Developer: ARC SYSTEM WORKS CO., LTD
Publisher: PlayStation Publishing LLC
Platform: PC, PS5
Tested on: PC
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls – Review
When we initially saw the gameplay of MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, we thought this game would be a spiritual successor to Marvel vs. Capcom. While this isn’t officially the case, when we started playing the game, we could see (and feel) the resemblance to these classic fighting games. With Arc System Works behind the wheel, we knew the mechanics and overall quality of the game would already be top-tier. For the most part, this proved to be true, even though the game was held back by a lack of available characters.
Story
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls comes with a story that is perfectly suitable for a standalone Marvel adventure. As is not uncommon in the Marvel universe, Earth has once found itself to be the target of an alien invasion. This time, however, it’s not a horde of aliens that is attacking the planet, but it’s, in fact, a being called The Champion, who simply wants to fight the planet’s strongest warriors. If Earth’s best fighters can win, the planet will be spared; if not, it will be destroyed. The premise is really simple, but the presentation is what truly made it stand out. You’ll have great cinematics playing during key moments, and comic book panels tell the rest of the story. There are different storylines to play through with overlapping elements, but from the perspective of the different fighters. The key points here remain the same, but the endings are different.
Graphics
Graphically, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls looks amazing. Even though the game instantly reminded us of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, albeit more polished, it has an identity of its own. The characters all look great, and with the original design choices here, a lot of them come with unique-looking skins that make them look less like carbon copies from other games. The special moves and the overall fluid animations complete the entire package here. On PlayStation 5, we didn’t encounter too many frame drops when playing locally, but online did have a few performance issues here and there.
Sound
Truth be told, we were absolutely blown away by the overall sound design. Not only is the soundtrack explosive and extremely catchy, but the track variety is truly what shows that a lot of love and care went into this production. All this is then further supported by sound effects that pack a proper punch (no pun intended). We could almost physically feel every blow, and the special moves also sounded really impressive. In the story mode, there is also a whole lot of voice acting, truly bringing all the different characters on the roster to life. In-game, the voice acting fades a bit more into the background, being limited to grunts and one-liners. Even so, everything meshes well together, creating an impressive whole.
Gameplay
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a tag-team fighting game where your team consists of four fighters. This means you’ll technically be fighting in 4 vs 4 battles, much in the same way the Marvel vs. Capcom games work, which is probably also why we made the comparison earlier. Just like CAPCOM’s aforementioned fighting game, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is very accessible for newcomers while still offering many intricate mechanics for genre veterans. We found our bearings quite quickly, but it took us quite some time to truly master some of the game’s characters. That being said, outside of the flashy moves and the overall great character synergy, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls doesn’t really bring that much new to the table compared to other similar fighting games.
Even though there are quite a few mechanics to remember, which were shown in the lengthy tutorial, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls plays very smoothly. We only noticed a few hiccups when swapping characters, but otherwise it was smooth sailing from start to finish. The game has simple ways to trigger and perform special moves, and even its advanced mechanics are easy to get the hang of. Of course, we haven’t even come close to mastering the finer techniques, but the game is very accessible to all types of players. We first practiced by playing through the story mode, and we eventually duked it out locally against friends or online against strangers.
Whilst we found the gameplay highly enjoyable and even ended up playing match after match with random characters to amp up the fun factor with friends, this also highlighted the game’s current biggest issue: a lack of characters to choose from. With the game’s current base roster of 20 characters in a 4 vs 4 format, you’ll have seen every character quite quickly. Of course, there are thousands of team combinations possible, so synergy-wise, you’ll have your work cut out for you. Nonetheless, for us it felt a bit limited, especially since Marvel has so much to offer when it comes to possible characters to throw into the fight. We hope in the future the developers also opt for some lesser-known characters to give some more obscure characters their time in the limelight.
Conclusion
If you’re a fan of the Marvel vs. Capcom series, we’re more than certain you’ll love what MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls has to offer. It brings familiar gameplay mechanics to the table while still offering fast-paced tag team battles, all wrapped in amazing visuals and great sound design. We were only disappointed by the small roster, but with new characters on the way, we’re sure this one will grow to become a huge hit in the fighting game scene. This is one of those fighting titles we’ll be picking up regularly to play with friends or to duke it out with strangers online. If you’re looking for something arcade-like, albeit with polished mechanics, then we can suggest picking this one up.
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