Marvel Tokon Devs Reflect On Its Troubles And Hope Players Give It Another Shot

Maintaining balance

Sekine explains that the team’s main goal with Marvel Tokon was to “create this new and chaotic tag fighter experience,” and that based on player feedback, they are “heading in the right direction.” However, that raises an important question: As the game continues to evolve with new content and updates, how does the team plan for potential balancing issues?

“The more you play the game, the more depth you discover, more things that these characters and these combinations can achieve,” Sekine said. “When we’re developing the game as well, we do a lot of test play amongst the team, and when we discover things, we think, ‘Will the players accept this? Is this okay? Is this going too far? Is this too strong?’ We have the same kind of discussions that we see players having once the game is out, and we’re trying to constantly find like how far we can go, how powerful we can make this, and the right level of balance.”

Sekine admits that finding that balance is very difficult, and that explaining how Arc System Works maintains it is challenging. “It’s hard to describe exactly what that process is like, but we have some general rules we use as a base,” Sekine said. “I’d say the first thing that we do when designing characters in battle is ensure that we express the character’s identity, and once we’ve achieved that, we draw a lot from our experience and previous development.”

Deadpool, the fourth-wall-breaking antihero, is a prime example. Tokon’s Deadpool utilizes moves, poses, and quotes from the extensive history of fighting games, and Sekine says the idea came from the team’s desire to make a lasting impression on the audience through its version of The Merc with a Mouth.

“My image of Deadpool is that no matter where he shows up, he always leaves this big impact on the audience,” Sekine said. “I definitely wanted our Deadpool to live up to that, and that’s when I came up with the idea to use his ability to break the fourth wall to bring in various references.” The idea, while fun, does require approval from decision makers outside of the development team; thankfully, when Sekine “half-jokingly” brought it up to PlayStation and Marvel, they were on board. “I’m very fortunate now that we were able to make all of that happen,” Sekine said, “but I think describing how we made it happen would be quite long, so I’ll leave it at that.”

A Marvel-ous partnership

For Marvel’s part, even with the initial PC issues, the team at Marvel Games sounds very pleased with how Tokon is performing. “We’ve seen so much great engagement from the fans and the community, we’ve already seen the players push the game to its absolute limit, and we say hey, bring it on,” Francisco said. “The combo videos, the tournaments, the new tech that people are finding on social media is so heartwarming to us, because it means that people really love the game. We’re excited to see stuff like CEO, Tampa Never Sleeps, and other communities coming together to make an amazing competitive scene, and we couldn’t have asked for more from the fans.”

One common debate that has particularly interested Francisco is tier lists, specifically how much they vary across the community from week to week. “We see tier lists that are all over the place,” Francisco said. “Is Miss Marvel at the bottom, or is she at the top? Where does Hulk go, because he can kill your entire team by himself, but it’s hard to play as him in neutral? These types of debates show that the game has a lot of depth and is still relatively unsolved, and it’s really cool that even the top players have something to chew on.”

The future of Tokon

When most players think of the future of Marvel Tokon, their first thought turns to who might join the playable roster as downloadable content. As of this writing, only one character, Phoenix Cyclops, has been confirmed for post-launch addition, and he was a surprising deep cut. Could more out-of-left-field fighters be on the horizon, and what does the character selection process look like when a vault as deep as Marvel’s is concerned?

Francisco breaks down Marvel’s criteria to three key points, the first being the “iconic” characters Marvel fans would come to expect. “When you think of the word ‘Marvel,’ which characters come to mind?” Francisco said. “You have to have that at the forefront at least, so you know that it’s a Marvel video game.”

Next come the characters who have the opportunity to feel fresh from a gameplay perspective, even if they have a history in fighting games. “I think Magneto was always someone that came to the forefront because of his legacy in fighting games,” Francisco said, “but in Tokon he’s got this great mechanic where he’s throwing parts of the stage at you. That’s just cool from a design standpoint.”

The final criteria is a little more difficult; as Francisco explains it, Marvel wants characters who can not only deliver for longtime Marvel fans, but expand a newer player’s fandom at the same time. “Who could be your next household favorite character?” Francisco asks. “Maybe that’s Danger, or The Champion, or The Promoter, or the upcoming Phoenix Cyclops. We’re always trying to balance these three criteria and thread the needle between that because we always want to deliver on what fans know and love, but also create something new and fresh so their love for Marvel can expand.”

While new roster members are exciting, keeping the core gameplay fun and balanced is just as important, and Arc System Works is up for the challenge. “If any new in-game issues come up, that’s something that we would continue to try to address as promptly as possible,” Tamanaka said. “This game is something that we want to continue to support and update to make it something that will really stay with the community, and be something that the players can enjoy long into the future.”