Review for One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 28/02/2020
Videogame tie-ins, especially those linked to the universe of anime and manga, have often experienced alternating fortunes. In fact, in the vast majority of cases, the lack of success of the conversions in videogame sauce of the most disparate works in the sector has meant that they were forgettable maneuvers, far from the quality standards of their more beaten paper or television counterparts. In recent years the trend has not changed, despite the efforts of some software houses, capable, in some particular cases, of giving vent to an almost unexpected flair, thus creating products that are qualitatively above average. Just think, to name one, of the excellent Dragon Ball FighterZ, capable of drawing on the original material in a skilful and solemn way, creating a product that is sometimes perfect for the general public. A product so successful has been countered by an ever increasing number of "failures", products that are unable to make the most of the enormous potential available. Jump Force is a clear example of this, a fighting game in a role-playing sauce that, while boasting on an incredible roster, coming from all the main works of the glorious magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, has not been able to convince neither the players nor the experts.
Spike Chunsoft's guys, after the huge misstep made, are back to the office, exactly one year later, with a new tie-in, once again with high potential, whose success, however, was to be evaluated. And so, of course, when One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows was announced, the reaction of most of the fans of the work of ONE e Yusuke murata it immediately split in half, in a perfect blend of fear and excitement. The ability to play in the guise of Saitama, Genos, Tornado, Bang or the very nice Spatent Rider has undoubtedly generated a lot of curiosity, quickly dispelled by the fear of finding yet another tie-in with dubious qualities.
After spending some time in the company of the new baby of the Japanese software house, created in the company of the inevitable Bandai Namco, we are ready to reveal to you whether or not these fears were founded. Do you want a little spoiler? You already know the answer in your heart.
ONE… story
The creature of ONE, to which Yusuke Murata subsequently gave shape, is based on solid foundations, necessary and decisive for an almost unstoppable worldwide success. The centerpiece of the story is a charismatic, incredibly multifaceted protagonist, whose story varies with skill and dexterity between different genres, with an end result that is sometimes unassailable. Saitama is a weak and above all bored boy, whose everyday life has quickly become a real prison, from which the young man decides to escape in a very particular way. Ridiculed by a frightening being and unable to defend the weakest, the boy decides to follow a very special slack, with the ultimate aim of becoming stronger. The strongest.
The result is what we all know a little: Saitama will become strong enough to defeat every opponent with a single punch (hence the name, ed), thus returning to a status of depression due precisely to his excessive strength, which it makes any kind of challenge virtually impossible for him. And the story of One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is based precisely on these precise guidelines, taking full advantage of a malleable and perfectly coined narrative universe. The protagonist of the title of Spike and Bandai Namco, consequently, is not Saitama, but another hero, a new hero, who, like Saitama, will have to start from scratch to prove his worth. As you can imagine, the game starts right here, from the creation (through a fairly modest editor, destined to expand over time) of what will be our alter ego, destined to climb the ranks of the Heroes Association to defend the innocent from the threat of Mysterious Beings and, above all, to make their name resonate strongly.
A lot of quantity, little quality
Playfully speaking, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows offers a structure that is far too unoriginal and already widely seen in recent years, especially in the productions to which the title refers a lot. To progress through the story, the game uses the Hero Ranking expedient (from C to S, as in the anime and manga) to overcome the main missions from one level to another, "forcing" the player to alternate them with many secondary activities. From this point of view, however, Spike has shown that he has learned little from the past, packaging an incredibly repetitive and uninteresting product. Let's be clear, carrying out the secondary activities is very profitable and as we said earlier it is practically fundamental for the progression of the main story, but these sin tremendously in terms of variety and depth.
Each secondary mission is reduced to a perpetual repetition of the same activities, quickly becoming a necessary evil for the player, almost "forced" to face them in order not to have problems in completing the main tasks. To accept the missions it is necessary to wander around the city, which is the beating heart and hub of One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows, where you can also meet the most famous heroes who, often, also assign them useful missions, among other things, to fortify the understanding with them. Strengthening the agreement with the heroes unlocks very useful rewards, including the possibility of using the most famous moves of the latter, thus personalizing our alter ego by drawing on the arts of the most famous heroes. Completing the main missions, also worrying about carrying out as many ancillary activities as possible, can easily take you away over 30 hours of play, for a very good longevity (destined to increase and a lot if you were a completist). Too bad, however, that everything - we repeat - is excessively redundant, making it very difficult to empathize with the various characters and above all to complete an adventure that is anything but unforgettable.
