My Hero Academia: All's Justice Is Filled With Strategic Battles And Original Stories - Preview

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When I was at the Tokyo Game Show last year, I had a chance to check out the upcoming My Hero Academia game: All's Justice. While I was expecting a fighting game, I was excited by the size of what they were trying to do. This felt like an evolution of My Hero One's Justice. I had only scratched the surface during my preview then, but now, I had a chance to try the game and some of its wealth of modes out for myself, and it solidified my excitement for what's to come, even if there are some elements I wish weren't there.

Starting out, I had a chance to check out four different modes, and I got a lot of fighting in each one. I got to check a few chapters in the story mode, hit up the town in Team Up Missions, check out some personal stories in the Hero's Diary, and get in some more general battles in 1v1 against a CPU. Each one left a positive taste in my mouth, and I feel there's going to be a lot of great content to play through in the full release once it comes out.

The Story Mode seems to follow a similar path that a lot of other anime fighters that Bandai Namco publishes, with some slight modifications. There are multiple chapters, and within each one, there will be movies and fights to go through. The story mode here follows the final season, retracing the fights that bring us to the epic conclusion of the final season. I also have to say that the movies themselves are very enjoyable to watch, and I actually went back to watch one of them twice because it was so epic.

Similarly, Team Up Mode is another story-esque mode, but instead of following a linear path, going fight to fight, we will run around the city completing different objectives. There are chapters here as well, but within each chapter, there will be side quests and extra fights that can contribute to your overall score, which you get once the objectives are completed. This can also affect your stats, giving you boosts with your HP and attack as you gain more assist characters. We will control Class 1-A as we go through the city and can use our quirks to influence our movement. It's a nice little addition, though not as free-form as I had hoped.

However, because of those two modes and the 1v1, I played a lot of fights, and I have some mixed feelings. Overall, I would say it's better than I expected. Fights are much more than just button-mashing in All's Justice. Strategy feels like a core component of every combat scenario I got into, and I found myself losing if I didn't implement any sort of strategy. Whether that be specific combos at the right time, using the best move with my quirk, utilizing the Rising and Plus Ultra gauges effectively, or using a well-timed counter or unblockable attack, it felt like I had to think in real-time what move I should make next, and the reward was clear as day if I succeeded.

There were some moments that just felt so good, like when utilizing my characters and the sidekicks that came along with me. In one fight, I started off as Midoriya, whipped someone into the air, did my air combo on them, brought out Fumikage Tokoyami to bring them to the ground, and used my quirk to strike them in my shadow form, then changed to Koji Koda to finish up the combo. It demolished the person I was fighting, and was absolutely one of the highlights of my time playing.

It also feels much freer. There's a lot more verticality in fights, which is evident when playing as Midoriya and his standard combo pulls us into the air and whipping around the stage to land another attack. There are also some objects around the map, like cars that can explode or buildings we can climb. As a fan of the Naruto Ultimate Ninja series, this felt like a step up from the usual fighting experience and adding in more elements to think about.

And boy, do they come together well. I spent way too much time in that 1v1 mode after playing through the others, just so I could keep fighting and trying out other characters. It was exhilarating. If there's one thing that developer BYKING did right here, it was making the fights feel impactful and exciting enough to keep me coming back for more. Every character I played had unique mechanics and felt very different from the rest of the bunch, with enough depth to keep each fight interesting.

There are also so many different characters here. All's Justice is marketed as having a gigantic roster of characters, and it does not disappoint. It feels like everyone is here, and with how all of them feel different from each other, it was like there was always something new on the horizon.

The only part of combat that I am not a fan of is Armor. In fights during Story and Team Up mode, some of the enemies will have a bar of armor that needs to come down before you can really deal damage to them. While they have armor, they won't be affected by attacks, which makes it easy for them to counter and fight back. I am not a fan of it. It makes these fights significantly harder and a little unfair in some Team Up fights when there are multiple enemies we have to manage against.

However, there is a bit more than just fighting in All's Justice. Hero's Diary is a collection of original stories that revolve around each of the students in Class 1-A. These can include fights, but they can also include things like platforming challenges. For example, Minoru's story leads us to having to climb a building as fast as we can and hit certain checkpoints while going up, while Mina Ashido's story has us helping her find cats. It's interesting to have different types of gameplay, but it's the original stories with the fantastic cast that really make it stand out.

As for Steam Deck performance, it's looking a little rough so far. It's good to remember that this is an early build, and performance could change in the final build, but it gives a good idea of what to expect. The biggest performance differences depended on the stage and location. For instance, on the lowest settings, the Forest level could go down to 15 FPS when the trees are in view, while the destroyed town stage can hit 30 FPS or higher. Team Up mode can stick around 30 FPS, with some drops into the 25 range when going around the city.

So, I would say there's a good chance it will be playable at 30 FPS throughout in the final build. It isn't completely there yet, with some stages showing some warning signs, but I would say there's potential here. The lowest settings don't look awful on the Deck's screen, and most of the fights performed above 30 FPS.

Ultimately, I spent 3 hours playing through My Hero Academia: All's Justice, and I love what the team is doing with it. Regular combat is the highlight here, making each fight feel more strategic with an assortment of different kinds of moves that could open up the opponent to a combo. I also love how fights have some verticality and obstacles around them, adding more to think about. It also feels like there's a ton of content with a lot of original stories, whether they be in Team Up mode or Hero's Diary. More time with Class 1-A is never a bad thing. I am extremely excited for the full release, regardless, and I can see this being the best My Hero Academia game that has been released so far.

My Hero Academia: All's Justice can be pre-ordered for $59.99 ahead of its February 5th release date.

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