One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is a fighting game based on the mega-popular One-Punch Man series, developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco. It released on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC in February 27, 2020 for Japan while the other countries got it a day later.
The game is a three-dimensional 3-vs-3 tag team fighting game with the cast of the anime series's first season, but with one important distinction: if Saitama is selected as a member of the player's team, he will not be immediately usable in the fight, because he's running late to the fight. A timer is put in place that counts down the time remaining until Saitama arrives, with perfect guards and combo attacks shortening the time needed until he can be used. Once Saitama arrives, he can One-Hit KO his opponents.
The game's story mode follows the events of the anime through the perspective of a player-created character who was saved by Saitama in a chance encounter and, inspired by him, starts the journey to becoming a hero.
Playable Characters
- Custom Hero
- Saitama
- Genos
- Terrible Tornado
- Hellish Blizzard
- Silver Fang
- Metal Bat
- Stinger
- Puri-Puri Prisoner
- Spring Mustachio
- Mumen Rider
- Atomic Samurai
- Tank-Top Master
- Child Emperor
- Handsome Kamen Amai Mask
- "Snakebite" Sneck
- Tank-Top Blackhole
- Tank-Top Tiger
- Metal Knight
- Vaccine Man
- Speed-o'-Sound Sonic
- Mosquito Girl
- Carnage Kabuto
- Deep Sea King
- Boros
- Crablante
- Melzagard
- Saitama (Dream Version)
DLC (Season Pass) Characters
On July 20, 2021, BN announced that all of the online servers will be closed by 2022.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: In the story mode segments, while Mumen Rider is just as outmatched as in canon, he's a far more skilled fighter gameplay-wise, and against the Deep Sea King while he can't damage him that much, he's still able to knock him around a fair bit, as with other monsters he faces in the Story Mode and Special Missions.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the source material, Genos is nice enough to others despite being The Comically Serious. Here, his desire to become Saitama's disciple clashes with the custom protagonist's own, resulting in him becoming very short with the protagonist and even threatening them with violence (and being "erased") despite knowing they're a fellow hero. Though he mellows out pretty much instantly when Saitama assigns the protagonist to be Genos' disciple, implying this is mostly from his desire and desperation to learn from Saitama.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the finale of Story mode, Lord Boros goes down from one regular punch from Saitama, just like any other character. In canon, while Saitama still easily won, Boros endured many more of Saitama's punches due to his Healing Factor, and had enough power to result in Saitama needing to use a "Serious Punch".
- Been There, Shaped History: Kinda. Story mode is set during the first season and has your player character joining the Hero Association and going through the events of said season up until the fight with Boros. Your actions don't really change the course of things more then just stall for time for a majority of missions until one of the top heroes finally arrive.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Enforced with Saitama: he can't be used at the beginning of the fight, and is meant to arrive when the player is struggling to hold out against an opponent.
- During the story mode, Saitama does this multiple times for the protagonist, as the latter has to stall against powerful monsters that the former took down in canon.
- Brought Down to Badass: There's also a "Dream Version" of Saitama who wears pajamas and has his powers diminished so he can fight fairly. This is based on the dream he had against the subterraneans and could finally fight on an even keel and enjoy himself.
- Character Customization: Not dissimilar to Jump Force and Dragon Ball Xenoverse, players create their own characters that serve as the central protagonists of the game's story mode.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Saitama is built to be this. Choosing him forces you into a 2-on-3 fight (unless the other player chooses Saitama as well), but if you're able to Hold the Line and run down Saitama's timer, you win.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: It's how Saitama is able to be both as canonically broken as he should be, and balanced with everyone else. Normal Saitama is his canon, god-tier self. That said, there's a Dream version that balances him with the rest of the cast, but justifies it as being All Just a Dream if you win with him.
- Hold the Line: If you pick Saitama, the game becomes this. You must survive for 4 and a half minutes while outnumbered 3-2 until Saitama arrives and steamrolls the opposition.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Fittingly the Post-Final Boss in story mode is against Saitama himself. Naturally, you're not gonna win this because Saitama's health bar barely even chips. Eventually he finishes it with a punch that thankfully doesn't destroy the player character but does knock them on their back.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Saitama himself is less of a character and more of a force of nature, being able to win a fight with a single punch. However, he can't be used until four and a half minutes pass.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: If Saitama runs out of health (almost always against another Saitama), he will announce that he has to go to the store and leave.
- One-Hit KO: Unless it's a Mirror Match against another Saitama, Saitama knocks out any opponent with a single punch. At least when they're not lying on the ground reeling from a previous attack.
- Purposefully Overpowered: Saitama is just as hideously broken as you'd expect. This is balanced out by him being unavailable for the first 270 seconds of the fight.
- Takes One to Kill One: According to this game, the only character that can defeat Saitama is another Saitama.Of course since other characters can chip Saitama's lifebar no matter how small, then if you're that much of a Godlike Gamer you ''could'' defeat Saitama without the use of another one; but since Saitama has so much health, is Immune to Flinching, has the highest speed in the game along with Sonic and can kill you with only a single melee attack, along with every one of those moves being completely unblockable, then being able to do so is incredibly unlikely. Not that it hasn't been done against a CPU Saitama before as seen here
. - There's No Kill like Overkill: Merely using a Heavy, Charge, or Uppercut punch to give your attack some extra oomph comes across as this when you're using Saitama against anybody else as even his weakest attacks like Standard Melee strikes, his grab, dash attack or sweep attack can instantly destroy a non-Saitama opponent's entire healthbar. You can even FURTHER up the ante by using a Killer Move, or by using any of your attacks, Killer Move or not when they've been buffed by Justice Enforcement, a Mode Change into Serious Mode, or both. The absolute king of overkill is using your Serious Punch (Saitama's Super Killer Move) after having a Level 10 attack buff from Justice Enforcement. Considering it's strong enough to One-Hit KO even a Serious Mode Saitama, it's a miracle it doesn't have a special feature where it just turns the opponent into a puddle of blood.
- Unblockable Attack: Metal Bat and Child Emperor's Super Killer Moves can pierce though the opponent's block like it's nothing to fully deliver their strongest attacks. But the already overpowered Normal Saitama ups the ante by having every attack he has be unblockable attack. If you're doing the Rematch mission against Saitama where you have to reduce 10% of his lifebar with your custom character in 180 seconds (thankfully the timer stops temporarily when Super Killer Move animations are playing), then using Metal Bat's Ultimate when selecting Weapon Type A or B as your character's moveset is a big necessity to clear the mission as seen here.
- Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: It's possible to get a fight between two Saitamas. If this happens, they're technically able to damage each other, but remain Immune to Flinching, and if one's life meter is reduced to zero they suddenly realize that Bargain Day at the local supermarket is almost over and take their leave.
