Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls
Developer: Arc System Works
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Microsoft Windows
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Arc System Works are known for taking other franchises and putting their own spin on the fighting genre with those characters. They have now gone for the top of the crop, snagging the Marvel license to make a stylistic version of some of your favourite heroes. Iron Man, Spidey, Storm, you know the cast. It’s the forefront of the Marvel spectacle here in a new take for a fighter, but does Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls make a splash on consoles, or is it one to pass in this saturated franchise? Let’s find out.
Story
Marvel Tokon has us select an Episode of a preset team right from the start, allowing players to get used to the mechanics by taking them through their own unique perspective on this tale. The narrative is simple. The Champion, a mysterious new foe, has risen up, and he wants to find the best of the best. Teams align and do battle through the universe here, and it’s a pretty entertaining, albeit short tale that allows players to simply fight their way to a climax, with animated cutscenes in tow. Sure, it could have been more fleshed out, but we know these characters and this story really just puts a small spin on a quick story mode to do the job, and what Fighting Souls has here is decent enough to warrant a good playthrough of each Episode without much issue.
Gameplay
This is where Arc cooks. Marvel Tokon is a fast-paced 4v4 fighter, where each squad share a life bar and can be interchanged to do battle. I know just looking at it will draw comparisons to Marvel vs Capcom or even the old Marvel fighters from the past, but it feels a bit different here as the game is really built around the style of the fights, rather than gimmickry. Each one of the 20 characters within comes with their own unique moveset, which is stacked with light, heavy, aerial, and special attacks, which means you will do combat everywhere within one stage. Sure, the game is a 2D fighter, but the world expands as you fight, and that is kind of where this title gets its own persona.
The environments are not fully interactive, but they can break and open up new portions of famed landmarks to do battle at. Think how Mortal Kombat did this with Deception and other titles, and you have almost the same approach here, but with worlds that feel more fluid and connected. The combat never comes to a halt during these sequences, always staying sharp no matter where you may be. In some ways, I found the normal AI to be a bit easy, even on other difficulties, but again- this is a game really showing off the full spectrum of every personality in combat, rather than trying to be a technical beast. To sum it up, it’s more about peacock than skill, where you can dive into stunning combos and menacing team moves to dominate the other side, rather than just hunt for weaknesses of every pixel within.
Speaking of combos, this system is effective and smooth as butter. Some fighters come with some accessibility challenges or curves, and this title is able to be picked up instantly, where the gameplay feels natural to any newcomer. That doesn’t mean skill isn’t a factor, as it still is a well-balanced fighter from some of the best developers in the business, but Tokon feels unique and the many modes within will keep things interesting, with a full online Ranked and Casual base to go after.
There is also Arcadia Rumble, which is a light fare where players can explore and fight with others in a more 3D environment, and while it’s neat, I didn’t find a lot of value here. The core game is enough, but I think expanding on this IP in other ways, such as Rumble, would have benefitted replayability more, and there aren’t a lot of options that do not feel the same outside of this little nifty mode. In some ways, I want to say Tokon doesn’t feel like it’s trying to be its own franchise, and that is kind of refreshing. It seems like a one-off that this team did for fun, and while I do think the mechanics are fun, there just isn’t enough depth to really do much more than experience this familiar roster in a new light.
Audio
The sound here is great. The voice actors, of course, are different, but do an amazing job capturing the personas of Deadpool, Wolverine, and so on without much issue. When you are dealing with such known faces, that can be difficult, but some are eerily similar to their on-screen characters, so kudos to the amazing voice team here. The environments also sound great and full of life, which is great due to how the wall breaks expand stages. The music is also decent, offering more original tunes that still give us that Marvel atmosphere – while still staying true to that new approach Arc System Works were going with here.
Visuals
Fighting Souls is also a very pretty game. The level of detail in these 2D animated characters is staggering. Each one looks stunning, and they animate flawlessly despite the heavy amount of chaos on screen. The animation also expands to the stage designs, where it’s hard not to have background characters catch your eye with easter eggs, paying homage to this vast property. The cutscenes are also incredible, but I do think the comic book panel sections just are a little too basic in comparison to the rest of the presentation. Overall, Marvel Tokon is Marvel Tokon and not trying to look and be like anything else, and that is really where the appeal is found in this beautiful design.
Overall
I think what makes Marvel such a special license to have is that you can really do your own spin on it and make something that will appeal to someone. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls exists for that reason. It’s a fun fighter that has legs of its own, with a definitive look and feel that may attract anime and other fans to give this title a spin. Sure, it does come a bit limited in terms of content, but everything here is original and built from the ground up. There is something very respectable about this title existing in a market full of sequels and franchises, as Fighting Souls is a nice side offering that is surely a pit-stop for those wanting a new way to fight as these iconic teams.
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