MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls story mode is a 10-hour, playable manga, so I’m officially hyped

With some big exceptions, story modes in fighting games are usually a bit of an afterthought as the bulk of dev time likely goes into balancing combat and character movesets.

MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls is looking to introduce some length and depth into the genre with its story called Episode Mode, which will function as a playable motion comic in the four-vs-four tag fighter, according to a new interview with devs.

"We had a manga artist draw the base manga, and then we added movement to each panel to advance the story, which is a fairly time-consuming way to present it," ARC SYSTEM WORKS producer Takeshi Yamanaka said in an interview with 4Gamer (via machine translation). "We have prepared five teams, and it has enough content to provide nearly 10 hours of gameplay in total."

When it comes to fighting game story modes, Mortal Kombat immediately comes to mind as a series that focuses on the narrative, especially since Mortal Kombat 9 back in 2011. MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls sounds like it won't be the same by any stretch, but the devs do seem to be taking it seriously.

"From the beginning of the project, we decided that a story mode was absolutely necessary for casual players, and the only thing left to discuss was what form it should take," Yamanaka said. "Marvel is all about comics, so we thought about how to make it interactively enjoyable, and that's how the idea of ​​making comics move came about. By adding sound and movement to motion comics, we can also make use of the PS5's vibration function."

Yamanaka said the motion comic will have "battles that are connected to the story... and it's designed so that anyone can enjoy it casually, like reading a comic, allowing for a more interactive experience of the story."

One fighting game that disappointed me heavily with its story mode was Invincible VS. The cutscenes were awesomely animated, but short and scant, amounting to a campaign that lasted barely over an hour. With a potential for 10 hours of gameplay and Marvel-themed exposition in MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, it's gone from a game that I was already excited about to one of my more anticipated titles of the summer.

MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls launches on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on Aug. 6.

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