When Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls was first revealed over a year ago, people compared it to older Marvel fighting games made by Capcom. Not particularly surprising, since those games were not only a staple of the 90s, it would later lead to the formerly illustrious Marvel vs. Capcom series. But with Tokon, this would be the first time in awhile that a Marvel fighting game was made by a developer that’s not Capcom.
Of course, there was never any worry about if it will be good since it’s Arc System Works behind the wheel. Y’know, the guys behind the Guilty Gear series, as well as Dragon Ball FighterZ. With that last one in mind, the studio has gotten its own experience in making tag fighters. I’m tempted to say that this has culminated in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, but the game has changed between its first closed beta and when I tried it out, and it may change further between now and its release next month.
But back to the game as it was when I tried it. The build I got to try did not have all of the characters that have been revealed. Naturally, none of the Samurai Outriders team besides Ghost Riders were available, and neither were Green Goblin, Carnage, nor even The Hulk. That being said, there were enough characters that piqued my interest for me to form an opinion on the game.
PlayStation, which arranged the preview sessions, did not allow us to record our own footage. So screenshots you see here are from the B-roll that the company provided. Unfortunately, they also heavily feature Magneto and Black Panther, in case you’re wondering why you see almost exclusively those two.
When the invitation was sent to us to try out Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a PlayStation rep described it as one that’s “easy to pick up, thrilling to master”. Which is probably a fair description for any fighting game with reasonable depth to it. And Tokon definitely has that, before even exploring the tagging system. I don’t particularly like tag fighters – and didn’t have much time to try them out anyway – but for those who do, there’s plenty of layers for you to peel off at your own pace.
Overall though, I would describe Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls as… a slightly slower take on a Marvel vs. Capcom game. It’s definitely not at zoomy, and some characters do actually feel sluggish. But on the flip side, you’re not exactly inundated with movelists to memorise.
Before we get to that, buttons. You have light, medium and heavy attacks mapped to Square, Triangle and Circle respectively by default, and a Unique button tied to R1 and an Assist button tied to X. Just about all characters can chain a light, medium, heavy chain combo, and all characters have four specials – quarter circle forward and back, Z-motion forward, and double down. Every super is QCF + medium + heavy, and every Ultimate is half-circle back > forward + medium + heavy.
As is the trend these days, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls caters to FGC newcomers by adding shortcuts. You can, for instance, only mash the light button but get a full combo. Or, you can manually input the combo for slightly more damage. There’s also a button for instant specials, but this would also lock you into using one variant for specials with more.
Despite unified inputs though, every character feels unique enough that things don’t get stale. As mentioned, some are pretty sluggish, and playing them with the mindset of going in with a basic chain combo is a recipe for a bad time. Characters that can do that though, I found tend to be a lot of fun, but that’s just me unable to turn off my MvC brain. I only had slightly over an hour to try out Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, so I naturally couldn’t give every character an in-depth go. But for the few that I did, I very much enjoyed my experience with Danger, Magik and Black Panther.
Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it, not for long anyway. You can try the game out for yourself on either PS5 or PC between 24 and 26 July, during its open beta. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will get its launch proper on both platforms on 6 August.
@lowyatnet We had the opportunity to try out a non-final build of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. Here’s slice of our hands-on impressions of the game #MarvelTokonfightingsouls #Marvel #Fightinggames