Dream Factory, I was told, was basically the company of Namco & Squaresoft, and one of the first fighting games I remember them releasing was TOBAL NO.1, a smooth-looking 3D fighter that had a bad-ass “Just-Frame Throw Reversal” system that was just the coolest thing I’d ever seen in a fighting game back then. The game even had character-designs done by Akira Toriyama of the Dragon Ball Z fame. Back when this game was fresh, I played it to death.
Then America misses-out on Tobal 2 (which I recently bought like 3 months ago). This game should be called “Just-Frame Crazy” or something because that’s basically all it friggin’ was: doing Just-Frames for about 50% of your moves; even the just-frames had just-frames!! It pretty much had all the qualities of the first game except the stages & backgrounds were MUCH more beautiful and the soundtrack was way cooler.
Then America gets EHRGEIZ, a silly-ass, “run-around freely” 3D fighting-game that was only really known for having characters from Final Fantasy VII. Well fuck Cloud…I liked the game because it was basically a better version of Tobal. And having said that, the characters in this game used ALOT of the moves used by characters in the Tekken and Tobal series. Examples: the character “Godhand” (also known as “Ken Mishima”) had Paul’s d+1,4,2; Hwoarang’s u/f+3,4,3; and Kazuya’s Spinning Demon Sweeps, Wind Godfist, and unblockable Screw Uppercut…“Han Daehan” had Gren Kuts’ G+H,H,H…and “Cloud Strife” had Kazuya’s (While Standing) 2 and Gren Kuts’ u,u/d,d+M and his G+L,M and Chuji-Wu’s f,f+M.
It was a very awkward game, but like Tobal, had a very unique throw-escape and tackling system consisting of mainly Just-Frames that sometimes even had a Reverse-Throw/Tackle effect; it resembled some crap you’d see in a UFC game. This was basically the first game to have the “Sparkling Blue” effect whenever a just-frame attack was executed (like we see today with Tekken 4/5’s Paul Phoenix’s d+4,:2,:1+2, which REALLY reminded me of Ehrgeiz the first time I saw it). Overall, it was a fun game with neat stages and a pretty mellow soundtrack.
Then to top it all off, originally thought to be “Ehrgeiz 2”, we have THE BOUNCER. The game looked good as hell, the whole beat-em-up style + RPG system was kinda neat, and they put a lot of effort into the story, characters, soundtrack, and voice acting; and they were all great…BUT IT WAS JUST GARBAGE WHEN YOU PLAYED IT. I dunno, it was weird. The limbs on all the characters just resembled broken dolls whenever they fell on the floor, and their weren’t alot of moves or blocking mechanics. I still haven’t grown attached to it to this day. The “Trinity Rush” moves were pretty cool (where you and your 2 pals just gang-up on one guy and fuck him up), and the whole 4-player concept was a nice idea. The villian, Dauragon C. Mikado, was one of the coolest bad guys I’d ever seen in a game.
And once again, it borrowed moves from alot of the old games (Tobal, Tekken, & Ehrgeiz). Sion Barzahd had Cloud Strife’s “Double Uppercut” move; Volt Krueger had King’s “Giant Swing”; and Kou Leifou borrows Han Daehan’s f+H,H,H, his G+H,H,H, his (Running) H+L,L, and his Crane stance combo (which was like H x7). There was even this chick in the game name “Echidna” who basically fought like Tekken’s Eddy Gordo/Christie, and another chick named “Kaldea” who fought like Nina Williams.
…and that’s it for me. Those’re all the Dream Factory games I can recall. I really do miss alot of these old games, and I hope Dream Factory considers picking up one of them. I think back about some of the characters I’d like to see again in a new game, such as Han Daehan, Godhand, Yoyo Yoko, Gren Kuts, Chuji Wu, Hom, and Epon. I hope one day we see some of these characters pop up.
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Especially Sions! ^^
It’s like a normal beat’em up, but against only 1 character (loved the music though).
back to topic. I remember seeing a copy of Tobal no. 2 at one of the local shops here but didn’t pick it up since I didn’t have my ps modded. After reading your post I wish I had.