ONE PUNCH!
On a more practical level, evaluating One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is even more controversial, especially if you evaluate what is the heart of the production: the combat system. Pad in hand, in fact, the game brings to the screen a classic team fighting game with a main character and two support characters who, based on their "real" skills, offer a very specific contribution to the battle. In the clashes, the role played by the production is strongly felt, in this case by analyzing the skills and parameters of the character used.
Each level grants skill points to be spent on different parameters, such as physical strength, health points or charm, just to name a few, all useful for giving a good variety of choice in terms of developing your hero. Skills also follow this pattern: as you progress through the story you can unlock all four slots available for active skills, which, in fact, can be selected based not only on your taste but also on the chosen specialization. Once again, as we said earlier, the role factor in One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is strongly felt, since the various types of specializations offer a very different fighting style every time: power, agility, charm, weapons, these are just a few examples of what can be done once you begin to progress in history, with all that this entails in playful terms.
Unfortunately, however, this great freedom does not go hand in hand with an equally valid combat system, which right from the start shows its side to various more or less obvious problems. The first and most obvious is linked to the animations and more generally to the feedback of the shots. One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is a cast product, certainly spectacular, but excessively woody in almost all movements and unable, despite the great fidelity to the original material, to return true satisfaction after each stroke. To this, then, is added a serious imbalance of the roster, to which the developers have promised to work over the next few weeks. Some of the 27 usable characters (between support and not) are clearly stronger than others and this clearly compromises not only the general progress in history but also and above all the quality of online matches and clashes versus locally. This is a bit like what happens with Saitama who, as in the paper counterpart, is capable of killing opponents with a single blow.
The developers have partially compensated for this gap by relegating Saitama to an exclusively support character but, once he enters the game after waiting for the countdown, it causes the same effect we were talking about above. During the meetings, then, random interruptions (such as natural disasters, the advent of additional characters to be defeated or the help of other heroes) risk compromising and unbalancing even well-defined clashes, with a final result that is anything but enviable. .
Spike Chunsoft as Murata
On a technical and artistic level, once again, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows splits in exactly two, bringing to the screen a work characterized by mixed fortunes. If on the one hand the work of Spike Chunsoft is a real tribute to the main series and to the work of Murata, thanks also to a realization in cel shading of exquisite workmanship, on the other hand it highlights all the limits of a production far from a quality level in line with current standards. To pay the costs are the polygonal models of the secondary characters, the environments and the interiors, all characterized by a listless work in which recycling and low pixel density are the masters.
But not only that: even on the stability front, the game shows its side to numerous problems, such as the continuous pop-in and pop-up of NPC and the very frequent frame rate drops, which affect the enjoyment of the title in particular as regards the exploratory part and not so much that of the fighting itself. In any case, the reconstruction of the game world is absolutely commendable, resulting practically flawless and extremely faithful to the original material. To complete the excellent picture of inspiration for Murata's work are the dubbing (the Japanese one) and the music, all perfectly in line with the source material, on which the amazing intro of the game stands out, entrusted to the rock band JAM Project, the same artists who took care of the opening of the two animated series of the work of Murata and ONE.
In conclusion…
One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows manages to replicate, thanks to an exaggerated fanservice, the same emotions of the work of Yusuke Murata and ONE, but with many compromises. The first is a slow and cumbersome combat system, whose spectacularity is put to the test, precisely, by a basic and difficult to digest command system. The real flaw of the production, however, remains that linked to the creation of a poor and repetitive play system, in which the (many) activities that can be faced to progress in the story or to unlock new skills are reduced to a continuous recycling of situations and game modes. Overall, therefore, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is a title that will probably make the fans of the Japanese mangaka happy, but it is far from being valid in an absolute sense, essentially resulting in a hybrid product with a very relative character. Spike Chunsoft has, in short, once again missed the opportunity to bring home a good goal, with the hope that the next tie-in will be much more in focus.
► One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is a fighting game developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 28/02/2020
