Let’s get this out of the way: Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is not trying to be the next Marvel vs. Capcom game. It’s also not trying to be like Dragon Ball FighterZ nor BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, the last tag-team fighters from the developer, Arc System Works. Tōkon has a completely different angle with how it approaches multicharacter tag-team fighting while still maintaining its developer’s signature stylish combat and highly skilled gameplay. What it also had is a rocky launch that has wobbled the fighting stance of an otherwise solid fighter.
Like in the beloved MvC series, Tōkon lets players select a multicharacter team from a roster of 20 to pit against one another. Here, it’s teams of four versus four, and the selection comes from some of Marvel Comics’ biggest names with some wilder picks. Captain America, Iron Man, and Spider-Man are present but so are Ms. Marvel, Blade, and Danger. Even the villains get some new cuts, with fighting-game mainstays like Dr. Doom complemented by Spidey villains Green Goblin and Carnage. And some characters get twists in their roster, like Shuri, T’Challa’s sister, filling in as Black Panther and Ghost Rider as Robbie Reyes. Each character is part of a primary team, with Cap, Iron Man, Black Panther, and Hulk forming the “Fighting Avengers;” Spider-Man, Star-Lord, Peni Parker, and Ms. Marvel making up the “Amazing Guardians;” and so forth. Players also can mix and match characters as desired and form their own teams.
Like the aforementioned games, combat takes place on a 2D plane with 3D graphics, allowing for cinematic battles, and you can call in the rest of your team with assist attacks and swap them out to play as other heroes and villains.
However, that’s about where the similarities end. All characters share one health bar, and at the beginning of each match, you’re limited to one main hero or villain and one assist character only, with the rest of your team and the ability to tag another character in with a “Crossover” attack unlocked when you’ve filled up your “Assemble Gauge” by doing more damage. Think of it like building up tension in a comic for when a character from another series makes a cameo appearance.
Gameplay is also a little more restrained, with multiple characters flying around the screen being something built up to. But like many fighting games, there’s also your “Skill Gauge” to build up, allowing you to unleash character-specific ultimate attacks, like a wave of spiked tentacle attacks from Carnage. Then, if your “Skill Gauge” is full and your opponent has won two of the three rounds, you can unleash a combined special attack from all four of your team members called a “Tōkon Assemble,” which of course are the coolest-looking and most devastating moves to pull off. The requirements needed to make some of the cooler things happen make the game feel more intentional and less button-mashy, but the way each match builds to character-swapping, special-move-unleashing madness lends the game its own exciting feel.
All of that wouldn’t mean squat, though, if the multiplayer aspects weren’t what they are. Matchmaking in casual and ranked games feels fair, and the game uses everything from your own gameplay to a beginning questionnaire to make you feel like you’re facing equal-level opponents. But when discussing multiplayer, the game’s biggest misstep has to be mentioned. PC players were required to make a PSN account to play online, and connectivity issues arise, likely thanks to the game’s anti-piracy DRM and working with Sony’s Playstation Network. While matchmaking and connectivity issues remain fine on the PS5 version, PC players may wish to wait for things to get ironed out.
While with any fighting game, the meat is in its multiplayer aspect, Marvel Tōkon still offers plenty of single-player content. Each of the five main teams get their own story mode, or “Episode” told via animated voice-acted comic panels, and there’s your standard arcade mode, plus a survival mode that almost plays like a roguelite.
With its stylish manga-meets-comics art and high-ceiling skill level, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls has a lot to offer. It’s just too bad that out of the gate, it’s stumbled a little on getting players to crossplay from PS to PC.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls
Developed by Arc System Works, directed by Kazuto Sekine, written by Kieron Gillen. Available for PS5 and PC.
Rated T
