Today, My Hero Academia‘s first official, open-world, action-RPG MMO mobile game is now available for fans of the worldwide hit anime series! My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero, from Sony Pictures Television Games and Funimation, can be downloaded from the iTunes store (iPhone and iPad only) and Google Play. And here’s what you’ll get when you do:
Fans of the anime series will get to recruit and play as their favorite heroes from MHA, including fan-favorite Deku and #1 hero All Might, and everyone in between. Now while you won’t be able to access all of them right out of the gate, you’ll eventually be able to fill out your collection thanks to the mobile game’s gacha mechanic. That strong collectible aspect of the game is balanced out by a story-driven progression system where you get to upgrade your characters through battles against villains and completing missions to gain experience and gear. Add all that together with a dash of cooperative battles against villains and bosses, and competitive PvP against other real players, and… I can’t wait to see which teams and metas rise to the top. Sony Pictures Television Games is planning for this to be a live game with a strong social aspect for a long time to come in the future. There’s a lot to recommend in this game, a couple of technical irks aside, and we’ll break it all down below.
Here’s the new launch trailer and synopsis, followed by more on the game from my review and a behind-the-scenes chat with the creative team:
Based on the wildly popular anime series My Hero Academia on Funimation, My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero allows fans to play their favorite characters from Class 1-A, including Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki, pro heroes like All Might and Endeavor, and even villains like Stain. Players can build their own team roster in story mode and take on classic villains like Shigaraki and Nomu. My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero lets players challenge each other in PVP or take on the Allied Assault in co-op mode. New content will be released every month, adding more of the players’ favorite heroes and villains.
Table of Contents
Story:
When you first start in on My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero, you’ll step into the shoes of a Quirkless Izuku “Deku” Midoriya. That means that your journey in the MMO action RPG starts just the way the anime series does, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll have to start your power-up progression from zero. Instead, after a nice introduction that will bring newcomers up to speed on the story of MHA (and earn you some in-game currency in the process), you’ll jump ahead a bit in order to get in on the villain-fighting action with a somewhat more powered-up Deku than you might expect.
The story takes place between the U.S.J. Incident and the Hero Killer arc from the anime. While that’s all Season 1 content, it’s a nice place to start your hero’s journey since your Deku & Co. won’t be completely helpless. And through the introductory chapter’s battle against various villains, you’ll easily upgrade your starter character in rapid fashion. This story campaign walkthrough will see you clicking through various menus, on-screen pop-ups, and combat combos to get you familiar with the basic ins and outs of the game.
For yours truly, my mobile device couldn’t quite handle the nearly 7GB download of the game itself, so I checked out a PC emulator. I would strongly suggest experiencing this game as intended on your mobile device since it’s tailormade for it. It might just be my old fumble fingers or the fact that I’ve been trained for console controllers instead of mobile controls or keyboard/mouse, but I had a tough time even keeping up with the tutorial’s timing of the many and varied offensive and defensive moves. Timing is key to deliver the most damage (or avoid it) during fights, and I would have preferred it if the game had a training dummy on which to practice.
That being said, you can turn My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero into an auto-battler. If you struggle like me, or are just into the story experience and gacha aspect (more on that in a second), you can totally sit back and watch your powered-up team go full cowling on auto-pilot. That’s not going to help your PvP skills any, but hey, that’s also not for everyone. Here’s a look at the various modes and experiences you can enjoy in this game:
- Solo – Story campaign, also includes Night Ops, which is a Boss Raid mode that sees your best character trying to take down a boss within a certain time limit
- Co-Op – Team up with friends in battles to take on bosses together, just like the heroes of MHA do!
- Vs. – PvP with 3v3 team-ups and character power-level balancing. This is fantastic to watch, and I can’t wait to see some skilled and experienced players duking it out!
- Timed – Timed Events, some of which will grant you awesome loot or even characters!
But how do you get those characters? Glad you asked!
Gacha:
While My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero will start you off with Deku (and a little dash of All Might for fun), the rest of your hero characters will come courtesy of the classic gacha mechanics. Basically, as you play, you’ll gain different tickets or other currencies that you can use towards RNG-based rolls for different tiers of playable characters. And even if you aren’t lucky enough to roll a character in one go (or 10), you can collect “puzzle pieces” of characters to put together as a fully recruitable character, once you have all the pieces. So by just playing the game, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get the characters you want. Additionally, My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero will offer more avenues towards rolling for characters, which we detail below.
Once you get those characters, you’ll have to keep them leveled-up and upgraded to make sure they stay safe and sound out there in the world. (It’s very cool to get to roam around the city, something you don’t get to see much of in the anime itself.) There are some very cool and clever animations here as your characters hit the gym (and the cafeteria) in order to bulk up, get better gear, and level up their various move sets. I do love me a chibi version of My Hero Academia characters, so this leveling-up necessity is particularly delightful for yours truly.
Q&A:
Before the game launched, I had a chance to chat with Paul Joffe, VP of Games at Sony Pictures Television Games, and the team behind the scenes to learn a little more about My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero. Here’s what I learned:
How much of the story can fans expect to experience?
We’ve already built Seasons 1, 2, and 3, so we’ll take you through that. The intent would be to continue. Part of this experience is to tell the story of the anime, and that’s what a lot of anime fans love. This is a chance for a lot of people to relive it with a very experiential way, but also a chance to bring game-players into the anime. They’ll definitely get a very strong storytelling experience with it.
Character unlocks and progression?
Ultimately, it’s a gacha system in terms of how you collect characters. How they become available is a combination of unlocks as you progress, limited-time events, character drops on a monthly basis, so there will be a lot of different ways how they become available.
How do Fusions work for the cards?
- Characters will have different categories of cards that act as both active and passive power-ups
- The cards themselves can get powered up through a separate progression. Duplicates can get fused into higher-rank cards, or lower-tier cards can be used to level up higher-tier cards.
Favorite characters to play as?
- Mineta – A “super-interesting character” in the game. Utilizes the grape balls in odd ways, like setting traps, slipping and falling to deal damage, and the Grape Rush ability, which puts him in a first-person shooter mode. This crosshairs aim of Minetta’s grape-thrower is a fun shift from the third-person combat mode.
What sets this game apart?
I like to think of how it pushes the limit of what we expect in a mobile game. It brings you into this universe in an immersive way, it makes you feel like you’re playing as the characters. On top of that, it’s an MMO, a very rare thing to have in the West in a mobile game, tying it into the anime community and how passionate they are, makes for something very special.
Verdict:
Overall, My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero feels like an earnest attempt to bring the hit anime series into the world of mobile gaming in a meaningful way for its fans. It also comes with plenty of flexibility and variety (and microtransaction options, should you want to take advantage of them) for different players of varying skill sets to enjoy it in whatever way they see fit.
Personally, I’d rather roll through the story by micromanaging the level-ups and letting Deku & Co. battle it out on auto-pilot, specifically because I’m in it for the gacha. However, having glimpsed what the combat looks like from some behind-the-scenes experts who have mastered the timing and combos of MHA characters, this game absolutely offers a rewarding challenge for fans of mobile PvP combat. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero!
Season 5 of My Hero Academia, produced by Studio Bones and now airing on Funimation, kicked off with the Joint Training Arc, and will continue to bring action-packed stories that viewers won’t want to miss, including the iconic series’ 100th episode.
My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero, age-rated 12+ and containing in-app purchases, is now available in English and accessible to fans in North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia. Gamers can sign up now at MyHeroGame.com.
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