Anime fighters have seen a resurgence recently, with the likes of DRAGON BALL FighterZ making waves and a plethora of other titles now making their presence in the fighting game community. The awesome team at Bandai Namco have been churning out nothing but hits over the past several years, and now they’ve decided to bring fans of My Hero Academia a new fighting title to become immersed in. Any fan of not only the popular Shounen franchise but also fighting games in general will certainly fall in love with My Hero One’s Justice right away, because it’s very easy to pick up and play, with a great tutorial to help execute flashy looking combos. Unlike other mainstream fighters, those that do have a high entry point in terms of execution and require a great deal of knowledge pertaining to learning a lot of matchups, My Hero One’s Justice tries to keep things as straightforward as possible so as to not alienate anyone from truly having a great time. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran of fighters or just picking the game up to enjoy the awesome single player modes, My Hero One’s Justice is an all-in-one package for everyone. Be sure to also check out our character breakdowns for each character!
What to Expect
While execution isn’t heavily required compared to other fighters, some fundamental understanding of how to play will be a necessity. An example would be on how to properly block incoming attacks from your opponent and learning how to capitalize off of player habits. Things like this will of course be learned over time, even for newer inexperienced players, but My Hero Academia: One’s Justice does a splendid job of ensuring you learn those fundamentals early on. Before hopping onto the network to fight other players you can choose from a variety of modes to really test out the game mechanics, but also decide on who your favorite characters are to use.
My Hero One’s Justice plays similarly to that of 3v3 fighters, where having the right team chemistry can allow you to perform very stellar looking combos with just by pushing of a few buttons. My Hero One’s Justice only requires you to use 4 buttons and in combination with each other you’ll be able to rack up damage, call out your assists, pull off insane counter attacks, and finish off the opponent with your Plus Ultra. It’s a simple approach, but with enough mastery of not only your characters but the game overall, you’ll be the number one hero in no time! Expect to see a lot of flashy Ultras too!
Gameplay
Visuals
My Hero One’s Justice takes inspiration from the classic comic book style that you know and love from your favorite superhero comics, like Batman or Superman. You combine that with the crisp artistic direction that the series is known for and you’ve got a wonderful looking game that runs smoothly at 60fps. The overall presentation is very clean and everything is incredibly easy to navigate around. You never feel lost as you traverse around each menu screen and you’re just constantly enamored by all the vibrant colors that make everything pop. Character animations are smooth, especially during battle and every single detail is conveyed perfectly for each character. The way Tsuyu moves in the anime, for example, is exactly how she moves and performs within the game, adding more authenticity to the mix. Each stage you fight on as well reflects the same locations that many of the U.A. characters battled on during both the anime and manga, so the game really does an amazing job of maintaining consistency all throughout. Nothing ever felt or looked exaggerated, which is a major plus.
Sound, Music
As you traverse through the menu screens you’re always greeted with a nice, catchy and up tempo soundtrack, that compliments the series so well. Even when you’re in the character customization menu, the music is very chill and you can enjoy pampering your favorite character in a relaxing fashion. During in-game battles the tempo of course changes to reflect what’s happening, with a more rock-oriented theme to really set the tone and build that hype. During the waiting screen on ranked mode you have a more funk-oriented theme that, once again, just sounds cheerful and really gets you into the game. When moves are performed the sound effects are dazzling and never come off as choppy, adding more authenticity to the game overall. My Hero One’s Justice made sure to keep all of the same voice actors of the franchise in tact, so you’ll be hearing the same voice actors of Ochaco, Deku, Todoroki, Tsuyu, and the entire cast.
Gameplay
So, let’s break down the gameplay into sections so that way it’ll make reading through the review much easier. We’ll start from the very top, which is the Story Mode and will wrap things up with Config, which is the last option on the menu screen. Just as a reminder, My Hero One’s Justice is a 4 button fighter (jump, punches, kicks, dashes) and the buttons work as stated:
Square Button - Combo Starter. Direction + Square - Counter attack (character glows yellow and can absorb multiple hits. Armor based move). R1 + Square - Guard Break Move. Triangle - Special move 1 (unique to each character) - Holding down this button may change the properties of some attacks for characters. Direction + Triangle - Special Move 2 (unique to each character). Circle - Special move 3. Direction + Circle - Special move 4. R1 + Triangle - Plus Ultra 1 (one special gauge is needed). R1 + Circle - Plus Ultra 2 (2 special gauge is needed). R1 + Triangle + Circle - Plus Ultra ALL (3 special gauge is needed). L2 - Call out assist 1. R2 - Call out assist 2. X button - Jump. L1 - Ground dash/air dash. R1 - Block.
Twitch Gameplay
Watch High Level Tsuyu Play - Be One with the Kero Kero! Frog Style! NualphaJPN
Story Mode
Story Mode is pretty self explanatory as it’s the mode that you’ll head into to watch much of the My Hero Academia plot unfold. To avoid spoilers we’ll avoid discussing too much about it, but basically you’ll go through the story as it’s explained to you via gameplay and through cutscenes. Along the way you’ll encounter familiar faces, unlocking customized items to help personalize your favorite character online. For example, you can unlock things like avatars for your player card, special messages that are displayed on screen during an online battle, clothing and accessories for characters plus much more. What’s cool about it all is that anyone who’s dabbled with mobile games will recognize how each costume or item is categorized, based on a rarity system. “N” would be normal, “R” would be rare, “SR” would be super rare, with “EX” being the most expensive yet coolest looking of the bunch. You can unlock these items either by playing in each respective mode, or by hitting up the character customization section and using your earnings to buy costumes/accessories there.
