Since its release earlier this month, the PC version of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls has seen plenty of criticism due to several performance issues plaguing the game. Developer Arc System Works has since released a new update in an attempt to fix these issues, which include, among other things, the game’s attempts to continuously check for audio inputs that could cause frame drops.
“We identified an issue where the game was regularly checking for available audio inputs. These unnecessary checks could cause sudden frame drops and performance drops. This has now been addressed,” acknowledged the studio. Other CPU-straining issues, like forcing the PC to run at higher speeds than necessary when the game was simply starting up, have also been fixed.
The latest update has also introduced fixes for a variety of bugs that could, for example, display attack buttons incorrectly, or cause the auto spec detection not quite being able to figure out a PC’s system specs as well as one might hope.
The PC release of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls was launched to “Mixed” reviews on Steam, and in the days since, despite ArcSys’ attempts to fix it, reviews haven’t yet shown any signs of improving. However, it is worth keeping in mind that the fighting game came out less than a week ago, and the player base’s opinions are likely to shift as long as the studio continues to fix issues and take player feedback into account.
As we noted in our graphical analysis when Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls came out, many players had reported that they were experiencing stuttering and frame-time problems. This, paired with inconsistent performance and unexpected frame drops, could be quite deadly for a fighting game player, since the highly competitive genre tends to punish players that miss inputs, even if it’s the game’s fault. It is also worth noting that many of the performance issues of the game were reported during the game’s open beta weekend.
Despite Arc System Works’ recent efforts, however, it looks like the PS5 version of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is still the preferable way to play the game, at least for now. Things will likely improve in the long run, however.
Leading up to its release, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls got several trailers showcasing the various members of its roster, like the Hulk, Loki, Deadpool, and Carnage. We also got trailers showcasing its various game modes, including Arcadia Rumble and All-Star Arena. The latter revolves around navigating through a variety of courses that house different battles against teams. There’s also Battle Arcadia, which is a quick way to relax between intense matches through low-stakes mini-games that can be found in the online Lobby.
Performance inconsistencies haven’t been the only problems with Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. In our review – where we gave the fighting game a score of 8 out of 10 – we noted that online play against other PC players was a mess, adding a further layer of unnecessary complications on top of the already-challenging timing required by the game’s combos. However, we still appreciated the game’s character designs and presentation, deep roster, and the Assemble system.
