Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, the latest anime fighter from Arc System Works, has experienced a rocky launch on PC, with players reporting significant performance issues and a disappointingly low Steam player count. The game's open beta on PC also faced similar struggles, foreshadowing the difficulties encountered at full release.
On its launch day, Marvel Tōkon recorded a peak player count of just over 24,000 on Steam. This figure falls considerably short of the 44,000 peak players that Arc System Works' previous title, Dragon Ball FighterZ, achieved upon its PC release in 2018. While Marvel Tōkon is also available on PlayStation 5, a notable portion of its player base is expected on PC, making the lower-than-anticipated numbers a cause for concern.
Players on Steam have been vocal about the game's demanding nature. Some theorize that the requirement for a PlayStation Network sign-in may be contributing to performance problems by running additional background processes that consume CPU and memory resources. However, Kotaku's own testing during the open beta indicated that the game is inherently demanding on its own.
Lewis Parker, writing for Kotaku, detailed their experience during the beta, noting that the game frequently utilized upwards of 95 percent of their CPU and consumed as much as 5,000MB of system memory. While multiple instances of the PlayStation PC SDK Runtime application launched with the game, they reportedly had a minimal impact on system resources. Performance issues appear to persist in the full release, with Linux users particularly affected.
One Steam user review highlighted the optimization problems, stating, "This game is horribly optimized and they should have pushed the PC release date back until they figured this out." The reviewer, accustomed to high frame rates in other demanding titles like Tekken and Street Fighter 6, expressed disappointment that Marvel Tōkon's performance hindered their enjoyment, despite finding the game itself fun. They advised potential buyers to wait for a patch before purchasing.
Arc System Works has acknowledged the reports of performance issues on its PC version. In a statement released on launch day, the developer thanked players for their engagement and confirmed that the team is "actively investigating" the reported problems. However, the statement did not detail specific issues being addressed.
While some PC players have reported a smooth experience without performance difficulties, the general sentiment suggests that PC players may be encountering a variable experience. On PlayStation 5, however, players have reported fewer major performance problems, with occasional online lag being the primary complaint after several hours of play.