I have to be honest, and say that Manga and Japanese Anime isn’t something I`ve ever really found myself getting into. I`ve known a few people who have loved that sort of thing and would often spend ages drawing Manga or indulging into Manga Comics. So when Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 came out, I found myself going into a territory I had never been before. The route of Manga, shoot em ups, and hoping I found myself getting into it. But, was I about to find a new love? Or would it be something I pushed further away?
Let`s get one thing straight. If you`re a fan of Manga and have played the series before, you`ll love this. It`s the 4th addition to the series by Cyber Connect 2 and published by Bandai, and really goes into the ethics and myths of the Naruto series. You have so much to do within the game, battling over 25-30 locations and using a variety of characters that you`ll lose track of, it`s actually quite spectacular the amount of things on offer to you within this game. Something that at the start, would make you seem as if it is well worth the money. There`s an element of a Beat Em Up style throughout the game, as you play as different characters and will need to use your special skills and moves to take down 3 bars worth of health in terms of opponent, who at times seem to be much overpowered.
However, when it comes to the Gameplay within the game, I don’t quite know how to feel about it.
You`ll find yourself playing mostly through the story mode and adventure modes, which focuses on the ending of the Fourth Great Ninja War hoping to battle through several characters and ethics to get to the final boss within the game, Madara Uchiha. Something that`s apparent throughout all of the Naruto games is the beat-em-up style that Cyber Connect 2 seems heavily reliant on in the series, as you face a variety of bosses, characters and different settings and scenarios, to get through the story and get to the end goal. Taking Uchiha down.
However, throughout the game, I found myself not really being challenged to the limits that some beat-em-up style of games do. If you die, you find yourself respawning at full health, while your opponent will stay at the level of health that you manage to crumble him down to the first time around. Now while that`s all in well and the sense of not having too long to take him out, I just find personally that realistically I like to be matched in terms of health and being equal. I find it more priding to have taken down an opponent from full health while also preserving my own. I don’t want to respawn and then be able to have a 1 hit kill to take the opponent out. That`s a personal thought of mine with any beat-em-up. Any time I fail a challenge or task to take something or someone out, I like to be able to go back to the drawing board so to speak, strategically approach the level and then take the pride at the end once I`ve fully and properly defeated them.
Another thing for me was also the lack of controls within the game to really make them challenging. A mash up of hitting the B button so much that you could probably bust it within an hour, and the odd occasional Y button hit to produce a special move. At times you can use your D pad to use different things, but overall, you could get away with just hitting the B and Y button and probably do that all the way through the game. Something that a youngster at the age of 7/8 could do. For me, of the older teenage generation, I like to be challenged a bit more. Something that takes me a while to get to grips with. With that being said, I think most beat-em-up games follow the same pattern and approach, I just wish that some would stand out and be different to the usual and traditional styled games.
As I said earlier in this review, if you are a fan of the Naruto series or Manga or Japanese fighting games, then you`ll love this. I think of beat-em-style games that are currently out on the market and think games such as Mortal Kombat X and think it offers something to the fans of the Manga series. I applaud the developers, Cyber Connect 2 for that, and think they`ll do very well in that market. But, I do also wonder what target audience it has been targeted for. Has it been targeted for the older generation? Certainly not. How about the mid-age generation? No. You`ll find the fans that are Manga enthusiasts at any age that will play it, but for me, it seems as it if has been targeted for the younger audience. I would expect this a game that parents will purchase for their kids, as nowadays, Manga tends to be popular with the younger age generation, so for me, I wonder whether Cyber had this in mind when making the game. To me, it would appear so.
Naruto Shippuden offers a lot in the way to keep you going throughout. It`s story mode and Adventure mode is something that you could lose an awful lot of hours too (and perhaps some controllers into too) but for me, I`d prefer something challenging over quantity of hours you`ll get out of it. Quality over quantity. I could see Manga fans spending days and hours on this, but for me, it`s something that I would ask a younger kid to play. I personally was hoping for something a bit more challenging, and for me, this hasn’t made me any more interested in Manga than I was before.
A huge thank you to XCN for supplying us with a Review copy.
