Yup, I said it, I honestly believe
that Dragon Ball Z has been dethroned. Naruto is the action cartoon at the top
of the heap now and millions of fans couldn’t be happier. But being number one
comes with the realization that video games will be produced with this coveted
license. Now so far there has been a couple of less-than-thrilling titles and
a couple of games that were about average. I, myself, reviewed a GBA Naruto
game the other day that I thought was pretty decent. But for those of you that
own a PS2, the idea of playing and really enjoying a Naruto game has all but
been a wish. Well, I am happy to report that today’s review of Naruto Uzumaki
Chronicles does move the franchise in the right direction, but I’m afraid that
all is not perfect as the game does have a few missteps.
To sum it up, Naruto is an orphan
who dreams of becoming the world’s greatest Ninja, he has entered the ninja
academy and through a series of adventures has honed his physical prowess and
magical abilities to a fine edge. He hangs out with friends and faces down
bitter rivals, he fights for the underdog constantly and tries to pass the
challenges his teachers place in front of him. Yes, it’s a great cartoon and
the martial arts action never lets up. So Bandai/Namco tried something
different with Uzumaki Chronicles, instead of making it a straight up fighting
game with little extras, they developed the game almost like an RPG with
fighting elements instead. The game is a completely original plotline that
features a branching storyline and one frustrating save system.
"Here, hold this."
To start things off, you might
want to have a soda and some popcorn, because you watch a fairly lengthy
intro, but don’t fall asleep, because the game then takes you through a series
of objectives that outline the game’s advanced fighting engine. It’s
basically an in-game tutorial on how to kick some butt. From there you play
the game via a series of missions that are assigned to you by the character
Hokage. At first there isn’t much of a challenge and you will find yourself
playing bodyguard to some travelers, defeating bad guys in a set amount of
time or otherwise going out and finding specific items. As you succeed in
these missions things become a bit more challenging and RPG elements begin
rearing their heads as you begin getting more powerful chakra (magic attacks)
and begin bringing other characters with you to help out on specific missions.
The missions do become somewhat repetitive in terms of what you are
actually doing, you may have to protect someone in one mission and
locating a magical item the next, but there is fighting regardless of what you
are doing. I almost wished there was a greater variance in what the missions
entailed, where’s the stealth mission where you must infiltrate a tower
without being seen. Where’s the mission where you slip poison in an evil
warlord’s drink undetected – I mean he is a Ninja isn’t he?
Ok, that may be a bit dark for this title, but you get what I mean.
"Never trust a man in a back alley."
The controls are fairly intuitive
and after a while you will dole out some serious pain with relative ease. Bad
guys come at you practically everywhere you go when you are in a mission and
even as random encounters when you are roaming the map. Beating these poor
dregs will scatter gold on the ground which you can pick up and use to
purchase items when you return to civilization. The true tests though come
when you finally come face-to-face with a boss character. And this is where
the game’s biggest flaw comes up. You see you can only save at certain points
in the game, namely just prior to a long-winded animation sequence which
regrettably you cannot skip, so if you should die, you must re-watch the
entire sequence again and I don’t have to tell you how this can get really old
when you start failing missions and/or dying. In fact, failing missions is
completely possible and most unfortunate because you cannot go back and try
the mission over. Unless you hit reset and play the mission again, chances are
you won’t get an item that will be necessary (or make things easier) for you
in a later mission.
I also must tell you that I really
didn’t mind the graphical look of the game which is no longer animation
looking but I also didn’t care for them either. It’s a pretty revered anime we
are talking about and while I am no die-hard fan of the show, I think a
certain amount of liberty was taken with the in-game animation. The characters
don’t have the same visual pop and with the smooth shading they used on the
flesh tones, the characters just seem off. Like watching a live-action movie
of a popular cartoon, you become used to looking at these characters in a
certain way that by looking at them new, there is some concern. If it were a
completely original game then fine, the graphics do a fair job of doing what
they need to do to make the game look like an action-adventure title. I’m sure
for every fan of the show that hates how it looks there will be a fan that
didn’t mind.
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Gameplay: 6.8
You roam the map fighting, you
take different missions that include fighting, you spend an awful lot of time
fighting, yet it’s not all fighting. The save system is one of the poorest I
have ever dealt with. Forcing someone to watch the same anime sequence can be
torture.
Graphics: 6.1
I like the animation sequences,
but then the developers are risking making some fans unhappy with the
3D-polygon (albeit smooth) look the characters have, it’s risky, only time
will tell if the fans are disappointed.
Sound: 7.0
A musical score that seemed pulled
from the show and voice acting in the anime sequences that were spoken by the
shows actors. Again, another game that does not have Dolby Digital.
Difficulty: Medium
There are some missions in there
where things can get dicey, but it isn’t so hard that you will never beat it.
You may beat your machine out of frustration due to the poor save system, but
the game can be beaten in a weekend. There are 25 missions to complete.
Concept: 7.0
Here is pretty decent idea that works in some respects, a popular
license turned into a sort of pseudo RPG/action hybrid, the missions could
have been more varied in terms of actual accomplishments.
Overall: 6.7
Fans of the series need to be
prepared for what they are getting themselves into, I’m probably overdoing it
by talking about the graphics as much as I am, but hey, my nephew cocked his
head like a confused dog when he first saw them and he IS a rabid Naruto fan.
Good idea with the mission deployment but there are too many things that pop
up keeping this title from being really good; as it is, it is passable.
