"Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls": a beautiful fighting game featuring Marvel characters in anime style
11.8.2026
Translation: machine translated
"Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls" is an excellent beat 'em up with accessible game mechanics, vibrant anime visuals, and chaotic 4v4 brawls. Unfortunately, the PlayStation game also struggles with technical issues and untapped potential.
I can't do it anymore.
My left thumb is sore from the D-pad, my right hand is cramping, and my back hurts from the tense sitting posture. But I cannot end my session with «Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls» with a defeat.
One more win has to be in there, damn it. Whatever it takes.
«Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls» has addictive potential. Once you've familiarized yourself with the deep game mechanics, you quickly get caught in a vortex of nerve-wracking matches. The colorful anime style and the spectacularly staged fights further amplify this effect.
However, the latest brawler from the Japanese cult studio Arc System Works («Guilty Gear», «Blaz Blue», «Dragon Ball FighterZ») is not perfect.
Four against four
Arc System Works is known for fast, technically demanding fighting games with complex combat systems and combos. «Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls» follows in the same footsteps.
For complete newcomers, starting in the colorful world of fighting games might seem overwhelming despite the detailed tutorial and various training options. But sticking with it is worth it: Even with little fighting game experience, you can have a lot of fun with «Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls».
The basic controls with light, medium, and heavy attacks are quickly internalized. Various block and counter options allow me to act against chaotic button-mashers with perfect timing and punish them.
Every character has so-called «Uniques» – offensive moves, defensive options, or temporary buffs that only this character can use. On top of that, there are the «Skills»: powerful attacks with which I deal a lot of damage or bridge large distances to the opponent.
Even more powerful are the «Super-Skills» and «Ultimate-Skills» – attacks with spectacularly staged cutscenes and enormous destruction potential. To use these, I need energy in my skill gauge, which I see at the bottom of the screen. I fill the gauge by landing hits or taking them.
When I use my Super and Ultimate skills is strategically essential. Do I save my energy for later to deliver the decisive knockout blow to the opponent? Or do I go all-in and batter the enemy as soon as I have collected enough energy?
So far, so understandable. Now it gets exciting – and chaotic.
«Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls» is a tag fighter. That means: I don't just fight with one character, but put together a team of four. With four playable figures per team, Arc System Works is venturing into a new format compared to other genre representatives with two- or three-person teams.
Also unusual: While in other tag fighters every character has their own health bar, in «Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls», all team members share the same health bar.
At the beginning of a match, I can only swap in one of four team members. I earn new members by throwing my opponent from one combat area of the stage to the next. If I lose a round in the best-of-three match, the game gives me a new member out of pity.
The more team members I unlock, the crazier things I can do: I incorporate them into combos, call them for independent attacks, or use them to counter. For this, I need energy in the «Assemble Gauge».
If I am on the verge of defeat, I can also launch the ultimate attack: «Tōkon Assemble». All four members attack in a beautiful cutscene and deal a hell of a lot of damage.
It's crazy how chaotic the matches look in the later phases when my opponent and I are frantically calling in four characters each. Even crazier are the incredible combos that can be performed with normal attacks, Uniques, Skills, and swapping.
At least theoretically. I am still far from this skill level. When a superior opponent beats me online with impressive combos, I'm not even angry. I watch, enjoy his inhuman-looking chains – and try to learn something.
Special praise goes to the haptic feedback, which makes the controls incredibly satisfying. A fitting rumble in the Dualsense controller accompanies every little action. Sometimes the vibration is subtle, sometimes sharp, and sometimes so powerful that my hands shake.
Oh, if only every PS5 game would use this wonderful controller with so much attention to detail.
Which Marvel characters are included?
Arc System Works has decided on a mix of common Marvel superstars and exciting figures from the second tier for the launch.
The selection is successful. Every character feels unique; no character seems useless or completely overpowered. From beginner characters with simple movesets (like Wolverine and Ms. Marvel) to highly complex characters with additional gauges and multi-layered attacks (for example, Loki and Ghost Rider), everything is there.
You will find the following figures at launch (divided by teams):
«Fighting Avengers»
- Captain America
- Iron Man
- Hulk
- Black Panther
«Unbreakable X-Men»
- Storm
- Magik
- Wolverine
- Danger
«Amazing Guardians»
- Spider-Man
- Star-Lord
- Ms. Marvel
- Peni Parker
«Knights of Doom»
- Doctor Doom
- Magneto
- Green Goblin
- Carnage
«Samurai Outriders»
- Ghost Rider
- Blade
- Loki
- Deadpool
Unlockable character
- The Champion
When selecting characters, I am not limited to the predefined teams. I can put together my dream team from all characters. As I play more, I get used to an unusual combination.
Iron Man is my main. With his long-range shots, I keep opponents at a distance. Captain America throws his shield unpredictably around and drives my opponents crazy – at least that's how I imagine it. Doctor Doom is just cool and has an exciting Unique with his magic shield. Magik is the most complex character in my team – she creates portals with which I surprise opponents from behind.
Apart from the gameplay variety, Arc System Works has also done a great job with the character design. The well-known Marvel figures are reinterpreted through a flashy anime look and feel unusually fresh. The colorful stages and the successful earworm soundtrack also convince with a unique mix of Western and Japanese influences.
