Cosmic combat and Hoyoverse exploration are combined in One Punch Man: World.

Crunchyroll's most ambitious project to date, One Punch Man: World will launch in late 2023 for PC, iOS, and Android—officially breaking past the barrier as the first of the company's games to do so. I thus couldn't help but put on my bald hat and cape and excitedly join up for the CBT as a devoted fan of Saitama and the rest of the Hero Association in order to offer you this One Punch Man: World preview. Is the game really deserving of its hero license, though?

Naturally, One Punch Man: World takes place in the One Punch Man universe. It parallels some key scenes from the anime while also carving out a type of own narrative. In the primary questline, you mostly control Lightning Max, who joins you soon after a catastrophic assault on City A.

The civilians are under a great deal of stress because the Hero Association was unable to save them and their homes from the dangerous Vaccine Man. Max and the other heroes spend a lot of time trying to mend the damage to their reputation and win back the trust of the people they let down. They do this by either going after more monsters and finishing commissions or by just walking around the towns and lending a hand to anyone they can, no matter how small the task.

I like how the game explores the conflict between heroes and common people. Marvel has been kicking around this idea for years, so it's by no means groundbreaking, but being able to connect on a personal level with the city's residents and witness their losses and fears directly is surprisingly moving, even with a dash of One Punch Man humor thrown in for good measure.

Although I found it a little strange at first, Max's positive outlook, lighthearted interactions with Smile Man and the other heroes, and concealed fears make him a likable and entertaining lead character. As a result, I soon got used to him taking center stage in the story.

In addition, I found it somewhat puzzling how Saitama could be the main character in a game like this. It would be somewhat dull for the game if every combat ended with a "one hit and they're out," as the whole point of his character is that he is so powerful that he can defeat any opponent with a single blow. It makes me extremely happy to see that Crunchyroll gave this some attention.

You get to play as the Caped Baldy in his actual form in one or two of the game's segments. Your main objective is to block and dodge until you have enough energy to punch the evil guy to death. After that, you may still play as Saitama, but you can only play as his Job Hunting version, which comes with a suit, a briefcase, and a full head of hair, or your Dreamworld version, which is based on the anime scenes when he imagines himself up against opponents who can really fight back.

I like how the whole game is loyal to the anime while yet paying close attention to detail. The developers' deep familiarity with the original material is evident in the way they handle it reverently throughout, catching the lighthearted, goofy, but profound emotions and encapsulating them in an engaging, lore-compliant universe for you to explore.

I believe that this is the closest a game has ever come to recreating the timeless appeal of One Punch Man, both via straight quotes from the anime and letting you participate in some of the most famous bouts, as well as fresh material that could just as well be taken from the anime.

The gameplay is primarily divided into two halves. There are two main game types: the world exploration mode, where you can explore different parts of the city and its surroundings, and the combat sections, which usually take place in tiny arenas; I'll talk more about that later. You can use any character you've unlocked as an avatar here; you're not always limited to Max. You have a good deal of freedom to explore, and it has aspects that are similar to Persona 5 and the forthcoming Zenless Zone Zero.

The city districts, the Hero Association headquarters, and various surrounding locations are divided into smaller, independently instanced maps, the majority of which have their own subsections. A teleporter that resembles a phone booth may be used to go between each major region. After that, you can explore the various sections of each map by moving approaching a threshold and pressing a button to enter the next zone.

Every location has its own special features and NPCs going about their everyday lives; you could even run across other heroes out and about, training, patrolling, or unwinding. There's a day/night cycle that alternates between day and night, and because all of the heroes and NPCs have their own schedules, you may usually only speak with them during certain hours of the day. In addition, a dynamic weather system that is always changing enhances the world's overall realism and liveliness.

You may also browse the city' distinctive stores. Convenience stores, eateries, and vending machines provide consumables that grant you combat bonuses; other places, like the manga store and thrift store, are mostly quest-related sites. You also sometimes find yourself wandering and encountering side quests or character-specific tale quests from local NPCs. Whether it's figuring out which manga a lady is talking about or saving a guy in line from being conned, these are usually very straightforward yet endearing, giving the game another lovely feeling of life.

