My Hero Academia: One’s Justice 2 Preview — Quirks of the Trade

My Hero Academia is, undoubtedly, one of the best anime in recent memory. The combination of an incredibly earnest hero, involving plotlines, and a fair few twists adds up to create an excellent series. My Hero Academia: One’s Justice 2 is an arena-fighter that follows along with the current story arc, at least at the time of writing. It’s also the follow-up to 2018’s My Hero One’s Justice. 

For the most part, what that means is there are a bunch of new characters, with the likes of Overhaul, Sir Nighteye, and even the Big Three all being present as playable fighters. That’s exciting stuff for MHA fans, and it should be too: getting your hands on your new favorite character(s) and learning their attacks is always a treat. 

United States of Smash

The combat in One’s Justice 2 is very similar to the combat in One’s Justice, which makes sense. It is a sequel after all. 

You choose one main character and two support characters to battle it out in arenas based on places in the anime. One of the big draws here, though, is the ability to properly wreak havoc in these arenas — and even destroy them. 

Destroying parts of an arena might simply make it open up a bit more, but it can actually lead to you falling through the crumbling floor and landing in a different level. It’s a cool touch that helps capture the power of each of the combatants in a way that feels true to the show. One of our biggest gripes about the first One’s Justice is that it didn’t quite feel true to the show. 

The combat itself is fairly simple but probably has enough to keep you playing if you fancy something a lot less intense than Dragon Ball FighterZ, for example. You’ve got your basic attack, a handful of special moves, and the ability to block. You can summon your support characters to do one of their special attacks, and you can, depending on which characters you’ve chosen, perform a special attack as a team. But you’ll need to have a good idea as to what those teams should be as it’s not easily discovered. 

Breaking Down The Walls

The complexity of One’s Justice 2 comes mostly from learning when to use your special attacks instead of learning complex combos. 

The real draw here is getting to play as your favorite heroes and villains, and watching how their unique quirks are transposed into a game. This is especially true of someone like Sir Nighteye, whose ability allows him to see the future of those he makes eye contact with. This manifests in the game in a cool counter move; it’s good enough to make you feel as though each character was given a fair treatment. 

It’s also worth noting the game’s new 2v2 mode, which allows four players to duke it out against each other as teams, but all at the same time. That could be the biggest new addition here, and it could well change how much fun can be had. 

The longevity of a title like this depends on things like post-launch support and also the online community. Though, I really think this style of game benefits most if you’ve got friends you like to play against.

I don’t think My Hero Academia: One’s Justice 2 will ever be at EVO, but I do think it’ll keep a lot of people entertained with its pretty visuals, great character diversity, and explosive over-the-top anime combat. 

Stay tuned for more on My Hero Academia: One’s Justice 2 as we get closer to the game’s March 13 release on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.