Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, Arc System Works' 4v4 tag fighter featuring 20 Marvel characters, launched on August 6 to a mixed reception depending on platform. While the PS5 version has been well received, the PC version suffered from stuttering, low frame rates, CPU strain, and online matchmaking issues. Polygon reported the game sat at a "Mixed" rating on Steam from roughly 2,600 reviews, with players also citing poor optimization and the game's PSN account requirement as complaints. The problems were severe enough that, according to Kotaku, fighting game community streamer Maximilian Dood uninstalled the game live on air.
Before an official fix arrived, players tried a range of workarounds. Eurogamer reported that some found the in-game "set graphics automatically" option unexpectedly outperformed manually selecting the lowest settings. Others addressed frame pacing issues—described by one Reddit user as a "fucky" native FPS cap causing timing spikes roughly every 30 frames—by manually capping frame rate at 60 through tools like RivaTuner or Nvidia/AMD control panels, plus enabling ultra low latency mode and enabling v-sync through the Nvidia app rather than in-game. A stranger fix some players found: launching the Epic Games Store in the background before starting Marvel Tōkon through Steam, though this and other fixes were not universally effective.
On Monday, Arc System Works released an official patch aimed at reducing performance issues, improving stability, and addressing specific bugs, according to patch notes shared on the game's Discord. The update reduced overall CPU usage by fixing high CPU load during startup and periodic audio processing during matches. It also fixed an issue where the game was regularly and unnecessarily checking for available audio inputs, which had been causing sudden frame drops, and fixed frame rate drops tied to certain resolution settings. Additional bug fixes addressed customization settings reverting to default after restarts and unresponsive buttons in online lobby mini games. The patch also improved auto graphics detection to better match a player's system and prompts PC users to "warm up" shaders again after updating for smoother performance.
Reaction on the game's subreddit and elsewhere has been largely positive. Polygon quoted one player saying their computer could now run the game "very smoothly on high settings" after being stuck on low settings all weekend, while another called it "perfect" now. Kotaku cited similar Reddit comments, including one player who said the patch fixed earlier issues with microstutters, low frame rates, and low GPU utilization, and another who joked that the fix might finally bring PS5 players into the mix online.
Apart from the PC performance issues, early impressions of the game itself have been more mixed. Polygon's day-one first impressions described Marvel Tōkon as "a sluggish fighting game that feels at war with itself," attempting to appeal to both newcomers and genre veterans without fully satisfying either, citing slow sprinting, air dashes, and attacks with heavy startup and recovery compared to prior Arc System Works titles like BlazBlue or Dragon Ball FighterZ. More characters and what Polygon described as year-one DLC of "cosmic scale" are planned for the game going forward.
Arc System Works has said in its patch notes that it will continue "ongoing work to improve performance, stability, and the overall experience" for PC players.