One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows - Review

When One Punch Man exploded onto the scene, it left many gamers wanting to take control of Saitama and unless his prodigious punches on countless enemies. While the wait was long, the first big game has arrived, but the question remains, is this one of his Super Serious Series or just a dream.

Rather than retelling the story from the manga and anime, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows (henceforth known as OPM for the sake of time), instead the game has you create your own hero from scratch, for me, I wanted something crazy, which given some of the heroes you meet, is saying something. My guy was called Shorts by the Hero Association, but for me, he was simply known as Dad Shorts, as I made him look like someone’s Dad, ready for a trip to a public picnic, but without any of the jokes a dad would make. Once my guy was created, I was dropped into the world and began to experience the first season of the anime, at least from a different point of view, and with me as a new character. It was a smart move, rather than creating something new that distracts from the source material, the minor changes to it, to help your character fit in more.

As the story plays out, you will complete missions, two distinct types, one that will increase your hero rank and ones that add to your collaboration points, in order to qualify for the first, you need to complete the second. The catch is even further exacerbated by the fact that in order to complete new missions from the second group, you need to level up, it is an interesting mechanic and helps keep things going, as the main missions are the story ones, while the collaboration ones are more like side quests. The only real issue with them is they are mostly the same, just with a different bad guy or final task, some are as basic as delivering an item to someone, others require you to beat up folks, which considering that is what the main quests have you do, feels a bit cheap. But the more you level up both ranks, the more you unlock new abilities and customisation items, the more fun you can have with the game.

Playing through the main missions also has the bonus effect of introducing new characters all the time, these characters are those from the manga and anime, so anyone who is a fan of the series will get a kick from seeing them appear on screen. The characters also use moves and abilities that they do from the source material and it is also how you can play as other characters in the story mode, the upside to it, is with each character you meet, there is the potential to unlock a new fighting style. These styles are basic, but each can level up on their own, letting you see the potential of one if you stick with it, the catch is though, that they remain where they are if you swap away from them, which means if you spend all your time in your first mode, but then 10 hours later swap to the more aggressive and up close style, you have to restart from the bottom again. Which when combined with the side quest missions, results in a cycle that utterly worthless.

Actually, fighting though is a lot of fun, the different moves that the characters use are fun to pull off for yourself, in fact the fighting, while is the most common thing you will do, is always fun. Fights can be broken down into two parts, the opening moves where you have to deal some damage and build up your count, then the unleashing of massive attacks. In the corner of the screen is your character picture, but also your attack count, for each attack you land, it increases by a little, once the bar is full another count is added, if that is taking you too long, you can press a button and charge yourself up, it is faster, but leaves you open to attacks. While you are attempting to grow that number, you will need to fight and deflect enemy attacks, the system is pretty forgiving when it comes to dodging, but the counterattack takes precision timing and there is not leeway on that. The games core fighting mechanics are pretty much punch or kick, with changing of the left sticks location, changing where you aim, it is straight forward and makes the game feel more accessible. When you have enough points to use, the game will give you vibes of the anime, as you unleash your attacks, it is fun and as you unlock more and more attacks, they will get more and more crazy. The only part of the fights that I honestly didn’t like, were the random events, much like how a tornado or monster would appear in older Sim City games, here lightning storms or meteor strikes would happen around you, making you dodge them as well as your opponent, while they would have been fine in the larger, boss style battles, in fights with street thugs and burglars, they are just pointless.

Another aspect of the game that feels pointless is the city itself, while not open world, the zones are quite large, but that works against them as they are barren, it is very rare to see people walking about, there is just no life in them. The denizens of these zones will stand in place, but the ones that do move around, only walk for a little bit, before they fade away, leaving things feeling incomplete. And while the zones are kept restricted from the outset and open up as you complete more of the story, they really don’t offer much of interest to visit anyway, you are able to buy things at stores, but none of them are near each other, which has you speeding around the map to find them, something else which is a pain, in fights you move like the wind, outside of them, not so much.

Perhaps the biggest issue with the game is the visuals, there are times when they replicate the look of the anime, very well and while they wont actually convince anyone that they were taken from the show, they still look great. Outside of those moments, everything else is generic anime game looking, characters rarely move when you are talking with them, reactions to things are more comical and power ranger inspired than reality based. But worse than all that is that the world is devoid of fun, it honestly feels like a PS2 level city, loads of buildings and not a lot else. Even when you enter into the arenas for the fights, they feel barren and it tends to be that there are only a handful of those locations, so you will see them a lot.

Thinking back on the presentation, there is a lot of polish to almost everything on offer, the voice acting is great, though as someone who has never seen the English dub, I had to quickly change it back to the Japanese audio. The combat effects are wonderful, punches sound like they do from the anime and when things like the ground shattering, due to a powerful attack landing, had me smiling, it helped sell the experience. The problem is, the entire presentation feels like they gave up designing around 75% through and then what they had, they polished to the nth degree and while that is nice, I was hoping for more.

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows has all the elements of a well-conceived game, except it just never makes it, fans of the series will find a lot to like, but there is more to be frustrated for. The games progression system is interesting, but as the bulk of the quests are the same, it feels repetitive quickly, but is thankfully offset by the wonderful and accessible fighting mechanics. Those who are keen to discover what One Punch Man is all about, would be better placed to watch the anime, but if you want more of it, this is a game that you should look for, when its discounted.