Fighting Games Friday: Academic Justice Enbu

I’ve made several posts about fighting games in the last week due to a number of factors. The first post commemorated the start of Evo, and included news about two games that publishers couldn’t wait until the tournament/event to share. But Saturday’s post about the best Evo moments at the time was the result of me holding off another post until a slightly later time — the Persona Q2 one that went up yesterday. There was also the post about all the fighting game news from the last day of Evo, a lengthy one despite the lower level of big news from the event. But there was also a Direct for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to write about two days ago. Four posts about fighting games in a week is a lot, is what I’m saying.

It’s also why there wasn’t much news to cover for this week’s Fighting Games Friday post, since publishers provided everything they had for Evo, or slightly before then. But that’s not to say I didn’t have any ideas. For all the fighting games I cover in this feature, some manage to slip through the cracks. There’s one upcoming example and a recently-released one that I missed.

(There are probably others I’ve missed, too, but there are so many games in the genre being released or receiving updates that it’s tough to keep up with all of them.)

Several Shonen Jump properties receive video game adaptations at a time, thanks to the manga magazine having a fair deal of the most popular franchises in Japan. Among them is My Hero Academia, which is receiving a fighting game that takes characters from several of its arcs called My Hero One’s Justice. Bandai Namco interestingly chose to remove the “Academia” part from its name, but it makes sense given the inane debate that raged between those who preferred either the translated name or the “Boku no Hero Academia” name.

This is a series that’s received new manga chapters on a weekly basis since it started in July 2014, so it has several characters to choose from. Main heroes like Izuku “Deku” Midoriya and All Might will be included, along with villains like Tomura Shigaraki, and those in between like Katsuki Bakugo. The most recent additions have included villains like Dabi, Himiko Toga, and Muscular, along with heroes like Gran Torino.

The newest character added was All For One, once the most powerful villain in the MHA universe (who was too important to list with the other villains in the previous sentence), whose ultimate move is EX Plus Ultra — which sounds like a name for the ultimate Street Fighter EX game. Most heroes were introduced when the game was announced earlier this year, so the current character focus is on their enemies.

One’s Justice is a fully-3D fighter developed by Byking, a production house staffed by former Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Marvelous developers, that captures the look of the manga and anime adaptation. It will involve characters fighting one-on-one using their Quirks for several special attacks. Each character can also choose two assist characters among the playable cast who can extend combos.

In being a “fully-3D” combat game, it also borrows elements from brawlers, making it similar to titles like the first Power Stone game and the Dissidia titles to a lesser extent.  The environment can be used and mostly abused for destruction as two characters battle it out. It looks like fun for fans of the franchise, though don’t expect anything as deep as, say, Dragon Ball FighterZ. There’s nothing wrong with being lighthearted fun, of course.

My Hero One’s Justice is due for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC, meaning nearly everyone will have a chance to play it. The game will hit Japan on August 23rd (though not on XB1 or PC), a mere thirteen days from now as of this writing, and release in America and Europe on October 23rd. Keep in mind My Hero Academia airs on Toonami every Saturday at 11PM ET, though also note that this game won’t have an English dub.

The Koihime Enbu fighting game series has been niche even among the Anime Fighting Game Community, before it expanded with the likes of Dragon Ball FighterZ and Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle. It’s a fighting game adaptation of the Koihime Musou eroge visual novel series set in the Three Kingdoms era of ancient China, with the all-female cast being “anime” versions of several classic heroes. Several characters are gender-swapped versions of male figures from the era. The games are heavy on combos, similar to many other anime fighters, but they aren’t too difficult to play.

An upgraded and rebalanced version known as Koihime Enbu RyoRaiRai recently released for PS4 and Steam, which includes 14 playable characters and eight assists. There are plenty in the anime FGC who enjoy it, and at $20, it’s worth a shot for anyone curious. That is, assuming your tolerance threshold for anime fanservice is high. Just keep in mind there won’t be a lot of people online, given the limited audience.

With the conclusion of this post, I feel I’ve earned a long vacation from fighting game-related posts.

But that’s something I would have done if I was actually tired of writing them, and didn’t have anymore news to post about. Stick around for another post in a week.