My Hero Academia recently wrapped up its anime after eight seasons. At this point, the series is one of the most popular out there, with millions of fans worldwide. To celebrate this conclusion, and with the manga wrapped up, Byking and Bandai Namco are back with a brand new game: My Hero Academia: All’s Justice. I had the chance to play three hours of the game in early January, and I came away quite impressed with the potential of All’s Justice. It felt like Byking and Bandai Namco clearly had listened to fans, delivering a variety of modes and a huge roster from the get-go.
However, after experiencing the full game this month, I’m quite conflicted. On one hand, this might be the best game in the series, standing out above One’s Justice and One’s Justice 2 in many ways. Yet, there are some areas where the game takes some steps backwards, and I cannot bring myself to recommend All’s Justice to those outside the core My Hero Academia fanbase. It’s not quite to the point where players unfamiliar with MHA can dive in and have a blast, but there’s something here for existing fans.
The Final Battle
My Hero Academia: All’s Justice covers the final arc of the series, where Deku faces Shigaraki to put an end to the One For All vs All For One battle once and for all. As this battle occurs, though, there are many more happening with our favorite characters. All’s Justice focuses on battles including Midoriya, Bakugo, Uraraka, Todoroki, Endeavor, All Might, and Shigaraki. This covers most of Season 7 and 8 of the anime, which encompasses all of the Final War arc. However, not everything is here. Byking essentially made All’s Justice a highlight reel, focusing mostly on the most important battles and cutting pretty much any narrative build-up besides the fights themselves.
The story mode of All’s Justice is overall fine, featuring cinematic battles and great voice acting. There are some gorgeous animated cutscenes thrown in that really are fun to experience, but a lot of the story is delivered through literal images from the anime with voice acting on top. I understand Byking likely delivered this as best as possible with the resources the team had, but it can be jarring to experience it. You’ll get these gorgeous cutscenes that look as wonderful as The Hinokami Chronicles, followed by still images that make you question if it’s the same game. The voice acting work is phenomenal, though, so you can expect that to carry most of the experience here.
Unfortunately, there are some flat-out ridiculous difficulty spikes that occur throughout the Story Mode. I’m plenty familiar with other anime arena fighters in the genre, and I’ve never run into the challenges I did with All’s Justice. Some enemies are insanely overpowered, to the point where you almost question if you’re playing Yakuza 3 with all that blocking. The final few fights, in particular, are incredibly unfair to the point I wanted to do anything but continue playing. In all honesty, I took a few days away from the game as I did not want to even look at it. Even for hardcore series fans, these frustrating story segments might be too much to continue forward. I’m unsure why there were no difficulty options offered, especially considering anime games like this can appeal to both casuals and pro players.
I also wish there were more story relevance outside of the Story Mode. One of the major new modes, Team-Up Missions, does not really offer anything of note. These sections essentially throw Class 1-A into a Virtual Space that simulates the city, allowing you to explore and traverse through an ‘open world’ of sorts. While I first enjoyed this mode, it quickly became a chore, but it is essential for unlocking one of the best offerings of this game. Traversing through the world feels clunky and strange in some cases, with Deku’s Blackwhip quirk, for example, not exactly working how I expected. I thought the open world was a very fascinating concept, ambitious even, but it was not executed the way I hoped. You end up just running around a circle of buildings that don’t do much to stand out from one another. The actual mode itself throws you into battle after battle in most of the missions, and you’re always greeted with enemies who have a ridiculous amount of armor. Team-Up Missions had promise, but I can’t say I truly enjoyed my time with the mode, considering its repetitive nature and frustrating enemies.
Out of all modes in All’s Justice, I loved Hero’s Diary mode the most. This new mode brings original, exclusive interactions between all of the My Hero Academia cast in short, fun episodes. It was a great time watching the heroes interact with one another, face off in fun challenges, and experience life outside of the Final War arc. In future anime games, I hope we can see more modes like this, as it gives diehard fans of the series something to look forward to beyond just replaying the same story in a new format.
Prepare for Battle
All’s Justice rides with a 3v3 format, allowing you to select three heroes and tag between each of them in battle. Some missions will only give you one or two heroes, but the game is built around the 3v3 concept in local and online multiplayer. You can only play 3v3 in free battles. With All’s Justice set to act as the grand finale of My Hero, you’d hope that there would be an adequate character selection to choose from. Thankfully, Byking more than delivered here, with over 60 playable characters to choose from. Sure, there are multiple versions of Deku here, but almost every character I wanted to see was playable. Those missing can still be added in upcoming DLC, with Star and Stripe added recently. Here’s hoping Mt. Lady is one of those.
Admittedly, I’m disappointed in the arena selection. I understand that Byking aimed to lean into the Final War arc and its settings, but the nine stages often blend together. Each of these arenas is filled with destruction, and I wish we could have some throwback maps from earlier parts of the series. There were over 20 stages in the previous game, so to cut over 50% of that and move to nine is frustrating. You continue to see the same arenas over and over again after just a few hours, and that took me out of the experience often.
Above all else, the area where All’s Justice is worse than its predecessor is customization. One’s Justice 2 allowed you to actually customize a character with individual accessories and such, making for a very personal level of customization. Here, you’re only able to change outfits, which is a strange regression in my book. It’s puzzling that customization was stripped back here. Perhaps this is due to the roster, but fans of the previous games will quickly be disappointed with the options here, I’m afraid. I really did appreciate costumes for older versions of characters, though, like Hado with longer hair.
As for the actual combat itself, it’s fun. Players familiar with the previous games will know what to expect, at least as an overall concept. I do enjoy playing 3v3 against others or even against computers, as the movesets really do match each character well and feel fun to control. Things are pretty simple, but you can learn how to build combos and strategically fight against enemies with ease. There are notable improvements over One’s Justice / One’s Justice 2 in many areas of combat, especially the feel of it.
However, if there’s one major complaint I do have with combat, it’s the Rising mechanics. This is a fun concept in theory, allowing you to power up your hero for a short amount of time and deal increased damage. Some characters, like Todoroki, receive a visual change in appearance to showcase the Rising power, but this does not apply to numerous characters. Additionally, activating Rising will have you quickly realize it is not very strategic in practice. I found myself almost always just mindlessly charging at enemies until time ran out.
The Best in the Series? Maybe, But Only for the Most Hardcore Fans
At times, My Hero Academia: All’s Justice may be the best game in the series from Byking. It’s far, far from perfect, but this is a game that took some swings and connected on some while missing on others. Many areas of All’s Justice improve greatly upon the foundation laid by its predecessors, yet there are pieces of this game that strangely take steps back. There are lessons to be learned here, both good and bad, for Byking, and perhaps some of these shortcomings can be addressed in patches.
Unfortunately, I have a very hard time recommending All’s Justice to anyone who is not a huge fan of My Hero Academia. The way this Story Mode is structured, you’re essentially throwing yourself into Season 7 and 8 of the anime with no context as to what came before it. It makes no sense for a newcomer to start here. For existing fans of the series, All’s Justice may be worth a pickup. There is fun to be had here, but it’s not without frustration. Many aspects of this game fall short, despite its ambitious nature. Every mode has a major drawback in one area or another, even if the experience ends up somewhat positive.
If you can find My Hero Academia: All’s Justice on sale, I’d say it’s worth your while. Just be aware that there will be frustration mixed in with the fun, regardless of what mode you end up playing.
Disclaimer: Bandai Namco provided a PC (Steam) copy of My Hero Academia: All’s Justice for review purposes.