In short: «Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls» is an audiovisual feast and stands out with its stylistic fusion in the genre.
A few hits online – including technical problems
If you want to put your skills to the test, «Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls» offers several online options where you can compete against Marvel fans from all over the world.
In casual mode, I play without performance pressure. The matchmaking is successful. I never feel like I'm playing against absolute psychopaths and win about two-thirds of my encounters.
In ranked mode, I fight my way from Bronze through Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Master to the highest rank, Vibranium. Again: at least theoretically. The level is significantly higher compared to casual mode. I would be happy if I could leave the Bronze rank one day.
Unfortunately, it happens again and again that I am confronted with technical problems on my PS5 Pro in both ranked and casual matches. The two worst so far: A fight that literally runs in slow motion, and a match where the health bars disappear and the characters become black silhouettes. Cool.
I suspect that the technical glitches are related to the cross-play function. PC players have been complaining about numerous technical problems since launch. Currently, the game has a «Mixed» rating with only 45 percent positive votes on Steam.
At least: Arc System Works promises improvement and has already released a patch that is supposed to fix many of these PC problems (and thus also PS5 problems in the online area).
Regardless of the chosen mode, I sometimes have to wait a very long time until I am matched with an opponent. I can bypass this annoying circumstance by joining an open lobby.
In this mode, I am transported into a miniature Marvel world and explore the area as a cute chibi character. Because I am already connected to many people in a virtual room, I can jump from match to match much faster – at least for casual fights.
Arc System Works has incorporated the cute miniature world into another online mode: «Arcadia Rumble». It is – I can't put it more nicely – an unplayable disaster that should never have made it into the game.
The idea is actually cool: I explore the miniature world with nine other players and collect fighter souls (hello, «Super Smash Bros.») to strengthen myself for an upcoming fight. The souls give me advantages like more health, better defense, or faster-loading skill gauges. While exploring, the other players try to eliminate me with hits or collectible weapons.
After the exploration, a classic 4v4 fight follows. Then the process repeats until a winner is determined at the end. The problem: The controls during exploration are imprecise, the collectible weapons are an unbalanced catastrophe, and the game stutters constantly. Thus, the fights in the miniature world degenerate into pure gambling.
Story mode: Cool, but...
There is also plenty to do for solo players. In addition to the detailed training mode, I can sharpen my skills in two arcade modes. In «All Star Arena», I fight my way through various courses, while in «Survival», I complete as many fights as possible in a row.
Admittedly, the modes are not much more than glorified busywork. The prospect of increasingly demanding challenges, as well as the unlockable content, kept me going during my test anyway.
The undisputed highlight, however, are the five single-player campaigns – one per Marvel team. Each story path consists of ten chapters and lasts about an hour – depending on how stupid I act in the fights.
It's just a pity that the game tells the same framework story over and over again. The teams are invited to a competition by the ominous «Champion». The best team gets to compete against him. If the Champion wins, he destroys the Earth. I would have wished for a bit more creativity here.
The story mode is told with beautiful anime cutscenes and animated comic panels. The pages build up step by step, accompanied by small character animations, lettering, dialogues, sound effects, and a killer soundtrack.
My tip: Set the voice output to Japanese. There is nothing cooler than hearing Captain America scream in Japanese.
Even if more could have been done with the story mode, I am satisfied overall. Despite the repetitive and ultimately insignificant framework plot, the individual episodes provide entertainment thanks to strong character moments (Deadpool ftw).
«Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls» has also managed to reignite my enthusiasm for the Marvel universe with its fresh presentation. And that means something. I've been out of the MCU for a long time, and apart from the «Spider-Man» games, I've hardly had any contact with Marvel in recent years.
And now? Now I would love to have my own «Ghost Rider», «Blade», «Doctor Doom», and «Iron Man» game. I want to learn more about these worlds. Buy comics, catch up on movies. And that is the biggest compliment I can pay to «Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls».
«Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls» is available for PS5 and PC. The game was provided to me by Sony for test purposes for the PS5 (Pro).
In a nutshell
Successful beat 'em up for Marvel fans - despite unfulfilled potential and technical weaknesses
"Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls" captivated me. And that's despite the fact that I'm a fighting game noob and barely have any connection to Marvel anymore. The game is an audiovisual powerhouse and impresses with fresh reinterpretations of iconic Marvel characters in an anime style. The powerful haptic feedback also deserves special praise, making the chaotic battles palpable.
The combat system is accessible but difficult to master, and the character selection offers a lot of gameplay variety. Not everything is running smoothly online yet. The experimental "Arcadia Rumble" mode is a complete failure, and the fundamentally fun story mode could have been more engaging with a more creative storyline.
Nevertheless, the overall package is good. Marvel and fighting game fans can grab it without hesitation and start brawling. And who knows. If your love for Marvel has faded, "Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls" might rekindle it.
Pro
- beautiful cel-shaded look with anime influences
- easy to learn, hard to master - that's how a beat 'em up should be
- sensational haptic feedback
- successful character selection with unique fighters
Contra
- Arcadia Rumble mode is an unplayable disaster
- Story mode is beautifully implemented, but repetitive
- some technical glitches
Header image: Arc System Works / Playstation
Domagoj Belancic
Senior Editor
Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.chMy love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.
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