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Naruto: Rise of the Ninja follows the story of the popular anime
series. The game's style is that of a 'beat 'em up' with RPG aspects,
for example, your character's stats do increase and they will learn new
moves and abilities as the game progresses.
Whilst I really liked
the style of this game, and the use of cell-shading I was disappointed
that the developers had not re-animated the cut scenes in the same
manner (unlike the new Dragonball Z game), instead they have simply
inserted actual slips from the anime into the video game. I actually
find this to be quite lazy, especially since the game can be completed
in about 10 hours. If they had added some nice CGI it would have made
it a little bit more enjoyable.
Despite the length of this game,
I really enjoyed playing through it. The graphics are impressive, the
story immersive and the voice acting exactly what you can expect from a
top class anime series. However, despite the impressive graphics, there
is one very obvious flaw, and that is the fact that the in game
characters never actually move their mouths to speak, the voice over's
simply sound, this is unlike the Dragonball game where they speak even
in battle.
I think that they have cut many corners in this game,
there are things that I personally would have included in the game in
order to improve the style and feel of it. I would have been much more
impressed if they had bothered to animate things other than a simple
walk, run and jump cycle. The fact that they simply didn't bother to
animate the mouths at all throughout the game, leads me to believe that
they simply wanted to release this game as soon as possible, with as
little work required.
Missions CONSTANTLY require you to travel
from A to B, and then back to A, and back to B about five times before
you can proceed with the games actual story. This becomes ridiculous
and irritating after the third time, and I couldn't help but think I
would have enjoyed the experience a bit more if they had bothered to
allow you to be transported to the correct location.. And before I get
the, "Maybe they couldn't" line, they could and this is proven since
after each mission, you can warp back to Leaf Village.
However,
despite the many gripes I have about this game, and its lazy
development, I am still highly pleased with the game and have enjoyed
playing through it, and even though the game was only 10 hours long, I
felt should it have continued, my patience would have been tried. I
have even decided to watch the complete Naruto series, something that
up until now I have failed to manage.
So, hopefully you will find
this review useful, and I hope it helps you make the correct choice in
your next video games purchase.
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