MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls Review

A stylish 4v4 fighter that blends Arc System Works’ experience with Marvel’s biggest heroes, offering an accessible entry point without leaving experienced players behind.

MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls arrives with the kind of premise that immediately makes you curious. Marvel fighting games have a long history, particularly through Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom series, but this time Marvel has handed the fighting game formula to Arc System Works, with Sony Interactive Entertainment publishing the game. 

Instead of simply trying to recreate the experience of older Marvel fighters, the developers have taken the characters, visual identity, and fast-paced action associated with Arc System Works and built something that feels like its own game.

That decision is probably the most important thing about Marvel Tokon. 

If you go into it expecting Marvel vs. Capcom 2, you may spend too much time comparing the two. Once you stop doing that, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls becomes much easier to appreciate. Arc System Works has brought ideas and influences from games such as Guilty Gear Strive and Dragon Ball FighterZ, but Marvel Tokon introduces a four-versus-four structure that gives the game its own identity.

The basic idea is simple enough for newcomers to understand. You select four Marvel characters, control one at a time, and use the others as assists or bring them directly into the fight when necessary. All four characters share a single health bar, which is a key difference from many traditional tag fighters. 

That accessibility is one of Marvel Tokon’s biggest strengths. You can begin by focusing on your favorite character, use the other three as support, and gradually learn how the deeper tag mechanics work. Once you become more comfortable, switching between characters and incorporating them into combos gives you more options. 

The game’s narrative is presented through five different team-based episodes. Rather than creating one enormous story campaign, Marvel Tokon divides its single-player story into separate routes featuring different groups of characters. 

The presentation is particularly different from a traditional fighting game campaign. The stories are delivered through animated comic-book-style sequences, with each episode featuring its own artistic approach. Different artists bring their visual styles to the individual stories, while the writing connects the characters and their personalities. 

You also get plenty of character interactions along the way. Because the roster contains heroes and villains from very different corners of Marvel, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls has room to create combinations that would rarely appear together elsewhere. 

The campaign is fairly straightforward compared with something like Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode. 

You are not exploring a massive open world or building a character from scratch. Instead, you move through battles and story sequences. That simplicity can be a limitation if you are looking for a huge single-player adventure, but the comic-book presentation and character-focused writing make the individual episodes worth experiencing. 

Once you move past the story, the real heart of Marvel Tokon is its combat system. MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls uses a four-versus-four format, but that does not mean you constantly control four characters simultaneously. You normally have an active fighter, while the other three can assist or eventually enter the fight themselves.

This structure gives you an interesting way to approach the game. When you are starting out, you can almost treat it like a one-on-one fighting game with three support characters waiting on the sidelines. Your favorite character can do most of the work while you learn what the other team members can contribute. 

Tagging becomes especially important once you start learning more advanced combos and mix-ups. Bringing another character into the fight can open up new offensive options, while assists can provide additional tools, such as anti-air attacks or ways to maintain pressure. The system therefore has a natural learning curve. 

There is another unusual part of the system: you do not begin every match with your entire team assembled. You start with two characters, while additional characters become available through certain actions during the fight. 

Stage transitions are therefore more than just visual effects. Depending on the stage, breaking through a wall can either send both fighters into another section and return them to neutral, or create a wall-slump situation. These moments can change the flow of the match and also contribute to assembling your team.

Assembling characters also increases your available Assemble Gauge. 

That gauge provides you with access to stronger team-based actions, more powerful supers, and other benefits. As your team becomes more complete, your overall health can increase as well. This creates an engaging decision-making layer, as opening up your opponent doesn’t necessarily have to be about doing the most damage possible.

You might choose to prioritize damage, set up your next attack, or use the opportunity to assemble another member of your team. Learning when to make that choice becomes an important part of improving at Marvel Tokon. 

The basic controls are familiar. You have light, medium, and heavy attacks, along with special moves and ultimate attacks. There is also a universal air launcher that sends your opponent upward and lets you follow them into the air for additional attacks. If you have played other anime-style fighting games, much of the gameplay will feel immediately recognizable.

However, Marvel Tokon does have some unusual rules that take time to understand. On the ground, you can only perform a limited number of normal attacks before moving into a special move. For example, using too many light and medium attacks can prevent a heavy attack from coming out afterward. 

It sounds simple when explained, but it can feel strange when you first encounter it because your muscle memory from other fighting games may tell you to continue attacking in a particular sequence. Eventually, you learn to treat the system as part of Marvel Tokon’s own rules rather than a limitation.

The assist system can also be inconsistent at times. 

There are specific timings and situations when assists can or cannot be called, and these can vary by character and move. Press the assist button, and nothing happens. It can feel like it’s ignoring your input. Input buffering can also sometimes cause you to do special moves you didn't want because a previous motion is still being recognized when you press the attack button.

These problems aren’t enough to ruin the overall combat system, but they can be frustrating, especially when you’re trying to pull something off precisely. For a fighting game where timing matters so much, even small input problems can become noticeable.

Fortunately, Marvel Tokon does a lot to help you understand its mechanics. The training mode is one of the strongest parts of the game. You can customize dummy behavior, counterattack options, damage settings, frame data, and other training parameters.

The replay system goes even further. If you drop a combo during a match, you can save the replay and take control of MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls at that particular moment. Instead of simply watching yourself make a mistake, you can experiment with what you should have done differently. 

The tutorials and character lessons also help make MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls approachable. You can learn the universal mechanics before moving into character-specific lessons and combo trials. Completing these challenges can unlock character colors, giving you another reason to work through them rather than simply treating them as optional training exercises.

