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Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls just gave its single-player crowd a real reason to pay attention. The tag-team fighter from Guilty Gear developer Arc System Works has revealed Episode Mode, its primarily single-player campaign, and confirmed that it was written by Kieron Gillen, the acclaimed comic writer and former games journalist with a long history of writing for Marvel.
According to Eurogamer, which reported the reveal, Episode Mode features five unique stories, each brought to life by a different artist and following a different team as they face the looming threat of the Champion. Each of the five storylines wraps up in boss battles against the Promoter and the Champion, giving the mode a shared spine even as the art and cast change from chapter to chapter.
A Writer Who Knows These Characters
Hiring Gillen is a statement of intent. Fighting game story modes historically have been an afterthought, a thin excuse to string bouts together, but the recent trend has been uplifting and single-player campaigns are getting more attention than ever before.
Putting a career Marvel writer like Gillen, who wrote seminal works for the X-Men and Young Avengers, in charge of five interlocking narratives suggests Arc System Works wants Episode Mode to carry more than the usual weight. The five-artist framing pushes that further, treating each story as its own illustrated arc rather than a uniform slog toward the credits.
The Roster Is Stacked
The single-player reveal lands on top of an already confirmed launch roster. Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls runs 20 characters deep: Storm, Magik, Wolverine, Danger, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, Peni Parker, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, Hulk, Doctor Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin, Carnage, Ghost Rider, Blade, Deadpool, and Loki. That is a spread deep enough to give those five Episode Mode teams plenty of distinct faces to build around.
Arc System Works first unveiled Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls last year as a superhero tag-team fighter, and the studio's pedigree with Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ has kept expectations high for how it handles Marvel's heavy hitters.
The upcoming MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls Open Beta next weekend will also include a first taste of the Episode Mode, so be sure to check it out.
