My Hero Academia All's Justice Feels Like Just The Right Amount Of Fan Service

I think when it comes to anime tie-in games, you just can't discount the power of good fanservice. For as much as I want the idea of a really good game that turns out to also be tied to a popular IP, the audience at large wants a salve for the end of their favorite series. 

To that end, it's hard to not be impressed by how well My Hero Academia All's Justice fills that role. An arena fighter built to accompany the end of the anime, the game sets out to be more than just playable fights from the anime- it's a chance to stay in that world just a little longer. 

Title: My Hero Academia All's Justice

Developer: Byking Inc

Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment

Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

You Too Can Be A Hero

The real meat of My Hero Academia All's Justice comes in the form of just how many modes it has. Sure, it's mostly built around the 3v3 arena combat. But modes like the Team Up Missions feel like a masterclass in knowing exactly what fans might be feeling as they hit the finale. A pseudo open world, Team Up Missions lets you explore an albeit small chunk of the city with Deku and the rest of his classmates. 

The game's extra modes are littered with this feeling of "Just one more adventure"- from simple side quests to beating up thugs on the street the most important part is that you're doing something new with the characters you like. My only gripe is that I kind of wish it was either integrated or more separate from the hub world experience- in both you're pretty free to run around the city using quirks. Stuff like Iida's boost or Urara's antigravity are fun ways to get around the city, and I think just a generally good example of the game playing to its target audience- making each of the seide characters feel cool and complete. 

It's also tied to one of the other modes, the Hero's Diary. Unlocking characters in Team-Up Missions gets you their Hero Diary episodes, which are small vignettes for all the side characters. As someone cursed to like side characters in Shonen anime its a nice bit of acknowledgement- it's not like they're trying to retcon Mineta into defeating All For One, but it's nice that anyone who likes that little freak gets to hang out with him just a bit more. 

The Thrill of Arena Fighters

Of course, even if you just want to watch your toybox of cool heroes beat each other up, My Hero Academia All's Justice has you covered. I'm downright impressed with how meaty this roster is- making up several Dekus, the entirety of class 1-A and a whole host of both villains and pro heroes. It's a little odd to see some of the prominent benchwarmers like Mt. Lady missing, but considering the lineup we do get it feels greedy to even think about asking for more. 

I mean, seriously, from Armored All Might to Lady Nagant to several Shigarakis ,it's genuinely cool how well you can play around with team up options. It helps that the characters play pretty interestingly- Urara grabs objects that fly around her and become part of her attacks, while Tokoyami suddenly gets to be Zato-1 as he chucks his Shadow at you from afar. 

On a technical level it seems like there's cool stuff to do. If you're a veteran of Tag fighters things like Rising cancels are doable, if for no other reason than to give your opponent horror flashbacks. I do wish the game's systems were a little more in-depth: outside of the universal "Unblockable" attack, even the characters who are physically grabbing you don't actually have true command grabs, meaning every character boils down to strike-vs-block. 

That being said, while the game has no aspirations of being played at EVO it feels absolutely at home as a party game. Characters are simple enough that they're relatively easy to pick up, no 15 minute YouTube explainer required. Better yet, each character feels easily defined by some genuinely cool gimmicks. 

Even if you're not already a die-hard My Hero Academia fan, the game does such a good job of cutting these characters into flavorful chunks that you can break them into identifiable chunks. You don't have to know the lore reasons that Gang Orca is the best character, he can be the best character simply because of his sick command grabs. Lady Nagant can also just be the character you love because she locks you down from long range, being happy in the chaos that she causes with gun-based pressure. 

My Hero Academia All's Justice Verdict

If you've any love for My Hero Academia, you really need to give My Hero Academia All's Justice a go. It gives you so many excuses to stay in that world, choosing to focus on the series core strength- its strong cast- and finding every excuse to show you as much of it as you can. 

Admittedly, while it casts a wide net, sometimes its easy to hunger for a more developed version of its ideas. Running around the city as a UA student fighting random street thugs and swinging building to building seems like a genuinely cool concept, shame it's so minimal in Team Up Missions. 

But as far as having the lads pop over and deciding the only way to measure Best Girl is by declaring a waifu war, My Hero Academia All's Justice is a solid time. 

Game reviewed on PS5. Review code provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment