Marvel Tokon Director Explains Why Phoenix Cyclops Was Chosen Over the Standard Version of the Character as DLC (Exclusive)

September 23, 2026, 11:23am

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has been out for nearly two months at this point, but developer Arc System Works is far from done working on the game. Looking ahead, the studio has already confirmed that Phoenix Cyclops will be joining the roster of Marvel Tokon as its first DLC character at some point before the end of the year. And while the announcement of Phoenix Cyclops coming to Marvel Tokon is one that excited many fans, others were left wondering why Arc System Works chose this version of the character over his standard iteration as the leader of the X-Men. Now, we have more insight into this choice directly from those in charge of the Marvel fighting game.

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Speaking exclusively to ComicBook, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls director Kazuto Sekine opened up about the decision to include Phoenix Cyclops. Broadly speaking, Sekine explained that Cyclops was always a character that those within ArcSys wanted to make sure was part of the roster. That being said, Sekine said that they wanted to ensure that this iteration of Cyclops would end up being much more unique when compared to other versions of the character that have been seen in the past. As a result, the design team eventually landed on the idea of Phoenix Cyclops, which allowed them to have greater creative freedom with not only his moveset, but also his involvement in the story of Marvel Tokon.

“Cyclops is a character that we definitely wanted to be sure to include in the game,” Sekine said. “However, we wanted to challenge ourselves to do something new. That’s when the idea came up of using the version of Cyclops from the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline where he has the power of the Phoenix. From a gameplay perspective as well, I felt that designing him for battle we would be able to include these Phoenix elements in addition to the standard Cyclops abilities to [give him] that variety in his gameplay.”

“From the narrative perspective, since he would be in opposition to the rest of the X-Men, we weren’t able to include him in the base game roster as part of the X-Men team,” he continued. “But we felt that taking this approach would allow us to show this new side of Cyclops to many players.”

When Phoenix Cyclops does join Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, he will become the sixth character in the game that is predominantly tied to the X-Men. Other fighters on this front currently include Wolverine, Magik, Storm, Danger, and Deadpool. After Phoenix Cyclops releases, Arc System Works has three more characters planned to be added to the game over the course of the coming year. It’s not currently known who these future fighters will end up being, but we’ll likely gain more insight in the weeks or months ahead.

As for the launch of Phoenix Cyclops, the first DLC character for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is planned to arrive at some point in Fall 2026. If you’re looking to jump into Marvel Tokon for yourself right now, you can currently do so on PS5 and PC.