And lastly, arcades, which I love, love, love. Panzer Cyborg is a minigame available at an arcade located in City A. It is similar to Subway Surfers in that you are in charge of a scaled-down version of Genos that is flying above a metropolis. To cross the finish line and advance to the next level, you must dodge obstacles and gather money and other objects. That's not all, however, since the arcade is also connected to another game.

Detective Tissan is a character who may be found in the arcades in both City A and City Z. His job is to locate hidden things on the map, such as arcade money and "servers." Incorporating treasure hunts for trinkets into the gameplay is a fun way to break up the combat-heavy monotony and encourage you to explore all the hidden corners of the city. As a thank you for all of your hard work, you may also get some pretty awesome items.

Let's go to the fighting. Combat situations often follow the same structure, regardless of whether you're fighting to advance the plot or fulfilling commissions in return for supplies and other benefits. You choose a fight with a certain adversary (or group of foes), assemble a squad of one to four heroes, decide whether to consume food or beverages before to battle in order to get any necessary advantages, and then you go into battle.

Heroes and opponents belong to one of four fighting kinds, and each has its own set of vulnerabilities. As such, it makes sense to organize your squad around the forms of battle your opponent is weak in. You manage the hero in the first character slot during combat, with AI handling the other members of your team (I assume you will eventually be able to fill slots with multiplayer buddies, but I was unable to investigate that during the CBT). The inability to change your character's control once a battle has begun is a little annoying given how accustomed you were to the fast swapping systems in Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact. However, since battles are usually brief, this system encourages you to become familiar with at least one character from each type of battle.

There is a hero for everyone since they all have distinct fighting abilities and enjoyable variations in their playstyles. In addition to the standard controls for movement, camera, dodge, and dash, every hero has unique abilities and combinations. Similar to Genshin and HSR, the abilities are shown by large symbols in the lower right corner. While you click or press a related key on a PC, you tap them on a mobile device.

By using your talents aggressively anytime they're not on cooldown, you can win the majority of encounters, but you may find it difficult to get full marks in every one. The variety of combos you can execute is quite impressive. You can use normal attacks and dashes followed by a skill, execute your skills in a particular order, learn when to tap or hold specific skills, or even use specific moves to deflect or dodge enemy attacks. A few other things to watch out for include gauges for some characters' various fighting postures, energy for your character's ultimates, item bonuses for your whole team, and "link" attacks.

Although the battle system isn't the most intricate in the world, it may be beneficial if you put in a little extra work. Because there are so many different heroes, it might take some time to learn the best attack patterns for each character. Each hero has a set of "training" arenas that teach you all the various combinations and movesets you may use for each character, which will aid you with this. When you do this for the first time, you are rewarded, but you may go back to it whenever you need a refresher.

Combat's targeting and camera system can be a little picky on mobile devices, but the PC version works well in this regard. Nevertheless, there are settings you can adjust to adjust the camera's panning and other features, so you have options if this bothers you too.

There are parts of the main plot where you can't advance unless you've hit a particular level in your commissions, even though the main story mostly consists of fighting, interacting with certain NPCs, and doing little tasks scattered over the landscape. Commissions are fun little combat tasks that provide you access to a certain collection of resources if you finish them. Depending on the kind of commission you choose, these materials might include cash, resources for Experience Points, memory chips (a kind of equipment), and other useful items.

The drawback of commissions is that they need intelligence; in fact, even major plot combat situations need some level of intelligence for most rounds of fighting. If you've played previous live service games, you'll be well acquainted with the idea of Intel. It's basically endurance; to draw a closer comparison, think of it as Honkai Star Rail's Trailblaze Power. The majority of commissions need 24 intelligence, however certain variants that give specific benefits require 60 intelligence. Intel regenerates over time but limits at 240. With each combat lasting around 1-2 minutes (though some are longer), you may complete up to 10 bouts in a single sitting, which is not a bad amount of time at all.

