TOBAL NO. 2

How it was in 1997?

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.

TOBAL NO. 2

Rated 4.8/5 based on 23 reviews