The announcement of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is one of the most memorable moments of 2025.
But after a pretty positive first closed beta, enthusiast opinion on the PS5 and PC brawler is beginning to sour.
Dig into any hardcore circles and you’ll see a lot of criticism pointed at the Sony published game, with many not feeling the four-on-four format and the limitations imposed by its tag mechanics.
Seasoned dev Arc System Works is trying to appeal to all bases with this title, making it simple enough for anyone to enjoy, while still incorporating the hardcore depth required to encourage high-level play.
But competitive players seem frustrated about the shared health bar which limits the need for tags, while squad support tends to be limited to specific actions, like an anti-air.
Another issue is that there are still only eight characters announced for the fighter, prompting many to assume this game may have a pretty small roster at launch. For a four-versus-four fighter, that’s concerning.
But in a holiday message, producer Takeshi Yamanaka has promised “we still have more characters to announce”, so we’re hopeful the roster will grow significantly in the new year.
He also addressed some of the more negative feedback:
“We haven’t finished reading through every comment, but we sincerely appreciate the feedback – both the positives and the areas that need improvement. The team is pushing forward with development, and we will continue refining and improving the game based on the opinions you’ve shared with us.”
We always expected this title to launch early in 2026, but given the strength of the feedback and the fact that there have been no new character reveals since the game was announced, we wouldn’t be surprised if this project has been internally delayed.
The good news is that ArcSys has many of the fundamentals locked down: the presentation is spectacular, the art style is appealing, and the netcode is rock solid. We also like a lot of the gameplay, too – we’re just concerned it’s going to be too complicated for casuals and not dense enough for enthusiasts.
Finding that balance is going to be a difficult needle to thread, but the fate of the whole project will depend on it.