‘Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4’ ends the tale in style

All good things must come to an end, even something as seemingly endless as “Naruto.” And when your series stars manga and anime’s most recognizable postpubescent ninjas, you can be sure it’ll go out with a bang.

“Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4” chronicles the final arcs of the epic in a style that’ll please all fans of the franchise. This fighting game strikes all the right notes: the battles are furious, punctuated by flashy reversals and over-the-top jutsu techniques; characters extol the virtues of friendship like it has the power to end world hunger; and flashbacks dig deep into the villains’ personal histories, so that even a mass-murdering psychopath can say, “hey, I was a decent human being too, once, until someone screwed up!”

But what does “Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4” offer the rest of us? Are spectacular visuals and a simplistic combat system a good enough combination to entertain? Will the struggles of Naruto and company push all the right emotional buttons, or will they all be dismissed as excessive teenage melodrama?
 

The Ninja Way

Like all fighting games, the core gameplay of “Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4” involves a duel that ends when one combatant’s face is kissing the floor. Its biggest departure from the genre, however, is that it only has one main attack button.

Yes, that one button is hugely responsible for the punches, kicks, and combo strings you’ll be unleashing on your opponents. This makes the title feel more like a fighting game/brawler hybrid than anything. But while it may lack the complexity of “Tekken 7” and “Street Fighter V,” its combat system provides enough tools to ensure a varied and often exhilarating experience.

One of those tools is the magic ninja fuel, chakra, whose supply you can manage by pressing another button. Once chakra has been charged past a certain point on its meter, it can be consumed to perform a character’s most devastating moves.

Of course, your enemy can charge their chakra, too. Thankfully, throwing a projectile weapon, such as a kunai, will interrupt the process. And what’s a game concerning ninjas without the ability to dash in every direction at the speed of a lightning bolt? Charge in when you see an opening in the enemy’s defense, and introduce their chin to your knuckles.
 

Despite the absence of three separate buttons for varying strengths of punches a la “Street Fighter,” it’s surprising how much you can do in “Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4.” With just a few input combinations you can perform a multitude of techniques, including combo escapes called substitutions, and jaw-dropping transformations into beast modes. Combat is blindingly fast; it’ll have you juggling between resource management and non-stop aggression. You’ll rarely find a second of rest in any match.

While combat is primarily a one-on-one affair, you bring up to three fighters to every match. The tag mechanic allows you to switch between them instantaneously, and you can also summon a support fighter to combine their attack with the leader’s. The game has a whopping 60+ characters, so there are plenty of team combinations to experiment with. Despite the uniformity of their control schemes, the warriors aren’t mere reskins of each other; everyone handles differently, so the same tricks you use with Sasuke won’t work with Rock Lee.

It certainly helps that the game is pretty. Thanks to the fluid animations and gorgeous cel-shading, the game looks best when you’re in the thick of the action. As the highlights of the eye candy smorgasbord, the outrageous ultimate moves throw everything from fist whirlwinds to face-bleaching explosions at you. Because they’re so much fun to watch, and provide the oomph that every ninja battle needs, landing them gives you not only a sense of accomplishment, but the feeling that you’ve just taken part in a critical event in the “Naruto” timeline.
 

World War Ninja

“Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4” is rich in modes.

Story mode details the exploits of the Allied Shinobi Forces in the Fourth Great Ninja War, and sees the series’ greatest heroes reuniting to defeat a great evil threatening the ninja world. Sadly, the story’s presentation is rather lackluster. Instead of featuring fully animated scenes from the anime, the game makes do with montages of stills.

To its credit, the game makes an effort to ease non-fans into the series’ lore by way of a playable introductory sequence. As for the main narrative, filler content is discarded for a sharper focus on major events and characters. To some extent, it works, as there are some genuinely gripping moments. You’ll still be hard-pressed to feel an iota of compassion for the scores of strange faces you’ll encounter throughout the tale, though. The cheesy dialogue, and the overbearing sentimentality of the central themes – such as the power of friendship to save the day – will have your eyes rolling so far back in their sockets you’ll find yourself staring at your own brain. Also, there’s uber-villain Madara Uchiha, whose ten thousand different forms make Frieza look like a cheap parlor trick. That he just won’t die, even after detonating the equivalent of five nuclear bombs in his face, can get exhausting – not to mention it makes for some really weird pacing.

Of course, for the franchise devotee, the peculiar “Naruto” storytelling style should already be expected. Hey, if you’ve come this far, it only means you like this stuff, so you’ll definitely enjoy yourself.

Between cutscenes, you’ll trade blows with a variety of tough enemies such as the aforementioned Madara. Other battles are far more bizarre. As if worried that we’re forgetting “Naruto” is made in Japan, Story mode also drops you into earth-shaking kaiju clashes sure to make Godzilla proud.
 

The next major mode is the RPG-like Adventure. Set after the events of Story, it concerns Sakura’s attempts to get Naruto and Hinata to give in to their raging teenage hormones and finally hook up. In truth, it’s a flimsy excuse to have you explore several key locations in the ninja world, and revisit the series’ most memorable fights. Again, the fan’s emotional investment in these familiar elements should give the whole thing more meaning. However, despite a number of great brawls, its fetch quest-heavy nature might prove tiresome to everyone else.

The other modes include your requisite online, local versus, practice, and training modes. There are even features that allow you to view the hundreds of items you’ve collected in Adventure, and to customize your online profile for use in your dealings with other players.


Dattebayo!

With a solid combat system and stunning spectacles rivaling the show’s most explosive moments, “Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4” is an exciting, stylish fighter. It boasts an impressive ninja roster, numerous modes packed with content, and loads of items to unlock. Its story may bewilder the ordinary gamer, while the histrionics of its various characters will definitely raise eyebrows. But for longtime fans, it provides a breathtaking climax to the anime and manga phenomenon that is “Naruto.” — TJD, GMA News


Rating – 7.5/10, or 8.5/10 if you’re a “Naruto” fan
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One