Action battle gameMy Hero Academia: All’s Justicerecreates the popular manga and anime series' Final War Arc in video game format, as the students of UA, Pro Heroes, and others team up to take out a massive army of villains.All’s Justiceexpands on the battle system of the two previousOne’s Justicegames, featuring teams of up to three player-controlled characters and an enormous roster that, for the first time inMy Hero Academiavideo game history, includes every member of UA’s Class 1-A.
Game Rant spoke toMy Hero Academia: All’s Justiceproducer Aoba Miyazaki about the development of the new game. Speaking via translator, Miyazaki talked about what it was like to include so many characters, working with theMy Hero Academiaanime production teamto recreate the series' many memorable battles accurately, and more. She also revealed her personal favorite characters to play as and the ones she thought were most difficult to implement in the game.This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
My Hero Academia: All’s JusticeRecreates The Final War Arc’s Epic Clashes
Q: How do you make the in-game battles feel like the epic final battles players will remember from theMy Hero Academiamanga and anime?
A:The difference between these fights and other fights in the story is thatthis final battle is the climax. Every character has a deep feeling about the battle and the justice they have in their mind. So that was the part we put our effort into putting into the game.
We are currently putting our effort into making the world and the game more immersive in theworld ofMy Hero Academia.Putting effort into making the graphics very beautiful, to give the audience the emotional feeling they had when watching the anime with beautiful graphics. Also, we put our effort into recreating the epic battles in the game in detail, using facial expressions and movements, and so on.
Q: How will Izuku be different in this game compared to theOne’s Justiceseries? He’s grown stronger and come so far.
A:The game itself, and the battles themselves, includingDeku, are very evolved from theOne’s Justiceseries. And what’s really different about this game - and about Deku - is that there is this new feature called “Rising” included in the game. This actually allows characters to unleash the full potential of their power, making them more powerful through their Quirks and skills. It allows the players to enjoy the dynamic, intense battles more than in the past series.
This’Rising' systemand its involvement in the battle is not just for Deku, but also for the students of class 1-A, other heroes, and villains. They have all grown from the beginning to the final battle. That is actually reproduced in this game as well.
Q: One battle from the manga that fans really love is when Shoto Todoroki fought the villain Dabi. How did you portray those characters clashing in the game, because it was such a popular battle?
A:When we created, not justDabi vs. Todoroki, but all the epic final battles, we were thinking both about how we should be creating the battle and the story. Because we were committed to making a creative game where players can enjoy both the battles and the story of the final arc of the anime itself. So, seeing that the anime is very detailed, we were studying those battles and those details to express that and reproduce it in high quality in this game.
The difficult part of recreating the scene of Dabi vs. Todoroki was showing the effects ofTodoroki’sice and fire powers happening at the same time. That’s one of the coolest parts of the anime itself, and we tried to put our effort into recreating that in the game. Implementing that into the game was one of the most difficult parts. We hope that you are excited to actually see it in the game.
Q: During the final battle, the villain Tomura Shigaraki is so immensely powerful that it sometimes felt like the heroes had no chance of defeating him. How do you capture that inAll’s Justice,but still make it possible for players to win against him in the game?
A:That’s a very good question - that was another difficult thing to implement. It was also very challenging throughout the past series [One’s Justice]as well. BecauseShigarakiis a very powerful character, and if he were beaten by, say, Minoru Mineta or someone like that, it would be a little odd if we see that in the anime. But that’s actually one of the good things about the game.
In the anime, it would likely be impossible forMinetato win against Shigaraki by himself, but in a game, the player is the one actually controlling him and using the full potential of his Quirk and skills that are implemented in the game at that level. That is what makes the game unique compared to the anime - players can actually choose the Quirks, skills, and teams they use, making something more powerful than the character we saw in the anime. I think that’s how we make it a natural thing for Shigaraki: although he is powerful, he is able to be beaten by other characters.
Every Student From Class 1-A (And More) Appears In The Game
Q: Miyazaki-san, who is your favorite character to play as inAll’s Justice?
A:My personal favorite isHanta Sero, because he is the man who gets his job done. I was really hoping to implement him in this game, and I’m very excited that I can finally do it.
From the past series, my dream was to include all the 1-A students. So, it finally happened in this game. We are so excited for all the players to finally play and control all the 1-A students. In addition to my personal favorite, Sero,Koji Koda, and other characters are fun to control. We hope that everyone will enjoy it.
One of the things that is different from thepreviousMy Hero Academiagame seriesis that players can now form a team of up to three characters and seamlessly chain targets between them, so people can form a team of 1-A students and create teams they have actually seen in the anime. That’s one thing that we would like audiences to be excited about.
