Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3

With more character introductions than Game of Thrones, you will have a hard time following the story in 'Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst'. Furthermore, it throws technical terms around constantly, without actually explaining them. You'll need to know what the significance of Raikage, Tsuchikage, Mizukage, Kazekage, and Hokage are, as well as Justsu/Gen Jutsu, Chakra, Rinnegan and more. Characters will come and go for long periods of time, there are flashbacks, betrayals and other madness which is hard to keep track of. From start to finish, I had barely any understanding of the plot. It was also difficult predicting what would happen given that the ninjas seem to be able to teleport around and pull off crazy manoeuvres when the situation calls for it. “Oh no, there's a ridiculously massive meteor heading towards us, time for Super Ultra Lightweight Boulder Jutsu”. You may think I made that up, but that is the move he uses to stop the meteor.

The lack of understanding I had for the characters and lore is a huge problem for the game, given that the majority of time is spent watching cut-scenes. You are waiting around a long time before given control for the actual gameplay.

Part of the game, you are going down fairly linear corridors, talking to the occasional person and picking up items. This is basically the dullest aspect of an RPG game. The other part of the game is the fighting which is fairly basic and is also confusing.

A big problem with the fighting is that the game just assumes you know how to play. I found the controls in the menu, but I only gathered you had some kind of power called Chakra (Y button), you have throwing shurikens (X button), and can attack (B button). Right trigger performs a block, and the Left trigger dodges but it expends the yellow gauge. The enemies often move in a pattern, so it's often the case of running around for a bit and hammering B at the correct time. If they get a hit on you, you basically have no choice but to use the dodge to get out of it, but sometimes they can turn around and keep attacking you; meaning you have to dodge again. With all the dodging and chaos on screen, it's sometimes difficult to keep track on your character, especially when your opponent could be wearing a similar outfit. The constantly changing camera angle can also be problematic when it pans behind your opponent, blocking your view of your own character. At certain points, you can trigger special moves which use quick-time-events so require you to press the prompted button.

Although Naruto is the main character, you will be constantly switching characters. There are some sections where you will be involved in many fights in a row, so you have to heal your character between fights. Therefore, you need to make sure you have a supply of healing items. If you fail a fight, you do have an option to heal to full health but will take a cash penalty, and failing a fight a few times gives you the option of lowering the difficulty level.

The visuals are really nice and do a brilliant job of the anime aesthetic. I found the voice acting a bit hit and miss; Naruto's voice been particularly jarring. You do have the option to use the original Japanese voices instead of the English speaking ones though.

The game lasts around 12 hours, and by the end of it, I hadn't gained much understanding of the plot or the combat system. If you can get through an entire game and not understand the game mechanics, then you know there's something wrong. I would say this game is only for the fans of the show, otherwise you will have no idea what is going on, and won't enjoy the simplistic gameplay. I did watch a Naruto summary video, and the majority of this storyline seems to be already covered by the anime series, so I'm not even sure what the point of this game actually is.