Ignore the odd title; this one is worth picking up for fans.
What They Say:
Fight for your justice in MY HERO ONE’S JUSTICE! The popular manga and anime series clashes head-to-head and Quirk-to-Quirk in this 3D arena fighter. Pave your path and choose between hero or villain and battle through iconic moments.
The Review:
Bandai Namco continues its trend this year of releasing quality video games based on popular anime and manga series with My Hero One’s Justice. The weirdly named game is certainly worth checking out if you’re a fan of the My Hero Academia franchise. For the first major video game adaptation in the series to make it West, it does make some odd design choices that takeaway but don’t ultimately hinder this great arena fighting game.
My Hero One’s Justice is a 3D arena fighter in the veins of other Bandai Namco games like The Seven Deadly Sins Knights of Britannia and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. There are all of the typical modes you’d expect like story, multiplayer, arcade, local multiplayer, and so on. Interestingly enough, every single part of One’s Justice proudly bleeds its manga and comic book inspiration.
Everything about its aesthetic is laced with popping font styles, artwork, colors, and panels. This goes from the menus to the story mode to even the fights themselves. The story begins at an odd point in the timeline and plays out mostly through comic book-like panels with shots from the anime. The story cutscenes themselves are fast and super condensed versions of the anime so this isn’t really where you want to look if you’re new to the series.
My Hero One’s Justice certainly feels like it’s made for players who are already fans of the show/manga and want more content to enjoy; contrary to my thoughts on Bandai Namco’s other recent anime game Black Clover: Quartet Knights. Beginning in the middle of season two, it certainly feels like a missed opportunity to retell the entire story thus far while ushering in new fans.
This essentially boils the story mode down to one major objective: letting fans play through some of their favorite fights from the series. This is awesome as you get to enjoy scenes from both perspectives of the heroes and the villains. Better yet, there are moments where you can even select which character you want to play as like during the Stain fight.
Unfortunately, this is hurt by the fact that you miss out on playing through, arguably, many of the very best fights (the sports festival). This makes the story mode oddly designed and certainly not the showstopper it could have been. Thankfully, the combat itself is engaging and interesting.
If you’ve played other 3D arena fighters, you know exactly what to expect from My Hero One’s Justice. You have your basic couple of attacks that can be strung together into combos as well as various special attacks that can be ranged, defensive-focused, melee, and so on. You have your basic block, counters, and dash.
In addition, what’s unique to My Hero One’s Justice are the Plus Ultra ultimate moves. These are available typically in up to three levels, using a bar that charges up as you fight. While the first level Plus Ultra does good damage, it’s brief meanwhile the second level and higher is far more cinematic and crazy.
However, you can use the third and final level along with your two sidekicks to unleash the ultimate Plus Ultra move. Your sidekicks are useful for this ultimate attack as well as the occasional assist move, similar to Dragon Ball FighterZ minus the ability to switch. Fighting is one of the flashiest around, showing off with awesome explosions, destruction environments, and much more. The effects are by far the standout for me in combat.
This is because fighting is a little too standard at times, especially when playing by yourself. The combat can be a little slower and heavier than other similar games as seen as in how limited the dash can be. This isn’t as noticeable online as actual competition certainly makes things a lot more enjoyable.
Speaking of which, the online multiplayer is your standard fare. Thankfully, there is the option for local multiplayer as well. This is certainly welcome as it is so easy to accomplish on Nintendo Switch and is great for hanging out with friends. However, there is one more mode that is worth mentioning that I found a lot more interesting than the story mode.
That is the missions mode. Here, you have several different “maps” that have multiple paths you can take and numerous fights along the way. The goal is to make it to the finish line without losing or you’ll have to start all over. What makes it even more difficult is that your health stays the same the entire time but you do have two sidekicks you can switch to before the next fight.
This adds a level of strategy and excitement that I didn’t feel anywhere else. Most maps don’t take too long to complete so it really feels like a great offline challenge for characters you feel like are your best. Speaking of characters, My Hero One’s Justice has a well-rounded roster that includes a good balance between heroes and villains. Each character is as different as you’d expect, with Iida controlling about as fast as I expected and the balance between fire and ice with Todoroki making him unique to control.
Perhaps my favorite feature of My Hero One’s Justice is the level of customization that can keep you busy for hours alone. There are hats, accessories, different costumes, and so on that you can equip each of the characters with. Though a lot of the costumes are recycled, there are some amazing standout costumes that honestly look way better than the real ones. I mean, black and white Deku is going to forever stick in my head as his de facto outfit no matter what anyone says.
In Summary:
My Hero One’s Justice, without a doubt, embraces what the series is and proudly embodies it. Everything from the menus to the fights to the customization is laced with that superhero comic book feel. Though the story mode has some odd design choices and the fights can feel a little weightier than desired, this game is a great fix for fans of the series waiting patiently for season four to arrive next year whether you’re looking to play online or offline.
Grade: B-
Released By: Bandai Namco
Developer: Byking
MSRP: $59.99
Release Date: October 26th, 2018
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PS4, Xbox One, PC
This review was done with a review copy provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.