This causes your progress to be artificially slowed to a complete stop, and there aren't many side missions available to pass the time while I wait for my intelligence to replenish. It's not that there isn't enough stuff to keep you occupied—side missions are wonderful, but sometimes it's just intel-based tasks or nothing at all.

Of course, you can buy (or sometimes acquire) objects to rapidly restock your intelligence, and I had plenty of access to this resource throughout the test. But as the game goes on, I worry that this will become more of a barrier, giving you the choice to either pay currency—possibly even real money—to expedite the process or wait a long time. I'm sure many other players will feel the same way. This is an approach I've seen in other free-to-play games with microtransactions, and it's definitely not something I appreciate.

One Punch Man: World, with its free-to-play microtransaction approach, is essentially a gacha game, since you get characters and impression arms (a kind of gear) via a gacha system. Naturally, you start the game with a free copy of Max Lightning. Shortly after, you also get a free copy of Smile Man and Golden Ball. However, the gacha system is the sole way to gain the arms of all other heroes.

Heroes are available in SR or SSR quality, while certain well-known figures like Saitama and Genos are also available in numerous variants. There were three primary banners used throughout the beta. The first is the typical "Hall of Everything" banner, which has a range of heroes and impression arms. Some of the most well-known SSR figures include Dreamworld's Saitama, Genos' Arms Mode, and other characters. You obtain quite a bunch of them as quest prizes, but you can also buy them from the in-game store for 260 world gold (a currency you can earn in-game and, I assume, purchase)—a banner that needs one basic license every pull.

The SSR villain Speed-o'-Sound Sonic, in this instance, was the featured weapon and subject of the second and third banners. These are temporary banners that call for a certain kind of licensing. These cost the same as regular licenses, but you can't get them by doing anything else, thus their availability is a little bit more restricted.

A beginner's banner is also available; if you've played any of the greatest gacha games, you may be acquainted with this notion. You only get ten pulls from it, however, unlike the novice Genshin Impact banner or Honkai Star Rail banner, but that's okay since there's another helpful mechanism at work.

You get 10 complimentary rerolls of your ten draw when you utilize the starter banner. You may continue rolling again to see if you receive a better draw after saving your top three ten pulls. You may also reroll for a cost of a few world gold once the ten free rerolls have expired. You are able to lock in and acquire those characters after you are satisfied with one of your 10 draw outcomes. This gives you a good amount of versatility and makes it simpler for you to choose the characters you wish to use when you first launch the game. I was fortunate enough to get two SSRs and two SR heroes in one of these ten draw sets during the beta. I was also able to get a good number of SR and even some SSR characters by using the free pulls and gold I earned from doing missions.

You are certain to get at least one SR for every ten pulls and at least one SSR for every ninety pulls, according to the rates on all banners. Since the premium store wasn't accessible during the beta, I'm not sure whether there is some kind of 50/50 sympathy at work for the limited banners. I also can't comment on the actual monetization or currency prices.

It's difficult to predict how much the microtransactions and banners will affect your overall enjoyment of the entire game, as Crunchyroll gave all beta players a lot of free pulls and other rewards to help us advance faster. I did get pretty lucky with my pulls in terms of both characters and impression arms, but the rates were probably boosted due to the beta's short duration. Additionally, there seems to be some kind of combat pass, albeit it was fairly basic in the beta. As such, I assume there will be a premium version with some alluring incentives when the game launches fully.

Even the free SR characters, however, are fun to play and rather powerful—especially if you invest some resources in them. In fact, even though I had five SSR heroes on my squad, I often found myself enlarging it with SRs like Smile Man and Lightning Max, particularly once I upgraded their impression arms.

In relation to equipment and upgrades, there are many methods by which you might enhance the power of your characters. To enable them to "break through," you must first level them up with EXP cards and then give them some world notes (much like ascension in HSR and Genshin). Additionally, you may use certain monster components to boost your heroes, or you can draw several copies of a hero, much like Genshin's constellations or HSR's eidolons. Additionally, you may give your heroes several chips—which raise certain stats—that you get from commissions and other conflicts.