For players who want something more challenging, the mission system turns learning into a series of combo puzzles. You might be given a requirement, such as starting a combo with a particular move and finishing it with a super while meeting a specific damage target. MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls does not necessarily hand you the exact solution. 

That makes progression feel more meaningful than just grinding experience points. 

Marvel Tokon doesn’t have a traditional XP system where you fight enemies repeatedly to level up and make your character stronger. Instead, your progression comes from improving your understanding, completing lessons, discovering combo routes, unlocking colors and artwork, and becoming more capable with the characters.

Outside of training and story mode, there is plenty to do. All-Star Arena works like an arcade mode with branching paths. You choose a route through a series of battles, with different endings available depending on the choices you make. Completing these routes unlocks new artwork, encouraging you to replay the mode rather than finishing it only once.

Survival mode adds another layer. Instead of simply fighting an endless series of opponents with the same rules, your team can level up during the run and receive buffs. Boss battles appear at intervals, and defeating bosses or leveling up can give you cards that modify your abilities. 

The main problem is that the early portion of survival can feel slow. The CPU is relatively easy for a considerable number of battles, so you may need to spend quite a bit of time fighting opponents that do not provide much challenge before reaching the more interesting parts. 

Arcadia Rumble is another unusual addition. Instead of playing the standard fighting game, you control your small lobby avatar, run around an arena, collect power-ups, and compete with other players. It has a party-game feel and is a fun change of pace, although it is unlikely to become the main reason you play Marvel Tokon. 

Online play includes ranked and unranked matches, private lobbies, and open lobbies that function almost like social spaces. The open lobbies allow you to interact with parts of the environment and take part in smaller activities. Private lobbies can have multiple players, and Arcadia Rumble gives those lobby characters something to do.

It also has rollback netcode and crossplay, which are both important features in a modern fighting game. 

On PS5, the experience is generally excellent, but the PC version creates some problems. Slow hardware and performance issues on the PC side can affect crossplay, occasionally producing pauses, rollback spikes, or other interruptions. There have also been reports of desynchronization, particularly when spectating matches.

That means your online experience can depend on who you are matched with and which platform they use. The PS5 version itself is much more stable, and most matches are perfectly enjoyable, but occasional network problems can be particularly frustrating, as a single bad match can interrupt an otherwise excellent session.

Visually, Marvel Tokon is arguably one of its biggest successes. Arc System Works has made the familiar characters of the Marvel universe feel like anime characters, without making them feel foreign. They still look like the heroes and villains you know, but their designs have been reworked to fit the studio's unique style.

Iron Man's armor has a futuristic, almost Gundam-like appearance, while Penny Parker's enormous mech can occupy a huge portion of the screen. Hulk looks appropriately massive, but the cell-shaded presentation gives him a completely different feel from his usual appearances. Captain America, Deadpool, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and the rest of the roster all receive similar attention.

The stages receive plenty of care too. Marvel locations such as New York and the X-Mansion contain small details and references that reward you for paying attention. The multi-stage transitions are especially effective because they are not simply decorative. 

The comic-book presentation continues outside the actual fights. Character selection screens, story sequences, artwork, galleries, and other menus all contribute to the same visual identity. You can also customize your teams, give them names, select winning poses, and even mix different language options for characters. 

Sound is another strong part of the package. 

The voice acting gives the characters plenty of personality, especially during the many contextual interactions. Different characters can react to each other during intros, victories, and special attacks, which makes team combinations feel more personal.

The soundtrack also moves through different styles, including rock, heavy metal, and J-pop-inspired tracks. Mostly, the music doesn’t get in the way of the fast pace of the combat; it keeps up. Some character themes are more prominent than others, but the soundtrack generally backs up the energetic presentation.

On PS5, the DualSense controller adds another nice touch through haptic feedback. The effects are not the reason to buy the game, but they add small tactile details to certain single-player moments and help the presentation feel more complete.

MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls succeeds because it understands that accessibility and depth do not have to be opposites. You can pick a favorite Marvel character, learn the basic attacks, use the auto-combos and simplified special moves, and start having fun without spending hours studying fighting game terminology. 

There are certainly areas that could be better. The assist timing can feel restrictive at times, the input system can occasionally produce unwanted moves, and the PC version has performance issues that affect crossplay. The offline content is also less ambitious than Street Fighter 6's World Tour mode. Some additional stages would have been welcome, too.

Even so, the overall package is difficult to dismiss. 

The five story episodes, arcade-style All-Star Arena, survival mode, training tools, tutorials, combo challenges, online play, customization, gallery, soundtrack, and additional modes give you plenty to work through. More importantly, the core fighting system gives you a reason to keep coming back.

Arc System Works has managed to take the Marvel license and create something that does not feel like a simple continuation of the old Capcom formula. Instead, Marvel Tokon feels like Marvel through the lens of the studio that created Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ. That combination works surprisingly well.

If you are completely new to fighting games, you have an accessible entry point. If you are already experienced, you have enough mechanics to spend a long time learning the cast and refining your teams. And if you are a Marvel fan, the presentation gives you plenty of reasons to keep looking at the screen even between matches.

MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is not perfect, but its strengths are much more important than its shortcomings. It feels fresh without losing the bits of fighting games you know. And it has enough depth that you can keep discovering new possibilities long after you learn the basics. For a new fighter, it makes a strong argument for itself on the PS5 as one of the more enjoyable entries in the genre.