People looking forward to Marvel Token: Fighting Souls were a little worried this morning when it was heavily implied that its story mode would not feature any gameplay. It turns out it was a misunderstanding, and the ten-hour comic, in fact, you will need to participate in the fight.
In an interview with 4Gamer, Marvel Token creator Takeshi Yamanaka provided details about the upcoming fighter's story mode. The interview initially detailed a ten-hour campaign in which the player had to do absolutely nothing. It's just an animated comic book that they can rewind, fast forward, or pause if they like, but other than that, it just plays out.
It seems there was a misunderstanding somewhere along the way as the interview has been quickly changed to address this, noting that, thankfully, Marvel Token's story mode requires input from the player. This much, in fact, seems to be the case since the story progresses through a fully voiced comic that is animated with the help of five different teams, throwing you into various battles.
“In episode mode, there are playable battles included. Battles connected to the story unfold, and it's designed so that one can enjoy it casually, like reading a comic, allowing for a more interactive experience of the story,” confirms Yamanaka, just above a comment in the interview that confirms the original copy.
For a few hours it looked like Story Mode might just be an interactive comic, Marvel Token's potential player base was actually pretty divided. There are going to be a lot of people for whom Marvel Token is their first Arc System experience. It was the newcomers who assumed there must be some kind of mistake, and they were right.
However, those who played the previous Arch System games were highlighting that something like this wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. Guilty Gear Strive has a story mode that is almost five hours long as it is effectively just a feature-length anime. The player does nothing, they just sit back, watch, and enjoy the ride.
Doing so, and doubling the length, would have been an incredibly risky move for its next game, potentially drawing a much larger audience for the Marvel franchise. That's not going to make a smart arc system. It looks like Marvel Token is going to have a substantial story mode, and you'll actually need to fight your way through it to advance the story.
