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Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls overview: Everything you need to take on all challengers
J
Jason Fanelli
Marvel Tokon introduces four-on-four fighting to the tag-based fighter formula for the first time, and when you couple that with a roster of nearly two dozen heroes and villains to choose from, there's a lot to learn before jumping into battle. We've got you covered, as we'll walk you through the key elements you'll need to know before Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls launches on August 6.
What's the story in Marvel Tokon?
While this is a new look and feel for the Marvel universe, this new Marvel adventure digs deep into the archives of the comic juggernaut for its setting and villain. The story centers around the Champion of the Universe, an immortal being who travels around the universe seeking worthy challengers from worlds he visits. His terms are simple: Defeat him in combat, or the planet will be destroyed.
In Marvel Tokon, the Champion has chosen Earth as his next battleground, and sends the Promotor, his announcer of sorts, to Earth to announce the "Challenge of the Champion." Teams of four must compete against each other in order to decide who will ultimately challenge the Champion himself to decide the fate of the Earth, and five teams are formed to take up the challenge.
How will we fight?
As the story hints, each match in Marvel Tokon will consist of four-on-four battles with teams constructed by each player in a best-of-three round-based format. As with most fighting games, the goal is to reduce the opposing team's life bar to zero, but unlike previous Marvel tag fighters, every character on a team will share one common life bar; when that hits zero, the entire team will lose.
The control scheme in Marvel Tokon consists of three normal attacks, two special attacks, and three "quick moves" per character. Each character will have special abilities activated by the Unique Attack button combined with specific directions on the D-pad or joystick, while the Assemble button will call in other members of the team to assist in the middle of the fight.
Teams are structured so there's a "primary" fighter and three "assist" fighters who can be called upon using the Assemble button. Each assist performs a different attack based on which direction they’re assigned at the character select screen:
- Forward assists are typically projectile moves, like Iron Man's beam attack.
- Downward assists are anti-air moves designed to surprise opponents.
- Backward assists are moves with unique properties specific to the character slotted there.
When a character is called into assist, pressing the Assemble again during the attack will see you switch control to that character, with your previous primary character now available for assists.
Who's joining the battle?
Arc System Works has confirmed that 20 fighters will be playable at launch, with at least four more coming post-launch as downloadable content. In keeping with the four-on-four theme of the battle system, those 20 characters will be split into five distinct teams in the context of the story.
At the moment, 14 of the 20 characters have been announced: three full teams, and two more characters who will lead their respective teams in the story. The roster, as it's known now, is below:
- Unbreakable X-Men
- Storm (leader)
- Magik
- Danger
- Wolverine
- Amazing Guardians
- Spider-Man (leader)
- Star-Lord
- Ms. Marvel
- Peni Parker
- Fighting Avengers
- Captain America (leader)
- Iron Man
- Hulk
- Black Panther
- Team name TBA
- Doctor Doom (leader)
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- Team name TBA
- Ghost Rider (leader)
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
While the story mode frames these heroes and villains as part of exclusive teams, in arcade and multiplayer modes, you'll be able to mix and match these characters however you wish. Want to pair Black Panther with Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider? Go for it.
Where will we be fighting?
Multiple locations from Marvel's many universes will appear in Marvel Tokon. While the final number of stages has not been confirmed by Arc System Works as of this writing, five stages have appeared in trailers and beta tests so far:
- Knowhere
- New York City
- Savage Land
- Wakanda
- X-Mansion
When can we play Marvel Tokon?
Marvel Tokon is set to rumble on Epic Games Store on August 6.
Along with the game, the Digital Deluxe Edition will include the Year 1 Characters and Stage Pass, which gives access to four more playable characters, one stage, and a set of result screen posts as they become available post-launch. The deluxe version also includes a Howard the Duck lobby avatar and a Cosmo lobby pet.
All early purchases of Marvel Tokon will come with three bonus items: the Infinity Gauntlet lobby equipment, the Baby Groot lobby pet, and the Cosmic Surfboard lobby ride animation.