Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls hands-on experience at Evo 2025 shows promise

Marvel Tōkon: Preventing Souls has been getting a number of buzz at Evo 2025 and past, Arc System Work’s newest title that brings Marvel heroes and villains right into a 2D fashion fighter.

Esports Insider bought to play the extremely anticipated sport at Evo 2025, studying a bit extra in regards to the mechanics and visuals that make the sport stand out.

At Evo 2025, I used to be given the chance to play a couple of matches of Marvel Tōkon in opposition to Reed Baird, Senior Producer at XDev at PlayStation Studios. He was significantly better at me than the sport however held again to present me time to study among the mechanics and expertise its varied parts.

Whereas Marvel Tōkon is partially impressed by Arc System Works many preventing sport titles, Baird stated they needed to supply one thing fully totally different to the preventing sport group.

What I observed instantly is that Marvel Tōkon is a way more team-focused sport than different tag-team fighters, even together with Marvel vs. Capcom 3. That’s as a result of Marvel Tōkon contains one single well being bar for all 4 of the heroes you play. This actually emphasises the group dynamics as you swap out fighters or pull one out for a robust combo, a part of the Assemble system.

As beforehand revealed in a beginner’s guide, you begin with simply two of your 4 characters, however extra heroes are unlocked whenever you break partitions. You’re notified after they develop into out there with a dramatic, fast cutscene.

Whereas I didn’t actually study something new in regards to the gameplay throughout my time at Evo 2025, I bought a hands-on really feel for the sport that left a fairly large impression. The sport felt satisfying, with highly effective, visually gorgeous strikes and punishing combos that had the opponent tumbling by way of the streets of New York. It felt a lot much less stiff than Road Fighter 6 and Marvel vs. Capcom and much more approachable for inexperienced persons.

There are simplified controls for brand spanking new gamers, however I didn’t even have to make use of them. The movesets felt very intuitive should you’ve ever performed a preventing sport earlier than, much like Soul Calibur however not as free-flowing and with shorter combos. It positively didn’t really feel as discouraging as 2XKO and you may pull off Ultimates and different highly effective specials. Plus it’s straightforward to learn all the bars on the display screen and know what’s prepared to make use of.

What stood out to me instantly whereas taking part in Marvel Tōkon: Preventing Souls was the visuals. Managing the menus felt intuitive and every display screen felt very clear, daring, and trendy. That’s as a result of the sport takes inspiration from comics, with Baird telling me that the objective was to mix Japanese manga aesthetics with America’s superhero obsession.

To convey that comedian theme to the forefront, every fighter doesn’t solely have assaults impressed by their comedian e-book counterpart however traces of dialogue between each other that present their relationships and character. There are additionally loads of Marvel easter eggs hidden all through every degree, which have three levels every to select from.

I requested Baird if there would even be a narrative or sport lore that explains why the Marvel characters have all assembled within the sport, and was instructed that he couldn’t converse on this side. To me, it appears very seemingly that that is going to be revealed sooner or later however it will probably’t be confirmed.

What’s for sure, nonetheless, is that extra heroes and villains shall be added to the roster. The demo solely included six, which isn’t a lot for a 4v4 sport. That is one thing the devs are effectively conscious of and Baird famous that there shall be a lot extra characters becoming a member of the roster.

In relation to selecting characters, each developer has their very own favourites they hope to convey into the sport, however the group has to make sure that each character that’s added could be very totally different from the present roster. That is very important in a sport with 4 characters per group.

This is a matter in Marvel Rivals, a hero shooter the place a few of the characters heavily overlap in moveset and magnificence.

There may be at the moment no official timeline for characters coming to the roster — and no set launch date. For now, the FGC must wait till 2026 for a full launch. Nonetheless, there could also be gameplay alternatives earlier than then if others wish to expertise the sport for themselves.