MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls developer Arc Systems Works has revealed the game’s story mode will last ten hours and play out in animated motion comics. Game Director and Lead Battle Designer Kazutoshi Sekine and Producer Takeshi Yamanaka sat down with 4gamer to discuss the upcoming Marvel Games release. Players will experience the game’s narrative in Episode Mode, a ten-hour long interactive motion comic featuring playable 4v4 battles and incorporating DualSense haptic feedback.
“you can enjoy a story using a motion comics style in a game mode called ‘Episode Mode.’ We had a manga artist draw the base manga, and then we added movement to each panel to advance the story, which is a fairly time-consuming way to present it; Marvel is all about comics, so we thought about how to make it interactively enjoyable, and that’s how the idea of making comics move came about. By adding sound and movement to motion comics, we can also make use of the PS5’s vibration function.”
The story will pit heroes and villains against each other in a tournament whilst building to a final confrontation between the winning team and new antagonists The Champion and The Promoter. Though you’ll be able to build and name your own team before online matches, Episode Mode features five canon factions such as the Fighting Avengers and Unbreakable X-Men. Playable fighters confirmed during trailers and the two closed betas include Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther (Shuri), Doctor Doom, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Hulk, Magik, Peni Parker, Star-Lord, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), Storm, Wolverine, and fighting game veteran Danger. You’ll fight across iconic Marvel locales such as Wakanda, New York City, Savage Land, the X-Mansion, and celestial husk Knowhere.
The world of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls has also been designated an official multiverse number: Earth-358, an as yet unexplored reality that will allow developers to tell their own stories free of established continuity in the future.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls releases on August 6th 2026 for PS5 and PC.
