Welcome, My Hero Academia fans, to the first of many character breakdowns for the upcoming fighting title, My Hero Academia: One’s Justice, which is scheduled to release in North America October 26th. We have the privilege of living in Japan and made sure to grab ourselves a copy, so that we could explore this awesome game even further. For more details on the game as a whole, be sure to check out our full review!

Picking up any fighting game can be an intimidating ordeal, especially when you have a plethora of characters to choose from, and all of them seem to look really cool while in action. However, to become a great player it’s important to know your own playstyle and finding a character(s) that compliments you is a sure fire way to ascend to the top. So, what we’re going to do in our character breakdown series is go over a few things pertaining to every character in regards to their gameplay, and whether or not they suit your playstyle. Without further adieu, let’s hop into it with our first character: Tsuyu Asui.

We spent a great deal of time playing with Tsuyu, and she’s a very fun character to use if you’re willing to play patiently. In My Hero Academia: One’s Justice, movement is paramount to ensure you can engage the opponent effectively, but it’s also a way to evade incoming attacks. Tsuyu is a character that requires a great deal of aerial movement in order to gain the advantage over her enemy. On the ground, she has potentially the slowest dash (hop) in the game, and so when you’re up against projectile-heavy characters or very rushdown-centric characters, it’s difficult for Tsuyu to gain any sort of control. However, in the air is where she shines because her dashing is incredibly swift, and with the help of her tongue she can swing around and mix up her approach to score a hit.

Tsuyu is one of the few characters that has both a ground and air command grab, meaning that her tongue-lashing is very potent if you can use it effectively. By pressing any direction on the analog stick + circle, you’ll execute her command grab which can toss her opponents away from her to reset the neutral and keep the pressure off, or bounce them off the ground for an aerial combo starter. Her aerial combo game is very deadly, and if you can mix things up on the opponent, then you can destroy them in 2-3 combos with the help of your sidekicks. However, this very strength can also be her downfall because, if her command grab is whiffed, it leaves her wide open for the opponent to counter-attack. Once Tsuyu is knocked down, it can be hard to ease the pressure due to most of her special moves having a slow start up. Her grounded and air tongue specials are essentially anti-projectile and anti-air friendly but once again, they have slow startup and if you happen to whiff them you’re in for a heap of trouble. Having the right sidekicks to make up for your weak points, but also strengthen your approach are important, and that’s the next point we’ll discuss!

In My Hero Academia: One’s Justice, sidekicks play an integral role in how the game flows and can really turn the tide in your favor if you’re well prepared. As we said earlier, Tsuyu lacks speed on the ground and so she needs to resort to the air in order to close the gap on the enemy. Ochaco Uraraka can stop the opponent in their tracks and leave them floating for Tsuyu to start her combo game. Tomura Shigaraki is also an incredibly powerful sidekick for Tsuyu since you can create a 50/50 mixup after a knockdown. His special AOE attack leaves a puddle of dark matter around the enemy, and if they try to attack they get hit giving you a chance to combo freely. If they block it’s a command grab, and if they try to run then that’s a free dash into a combo.