Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Review

 
Naruto Storm 4 is riveting at first glance, a beautiful game in its own right. With combat being extensive and fun while keeping a fresh and refined look, we can look toward a good time with the last installment of the series in our hands. We'll take a deeper look at this title as we are expecting nothing but the best.
 
Graphics:
Right off the bat I would like to discuss graphics in this game:
THEY ARE PHONOMENAL!
From facial expressions in action scenes to particle effects that have been pushed to extensive limits for a video game, we witness a wide array of beauty in what would be considered a game that generally doesn't need to focus on that. I have never seen so many different colors in one screen clip as I had recently while playing this game. Sasuke's susanoo' for example, featured a different array of purple that covered almost the entire spectrum. Every color is vibrant and dark in its own right, being eye candy for any Naruto fan or gamers in general. The only disappointment is sometimes a slightly low frame rate, however while in the midst of a battle, you'll hardly care. Furthermore, some of the still shots for explaining the story do become redundant, and a bit of a letdown - it can take away a bit from the eye candy you've been expecting, but nothing that is detrimental to the game itself.
 
Gameplay Modes:
This game has a story, free versus, a collection mode, among tournament and online features. It's nice to see online in this last installment. The versus mode is fun while being full of stages and variance character appearances, a roster beyond imagination with unlockable characters to boot. 
 
Story: 
This game kicks off with the Great Ninja War, til the end of the series. we'll avoid spoilers here and move forward, but this story mode covers just about every aspect of the War, although some fights are non-cannon which did rub me the wrong way, I understand it was for the sake of keeping gameplay moving at the same time. You'll find yourself well immersed while watching some of the still shots, then in game graphics, and sometimes you'll find yourself participating with quick time events, that are very interactive and exciting from your standard QTE, do not be discouraged as these QTE are essential to the component of keeping you involved, you won't regret it.

 
Battle:
Battling now features character tag-in and tag-out at any point. This is a great addition and can make any battle refreshing with new twist. You'll experience mostly like-controls from the other games, while using the standard jutsu and special jutsu finishers. The game could of expanded upon its jutsu data and allow the character to use more jutsu aside from the one designated. Directional pads are gone to waste as there was room for improvement, which said - it is not a huge flaw and more of just a mention. Items are still in game, as well as special battle items that can be found during the fight, the legendary items mentioned in the series will be some of these weapons. After battle, you will has a continuation with quick time events as mentioned earlier. These QTE go anywhere from direction pads, to R1 - R2, buttons, and rotation. It keeps things fresh and keeps you involved with the game through its entirety. 
 
Extensiveness: 
The game has many many many hours of gameplay, between free battle and story mode. Additionally the game has an adventure mode, featuring events after the main story. The game has a supply of hours, but like all fighters you may begin to feel burnt out.

The Ugly:

While playing, I noticed unreasonable drops in frame rate, which sometimes caused dramatic scenes to come to abrupt halts. This is easy to overlook if you are not nit-picking as some games will have dropping frame rates, however Naruto 4 should handle a bit better considering the anime relies on quick reflexes and large effects.

I may be the select few here, but I prefer the dubbed version at some points, the problem here is that it feels as if the developers gave up half way on the dubbed version as voice matching dropped infuriatingly. There were times where the mouths would not be moving yet they will still be talking, and vice versa. It was laughable at times, which is not a good thing.

Big boss battles will throw you into confusion as suddenly you feel like you are playing an arcade shooter as you enter these modes. It’ll catch you off guard and leave you wondering where the slick combat features went, ultimately leaving you with confusion.

You like Madara? Good. You’ll be fighting him over, and over, and over, again and again. This began to get repetitive and take away from the game's concept.

Canon characters began to disappear during critical moments, not following the story to a T – making me wonder exactly why they couldn’t implement some scenes that would have been easy to add. Gaara for example, made little to no appearance during story mode, as well as Tsunade and other Kage.

OVERALL:

Naruto Storm 4 is a beautiful game with a sweetened combat system. That doesn’t exclude the game from its shortcomings. Some points you will feel fully immersed in the game, followed by occasional let downs. The game tries to be unique in its own right – as it does deliver this, it also goes over the bar and can leave its fanbase with buyer’s remorse. Storm 4 will deliver what its fans want, but nothing too much further. That being said, this game is a nice refreshment toward the genre, as we finally close the story book and begin to wonder what will come next, Storm 4 will quench your thirst meanwhile.

Final Score: 7/10