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Overall Rating - Seriously Flawed ★★☆☆☆


First Impressions

As an anime, Naruto was incredibly popular, leading to several video game adaptations. I've played some of them, but never tried any games from this series before. At some point, I picked up a bundle of Naruto titles, and discovered that people weren't huge fans of NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM (NS). Having no prior experience, I was curious what went wrong with the original game.


Gameplay

The main game mode of NS revolves around beating missions, yet much of your time feels like it's spent elsewhere. After beating a mission, you're returned to the village, where different items can spawn, such as scrolls, ingredients, or new moves. You don't have to collect these items, but they unlock more content you'd likely want to obtain, such as character specific attacks. I'd say the biggest problem with this system is how it pads out playtime, as you run around the same area after each mission, obtaining resources. Honestly, if they just removed the scrolls, and only had an occasional item to track down in-between missions, I think it'd have greatly improved this cycle.
Despite being a fighting game, you'll be surprised how much of your time is spent doing other things. For instance, when the missions you're assigned are mini-games. Most of them involve reacting to incoming obstacles, as you run up a large tree, or jump through an obstructed path in the forest. I wouldn't complain about these diversions if each one didn't return me to the village, with more time spent gathering junk. Having played for a few hours, I've gotten more accustomed to the combat system, but it takes time to get your mind around this unique kind of battle. A decent amount pertains to playing keep away, harassing your opponent with items, and trying to get into favorable position to launch a combo or ninjitsu.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3263889715

Controls

Thinking about most fighting games, this interpretation feels odd by contrast, especially since NS doesn't do a better job of explaining this system to new players. Despite having training missions, which should have been a tutorial for how to do everything, there are mechanics I still don't understand. For instance, the timing needed to teleport out of an attack, consistent ways to trigger support combos, and so on. Even the achievement guide on Steam doesn't fully understand all of the mechanics.


Story

Covering a larger anime with several characters is difficult, but this game does a terrible job recounting the plot points from the series. It skips over important events from the beginning, such as the fight against Zabuza. Even when it does include a significant character or moment, it does so with a small chunk of text that doesn't cover what happened in any meaningful way, “Naruto blindly charges in to fight against Orochimaru, while Sasuke panics.” Yes, that's technically correct, but glosses over much of what's happening, and why any of it is significant. This is definitely one of the worst attempts I've seen to recap the events from an anime into a video game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3263889892

Visuals

Something really uncommon about this fighting game is the perspective. Every other 2.5 or 3D fighting game I've played has shown the action from the side, as both combatants face each other. Even when you can rotate around the screen, it still maintains the general appearance of one person being on the left, while the other is on the right. In NS, you see the action from one character's vantage point, like you're playing a 3rd person shooter. Both characters can roam around the arena freely, which can make for disorienting perspective. This takes some time to get used to, because you may or may not be the primary focus of the battle, which leads to an entirely different angle of what's happening on screen. For me, it was difficult having a clear sense of how far apart the characters were, and whether or not my melee attacks would hit.


Sound Design

I don't believe any of the songs that play in NS come directly from the anime, but utilized similar instrumentation for their composition. Having watched the series from when I was in high school, I'm biased towards those particular tracks from the anime, in a way people who originally played this game might feel. Despite not being fully immersed in this game's music, I can see the appeal, as they're long enough compositions to incorporate different feelings and moods while you listen. With the audio balancing, some sound effects are a bit soft, such as being hit by kunai. However, when hit by stronger attacks, the noises were given more impact. Also, Naruto doesn't say, “Believe it,” all the time, although there isn't very much voice acting to speak of.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3263889541

Pros

🌟 Many achievements only require you to complete 50% of a collection, instead of having to obtain everything. Considering how much of a grind it'd be, this is appreciated. Also, you can save just before buying items from the store, purchase enough items for the achievement, and exit out of the game without saving.
🌟 Ultimate jutsu are satisfying to watch, and deal a significant amount of damage. However, since each character in effect has three life bars, landing it once isn't an instant-win condition.
🌟 Having cleared the game to around 50% in 12 hours, going for everything available could take a around 20, so there's a decent amount of content available.


Cons

❌ As much as I enjoy talking with NPCs in games, it felt really lackluster here. Even important characters had little of worth to talk about.
❌ Specific requirements for winning a fight can be aggravating, "You didn't beat him with a throw, so you lose."
❌ Despite having tutorial missions, core mechanics are left unexplained, making for a confusing experience.


Tips

🔍 The best time to hit an enemy with your ultimate jutsu is when they're being hit by one of your support characters. They're stuck in place and can't block, making for a ripe target.
🔍 Once you clear a mission, you can replay it with optional conditions. Beating it again, and meeting those conditions, will net extra rewards.


Final Thoughts

To an extent, I enjoyed beating missions, searching the village for supplies, and engaging in the game's main cycle. However, I felt like I was being delayed from the main focus of this release, which were the battles. The developers put too much emphasis on grinding for other resources, and mechanics that had nothing to do with the core of this fighting game. It sort of fits the tone of the earlier anime, having some training mini-games, but it would have helped if you moved from one mission to the next quicker. I think this opening game shows potential for what this series could develop into, but it made too many missteps for me to recommend it. Ironically, after you finish all the story missions, you get a pretty solid reward, unlocking some OP characters to fight as. From the potential I saw here, I'm hopeful the sequel will tighten up the overall experience, and waste less time on things like catching dogs.


PC Specs
Performance


Ryzen 2700
RTX 2070
16GB RAM
ADATA SSD
1920x1080

The game ran without incident on default settings.
💖 - NS is healthy