So I´ve finally played through the main story and played pretty much every mode within the actual game, after much thought and playtime I feel I can safely say Ninja Storm 4 is the best of the series by far, improving many elements of the game even if there are some baffling choices that either don´t stick or hurt the game´s overall quality.
The story mode starts off pretty much where Storm 3 left off, except that I can´t help but feel that I missed something... like there is a part of the story that is just gone, I don´t know if it´s just me or maybe a section of Revolution or Generations that i missed by not playing them but it really hurt my immersion. The timeline of the story (or storyboard has they call it in the game) has a neat idea but it doesn´t go far enough with the concept, perhaps is due the fact that CyberConnect2 is sticking very closely to the manga but I don´t see why there can´t be more branching paths in the timeline.
The story itself is ok... it does go all the way to the end of the Naruto saga witch is the one thing CyberConnect2 has mentioned since the announcement and it does, however there is something about the way the story is told that just rubs me the wrong way and this has to do with my overall thoughts on the Naruto series in general; just to be quick... it seems to me like the story is making stuff up has it goes along, thus feeling long for unnecessary reasons but I then remember that Naruto´s main story is in the manga so the feeling of passage of time is much less easy to detect than in an anime aside from the fact that in mangas and comics the reader can take the story at their own rhythm. So because Ninja Storm 4 is mainly a video game the passing of the story is up to the creators and I don´t know who to blame for the way this story is presented: I could blame the team at CyberConnect2 for not telling the story well but I could also blame Masashi Kishimoto himself, for making this story feel more drowned out than necessary with elements clearly boing made up has it goes along or I could also blame myself for not reading the manga or watching the anime since I am sure many things about the story are cleared up there but the point of an adaptation is to have it stand out on it´s own with no need of external material...
Just like in previous Ninja Storm entries there are times where the player must partake in quick time events during fighting cutscenes, now unlike some people I don´t hate QTE´s, I feel like the developers can make them very interesting and relevant for the game experience if done right (example: the confrontation between Leon and Krauser in RE4, the QTE helps the player get into Leon´s place has he tries to keep up in a knife fight), Ninja Storm 4 allies it in a similar manner than the previous ones, it´s not necessary to succeed on every single one of them but I can´t say the general audience will like this element, all I can say about this QTE sequences is that is completely up to the player if they like them or not.
Ninja Storm 4 is mainly a fighting/brawler type of game in a 3D arena, the core game is still the same has in previous entries but this time it feels much more fluid because many of the same moves players could perform previously are not only slightly more easy but also allow much more mobility while in combat: basically substitutions are very easy to perform and is instant in contrast to how it was back in Storm 2, the chakra meter also depletes much faster specially if you are using a ninjutsu and even they added a counter-attack mechanic that is perfect to use after a substitution to incapacitate the opponent. The previous storm games also featured a vast cast of characters from the Naruto franchise and even though I haven´t played all of them I can tell there is a huge amount of characters in this roster (definitely more than in Storm 2 and 3 at least), although all of the characters have the same control scheme to perform combos and jutsus, pretty much every character has their own layout of play styles but there are still some imbalances between the characters like some ninjutsus are less effective than other´s witch hurts the balance of combat: this could have been easily solved by having every ninjutsu in the game deal the same amount of damage... I can understand if it´s a combo-like jutsu that gets interrupted but it´s not quite like that.
One thing that CyberConnect2 has always done very well is the cutscenes mostly the ones where there is heavy action and sometimes even some emotional scenes are very well animated: the character´s faces, movement and overall body language is very well done (from what I could gather all this animations are completely done by hand), has an animator I have to say is very impressive how stylish and detailed this cutscenes are, the team deserves to be commended by this.
The game also features plenty of modes for offline play:
-Normal VS matches against the AI or another player locally
-Survival mode were you battle endless opponents until you are defeated
-League that is basically a mini tournament with qualification style score
-Tournament mode with regular elimination brakets
-The adventure mode where you play has Naruto exploring the world and visiting different locations, doing side quests, etc...
What i can say about adventure mode is that is very lack lacklustre, there sure is a charm about just wandering around Konoha village with nothing bad happening but with only a few collectable items, side quest that usually revolve around helping a little kid find their missing cat and a few other light RPG style elements there isn´t really that much to keep you coming back after you are done with it.
You also collect in-game-money after every battle you win and depending on your rating at the end of the match you can multiply the overall revenue has well has collecting certain materials used to purchased special items in the store, it´s a good choice to have this material type of currency since money is easy to come by in the game, however a better way to balance this is by increasing the price of those special items since this could insight for more playthroughs to earn the amount desired for the player to obtain these collectables.
The online mode is what it is basically: like in any fighting game you have regular online matches against other people, ranked matches, etc... however the connection online is awful, even when both players have good connection it´s still jacked, there due are bonus for logging in daily for materials and certain online events where you battle rounds of AI opponents under certain conditions, it´s fun but just not enough to keep my interest.
Acording to CyberConnect2 this entry is the last in the series... and I hope so because in my opinion Naruto should have ended a good while ago, with the story in this entry reaching to the very end on the Shippuden timeline maybe it is a good place to stop altogether at least for a while. Overall: I do am glad I bought this game, it has its flaws and it could have been better but it really feels like a vast improvement over what I played from the previous entries... I cannot recommend this game to regular casuals unless you are a die hard naruto fan or if you are like me and enjoy the naruto franchise has a regular anime viewer.
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The next game I plan to review is Star Wars Battlefront... I have been able to get it borrowed from a friend and I intent to dissect this game has best I can, I know it is kinda late to review this game but I don´t look to analyse video games by how new of old they are.
I´ve also starter a Tumblr page here and of course I due plan to keep it updated, since I haven´t posted anything related to my current project this tumblr site will be addicted fully to that.
Thank you again for checking in and stay tuned for more
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