Original Release: AliceSoft, 1997, FM Towns / PC-98 / MS-DOS
Other Releases: Windows (2003), Nintendo 3DS (2014 – as Toushin Toshi: Girl’s Gift)
Quite possibly owing to everyone in Japan being in the wake of Evangelion at the time of release, Toushin Toshi 2 shifts to a much darker and more serious tone than the prequel and gives the player the option of engaging in much more hardcore H-scenes.
Toushin Toshi 2 (Windows, AliceSoft, 2003)
Where to Buy: Freeware – download the English translation here
Review by: Master-B
Toushin Toshi 2 worried me a little bit at first with an over-long and rather serious intro, but it gets back to the expected AliceSoft shenanigans eventually. Still, this came out a little before Brutal King Rance did and you can see similarities in how it has both a more polished presentation and also a darker overall tone and more hardcore H-scenes.
It’s another Toushin tournament just like the first game, but with a new protagonist. Our new man Seed isn’t tremendously different from Custom of the first game; he’s young and naive, probably too weak to be entering himself in this tournament, and is not a raper. Well, not at first, anyway. That one is eventually up to the player. While you could say that the first Toushin Toshi was the rape-free-but-still-hentai flavor for those who enjoy the Rance universe but not so much his Glorious Days, this one isn’t quite that. At the very least, you’ll be forced to watch some third-party rapings that Seed doesn’t participate in but also seems to take a suspiciously long time to do anything about or get away from. Hell, there’s one right near the beginning of the first dungeon.
So it’s a little more of a grim and hardcore H-game than the prequel. I suspect that popular anime Goblin Slayer took a bunch of uncredited inspiration from this series in general, but this one game in particular.
While it’s a darker overall story and much more brutal at times, Toushin 2 is also just generally easier to play and much better-structured than the prequel. No crashes, no bugs, and no obnoxious dungeon mazes. That lattermost bit is the most important, as this is first and foremost a dungeon crawler with some sex and visual novel elements layered over top to spice it up from the usual endless lobbings of Magic Missile at packs of kobolds in a bland stone corridor.
As with the first game, the primary VN element that spices things up is the limited amount of in-game time between your Toushin tournament matches. You usually get four or five days to power up and get ready; this one adds the twist of only giving you about 100 battles or so each day before you start getting tired and taking some combat and EXP penalties. Most of your tournament foes are also overwhelmingly strong and can only be handicapped by completing a dungeon quest, which often get rather complex and incorporate some mild adventure game elements.
All of this is pretty well-balanced and well-done without being either aggravating or too much of a cakewalk, and Toushin 2 is definitely one of the better porn games out there of any stripe (much less just the RPG field) in terms of both gameplay and writing. It’s not all total sunshine and roses; the menu system is a little obnoxious, and while the writing actually starts out pretty strong it kinda breaks down toward the final act of the game and starts feeling like the team just wanted to wrap this one up and print it.
But I suspect this would land somewhere in my top 100 of JRPGs of all time, should I ever feel compelled to sit down and make such a list. It’s actually solid enough and well-written enough to be worth playing on its own merits, not just for the porn.
Links
Boss battle / final chapter guide
Videos
OVA Episode 1 (censored)