I’ll admit that I’m not a huge fan of the My Hero Academia series, but I do have some knowledge of the characters and extensive lore.
My Hero Academia All’s Justice is the third game in the series, and in many ways it feels like it learns from its predecessor in certain areas and forgets important details in others.
What we have here is an incredibly gorgeous and faithful recreation of the series’ various conflicts, even if it ultimately lacks the depth and focus needed to hold the series together in the long run.
the end is near
As mentioned earlier, My Hero Academia All’s Justice is the third game in the series, and as such there is generally a lack of background for newcomers to the world and its characters. This is the story of the final war arc of the anime My Hero Academia, which basically summarizes the climactic battle between certain characters.
It’s all incredibly epic, and most of these battles really look like they’re playing their part. I don’t think My Hero Academia All’s Justice is the way to introduce this part of the story, but what’s worse is that it’s not even told very well in video game form in the first place.
Players control multiple heroes and villains from the anime, but the story revolves around protagonist Izuku Midoriya, who seems to be headed for a final battle against the villain All for One. As far as the overall story goes, there’s certainly a lot to catch up on, but this game doesn’t really help with any of it.
Credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment
I could go on for hours to explain how we got here, but I won’t spoil it for those who want to experience the story here, but the heroes led All For One and his many followers to the warp gate and scattered them around the world, trying to fight them one by one in their place.
For what it’s worth, there’s enough story here for players to follow, but little in the way of a focused experience. In All’s Justice, the story is strangely hidden inside the game’s mobile phone. This sort of in-game menu actually stores many of the game’s more interesting modes and features, rather than placing them in the open world to explore.
Even the side quests feel disconnected from the game, but that’s because they are. The open world lets you talk to new and familiar characters, but these side quests don’t add anything to the game’s main story or additional modes such as team-up missions.
Team-up mission mode essentially allows you to team up with your Class 1-A allies in a simulated environment to complete various missions centered around bringing something important or defeating waves of enemies. There’s also a fair amount of traversal here to help shake up the gameplay, as well as some exclusive unlockable goodies. You can also recreate some iconic battles throughout the series, but again, everything is so disconnected from the main story mode that it takes away any sense of connection from the experience.
Credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment
The open world looks nice enough to run around and swing through the streets of Kamurocho, but there’s a fair amount of backtracking if you’re trying to complete the game’s side content, and even the open world gets a little boring after a while. Once again, we feel that having the story missions here would help focus the open world on tracking these locations organically and fighting within them, rather than accessing them through menus. It seems like more could have been done with this formula.
Let’s fight again
My Hero Academia All’s Justice is essentially an arena fighter, and thankfully it plays relatively well. Through various modes, you can control a whopping 68 characters from the series, including characters from UA High School, Pro Heroes, and Villains. They’re all great and capture the spirit of these battles (and there are a lot of them), even if the overall mechanics fade a bit over the course of the game.
Each character has a standard attack and two personalities that act as additional attacks. Characters can also dash, dodge, block, and counter certain attacks, but the counter system feels a bit random as there are no real prompts to help you time your counters, but again, this looks great when done correctly. There’s also a new Rising Gauge, which when activated can increase the effectiveness of attacks and abilities and change the tide of battle.
Credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Combat is fast and frenetic, and if you’re quick enough, it can be completed in a series of short attack animations that look like they were ripped straight from the show.
Players can also choose one of two ways to play, depending on their experience and ability. First, there is the normal mode. This is for new players and essentially automatically links certain combos and abilities, rather than having to press buttons cooperatively. It doesn’t feel too bad when you know what you’re doing, and it adds a great cinematic quality and consistency to the experience.
However, manual mode allows experienced players to chain together their own tailored combinations, but this requires some sense of memorization of the various character move sets and button combinations. While it does add a bit more depth to the experience, Normal mode allowed me to enjoy more frequent cinematics.
Overall, the combat is functional and quite engaging at times, but when you’re actually fighting in this game, it gets boring quickly. Compared to dedicated 2D fighters like Tekken or Mortal Kombat, the amount of instant attacks at your disposal feels limited, and once you get the hang of the moveset and combinations, the animations feel more repetitive as a result.
Credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment
It’s not terrible, but I found My Hero Academia All’s Justice to be much more fun and engaging when played in small, bite-sized bursts.
look at the part
Visually, My Hero Academia: All’s Justice looks great and really fits the show’s showdown look, tone, and pace. The character models are great too, and it’s great that all the dialogue in the game is voiced. I said the game’s modes are disjointed, but the visuals help you feel like you’re part of this world, which I admire.
The attacks themed after each hit or movie are also fantastic, and it’s fun to try out each character on the roster and experience them all.
Credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment
While the game is visually stunning, it’s worth noting that there are some frame rate drops across the board on the PlayStation 5 Pro. This usually happens when things get a little confusing on screen. It’s far from game-breaking, but it’s definitely noticeable.
final thoughts
Overall, My Hero Academia All’s Justice is a fun arena fighter with great visuals and plenty of engaging combat mechanics. These mechanics can wear a little thin after extended play sessions, but they don’t feel too bad when compared to the game’s more notable flaws.
I simply hope that more of the game’s main content is accessible within the open world, bringing a sense of content and connectivity throughout the open world.
The game’s story doesn’t really help newcomers get used to it, but I’m sure fans of the anime will find something to enjoy here.
3 stars (out of 5 stars)
Highlight: Functional combat. Gorgeous visuals that are faithful to the anime. Huge playable roster
Cons: Game modes feel disjointed. The open world and side missions feel a little bland and repetitive after a few hours. Multiple frame rate drops
Developer: Byking Inc.
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Available: Currently
Review was conducted on a PlayStation 5 Pro using an activation code provided by the publisher.
A featured header image is also provided by the publisher.
