Hero image: Phoenix Cyclops in Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. Image: Arc System Works / PlayStation
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls gets its first DLC fighter on 2 November — and it isn’t the Cyclops most players would expect. Arc System Works producer Takeshi Yamanaka revealed Phoenix Cyclops on the PlayStation Blog early this morning, Australian time, alongside a gameplay trailer.
He is the first character in the game’s Year 1 Pass, and he is voiced by Ray Chase. Two extra costumes, “Classic” and “Legacy”, arrive on the same day.
The post also opens the door for anyone still on the fence. A 3-hour Game Trial is live now for PlayStation Plus subscribers, and the game’s first-ever sale on PlayStation Store has started, with the Ultimate Edition discounted. The post doesn’t give a sale price.
On Steam in Australia, the base game is still A$109.95 and the Year 1 Characters and Stage Pass is A$52.95. The store page says the pass covers four characters and one stage, with the rest of its content “expected to be made available by 31 December 2027”.
Yamanaka says the Phoenix version was a deliberate swerve. Cyclops has appeared in “numerous Marvel fighting games over the years”, and the team wanted something that looked and played differently, so the narrative team proposed the version of Scott Summers carrying the Phoenix Force.
In play, he is described as “an all-rounder who excels at both long-range combat and close-range strikes”, built around Optic Blasts. Using them builds Solar Shards, and once four are collected he can transform into Dark Phoenix — a big temporary boost that “comes with risks, including health depletion”.
That mechanic borrows from the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, where Cyclops became one of the Phoenix Five. The “Classic” and “Legacy” costumes exist, Yamanaka writes, because plenty of fans will still want the version of him they grew up with.
Players at EVO France, which runs 9 to 11 October, will get hands-on time first. For everyone else, it’s a little under four weeks until he lands — and, as Yamanaka notes, the game is only “nearly two months” past launch.
Source: PlayStation Blog – Phoenix Cyclops joins MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls on November 2, PlayStation (YouTube) – Phoenix Cyclops Gameplay Trailer, Steam – MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls