Naruto has been and continues to be one of the most popular anime franchises of all time around the world, leading to numerous video games over the years. The most prevalent of these has been the Ultimate Ninja series, developed by CyberConnect2 since the PS2 era. After starting as a 2D fighter, the series transitioned into 3D with the Ultimate Ninja Storm moniker that has returned once again with the first new all-new entry in the series in nearly seven years with Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections.

Be a Ninja

CyberConnect2 has certainly had a system that has worked over the years across its numerous games, which has always done a good job of replicating the different fighting styles of the various characters. However, the problem in Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is that the gameplay feels like it has not evolved at all gameplay-wise in the years since the last entry, and it feels almost dated by this point. There is a good argument at times, for if something isn’t broken, do not fix it, but there is no reason that the gameplay could not have been improved upon here in some fashion.

As in the past, you play as one character that has up to two assist characters depending on the game mode and situation that you can switch with during the battle. Each character has their own distinct combos, Ninjutsu attacks, and Secret Technique, though the latter two are always executed in the same way. There are also special Linked Secret Techniques that you can activate if you have the right team members and a full Storm Gauge. Awakening can be activated if your health is low enough and you hold down your chakra charge for long enough, which can turn the tide of a battle quickly. You can also summon your team members by pressing L1 and R1 to give some support while also being able to switch to one of them instead even mid-combo, which works out pretty nicely for dealing lots of damage to the enemy. Substitution Jutsu is back once again and help you escape dangerous situations, but you also have to make sure not to overuse them, or you will be caught without one and dealt major damage.

One of my biggest complaints I’ve long had for this series is that even with techniques like Ninja Dash, it feels like the two fighters are continually too far apart from one another. The enemy likes to play keep away a lot of the time, which makes a lot of the battle frustrating as you are just trying to close the gap enough to be able to attack. This makes some fights feel more like a game of cat and mouse than anything else when trying to chase them around, which gets tiresome after a while.

Outside of a few issues, the gameplay itself in Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is solid. There are rarely any performance issues, with the fast and fluid fighting very much exemplifying what is seen in the anime. The problem is that the developer had many years to find a way to push the gameplay forward and instead just gave players more of what they came to expect from the series in the past with the combat.

The Ultimate Ninja Storm series has covered the entire series of Naruto and Naruto Shippuden multiple times by now, as well as covering the Boruto movie that preceded the anime through a DLC expansion. For a long-running anime especially, it can be difficult to figure out whether to cover an existing story or go with something new entirely. This series has particularly stuck very closely with the existing stories over the years, but Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections manages to mix both together across a couple of different game modes.

History mode is a new story mode within Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections that serves as a trip back through the series after something happens to time and an erasure of past events begins to happen. To restore history and reclaim those memories, you have to replay these important moments from across Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Boruto is not included here, as the events of this mode seem to take place at the conclusion of Shippuden when Naruto and Sasuke have their final fight.

Rather than forcing you to play through all of these chapters in order, you are welcome to choose from one of the eight playable chapters right from the start. This means you can start at the beginning or jump right ahead to an arc like the Fourth Great Ninja War arc. To fully restore a chapter, you must complete each of the Main Episodes and Sub-Episodes that are included, with there being varying numbers of them in each chapter.

These main episodes include Episode Scenes and Episode Battles that are mixed depending on the flow of the arc. The Episode Scenes are, unfortunately, not full cutscenes but rather sequences of screenshots or recreated images from the anime with text and voice acting to explain the story. The Sub-Episodes, on the other hand are just these same sequences without voice acting in them that bridge more gaps in the story. Running through the story of the entire series like this felt like a compilation of previous games’ story modes together, but this time, it was done in budget form with the lack of actual cutscenes and how much of the story ends up being glossed over.

The Episode Battles themselves each have a win condition and occasionally restrictions, as well as bonus objectives that you can complete to unlock items in the game, such as clothing, accessories, title cards, and more. The bonus objective is quite often to finish the fight with a Secret Technique, just like in the original, which unlocks a small extra voice clip and images showing it. If you are defeated in battle, you can either resume with full health where you were defeated with the cost of not being able to unlock the S-rank in that attempt or retry from the beginning instead.

Each chapter also has a boss battle at the end, which varies depending on the situation. These range from fighting Gaara’s Shukaku form to the climatic final battle between Naruto and Sasuke. Some of these are multiple parts as well, with QTE segments mixed in, like in past games. These can be pretty fun at first, but some of them definitely run a little longer than they should.

The game tries to have a little bit of an interactive element by allowing players to rate each main episode with a reaction, and the most used reactions will be shown in the menu about the episode. At the end of each chapter, there is also a question that gets asked of you that doesn’t affect anything in-game other than being able to see how others responded afterward and getting in-game currency for doing so.

While History mode felt a bit limited with its lack of true cutscenes and such, this is where Special Story mode comes into play. This mode features fully voice-acted cutscenes that accompany an all-new original story written just for this game starring Boruto in the timeline of that series. Similar to History Mode, Special Story is split into multiple chapters that you have to play through, with a mix of story sections and gameplay sections. This mode still isn’t all that long, but it is well worth playing and makes you wish there was more of it. The only real difference between Special Story and History Mode is that it feels more fleshed out as a whole with the cutscenes and the fact that it’s a new story for fans to enjoy for the first time, so there is at least some synergy in the style of the two modes.

Both story-based modes feature numerous language options, with the English dub being the default option. The problem that comes up here though is that the lip sync with the dub is very off at times in the animated battle scenes, which is frustrating since the dub is the default option here. This is because the game was designed with the Japanese version in mind in the first place, but it’s too bad they couldn’t rework it for the dub as well. In addition, the actual dub itself feels off at times with the line delivery to the point where it seems there was some weird editing going on there.

Besides History and Special Story modes, the rest of the game modes are essentially just versus battles, whether you want to do it locally or online. You have plenty of options at your disposal, though, including tournaments, league battles, or just traditional vs. battles. Both of these also allow for character customization with the many items you will collect throughout your overall Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections playthrough.

There are a lot of different items to collect in Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections, whether they are earned as rewards, bought with the in-game currency Ryo, or gotten through exchange tickets you’ve collected. Collectibles in the game include costume colors, accessories, substitution items, finish scenes, profile cards, titles, and even more. The game even tries to push the online aspect more than in the past while also trying to keep players coming back consistently by offering login bonuses daily for the first 80 days you play the game. These bonuses help to add to your customization collection over time, which is helpful if you keep coming back for more.

One feature I thought was cool to include was the Naruto X Boruto Encyclopedia, which can be accessed from the game’s main menu. This provides you with a lengthy list of characters found in the Naruto franchise, which can serve as a refresher or even a learning tool for those who may have picked the game up for some good fighting action without a history with the series and its numerous characters. As you play through the game, you will also unlock more of these entries, so it will eventually be an all-encompassing guide once you have played through everything in the game.

Verdict

The Naruto franchise has changed a lot since the previous entry in the Ultimate Ninja Storm series, as Boruto is fast approaching its 300-episode mark. Even so, CyberConnect2 still decided to put a lot of the focus here on the original two Naruto series in what felt like a speed run of the prior Ultimate Ninja Storm series, with the new Boruto Special Story just tacked on to give players something new. While the gameplay hasn’t changed much, it still feels very Naruto-like and works well for what the game is trying to do. Hopefully, this was created to serve as the last hoorah for the classic style, and we’ll see the series evolve from here with the growth of the Boruto series. Even so, fans of the franchise likely will find some fun here, and it can even serve as an appetizer for someone looking to experience the franchise for the first time as well.

Score: 7/10

Pros:

• Fluid combat
• Large character roster
• Boruto Special Story mode is quite enjoyable with an original story

Cons:

• Combat is largely the same as the previous entry
• History mode’s lack of cutscenes
• Boss battles tend to last too long

Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.