Developer: Byking
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe
Platform: Xbox One, PC, PS4, Switch
Tested on: PS4
My Hero One’s Justice 2 – Review
My Hero One’s Justice, or otherwise known as Boku No Hero Academia, is one of those anime series that took the world by surprise. The series that revolves around a world that is inhabited by superheroes clicked with many viewers, and the lead character is extremely likable. We are thrown in a universe where Izuku ‘Deku’ Midoriya is a boy who is born without a quirk (powers), but fate has something better in store for this hero-wannabe. After a faithful encounter, Deku inherits the powers of the biggest superhero of them all, All Might. The first game showed us the first part of the story, and this second installment builds further on said foundation.
Story
For the sake of spoilers, we’re going to keep this portion of the review simple. The story takes place when the young heroes in the U.A. High School are well underway of becoming actual heroes. A lot has transpired during their short stay, and an entire criminal organization is pretty much out to extinguish the new recruits. At the same time, the world’s biggest hero, All Might, decided to throw in the towel and retire, as his body can’t handle his powers anymore. This puts more strain on Deku to develop his skills, as All Might chose him to be his successor.
The story is well brought for a fighting game such as this. You’ll get to browse through different comic book-like sequences that are fully voiced. The story includes a lot of details, making it a proper story, even for those who never watched the series, but only played the first game so far.
Graphics
Like the first installment, you’ll be playing with cel-shaded fighters that are based on the popular anime, Boku no Hero Academia. The characters models clearly respect the source material, and you also have a fair amount of customization options in terms of hero costumes. When comparing this game to another recent Bandai Namco release, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows, we can say this game performs a lot better in the graphical department. For example, all arenas in this game have destructible components, and some damage remains visible throughout the battle. In One Punch Man, damage wasn’t visualized and everything was very static.
The story parts in the game are presented in a comic book format, where pictures are shown to highlight the accompanying dialogue. The animations are mostly stills, but it goes well with the original story.
Some portions of the game could use some extra polish, but for the most part, this superhero brawler feels like a proper fighting experience that drags unbelievable characters into grand battles. There’s a nice variety of fighters to pick from, and when you start messing around with the costumes, it’s clear a lot of work went into designing this game.
Sound
The sound design of My Hero One’s Justice 2 is great. The music fits what is going on and also connects with the original material. The story is awesome, as every battle has a voice intro and outro, making it more like watching a comic book-like series, than just a simple brawler. Many fighting games can learn a lot from a game such as this. Of course, this title has the benefit of the story already being crafted beforehand.
Gameplay
My Hero One’s Justice 2 is a fairly simplistic fighting game, with a semi-tag team format. You’ll be able to choose a three-man team for most battles, with two characters providing support, rather than being fighters themselves. The game has different modes to choose from, from a very extensive Story Mode, to separate Missions, to normal battles and an Arcade mode. The game has plenty of content and many unlockable (cosmetic) items.
The game has a fairly big cast of fighters to choose from, ranging from the students themselves, students from rivaling schools and many villains. The game feels reasonably balanced, while there are heroes that feel a bit more powerful than others and vice versa. It’s fun to see what every character is able to do, and the simplistic control scheme allows players to ease in perfectly. The special skills can be executed with simple commands, making sure everyone can pull off spectacular moves.
Conclusion
My Hero One’s Justice 2 appeared somewhat out of thin air, with hardly any information of the game before its actual release, it’s still a great sequel to an already decent fighting game. The game has a proper and intriguing story mode, the graphical prowess of the game respects the source material, and the cast of fighters is very balanced. The simplistic controls allow inexperienced fighters to enter the fray and even veterans can fully enjoy the experience. If you liked the first, this one is certainly its equal.
My Hero One’s Justice 2 – Review,
Related Items
1 Comment
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] a new hero is announced to join the league in My Hero One’s Justice 2. Present Mic is here to teach you some manners. Play with this eccentric commentator of the U.A. […]