Mission Mode
Mission mode allows you to take on certain objectives that all have a certain requirement you must meet in order to successfully move on. Each mission you embark on allows you to unlock items as we stated earlier, but it also encourages you to play with each character in the game, to familiarize yourself with how each character performs in battle. This mode is very fun to play since it’s an easy way to understand the mechanics of the game, without being thrown into an online environment that may be intimidating for many. It’s definitely a casual perk for players who just simply want to be the completionist and collect all of the items and costumes for everyone in the game, which to be honest is very worthwhile.
Training Mode
This mode needs no real introduction as this is the quintessential mode that every fighting game has, and can never really be a fighting game without it. Training mode is where you can practice your combos, setups, or simply just fool around with a variety of characters to see just who fits your playstyle and which assists compliment that style. Surprisingly, training mode has a lot of cool options that you can take advantage of, like being able to set the CPU to do two actions one after the other. Let’s say you want to practice a setup where you want to punish someone for mashing out the punch button, you can set the CPU to do: after opponent blocks one attack then press square.
You can also do things like if your opponent takes damage, they’ll call out their assist to rescue them. This is extremely helpful because it allows you to test out various ways to approach your opponent in a safe manner, and punish them for being too impatient or too overzealous with their aggression. You also have the option to toggle attack data on or off, in case you’re wondering about that. Training mode is your best friend if you intend to take My Hero One’s Justice seriously. It’s not as sophisticated as other fighters on the market, but it certainly has enough to provide players who love breaking the game down into a science, a place to experiment.
Free Battle / Network Mode
This is where you’ll want to be if you’re looking to test out all of those juicy setups on other opponents online or offline! Free Battle is just like your typical offline versus mode where you can duke it out with friends or with the CPU. Network mode is where you’ll want to go if you want to play ranked and unranked matches, to see how you stack up against the rest of the world. You’re able to create a room, search for a room and check out the rankings to see who the number one hero is. You’re also able to customize your team before going into battle, which is actually really nice since you can switch things up with every battle you enter! As you win against other players you’ll receive a ranking score which breaks down the types of techniques you used, as well as areas to perhaps improve on. This score system can also be found in all other modes as well. In ranked mode your player card score will increase by 10 (at least from what we observed) for each win you get, but if you lose there doesn’t seem to be a penalty, which is cool.
Player Customization/Character Customization
This is where you’ll have access to all the items and costumes you’ve unlocked either through purchasing or obtaining through the single player modes. Nothing too special here other than that you get to dress up your character to your liking, and there’s a pretty decent assortment of costumes to tinker with to make your main character stand out. It’s recommended that, if you want the most value, then definitely play the single player modes first to really have a nice variety available to you when the time comes.
Honey's Gameplay Consensus:
Overall, My Hero One’s Justice does a great job of maintaining the action-packed thrilling adventure that the series is known for, throwing everyone into a frenzy of fistfights and special attacks that ultimately create a joyous experience. The game does still suffer in a few areas however, most notably the lack of a strong character roster and the absence of popular characters from the series. Of course you still have your staple characters like Ochaco, Deku, Aizawa and the like, but we hope down the road they’ll add in more characters via DLC to give the game more variety.
A few characters need some rebalancing, such as Tomura’s infinite combo using his counterattack starter and also toning down Kirishima’s hardened mode capabilities. Not being able to block incoming attacks from the air is also a small issue since it sort of forces you to play a grounded game, and only go for aerial pressure when there’s an opportunity. In addition, not being able to use your assists after your main character is defeated is also a let down, since it would truly make the game more exciting and encourage players to really try out the entire cast. Aside from that, you’re getting a complete My Hero Academia package that fans of the series will fall in love with immediately, and is a great title to invite newcomers into the franchise to give them a taste of what the hype is all about!
Honey's Pros:
Fully voiced and each character comes to life beautifully.
Wonderful illustration of both the characters and environments.
Simple UI is always plus.
Various paths to discover and you get to know more about Yostuka’s backstory.
Some nice little ecchi/ero moments to grab your attention.
Wonderful narrative that really reels you in.
The Plus Ultra cinematic finishes are amazing to watch!
Honey's Cons:
Some characters require some rebalancing as they affect gameplay (Tomura’s infinite and Kirishima’s hardened state).
Character roster could use a little bit more.
Not being able to block incoming attacks in the air is an issue.
No spectator mode.
No online lobbies at the moment. Only 2 players can duke it out.
Honey's Final Verdict:
We hope you enjoyed our thorough review of My Hero One’s Justice and found that the information provided was enough to encourage you to buy this game. As we mentioned earlier, be sure to check out our character breakdowns if you're looking to take this game a bit more seriously! In the meantime check out our other reviewed titles and be sure to follow us on Twitter for all the latest gaming info!
As always, for all things sweet, with news straight from Japan, be sure to keep it locked here on Honey’s Anime.
Editor/Writer
Author: Rob "NualphaJPN" B.
A passionate fan of gaming, writing, journalism, anime, and philosophy. I've lived in Japan for many years and consider this place to be my permanent home. I love to travel around Japan and learn about the history and culture! Leave a comment if you enjoy my articles and watch me play on twitch.tv/honeysgaming ! Take care!
