If this is supposed to be what we can expect instead of a new Marvel VS Capcom title, I am not impressed. Frankly pathetic roster, optimization issues STILL at launch, forced PSN for online play, game mechanics that differ too far from traditional tag fighters, and basically no hope for serious expansion potential. ARC SYS dropped the ball hard.
This may sound like straight up boomer cope, but Marvel had a good thing going with the MVC franchise and this just is not going to compare favorably. I absolutely adore MVC3. I loved MVC2. I can tolerate MVCI. This just doesn't stack up when put against what it 100% is supposed to be replacing. Rather than letting Capcom attempt to redeem themselves after the total flop that was MVCI, we get what is arguably the most lack luster title of 2026.
A roster of 20 characters at launch with most of them having only one outfit and alternate outfits being locked behind massive day one paywalls is disgraceful. Even Street Fighter 6 dropped with at least two outfits for every character and that was in the BASE version of the game. ARC SYS can totally do a good job with fighting games, but in their effort to be super faithful to the source material, they failed to consider that mechanics matter deeply and if you change too much from what you're replacing, you will fail to be worth the time.
They tried something new here, a 4v4 instead of 3v3. That wouldn't be too bad at face value. They made it so it's a persistent health bar. Not a good move in my opinion but forgivable. They completely changed how tag ins work from basically every other tag fighter. It's a death of a thousand cuts with Tokon.
I really want to love this game but everything Sony and ARC SYS have done here makes it nearly impossible. When even Invincible VS knows better than to change basically everything mechanically from the origins of the sub-genre you're making a game for, that's not a good sign for your game's future. Am I saying Tokon is doomed? Oh absolutely. not breaking 25,000 players AT LAUNCH is horrible and when the community was already pissed off before launch about the PSN and EAC, that's basically ensuring the game isn't going to have much of a future. I would bet there's some very minor hype for new characters and that basically everyone is going to just go back to MVC3U.
Tokon had potential. ARC SYS knew what they were doing. They did this all anyways. I do not understand. I am not happy. If like me, you didn't play the betas to avoid getting spoiled and love MVC, this will probably disappoint heavily.
