As long as there has been anime and video games, the two have been unmistakably intertwined with each other. Just about every famous anime has had at least one game adaptation, and some long-running series (*cough* Gundam *cough*) have had practically hundreds. Like many licenses, the results among these kinds of games are decidedly mixed, though it is generally argued that their quality has increased substantially in the PS2 generation forward. From Dragon Ball Z Budokai 1 - 3 to Bleach DS, anime games are rising both in popularity and quality. The current 'darling' of this upward trend in anime licensed gaming happens to be Naruto. In the last generation, there were two stand-alone PS2 fighters in the Ultimate Ninja (Narutimate Hero in Japan) series, and two Gamecube fighters in the Clash of Ninja (Gekitou Ninja Taisen!!) series. Both sets of games managed reasonably high scores, and the latter is often played in tournament settings around the country.
Due to this surge in popularity and brisk sales of both titles, it's not surprising that a large international publisher smelled a ride on the money train and began developing an exclusive game for the Xbox 360 in the Naruto franchise. What was unusual about this game was its developer: Assassin's Creed studio Ubisoft Montreal. Upon hearing this, the fans were livid. How could a non-Japanese studio possibly due the game justice?! This was a legitimate concern, as Ubisoft is well known (along with EA and others) for doing quick license cash-ins. However, I'm happy to report that the game turned out much better than I (or a lot of other people) expected it to.
For those unfamiliar with the Naruto storyline or characters, it revolves around the coming-of-age of a young ninja who bears the burden of having a powerful demon creature (a Kyuubi - ninetailed demon fox) sealed inside of him...and that's pretty much all I need to say here, since the storyline depicted in the game will take you through the first 60 episodes of the anime. I will say that the storyline is generally more interesting than other shonen series such as Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Bleach, and I think if you have a tolerance for this kind of thing you'll find something to like here - but chances are you're already familiar enough with the storyline to be excited about this game... or, that you don't give a flying rat's arse about the franchise.
For the latter group, there is a fairly substantial fighting engine included in the game, along with several versus and online battle modes. The single player mode attempts to diversify and space out the combat by giving you an entire city to explore in-between missions. Within the city, you can earn money and level up your character by completing various quests for the villagers. The quests increase in difficulty as the game progresses, and completing them al Unfortunately, these quests tend to fall into 3 very repetitive patterns: (1.) the timed race, where you have to run through a set of gates before the time limit expires *these are a pain towards the end of the game* (2.) the fetch quest *a villager has left something valuable outside the village, go beat up some bandits and get it back*, or (3.) collectathon *grab enough coins/herbs/scrolls to satisfy the villager requesting them*. The game is kind enough to include a warping system to get you back to Konoha...err, 'the Village Hidden in the Leaves' (SCREW YOU, DUBBERS *ahem* -_-) after completing a quest, which is convenient and makes completing the quests more bearable. The quests reward you with a higher health or chakra limit, as well as money that you can use to purchase stat-boosting upgrades for your character or learn new moves. The more quests you complete, the more villagers will be happy with you. The happy the villagers are, the more achievements you unlock.
Actual missions that progress the storyline are generally made up of a sequence of battles that you have to complete without dying. If you do die, the game includes a 'memoclip' system that allows you to regain portions of your life back by recalling memories that occurred earlier in the game. If you run out of memoclips and die, it's game over. Die enough times, though, and the game will give you the option to refresh your memoclips, so you really can't get stuck. This was a good design decision, since the linear story missions don't always allow you the luxury of going back to town to re-stock supplies the way optional quests do. That's pretty much the single player mode in a nutshell.
As for the fighting portion of the game, it's a mixed bag, but is generally solid overall. The usual punch and kick buttons can be pressed in sequences to form combos, and you can teleport behind your opponent using the Block button if you have enough chakra remaining in your meter. This counter move becomes vital to escaping combos when fighting skilled opponents. The special moves (in this case, jutsus) require you to hold down a button and do hand-signs by pressing both analog sticks in specific directions. Once the jutsu is activated, a charge time is required as well (the more powerful the jutsu, the more charge time is required). In general, it will take at least 3-4 seconds to activate a jutsu. Those of you familiar with fighting games know that this is a LONG time to be unable to move or attack. Because of this, the engine allows for very few instances where a jutsu can be used effectively without being cancelled out. One more thing about the jutsus - assuming you actually get one to go off, you are then treated to a minigame. Timed button presses, tracking, memorization are all the norm here. Some people will like this, since it gives the player defending against the jutsu a chance to negate some (or all!) of the damage, but personally I like to be able to relish in the moment when I do a special move, not worry about a bunch of timed button presses just to make sure it hits. In general, the countering system rewards timing rather than mashing, so the game tends to play like a cross between Gekitou Ninja Taisen and Dead or Alive. It's fun, for what it is. The initial character roster is SORELY lacking, but the developer makes up for it with .... $6 DOWNLOADABLE CHARACTERS! YAY! -_-
The graphics in both modes are amazing, and the Naruto world is represented very well. The in-game character models, though rendered very well, lack expression. The mouths don't even move when the characters talk. This makes the whole package seem a bit rushed at times, since most of the cutscenes are ripped directly from the anime the developer probably decided that they didn't need to implement a lot of emotion for the polygonal models. In exploration mode, you can't really tell the difference, but in fight mode, it's a glaring flaw.
I for one, absolutely loathe a lot of the dubbing for Naruto. Some is tolerable, but in general I have a problem playing a game where "believe it!" is shouted every two seconds. Therefore, I give major props to Ubisoft for including the option to download the Japanese voices. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. You made the game a lot more tolerable for me.
Sadly, the single player story mode doesn't finish the story arc that it ends in, so yet again we're left feeling that the package had been rushed out. Whether Ubi has implemented the ability for additional story missions (Itachi, Kisame, Sannin saga, Naruto vs Sasuke saga *I can dream*) is unknown at this time, but judging how they showed the credits (no spoilers here), I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they do have that functionality built in. It's only a matter of time before we see it.
Overall, it's a great game. There's a lot to see and do, and fans of franchise will most likely not be disappointed.
Rating System: Who needs stars and numbers? I'm all about the otaku emoticons!
*-* = Amazing
^-^ = Good
-_- = Fair
T_T = Poor
Graphics: -_-
The character models themselves are detailed, environments are lush, city is well populated. Unfortunately, the actual number of models is small (about 10 different villagers), and main characters do not move their eyes or mouth when speaking in fight mode. This is a disgusting oversight, since the last-gen Naruto fighters don't have this problem.
Sound: *-*
Japanese voices. Japanese voices. JAPANESE VOICES!!! I can play a US-centric Naruto game without hearing "Believe it!" every 20 seconds. THANK YOU, Ubisoft. Other than that, the music is ripped right from the show, so you won't find many surprises, but those of you familiar with the show will find a lot to like.
No comments:
Post a Comment