You mean to tell me there’s a sequel to Tobal? I’m sure many seeing this review are asking themselves that very question. Tobal No. 1 was an early PS1 fighting game from a rather unusual source. At the time Squaresoft was known almost exclusively for it’s role playing games. The fact that they released a 3D fighter in this era was big news. At least for their fans. After that Tobal just seemed to kind of fade away. It seemed to be a one off which isn’t unusual for an experimental title such as this. Little did we all know Squaresoft did actually release a sequel. Unfortunately Tobal 2 was never released outside of Japan. This is likely due to poor sales of the original in the West, but it’s disappointing nonetheless. Today we’re going to take a look at this forgotten import. Here’s our review of Tobal 2!
The original Tobal had a unique story as far as fighting games go. You chose a character from a roster of single minded characters competing in a battle royale tournament. It lacked overblown backstories like it’s contemporaries, and instead each fighter was simply out to get rich. The planet of Tobal was rich in rare minerals and the winner of the tournament got exclusive mining rights to these. It was cheesy and unusual, but I loved it for that. There’s less emphasis on story this time around (or maybe I just can’t tell because it’s in Japanese). Near as I can see it’s the same premise but with a few new faces added to the roster.
Speaking of the character line-up it scores major kudos from me. Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame designed all of them which is both a good and bad thing. On one hand they’re chock full of personality. Unfortunately Akira Toriyama just doesn’t have a lot of unique designs under his belt. Everyone looks like a rip-off from the Dragon Ball series. Chuji is basically Goku, Epon looks similar to Bulma, Gren appears like Trunks, and more. The list goes on. This style has grown on me over the years, but if you aren’t a fan then Tobal 2 certainly won’t sell you on it. The different fighting styles that each of them uses is however unique. So far I’ve only touched on the starting roster, and fans of unlockables are going to have a field day. I’ll get to that later.
Tobal 2, like it’s predecessor, is a unique fighting game for a number of different reasons. For one thing the battlefields are complete 3D. I really mean it; you can move in all directions at all times. Sidestepping is a thing of the past because you have total freedom here even if your character is stuck facing the opponent at all times. This allows for some huge battlefields which I really like. There are also ring-outs and because you can move in all directions you have to pay more attention than usual to your placement. It’s pretty easy to walk out of bounds if you aren’t careful. What’s also unique is that combat is more grounded in realism here. This is despite the fantastical scenario and oddball characters. You have a strong, mid, and weak attack (consisting of punches and kicks) as well as grapples and counters.
Much to my disappointment Squaresoft finally gave in and added projectile attacks to the game. It takes some of the realism that I liked so much about Tobal 2’s gameplay engine and throws it right out of the window. Each character is equipped with a fireball they can shoot at their foes. This is limited in that it drains your health to use, but it still feels like the developers were pandering to titles like Street Fighter II with this element. Squaresoft made other changes as well. For one thing the action as a whole has been noticeably sped up. It’s nothing like the turbo mode in Street Fighter II, but it does raise the barrier of entry. What I mean is that Tobal 2 is more difficult to learn than it’s predecessor. The grappling system has also been made more forgiving, and the counters are a little more finicky.
One thing that set Tobal apart from pretty much every other fighting game was it’s RPG-like quest mode. I wasn’t the biggest fan of it, but as an addition it was fine. I’m happy to report that it not only returns here, but it has also been more fleshed out. You now have a town area to explore wherein you can save your progress, interact with NPCs, and more. The real meat and potatoes of this mode however is in the dungeons. You guide the character of your choice through various completely 3D dungeons. These are randomly generated which I’m not usually a fan of, but I didn’t mind it here. These areas are very simple in design with few hazards and a variety of different enemies to encounter.
These foes are highlighted as flames, and as you approach them the encounter starts. Battles are played out using the default fighting engine, and your goal is just to deplete the enemy’s health at which point the battle is done and you can move on. Your character gets stronger as you use a variety of different attacks and blocks, and energy can wear out for these as well. It’s actually pretty neat. It forces you to use kicks and punches intermittently, and you’ll sometimes want to block just to power up this skill. You can also find gems and apply them to various aspects of your character to increase their abilities. Other items include food and healing potions. This brings me to the biggest problem I had with the first game’s quest mode which returns in this sequel.
The hunger system in Tobal 2 is crap. Sure, it lends itself to roguelike elements but that’s not a genre I’ve ever enjoyed. Basically your hunger meter continues to drop as time passes. When it runs out your health starts dropping, and eventually you’ll die. Each time you do you’re sent back to the starting town, and you lose all of your progress. The entire system should have been scrapped because it actually makes the quest mode a chore to play. To make matters worse Tobal 2’s dungeons and enemies are cheap as heck. In the beginning things are easy enough, but at the second area the difficulty spikes through the roof. Just defeating normal enemies is a chore in and of itself. I don’t see how this is possible to complete. I mean, I thought I was good at Tobal 2 but these monsters handed my butt to me.
Even if you aren’t a fan of RPGs, and don’t want to bother with the sloppy rogue-like that is Tobal 2’s quest mode you’re still going to want to give it a go. This is because you can unlock an absolute incredible amount of new characters by playing it. Every single monster you encounter can be added to the versus roster. I can’t emphasize enough how amazing this feature is considering there’s around two hundred different monsters here. Yes, you read that correctly. That means the roster is several hundred characters large. I can’t think of any other fighting game that can compete with this in terms of sheer numbers. Now before you get too excited I should point out that most of these are pretty boring. They’re based on animals like moles, bears, dinosaurs, etc. Their movesets are very limited as well. Still, it’s an impressive feat.
Tobal 2 may just be the best looking fighting game for the PS1. That’s quite a claim considering the system also hosted powerhouses like Tekken 3. Some can disagree, because the engine makes some sacrifices that not everyone will enjoy. For example, there are almost no textures here. Everything is rendered with solid colors. The trade off for this is the extra animations on each character. There are no fighting games from this era that have such amazing looking hair for example, and every punch and kick has a ton of frames. Tobal 2 looks absolutely incredible in motion. It’s a decent upgrade from the original in this regard with better character models and environments. The soundtrack doesn’t fare quite as well. There’s nothing terrible here, but the composer kind of dropped the ball. I usually love fighting game soundtracks but the one in Tobal 2 is largely forgettable.
