The Backlog: My Hero One's Justice 2

 

Back with another game from the backlog, this time it's My Hero One's Justice 2 from 2020. In spite of it being 5 years after the game's original release, it is however oddly still the most recent My Hero Academia game that is not a live service or mobile title.

With it being so far behind the anime's current story and the final DLC for the game being from early 2022, there are going to be some obvious omissions from the roster. As well as some consequences of the story not being acknowledged. For example, the game does not acknowledge that Dabi has anything to do with Shoto or Endeavor because the main story in this, focuses on the yakuza arc before any of that stuff was revealed.

The gameplay on the other hand is fairly simplistic. You have a regular combo from mashing the attack button, a "strong" combo where you have temporary super armor during the first attack, and an unblockable combo where the first atttack is as you guessed unblockable. The latter two are situational so you are most frequently going to be using just the regular combo. The only variation from these is if you perform a combo while in the air it will usually be a bit different but the unblockable move is unusable while you're in the air.

For special moves you have 4 different button/directional inputs to activate your character's "quirk" in various ways. These two also can differ sometimes when used while airborne. But a lot of these abilities also just fire off on their own during the autocombos so once against, using them outside of a combo is usually situational unless you're playing someone who relies on projectile attacks.

One thing that really irks me about this game is the cosmetic DLC. Because the game includes a customization system for all the characters in the game but a lot of what is in the base game is rather lame. For many characters it just boils down to the option to change their outfit color and potentially slap accessories associated with other characters on them. For the most part only the students get actual alternate outfits but they're near identical across all students because their alternate outfits are their class wear, gym suit, and formal wear from the celebration festival.

All the actual interesting alternate outfits are paid DLC and even these many aren't very special and probably should have been in the main game. Especially since most of the DLC outfits are not sold separately, they're all in $12 bundles. So while Froppy looks absolutely amazing in a Cheerleader outfit, I'm not paying $12 for the cheerleader set just to use it on her.

I would have used this outfit on Jiro 100% of the time if it wasn't trapped in a $12 bundle.

As for the modes in the game we have story, arcade, and mission mode. Everything else is some version of options or a way to set up a single battle.

Unlike many anime games, story mode does not cover the entire current story starting from the beginning. One's Justice 1 didn't even do that, it started on the hero killer arc and finished with All Might's final battle with All For One. This picks up immediately after that and runs through to the end of the yakuza arc.

Only covering such a small portion of the story was probably a bad idea because they had to add a lot of filler battles from moments that weren't really a battle. Such as a situation where Overhaul killed an underling for failing him was actually put in the game as a battle where you had to play as Overhaul against a generic goon. This would have been unnecessary had they simply included earlier story arcs.

As for how the stories are delivered, it's fairly simplistic. You get mostly anime stills with voice/text accompanying it. It's nothing special but even doing things like this some of the more emotional moments involving Eri still hit me, though maybe that only worked because I've actually watched the anime.

Mission mode is an interesting idea on paper. You have your own hero "agency" even though you can recruit everyone, including the villains. It has you playing stages where you move around on a map defeating enemies. You don't get health back in between battles unless you have something equipped that does that for you, so early on you have to hope you do well or there are enough health drops on the map. This quickly turns out to not be the case once you get a little ways into the mode.

There are insane difficulty spikes that I will be frank, can not solved by mere skill due to how overall simplistic the combat in the game is. I'm not writing a guide so I won't give specific advice but you have to essentially cheese the mode. A google search will likely find an explanation for how to do this with Shigaraki. If you're only playing to have fun, I sadly suggest to avoid the mode. But if you're going for 100% achievements, you don't have a choice.

Last we come to Arcade mode. Not your typical arcade mode. Every character has 3 different routes to pick from, each of which consists of 6 battles. But rather being a linear mode like most arcade modes, the opponents are represented with 6 Tarot cards which you get to pick which ones to flip and face your opponent. Not super special since you still have to defeat all of them to complete the run.

Unlike arcade mode in most fighting games, this one has no endings for beating it. You just unlock a piece of art of the character. The only real interesting thing about this mode is seeing unique dialogue between your character and all the opponents they face.

I'd talk about the online but it's dead at this point. The only reason I have the online achievements is from playing with a friend.

Overall would I recommend this game at this point? It was a cool idea back when it came out but now it just feels like it's missing so much, so even if you want the newest My Hero Academia game, you might be better off waiting and hope we get an updated sequel or something completely new. I completed this game simply because I had already gotten it on a sale a few years ago and for Achievement hunters, I'd say it's a grind you could likely do without. Not a terrible game but simply outdated with no proper replacement available.