This game is better than most people think. It is a shame console wars get in the way of being open minded.
Story:
The game starts off where the last title ended, which was the battle between Squad 7(Naruto's Squad) and Gaara. Naruto continues his quest to become the hokage. Sasuke slowly gets frustrated, because he feels he isn't gaining power fast enough. I will stop there to prevent spoilers.
Graphics:
Graphically, the game is great in my opinion. The environments are colorful, vibrant, and clean. The Hidden Leaf Village design in this game is the best recreation I have ever seen. I will talk more about it in the gameplay section. I know the look of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm kinda makes some people think that the graphics of Naruto the Broken Bond looks mediocre, but they are failing to see the big picture. The look of the environment sets the tune for the game. As soon as the game begins you will learn what I mean. The character models looks fine.
Gameplay:
Story Gameplay:
The story mode has alot going on. You will spend your time doing missions in and outside of the Hidden Leaf Village.
The Hidden Leaf Village is a huge focal point of this game. The place is massive. I found myself spending 30 minutes running around and exploring the village. It is just amazing. You will spend time in other places too, but the Hidden Leaf Village is the main attraction. As Naruto becomes stronger you will be able to reach areas in the Hidden Leaf Village you couldn't reach in the beginning. You will also do alot of tree action sequences, which involves moving through forests at high speeds to get from one area to the other. You will be doing alot of tree action sequences; therefore it may get repetitive. However, the tree action sequences are fun to do. I love those tree action sequences.
The game has a bit of rpg in it. You can buy items, upgrade items, and level up characters through training. Naruto gets stronger as you complete missions and training, since you will spend most of the time playing the story as him. In this game you usually go on missions as a three man squad, just like the anime. There are also some fun side missions, however some missions can get repetitive. To progress through the story pre-assigned teams will use their abilities to help each other get around obstacles and fight enemies. The only interesting fights are the fights involving the real characters in the story. All of the other fights are dull, since it is just random bandits and ninja who epicly lack powers. There are also some decent boss fights with quick time events. The quick time events are not as flashy as Ultimate Ninja Storm, however they are impressive and enjoyable to play.
The game has alot of voice acting and actual music scores from the anime. And it is great to see that Ubisoft didn't grab a random person off the street to do Jiraya's English voice. On the first title, Ubisoft didn't get the original English voice actor for Jiraya, so Jiraya's annoying voice forces you to stick with Japanese voice acting. You can also choose between English and Japanese voice acting. The biggest problem with the story is the facial expressions. The facial expressions never really captured those key emotional moments of the story.
Fighting Gameplay:
Very simple and easy for casual players to pick up on. You have horizontal and vertical attack combos. You can grab, air grab,
use substitution counters (ground and air), kunai dash stab (ground and air). and use jutsus.
Combos work a bit different in this game. Some combos are normal combos and others will move your character to the other side and attack from behind. You also have to be careful, because some combos have an unblockable attack as the last hit. The only way to protect yourself from unblockables is to side step or use a move that sneaks behind your opponent. Unblockables are in the game, because you can either do pop up air combos or knock someone across the arena. Knocking opponents away from you is important if you want to pull off jutsu.
In tag matches you can use a coop attack when you hit your opponent with an unblockable attack by switching partners right after the hit.
Jutsu casting is awesome in this game, because you have to do more than just single button mashing. You have to hold down the jutsu button and create hand signs. You create hand signs by pressing a two directional button combination, hold the last directional combination, and let go at the right time to use it. If you fail, then you will be open for an attack. You can hold it longer to increase the power and longevity of the jutsu. Some jutsus increase stats, while others are interactive, offensive jutsus. Interactive jutsus come in a variety of mini games depending on the character used. If the attacker wins, then the attacker can get max or partial damage. If the defender wins, then the defender can escape unscaved or suffer less damage. It is pretty cool, however there are some problems. Almost every character only has two jutsus. One character has one jutsu. Another character doesn't have one unique jutsu. And some jutsus are just plain cheap. For example, there are two jutsus that can scramble your controls. And there should be more jutsus for every character, because they have quite an arsenal in the anime and manga.
One more thing! There is a rage mode, which can quickly turn the tables on your opponent. Rage mode is very, very dangerous, because the attacker will be temporarily invisible, really fast, and possess the power to destroy you in seconds. I never forgot how I lost in three seconds with near one hundred percent life, because someone hit me a few times in rage mode. When someone uses rage mode it is wise to focus on defense, find opportunity grabs, or throw kunai until the effect wears off. The best option is to cancel it by using a jutsu, but only do it if you can.
Online:
Yes!! This game has an online mode. There is a tournament mode(rank mode), player matches, and 2 on 2 tag matches. The online mode plays pretty decent. I really haven't had any lag issues.
Final Thoughts:
The story mode is the best naruto story mode of all despite its shortcomings. The game has online play, which works quite well. The jutsu hand sign system was ingenious. And interaction with jutsus is a step in the right direction.
However, there are noticeable problems. The voices seems a little awkward for some characters during fight mode. Ubisoft got lazy or careless, because some of the rage mode cutscenes don't match some of the new character designs. Some things can get repetitive in story mode. And facial expressions are not good.
I give this game the an 8.0 out of 10.
I would have gave this game a better rating if Ubisoft would have avoided showing signs of being lazy, such as the rage mode cutscene problem I have mentioned. And Ubisoft should have made new combos, more accurate jutsus, and new versions of old jutus instead of using the same jutsus from the last game.
Nice job Ubisoft. If you make another Naruto game I will be looking forward to it.