Battle Arena Toshinden 2 is the first sequel to Battle Arena Toshinden .
The game adds three new starting fighters; Tracy and Chaos with the original game's final boss, Gaia returning un-armoured and with a completely new move set. There are also three new bosses and hidden characters raising the total number of fighters to 15 (up from 10).
Toshinden 2 introduces several running attacks to each character: the ability to strike a grounded opponent with new ground attacks and the powerful Overdrive attacks that one must fill up a bar by using other attacks to be able to use.
Toshinden 2 also replaces the free-form combo system of the original Toshinden with a simple combo system, and makes the 3D movement slower to prevent abuse. This results in a more tactical gameplay experience.
The game is more balanced than its predecessor, with opponents able to capitalize on individual missed attacks. A re-release called "Toshinden 2 plus" was also made in Japan to further tweak the balance.
Battle Arena Toshinden 2 was released for the PlayStation console in 1996 .
The game features a total of 15 playable fighters, with no re-dubbing for releases outside of Japan.
Additionally, the PC release of Battle Arena Toshinden 2 is a straight port of the Playstation version and supports Direct3D rather than specific 3D cards.