Three decades ago, in January 1995, Battle Arena Toshinden came out for the original PlayStation, being a major part in ushering a then-new age of fighting games. A trilogy was made of the franchise but, since then, it has been long forgotten, living on mostly in emulators installed on some PCs and smartphones, or with retro gaming aficionados who managed to hold on to a functional PSX console.
Well, that insanity just has to be stopped, so Japanese company Edia struck a deal with IP holder Takara Tomy in order to bring the original Battle Arena Toshinden trio to the PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series — not, not a remake nor a remaster, but three ports that will likely come out between 2026 and 2027.
The announcement came via a Japanese press release that Gematsu was kind enough to translate to us Westerners, which states:
“We will begin developing ports of contracted titles for current consoles, aiming for release between fiscal 2026 and 2027. We will utilize our accumulated know-how in porting and commercializing retro games to advance product planning, aiming to create products that will not only be ports but also be enjoyed by many fans. Further details regarding the product lineup will be announced as they are decided.”
Why was Battle Arena Toshinden forgotten for 30 years before coming to the PS5
Like we said, Battle Arena Toshinden was brought into limelight due to its stunning, 3D visuals. Back in January 1995, those were still mostly uncommon (not “rare”, just more-than-noticeable enough so most people would turn their heads whenever they came around). However, despite its nice looking presentation, the game was criticized for its clunky gameplay, so this didn’t do wonders for it to really take off.
That alone would be problematic enough, but Battle Arena Toshinden had the added problem that a certain fighter game would also make its debut a couple months later — that being a little something called “Tekken”, whose eighth mainline entry recently revealed a new character to come out in December.
And the thing about gameplay is…while Tekken really did bring some new, innovative mechanics with the looks to back them up, Battle Arena Toshinden had mostly its visuals to vouch for it, but gameplay-wise, it was still stuck in older, 2D-before-PlayStation methods of development.
In short: despite being recognized as one of PSX’s most innovative titles, it quickly faded into obscurity as it held no competition against later, competing releases.
The game did launch several other titles, as well as anime integrated media, but Edia’s deal seems to include only the original trilogy. Hopefully, they make something out of the other stuff as well as fixing some of its gameplay’s most egregious problems.
