Preview: Marvel Tokon’s Biggest Battle Isn’t in the Arena

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Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is without a doubt one of 2026’s most exciting PS5 releases.

The game has been very well-received, but it faces a difficult balancing act. It needs to satisfy experienced players who compete in events like Evo, while also keeping new and casual players engaged.

Arc System Works is experimenting with new approaches to address some challenges, but these changes require a significant learning curve. Even as experienced fighting game players, we’re still trying to fully understand everything.

This first look comes from our time playing the game at the Tokyo Game Show, combined with what we learned during the recent Closed Beta Test.

The fact that it’s taking us so long to go through all the game’s systems shows how complex it is for the developers. However, it’s important to remember this isn’t the finished game, and we’re still unsure how the studio plans to teach players how to play.

At the bustling TGS show, we spoke with Senior Producer Reed Baird while he was demonstrating the new Ghost Rider character in the game’s latest demo – and playfully ‘attacked’ us with it!

He explained that Marvel Tokon is easier to pick up than many other tag-team fighting games, such as Marvel vs. Capcom, because it has several features that make it more approachable.

The Assemble mechanic lets you begin with a single fighter and build your team over time. This allows you to become really skilled with one character while using others for assistance. Because your team shares a single health bar, you don’t have to constantly switch between fighters.

You’re right to point that out – it’s a common problem in tag-team fighting games. It already takes a lot of effort to become skilled with a single character, so asking players to master four would be really discouraging.

Okay, so you’ll definitely see the pros constantly switching focus between their teammates – that’s just how they play. But honestly, that’s a good example of something both new players and veterans can appreciate and understand in the game.

Baird also pointed to the control scheme, which has auto-combos and one-button skills.

Players can fight using classic Street Fighter commands, which deal extra damage. However, those who prefer a simpler approach can use commands similar to Super Smash Bros. or even just press buttons quickly.

The problem, we’ve found, is that there’s just so much to process.

You can definitely get by just pressing buttons and enjoying what happens, but it helps to understand what you’re doing and why. There are so many different displays and methods to learn, and it can be overwhelming.

A good example of this is the game’s Closed Beta tutorial. While it looked great, it was quite long – around 15 to 20 minutes. By the end, we had actually forgotten some of the initial instructions.

It’s important to remember that each superhero character plays differently. At the TGS event, we highlighted Ghost Rider and Spider-Man because they were both newly playable for the first time.

Every character plays a little differently. For example, Ghost Rider has an extra meter on the screen that fills up as he attacks.

As a player, I’ve found this character really pushes you to play aggressively and get right up in your opponent’s face! But there’s a catch – if you push *too* hard, he can overheat. When that happens, he becomes super vulnerable, which is risky. However, if you can manage to keep his heat level just right – in that ‘sweet spot’ – your attacks get a really nice boost! It’s all about finding that balance.

Spider-Man is straightforward to play, but offers some cool features. He has a ‘Spider-Sense’ that lets you quickly recover from mistakes, and he can swing around the city using webs to get places fast.

Baird clarified that when choosing characters for the game, popularity isn’t the only factor. They’re also looking for characters with distinct appearances and different ways to play. The development team seems to be aiming for a diverse roster where each character feels truly unique and doesn’t overlap with others.

We asked why they hadn’t shown us more characters, and he explained that they have a plan for revealing them. He also mentioned that the eight characters they’ve already announced are a good number, and they’ve already decided which characters will be available when the game launches.

Our concern is that, in a 4vs4 fighting format, a small roster could result in a lot of repetition.

Think of a classic arcade game with eight levels and a final boss. You’d typically battle seven different groups of enemies along the way. However, if that game only features a limited number of characters – let’s say sixteen – you could only create four distinct groups to fight.

Baird didn’t share any details about how many players will be in the final game, or how many levels it will have.

We had a lot of fun playing on the new Savage Land level, which is a prehistoric setting inspired by the world of Marvel, especially the X-Men. It’s a detailed and interesting stage with dinosaurs and volcanoes. The other new level announced is based on Marvel’s New York City.

What makes Marvel Tokon unique is how important stage transitions are to the game. They’re a key way to build your team, making the stages feel more complex and involved than in games like Street Fighter 6, which mostly use single-screen stages.

We’re still very excited about the game, but we need to play it much more to fully understand it. After several hours, we’re starting to wonder if players who don’t play as often will enjoy it as much.

We’ll have to wait until the final version is released to get a definitive answer. The experience with the finished product will be much different than what we’ve seen in the beta tests and demos.

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2025-10-07 02:08