Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is out tomorrow, August 6, on PS5 and PC. It comes from Arc System Works, the studio behind Guilty Gear and DragonBall FighterZ, which means the fighting-game crowd has been paying close attention for a while now.
The pitch: 4v4 tag battles pulling from the Marvel roster, with the likes of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America and Deadpool in the mix. The twist is the health. Instead of separate bars per character, your whole four-person team shares one pooled Vital Gauge, so trades hit differently when every hit is chipping the same pot.
How the fights open up
You don't start with all four. Matches begin with your lead fighter, and you unlock the rest of the team mid-round by hitting conditions like Wall Breaks or landing specific throws. Once they're in, you get assist attacks and free tag swaps. It's a nice hook, honestly, it turns the early exchanges into a scramble to "complete" your team rather than just chip damage.
The part I'm cautiously into
Arc has clearly thought about the wall that scares people off anime fighters. There are traditional inputs for the veterans and a simplified "quick input" option with easy chain combos for everyone else, plus a Startup Battle mode to feel the game out before you commit. Whether the accessible layer holds up against people who've drilled combos for a decade is the open question, and it's the one that decides if a fighter like this keeps a crowd past launch month.
Netcode and roster balance are the things to watch once it's live. A 20-ish character launch fighter can look great in a trailer and still wobble online. We'll see tomorrow.
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