Phoenix Cyclops announced as Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls' first DLC fighter

Phoenix Cyclops will join Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls as the game's first downloadable fighter this fall, Arc System Works and Sony Interactive Entertainment announced during the game's Behind the Battle panel at San Diego Comic-Con, as reported by Polygon. The reveal lands just ahead of the tag fighter's Aug. 6 launch on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC.

The design draws on the Phoenix Five incarnation of Cyclops from the Avengers vs. X-Men comics storyline, in which the Phoenix Force — the cosmic entity most famously bound to Jean Grey — is split into fragments that come to empower Scott Summers. Ray Chase voices the character, whose kit spans optic blasts, hand-to-hand combat, and Phoenix Force powers, per the PlayStation Blog announcement.

Story mode, an anime opening, and a Wolverine crossover

The panel also premiered the game's intro movie, animated by Sanzigen Studio — whose credits include BanG Dream! and Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers — under director Daisuke Suzuki. Its theme song, Stronger As One, featuring vocals from SHOW-YA's Keiko Terada and NEMOPHILA's mayu, was released on music platforms on July 23. On the story side, the Champion of the Universe — the cosmic warrior Tryco Slatterus, portrayed here as obsessed with mastering fighting styles from across the cosmos — will serve as the main antagonist. The single-player campaign follows the five captains who lead the game's pre-built four-character teams as they assemble a squad to defeat him.

Crossover content is coming from elsewhere in the PlayStation stable as well: Marvel Tokon will receive Wolverine's Battle Reborn suit from Insomniac Games' upcoming Wolverine title as a free costume on Sept. 1, and the game's Ultimate Edition includes a costume inspired by Marvel's Spider-Man 2's Advanced Suit 2.0. The Comic-Con panel was moderated by fighting game commentator and streamer Sajam, joined by Arc System Works producer Takeshi Yamanaka, localization director Amber Seitz, and Marvel Games senior product development manager Michael Francisco.

Open beta runs this weekend

The open beta runs from 12:00 a.m. PT on July 24 through 11:59 p.m. PT on July 26 on PlayStation 5, Steam, and the Epic Games Store. A PlayStation Network account is required to play; a PlayStation Plus subscription is not. The test bundles an online lobby for casual and ranked matches — explorable with 16 unique lobby avatars — local versus and CPU battles, a fully fledged training mode, and the first three chapters of the story campaign, The Amazing Guardians episode mode.

Sixteen fighters are playable in the beta: Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, Storm, Magik, Wolverine, Danger, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, Peni Parker, Ghost Rider, Blade, Doctor Doom, Magneto, and — as a late addition announced just ahead of the test — Green Goblin. Matches play out across six stages: day and night versions of Marvel's New York, the Savage Land, the X-Mansion, Knowhere, and Wakanda.

Developed by the studio behind Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ, Marvel Tokon is a four-on-four tag fighter with an unusual structure: teammates share a single health bar, and players start each match with only two of their four characters unlocked, earning the rest by meeting in-match conditions such as breaking a wall or dropping a round. Arc System Works has said it adjusted the game's systems in response to closed-beta feedback, though the game's limited availability in countries that cannot currently sign up for PlayStation Network remains a point of contention heading into launch.