Review: My Hero Academia All's Justice
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Experience the final arc of the My Hero Academia heroes' adventure.
THE GAME
My Hero Academia: All's Justice is a fighting game developed by Byking Inc. and distributed by Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. Adapting the latest arc of My Hero Academia, control heroes and villains in battles straight from the anime and complete the journey of Midoriya and his friends. Additionally, you can revisit great battles from other anime arcs and act as an urban hero, facing dangers while patrolling a virtual city. Find a huge variety of characters and form trios to fight together and go further!
MY IMPRESSIONS
Anime-themed fighting games have followed a similar formula, featuring large arenas, dozens of characters, and team formations to maximize the use of these characters. Since this isn't the first game based on My Hero Academia, it's difficult not to compare it to previous games, but I'll focus only on what My Hero Academia: All's Justice offers. I'll get straight to what, in my opinion, is the most interesting aspect: the gameplay. Right off the bat, the game offers two control options: manual and automatic. The recommendation is to play on automatic, but I can't understand why, as it makes everything feel very robotic. Still, that's not what ruins the gameplay. It feels like nothing works as it should, and even if you understand how it works, it's all very clunky. There's a "rock-paper-scissors" style counter-attack system that, again, makes everything feel mechanical, bland, and frustrating. And all of this would go unnoticed if it were the only problem, something that would only make you master your skills and become good enough to understand how the game wants you to play, but then comes something that takes away all the magic of an anime fighting game: the special moves. And I'm not talking about the basic moves, which, for the most part, are quite cool and reflect the moves used in My Hero Academia. In this case, I'm talking about moves that, generally in this genre of game, are grandiose, with incredible animations and that have a real impact on the fight. In My Hero Academia: All's Justice, for the most part, these moves are bland and without impact. Even though there is the Rising mode, which you activate when your character fills a bar and releases a more powerful and temporary form, very few have anything interesting like a form change, as is the case with Tokoyami. Along with large, empty arenas, which even with elements like buildings and fallen rocks only obstruct the view, and combos that are interrupted by micro-unevenness in some parts of the map. Unfortunately, what should be the biggest attraction falls short in its execution.
The story mode, despite being quite faithful to the anime's chronology, is done in a way that forces a challenge that is often just boring. The enemies are challenging, but it feels like you have to hit them three times more to take away the same amount of health they take from you with a combo. Again, using special moves here is like tickling the enemy. One element that always looks good in games of this genre is the reproduction of scenes from the anime with the game's graphics, which here is quite beautiful and exciting when you relive that scene. Unfortunately, the game is not in Brazilian Portuguese, which is quite annoying for those who want to follow what is being said and do not know English. We have a battle archive mode, which allows you to revisit battles from other arcs of the anime, which is cool because it encourages you to try out various characters you might never otherwise play, or just to feel like All Might in his glory days. In addition, there's a team mission mode, which involves walking around the game's virtual city and completing missions. Basically, it's another game mode to give you more options for what to do in the game and to acquire collectibles and customizations, of which there are many, and you can get them by playing all these game modes, such as cards, clothing colors, and HUD customizations for the battle. The game's roster is quite extensive, with characters I didn't even think would be used, which shows they were concerned with bringing in almost all the characters from the anime, even though we already know the game has a season pass, meaning more characters are coming.
Overall, those who played the previous games will be very frustrated by the lack of incredible special moves, but fans of the anime who enjoyed the previous games will see some improvements in specific gameplay aspects, even if it didn't appeal to me. Still, the game has its fun parts and is quite beautiful. Reliving this arc, especially so soon after watching the anime's ending, is a very interesting thing to do.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The achievements in My Hero Academia: All's Justice aren't that difficult to complete, which doesn't mean they won't be challenging. The easiest are those related to story mode, which you'll unlock naturally upon completion. The same is true for achievements that are basically about using game mechanics, such as Rising or switching characters during a fight. In the category of achievements that will require a little more attention, we have those related to team missions and battle archives, where you need to win and meet time and/or score conditions, as well as unlock characters to play in team mission mode. Finally, and perhaps the most demanding for the player, are the achievements for collectibles and customizations, which will have you playing and doing everything in the game, basically, since you always receive rewards for completing battles in the various game modes. As I said, nothing difficult, however, getting 100% of the achievements will be a Plus Ultra task!
CONCLUSION
The gameplay of My Hero Academia: All's Justice definitely didn't appeal to me. Unfortunately, it feels like a crude game that, despite paying close attention to detail in the characters and moves, failed to deliver epic and flashy special attacks. It's quite sad to think that Uraraka's most powerful attack is just half a dozen rocks falling from the sky, for example. The story mode left me so disappointed because, despite having a good challenge, it's unfair, since there's a clear handicap where you only lose because your damage is lower than the enemy's, not because they played better than you. The arenas are terrible, hindering rather than enhancing the experience. Unfortunately, the epic ending of Midoriya and his friends' adventure didn't reach the epic level worthy of the anime, but at least it's fun to relive good moments from My Hero Academia.
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