Hello everyone and welcome back to Kralizec Gaming. Today we are going to take a look at One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows. This fighting game promises to let you experience your beloved heroes from the One Punch Man universe. Whether this is accompanied by fun gameplay is the question we will try to answer today. One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is available on Steam for 49 Euro and 99 cents or your regional equivalent.

With this review you have a choice of either reading it here in text form or listening to the video review. They both contain the same content.

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Video Review

Text Review

Let's start with a little detour. One Punch Man is originally a Japanese webcomic that started in 2009 and tells the story of Saitama. Over time it got made into a manga and then into an anime that reached insane levels of success. I even watched and I REALLY do not like anime. The thing is, One Punch Man makes fun of all the tropes so often found in anime without ever feeling like it is being overly sarcastic or overly mocking.

Saitama as a character cannot be described in any other words then overpowered. His whole shtick is based on the fact that he need just a single punch to defeat an enemy. You know, the kind of punch you take at 4 AM when you are drunk and trying to get a girl that is there with the biggest guy you have ever seen and just knocks you out straight. So, Saitama is depressed and is desperately looking for someone who would be worth fighting – someone to provide a challenge because fighting evil monsters becomes boring when you can defeat every one of them with a single punch.

So… that's that. The question now is, how do you incorporate this into a game? Games are all about being challenging, about you as a player feeling awesome whenever you defeat a monster while barely surviving because of your skill. The developers at Spike Chunsoft decided that the only real way to achieve this is about making the game, not about Saitama. Some of you may already understand. You – you will be the hero nobody knows.

You will get to create a hero – a character and Saitama works only as a nice power-up that you got to use a few times. But otherwise, you are here alone – as your hero and you get to create your own manga hero. Sadly, the customization options aren't that great and even though they do expand as your progress through the game, in the end, the offering is lacking.

Ready, Set, Go!

I never really was a person who would indulge in fighting games, so I was actually pleasantly surprised that this isn't an overly complex fighting game with thousands of different combos that the average player has zero chance of remembering and it certainly makes no sense of even trying to write them down because you do not have the time to look at a piece of paper when you are fighting because you would get destroyed. Instead, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows uses a pretty simple control scheme and easy combos. Yet, the game manages not to become overly simple.

Of course, the game includes specials moves, combos, and everything you would expect from a fighting game. But it all works a bit differently than in most other fighting games. Some attacks need to be acquired and equipped so you can even use them. At times, this makes the game feel more like an action RPG, and since – as I said – I am not a giant fan of fighting games I actually liked this. The gameplay itself is often about waiting for a mistake your enemy makes, using hard-to-block attacks and sometimes about proper timing – but not as often as you might assume it would be in a fighting game.

Now, this is where my issue with the game comes in. This tactic of mostly waiting is by far the best option because Saitama – the over-powered guy – will of sometimes come into fights and help you out by punching the hell out of your enemies. And you get to know when he is coming. There is this little timer that tells you how long you have to wait until Saitama arrives at the scene. This is such a shame. Whenever you see this icon, you just sit there, defending, maybe giving out a punch here and there that reduces the timer but once he arrives – the fight is over. This mechanic does make sense lore-wise – yes, Saitama is OP and his punch should one-shot the enemies. But the timer ruins it. It takes away all the tension of “I need to focus hard or I will lose” and changes the game from trying to win into trying not to lose. And believe me, those things are very different.

Luckily, there are a few things that can change the pace of the game – events. Things like another enemy joining the fight, a meteor falling into the arena, etc. And it all looks great – you feel like you are playing an anime. Which is really hard to achieve and is actually the primary goal of the game. The special moves and attacks are just as over the top as they should be. The only real visual problem comes in the cutscenes where the characters switch between moods and battle-stances out of nowhere and it can feel a bit weird.

Into The Batcave</h3.

Outside of the fighting, your goal is to make your character the very best and to get him to the top of the Hero Association – a league of superheroes. So, you go out and do quests given by characters from the universe. Sadly, these quests are very repetitious and get boring. But for completing these quests you get prestige that progresses you further. You also get to learn new attacks and even get to have your own apartment. So, a bit of Sims added into a fighting game. But honestly, these side-activities will not be fun for a long time.

Once you finish the main game it is time to take on the multiplayer. Even local multiplayer actually – which I find to be very nice in this day and age of everything being done online and is especially great now when we are all sitting at home quarantined with our siblings, parents, and/or partners. In local, you can set your own rules including whether Saitama should show up to help solve the fight. But, of course, the game also offers online play. Sadly, the matchmaking isn't that great so you will often wait a long time to get a fight.

Conclusion

So… in conclusion: One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is not a bad game. It is actually decent. But it is sort of going through a personality crisis as at times it doesn't know whether it wants to be a pure fighting game or a heavy action RPG. I for one like the fact that it isn't a pure fighting game but those expecting that should be warned. But, if you want to play an action RPG/fighting game with an insane over the top Japanese anime style One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is fun. Just do not pay the full price. Wait for a sale. 50 bucks is too much. Somewhere around 20 – 25 bucks and the game is a good buy.

So, that’s it for today guys. I hope you liked the review and if you did, please up-vote the review, follow my blog and be sure to share it with your friends. And comment, if you have anything you would like to add. See you guys later with more gaming content.

Disclaimer: All the images have been taken directly from the Steam game page