Q: On the subject of including every student from Class 1-A, I’m curious - was it difficult to put Toru Hagakure in the game, because her Quirk makes her invisible almost all the time?
A:Yes, it was difficult to implement her in the game, as you say, because she is invisible, but in the anime, there was a small part where we got to seeHagakureactually fighting. There weren’t a lot of scenes where she was fighting, but there were some. In this game, as players can actually control her, they will be able to experience the skills and Quirks she has and control and enjoy the maximum potential of her Quirk.
At this time, my favorite team of three 1-A students to play as is Sero,Rikido Sato, and Hagakure. Since there are a lot of characters in the game, players will be able to create a variety of character combinations.
Q: Were there any characters that were added because they are particularly popular with fans?
A:Whenever we think about which characters to implement, we always refer to the character popularity polls. There are official ones that are done inWeekly Shonen Jump,so we are always looking into that. But we have some surprises when it comes to characters. I’ll just say that there are a lot of fan-favorite characters in the game, so stay tuned for further information.
Players Control A Team Of Three Characters With Unique Abilities From A Large Roster
Q: Were there any Quirks or powers that characters possess that were particularly difficult to portray in the game?
A:All the Quirks were difficult to recreate, but one thing in particular was the characterArmored All Might, who we showed off briefly in the trailer. He was a difficult character to implement because, unlike the muscular form of All Might people are most familiar with, Armored All Might is a Quirkless character.
He’s unique in a way - he’s Quirkless, but he’s able to fight by using mechanics and weapons inspired by the 1-A students. So, that’s something very different from the other characters, and that was one of the things that was very difficult to implement in the game.
Q: What role did Horikoshi-sensei play in developing the game? Did you work closely with him during the process?
A:We received some feedback fromHorikoshi-senseiand the anime production team as well. For the anime production team, we actually had a weekly catch-up with them to monitor the progress of the anime itself and adapt that into the game. So we were pretty close with the anime production team, and that is why we are pretty confident about how this game recreates the anime itself.
Q: I love the titleAll’s Justicebecause it’s such a great thematic follow-up toOne’s Justice.How did you come up with this title?
A:So, forOne’s Justice,it was more based on the characters themselves. We were really focusing on the characters one by one. But, as thestory proceeds in the anime, the message was that “everyone can be someone’s hero.” So that’s what inspired our name the most. The concept of this game was focusing on the final battle, and our main message was “everyone can be someone’s hero,” and that’s why the name went fromOne’s JusticetoAll’s Justice.
And we did create this game using the knowledge and experience we gained from theOne’s Justiceseries, and I think this game evolved from theOne’s Justiceseries. There are many things that actually evolved from the series, including some things that we didn’t feature in the trailer that we are hoping everybody will be excited about. There are a lot of things we included that people can enjoy that also made sense for this game.
Q: What did the beginning of the development process look like - did you start working on this game right after the secondOne’s Justice?
A:We’ve been creating this game for about four years, including the initial concept phase and the testing phase, and so on. We were thinking about creating a new game after theOne’s Justiceseries was released, so we looked into what could be kept in the game and what could be better. We’ve been working on this game for a pretty long time, re-structuring the battles andcreating the plot and storyline alongside the anime.
Q: How did you decide on teams of three characters all controlled by the player?
A:In theOne’s Justiceseries, we had a main [player-controlled] character and two sidekicks. And from that, we had a strong feeling that we wanted players to control all the characters equally. Because, with the sidekicks, there wasn’t much we could do for them, and there was limited time for the characters to be used. So for this game, as a new, evolved,My Hero Academiaaction battle game, we wanted all three characters to be controlled equally and to feel like a main character. So that’s why we decided on teams of three.
Each character can be controlled, and players can form a team of up to three out of thegiant roster of characters. So that actually makes the game more strategic and more intense, which we hope everybody will enjoy.
Q: Do you have a favorite scene or moment during the epic final battle ofMy Hero Academia?
A:That’s a difficult question, because I’ve been working onMy Hero Academiagamesfor so long, and I am one of the very, very biggest fans ofMy Hero Academia.So it’s very difficult to pick just one, which is why I committed to reproducing and recreating each moment in the game. The game’s story is a very emotional narrative. And whenever we see the game, sometimes people in our company even cry looking at it, because it’s really emotional, and the individual moments are very good. We are very confident that allMy Hero Academiafans, not just game fans, can enjoy this game. We have a creative and strategic battle system with dynamic effects that can be enjoyed as well. So please be excited for this game, and please keep an eye out for more information.
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