Last week, I had the opportunity to take part in a virtual preview event for the upcoming third My Hero Academia fighter with Justice in the title, My Hero Academia: All’s Justice. I reviewed (and rather enjoyed) the two previous games, so I was pretty optimistic going into this bombastic cap to the trilogy of sorts. I came away pretty impressed with how the scope has been expanded, even if it seems like there are a couple of growing pains to deal with.
The first thing I was met with was an open-world hub – a surprising but very suitable choice for a My Hero Academia game. Given the propensity that superhero games have had for the open-world model since at least the sixth console generation, it’s thematically appropriate for My Hero Academia to adopt the same concept. I was able to explore in some pretty fun ways, like through Spider-Man-esque rope-swinging as Deku or rapidly flying upwards as Tokoyami. There seem to be plenty of familiar NPCs and Easter eggs throughout the city, and I’m looking forward to going through them in the full game.
Credit: BNEA
I got to experience a few different modes in My Hero Academia: All’s Justice. I took part in a few missions from the Story Mode, specifically based around Deku and Bakugo’s battles towards the end of the Final War arc. The battles themselves were surprisingly challenging, and it took me quite a few tries to win. The enemy AI was countering me flawlessly, to the point where I think I briefly understood Justin Wong’s mind during Evo Moment #37. I’m curious to see if this was the default difficulty, because I’m no slouch with fighters, but I was getting absolutely manhandled. That aside, the combat itself is as explosive and fun as it was in the previous two entries, with a surprising amount of depth.
The cutscenes in My Hero Academia: All’s Justice’s Story Mode left me pretty impressed. Rather than the bland 2D pictures of characters with dialogue boxes, some scenes were seemingly tween-animated in 2D with a motion-manga style, not unlike a MAD video. Then, there was a rather impressive 3D cutscene showing the result of a major battle. I won’t get spoiler-y, but it was a proper representation of a big moment in the series, so kudos to the devs for the effort they put into the story’s presentation, as this isn’t always the case in licensed anime games.
Credit: BNEA
I also played “Team Up Missions,” which are original stories set in a virtual world. Basically, the 1-A students are training in a virtual recreation of a city, doing things like battling an AI Shigaraki to further grow as heroes. It seems to take place after the Final War arc, making it an original story, and it had a good deal of voice acting. The missions were pretty varied, having me chase after Eraserhead as Deku and battle random thugs when they popped up. I really dig the idea, but it’s a bit undercooked at present.
The open-world part is great, as I loved grinding on rails and bounding around as Deku and co. But I found the random encounters to be a bit grating, as they often had me facing off against 3-5 enemies at a time, leading me to get stunlocked by grunts at numerous points. This became fairly frustrating, especially since you don’t automatically heal after battles, meaning I could get pretty worn down before even progressing the mission. You’re able to heal at stores throughout town, but you have to heal a certain percentage at a time for a fee, making you go through a few more menus than I think are necessary. Otherwise, the narrative and 1-on-1 battles are a blast – I just think the horde fights need some heavy rebalancing to avoid irritation.
Credit: BNEA
My Hero Academia: All’s Justice lets you spend more time with your favorite characters.
A neat little mode I played was called “Character Memory,” and showed smaller vignette-esque stories focused on individual characters. I saw Mineta trying to become popular by helping a cat, Kirishima battling Tetsutetsu to see who was the most manly, and Ashido finding missing cats with her friends. They’re pleasant side-stories that further flesh out the beloved cast of My Hero Academia, especially through the fictional social media comments other characters leave on each mission. I like the inclusion of this mode, as it lets you spend a bit more time with your favorite characters in the low-stakes, slice-of-life moments that became less prevalent as the manga and anime continued.
Finally, I truly had a blast with the VS. CPU mode, however. Simply put, My Hero Academia: All’s Justice has an impressively enormous roster, filled to the brim with unique fighters. I tried out most of my favourite characters, like Mirio, Twice, and Hawks, as well as most of Class 1-A and chunks of 1-B. It’s fantastic that all of 1-A is playable for this new entry, and I enjoyed trying out heroes that were previously unplayable, like Sero and Sugarman. This really does feel like a big, final bout with every character imaginable present, which fits the Final War arc the game is based around.
I’m excited to play through all of My Hero Academia: All’s Justice when the full game launches on February 6, as it’s a much more ambitious step forward than the previous entry was. There may be a couple of wrinkles to smooth out prior to and after release, but most of what’s here is exceptional and will give My Hero Academia fans plenty of appealing activities to do and experience.