And lastly, there's the impression arms gear that you might get from the banners. Every character has a unique set of impression arms that may be activated on the hero upgrading screen by pulling one on the banner. If you then extract many copies of that item, you may further improve them. Naturally, this means that a portion of your power is dependent on gacha RNG; but, as many impression arms are lower than SR, you get a significant percentage of your power from regular pulls.

Selecting an impression arms piece to "equip" gives you the ability to use the corresponding buff in combat, whether it be equipped on your primary hero or one of your allies. These buffs may take many various forms, such as giving your squad a defensive or attack boost or the capacity to heal the two heroes with the lowest HP. As there doesn't seem to be any option to heal in fight at the present, the latter is really helpful in some of the more difficult encounters.

It really does seem like a well-rounded, live service gacha game, and there are a ton of other gameplay elements and mechanics in addition to what I've already covered. I started to look forward to playing it after work or during my lunch breaks, and I was devastated when the closed beta in my area ended a few hours sooner than I had anticipated. Furthermore, a game is clearly doing something right if it can keep you interested and generate that kind of enthusiasm.

The acoustic and visual elements of One Punch Man: World also do a fantastic job of encapsulating the spirit of the anime. I'm not sure whether there will be additional language dubs in the future, but I really like it this way. As of the beta, all voice acting is in Japanese. Since it has been a while since I saw the anime, I'm not sure whether the voice actors are the same as those in it, but generally, I thought the voice acting was excellent, perfectly capturing the intensity and passion of each character. The soundtrack combines jazzy elements with victorious superhero-style music, akin to the show's soundtrack. The other sound effects also blend in flawlessly, giving each scene and atmosphere life.

I think the images are flawless. Every character has the same distinctive facial expressions, outfits, and color schemes as they do in the anime. It really seems like you've stepped directly into the anime with the vivid and recognizable environments you explore and adversaries you face, which is just what I was hoping for.

I used my old Android phone (a Huawei P20, far from the greatest gaming phone available right now) and my gaming PC to play the beta, and I had a mostly flawless experience on both devices. During my many hours playing the game, I never had any stuttering, glitches, or framerate reductions. The load times between locales and combat were quick and fluid. Although I did sometimes see cutscene bugs, like an NPC stopping an animation in the middle of it or a text box briefly becoming white, these were all very common beta issues and had little effect on how much I liked the game. I never had to utilize the helpful unstuck-style option included in the pause menu, but even if you do notice a fault, it's there.

The UI is pleasant and uniform throughout, and inputs are quick and responsive on PC and mobile devices, which is essential in the beat-em-up-style skirmishes that comprise a large portion of the game. On mobile, everything is sized properly to be usable on a tiny screen without being in the way, and the buttons are obvious and simple to use. Even if you're not typically the type to play video games on your phone, the controls are comfortable and easy to use. You don't even need a controller to get the hang of things, so those quick breaks while you're out and about are made possible—that is, provided you have a reliable internet connection.

So far, One Punch Man: World has pleased me, and I'm interested to see where it goes next. It has a strong Hoyoverse game vibe to it and is a lot like what I'm hoping the Zenless Zone Zero release date will deliver. I think it does a great job at capturing the spirit of the One Punch Man anime, not only with the familiar faces and settings but also with the comedy, narratives, and overall feel of the universe.

Even though I personally would have preferred that One Punch Man: World be a premium title, I have my doubts about the game's potential for profit as I always do, but I'm excited to see what becomes of Crunchyroll's most ambitious project to date. I will definitely be raising my voice and taking up arms as soon as One Punch Man: World is released.

Alright, pardon me while I pretend to do 100 situps, 100 pushups, and 100 squats in order to get Saitama's friendship. Here's a list of the best anime games, best Switch fighting games, and best mobile RPGs if you missed out on the One Punch Man: World beta and need something to pass the time. We also have expert listings of the best portable gaming consoles and the best gaming iPhone if you're searching for something to play these amazing games on.