Soul Fighter (Toka)

Soul Fighter was released on the Dreamcast in 1999 by Toka. From the blurb on the back of the games box it loudly claimed, 'Soul Fighter is a free roaming real-time 3D beat-em-up based in a medieval setting.' My copy was bundled in with the Dreamcast console upon purchase so it was the first 'next gen' game I ever played. And I must admit, I was impressed.
You took control of one of three fighters - Altus the warrior, Orion the Wizard, and Sayomi the Assassin - and battled through hoardes of mutant fighters (which included a knight with a head of a fox!?) through villages, caves and swamps. Players could opt for either Arcade mode or the harder Adventure mode, and with 5 worlds spanning over roughly 12 levels there was a ton of action.
Looks wise, Soul Fighter was a mixed bag of headless mer-men. As I said, initially I was very impressed, but I concede that this was partly due to the fact it was the first 3D next generation fighter I had played. As more time was spent at it, the cracks in the scenery did begin to make themselves noticed. Characters were very blocky, and many objects meant to be circular were in fact more square.
Other gamers have utterly condemned Soul Fighter as an unplayable piece of garbage, but I shall stray from the crowd (as per usual) and be less harsh. No, it does not posses stunning visuals - which are not indicative of a good game anyway - but it IS a fun medieval battler with some (very) tough fights.
In fact come to think about it, perhaps this is why a great many gamers hated it. It was simply too tough for them. My advice would be to ignore the herd and try it for yourself - it may not be the world's best game but it is by no means the worst either.