Marvel Tokon PC patch cuts CPU load and stuttering four days after launch

Arc System Works released the first PC patch for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls on Monday, four days after the tag fighter launched on PC and PlayStation 5. The update is aimed squarely at the performance problems that dominated the game’s opening weekend, and players posting to the game’s subreddit say it has largely resolved them.

According to patch notes Arc System Works published on the game’s official Discord, the update makes several changes to reduce CPU usage, including fixes for high CPU load during start-up and for extra system load created by periodic audio processing during matches. The developer also identified a specific cause of the sudden frame drops players had reported: the game was repeatedly checking for available audio inputs. A separate fix addresses frame rate drops that occurred when certain resolutions were selected.

Two bug fixes ship alongside the performance work. One addresses battle settings reverting to their defaults when the game was restarted with certain customisation items or colours enabled; the other fixes buttons becoming unresponsive in open lobby mini-games after a player switched the attack button display to action icons. The patch also improves the automatic detection used to pick a graphics profile, and prompts PC players to run through shader compilation again after updating.

The update follows a launch weekend in which PC and PlayStation 5 players had markedly different experiences. Polygon reported that the game holds a "Mixed" rating on Steam across roughly 2,600 player reviews, with complaints centred on optimisation, low frame rates, stability and the game’s PlayStation Network account requirement, while the PS5 version ran comparatively well. IGN reported that the game came within a few hundred reviews of falling to "Mostly Negative" in all languages, and that fighting game community figure Maximilian Dood uninstalled it from Steam during a livestream.

Both outlets quote Reddit posts from players saying the patch fixed their stuttering, with several calling on people who left negative Steam reviews to reconsider them. The fixes are not universal. IGN reports that the forced PlayStation Network connection and the lack of Linux support remain, and that some players still see dropped frames even where performance is smoother overall. GameSpot notes that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls holds an aggregate score of 88 on Metacritic while its Steam user scores have been much lower.