Video games adapted from anime typically fall in to the curse of being shallow and My Hero One’s Justice 2 is no exception. Although there are some great anime games such as Dragon Ball FighterZ or Dragon Ball Z Kakarot that don’t fall into this curse, My Hero One’s Justice 2 is sadly not one of them. Instead, the game lacks any creativity and was clearly rushed out in order to be released during the currently airing season of the anime it’s based on. It’s quite disappointing to see that this game was just another generic anime arena fighter as a video game based on the My Hero Academia series could potentially be amazing with how unique the series is.

When you first start up the game, you are directly thrown into the story mode which is adapted from the hero provisional license arc from season 3 to the Overhaul arc from season 4 of the anime. This begins directly during the fight against Overhaul with a surprisingly well animated pre-rendered opening cutscene. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have many of these cutscenes and the rest of the story is told through screenshots and voice clips from the anime with subtitles in the form of a comic book. These cutscenes are only told through the original Japanese voice acting and there is no option for and English dub which is disappointing to see as the dub for My Hero Academia has quite a large fan base and many other anime games from Bandai Namco include a dub. For those who are looking for a way to experience the story of My Hero Academia, I would recommend watching the anime or reading the manga instead as the game doesn’t portray the story well with it skipping out many parts and taking out the charm out of many scenes. However, unlike the previous entry, My Hero One’s Justice 2 attempts to bring something new with to this story mode by including a Hero and a Villain story which both add up to make around 5 hours of gameplay. This length is quite underwhelming for a full price game as you could purchase a game with hundreds of hours of content for the same price.

The actual gameplay is quite fun however it can get repetitive after a while as the battle system is quite shallow. My Hero One’s Justice 2 doesn’t bring much new elements and is quite similar to its predecessor which is quite disappointing. The development team have attempted to make the game feel different by including a new dodge mechanic and some destructible stages based on places from the anime. Along with those minimal changes, many new characters have been introduced including fan favorites such as Mina, Nighteye, The Big Three, Overhaul and many more. The majority of these characters do have different unique attacks and there is some variety with some characters being stronger than others. Alongside these new characters and gameplay changes, the game includes an arcade and mission mode which are mostly similar to the regular game modes. The gameplay throughout the game is very similar and only the final boss of the hero story mode is unique. However, the final boss is where the game runs in to technical problems as the framerate would severely dip to the point where the game would freeze at times. The framerate is also quite unstable during regular matches as it typically sticks between 30 to 60 frames per second which isn’t great to see for a fighting game. Surprisingly, you’re also unable to take screenshots or videos during gameplay which is probably to ensure the framerate doesn’t dip even more. This is likely to just be an issue with the Nintendo Switch version but other than that, the game visually looks great in both handheld and docked mode. On a positive note, the loading times in the game are actually quite short and take no longer than a few seconds.

Overall, My Hero Ones Justice 2 is just another generic anime arena fighter that we see get released at least once a year. This sequel barely takes any risks and mostly just plays it safe which is a shame as this game could of been so much better. I would only recommend this game to fans of My Hero Academia when it goes on sale but if you purchased the previous game, My Hero One’s Justice, then I would not recommend this as there are minimal changes for this to be a new experience.

The Good:

• Great visuals in both Handheld and Docked mode.
• Some new gameplay mechanics.
• Short loading times.
• Stages recreate areas from the anime.

The Bad:

• Another generic anime arena fighter.
• Not much different from its predecessor.
• Tells the story poorly.
• Poor framerate.
• No screenshot of video capture options.
• Gameplay can get repetitive.
• Only Japanese voice acting.

VERDICT

This soup is a mediocre experience.

A review code for My Hero One’s Justice 2 Deluxe Edition was provided by Bandai Namco for the purpose of this review.