yet at the same
time the feel of the original game
has been retained. The game
even has kick-ass rockin'
background music and sound
effects.
OF CHOICES AND
SELECTION
Other than basic button
configuration, difficulty settings
etc. the Quest Mode has
improved considerably
especially in the graphics
department. There's a Practice
Mode where you can hone your
skills and timing as you will soon
learn that timing your hits and
combos is essential to beat the
game. In Practice Mode, you
can get the following information
off the fight data display such as
move damage, number of
combo hits, total damage etc.
You can even set your drone
opponent's moves like whether
they just stand there and take all
your hits or do they fight back
and so on.
SMOOTHER THAN A
BABY’S BOTTOM
In the normal Tournament
Mode, the number of moves
have increased with no sacrifice
to the existing moves found in
No. 1. The attacks are more
dramatic than before with great
sound effects. Your player's
arsenal of moves includes
throws, normal attacks, grab
attacks, turning attacks (with
your back facing your
opponent), dodge attacks as
well as counter and recovery
moves. Almost all attacks can
be countered by your fighter.
Like I mentioned before, it's all
in the timing. There's even an
extended chain move (can be
seen as a move with a light trail)
that's very hard to pull for each
character as it can only be
executed with very precise
button presses.
Another interesting feature is that
you can now make your
opponent dizzy, and once that's
done, you can proceed on to
pelt your opponent senseless
with a barrage of punches and
kicks which usually takes a huge
chunk off your life bar.
You start off with 10 selectable
characters with 13 opponents to
fight with. Your reward for
finishing a game is a rendered
cinema ending of your character.
There are hidden characters in
this game as well.. To activate
them you will have to finish the
game in either Easy, Normal or
Hard mode as well as the Quest
mode.
Your characters now have the
ability to use fireballs which
takes up a good portion of your
life and is quite unavoidable.
Quest mode armor etc follows a
similar type as FF7, with you
adding "stones" to upgrade
yourself. There was this funny
situation where Vican got this
unfamiliar potion and he thought
it's some kind of poison. So
what does he do? Well, he
threw it at the bad guy and he
became invincible. Needless to
say, he suffered a humiliating
defeat and died. These are the
kind of things that make it fun
and real. :) The quest mode feels
and looks like FF7 in real time.
Maybe this is a preview of what
FF8 will be like.
Speaking of the Quest Mode, it
has also been dramatically
improved. Your character is
now displayed on a 3-D
isometric view when you 'walk'
around. Once you enter a
dungeon/maze the view shifts to
the traditional
'behind-your-character' view.
Most of the actions and moves
are retained from Tobal 1
except that when you encounter
an enemy, you see it as a
glowing flame from a distance
and you can only see what kind
of creature when you move up
close. Some of the creatures that
you must fight in the dungeon are
pretty 'interesting'. You get to
fight frog-like creatures,
penguins, giant rats etc...pretty
bizarre but cool nonetheless.
THE FATAL BLOW (LAST
WORDS)
This game is one of the better
fighting games available for the
PlayStation and comes highly
recommended, if not for the
fighting action then it's for the
Quest mode which makes this
title interesting. Once again
Squaresoft proves that they can
make games of other genre just
as well as their RPGs.
SCORE: 8.4
