Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls: second closed beta impressions – Bigger & better

December 7, 2025, marked the end of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ second closed beta on PlayStation 5, which again made a big impression on players. Developer Arc System Works announced the period in September as a way of showing fans how the title now plays, thanks to the feedback given from the first beta session. 

For those unaware, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a fighting game that works on a 3v3 tag-team system, featuring a hand-drawn art style as well as mechanics like auto combos and throws that are similar to Arc System Works’ other title, 2018’s Dragon Ball FighterZ. In a PlayStation Blog post, Kazuto Sekine, Game Director and Lead Battle Designer at Arc System Works, revealed how there have been plenty of improvements made this time.

ESI has been playing the second Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta during these three days, and we’ve come away impressed, despite experiencing some small issues.

The first Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta, held from September 5 to September 7, introduced players to the gameplay mechanics, the art style, and more. But as the period was broken up into segments, it was hard for players to get into a rhythm with Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. 

This second Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta was a huge improvement, mainly because it ran uninterrupted for the full 72 hours. This meant that anyone who was able to play the game could get used to all eight characters in their own time during the three days. The newest character, Ghost Rider, is a welcome addition this time. 

The character may be familiar to those who watched actor Nicholas Cage play him in the 2007 movie. But here, Ghost Rider is fully redeemed as a terrorising close-quarters fighter with some powerful special attacks that can be great as a finisher in many matches.

Other characters who were in the first Marvel Tōkon beta, such as Captain America, Storm, and Iron Man, all still control as well as they did before. What makes Fighting Souls work so well is how much its system can work with three characters at once. Arc System Works has clearly got the system nailed from 2018’s Dragon Ball FighterZ. Everything felt tighter in this second beta, with moves dealing fairer damage and counters working well in most cases.

However, there were a couple of issues that were new in this second closed beta. There were times when it felt like the game wasn’t registering my inputs. I would attempt a combo with Spider-Man, but Dr. Doom would pummel me, leaving me no room to counter or block in time. It’s something I didn’t experience much of in the first beta, but here, it was one in every three matches I played.

Overall, though, I came away impressed once again. Arc System Works knows how the tag-team fighting genre works, and Marvel Tōkon is a great example of that. At this point, it feels like the game could be released as Early Access, much like Riot Games’ 2XKO currently is.

But it seems that Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ developers want to take their time in getting every mechanic and character tight, and you can’t help but respect that approach.

The cel-shaded art style is nothing new from Arc System Works. Its past library has taken full advantage of it, such as Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear: Strive, Granblue Fantasy: Versus Rising, and more. But that’s not to say the graphical style has become tiresome – it’s the opposite.

Indeed, Marvel Tōkon looks fantastic when still, and even better when everything is going on. 2XKO also has a similar style, but everything looks like a pastel drawing, with no vibrant colors taking over the screen. Not so with Arc System Works’ latest, as everything pops, with smooth animations that make everything look like you’re watching a comic book in motion.

The anime designs of everyone, especially Iron Man, look incredible, and are a big testament to honouring the source material but giving it a twist that makes every character look like they’ve always been in this style. With just eight characters announced for the Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls roster so far, it does make us wonder who else is going to get this style, especially whoever ends up being the final boss.

The tag-team fighting game genre is back, thanks to Riot Games’ 2XKO, and the surprising return of Dragon Ball FighterZ, thanks to a fresh patch available, as well as a new DLC character coming soon.

But it does seem that, once Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls releases in 2026 for PlayStation 5 and PC, it’ll be set to be the definitive game to go to in the genre. Its gameplay mechanics are full of depth, replayability, and quick-thinking that it’ll give players that ‘just one more go’ feeling, similar to what Dragon Ball FighterZ still evokes, all these years later.

Granted, there are some new issues from this second closed beta test. Some attacks are unblockable, and others don’t seem to register correctly. But this is why Arc System Works is still holding these testing sessions, to quash these issues before the game’s 2026 release. For now, though, the game is playing and looking great, and we’ll be sure to go in-depth on the Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls game once the full version is made available.