Fira Narutos 20-årsjubileum som animestjärna. Är denna den bästa möjliga Ultimate Ninja-upplevelsen?

It’s been quite a while since Ultimate Ninja has graced our consoles, does the price-tag and overall issues presented really create the Ultimate Ninja Experience?

With over 130 playable characters including that of characters from Naruto/Shippuden as well as Boruto CyberConnect2’s dedicated Ultimate Ninja storm line is a much more complete package when compared to previous Generations and Revolutions but still runs into several issues that could hopefully be resolved in future patches, but for now is the call of $20 DLC game from the fans really warranted? Read on below to discover the full Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections experience.

I’ll briefly start by covering the universal collection mode before covering the Game Modes along with some of my issues presented within this edition to the Ultimate Ninja series.

Collection

A staple of the Ultimate Ninja series. Collection is where all your gaming related rewards will be stored, be it scenes, ninja cards or even customizable items for all your Ninjas, the collection section is quite staggering with over 1000 items to unlocks and collect this will satisfy the needs of any rampant collector and with several new editions including outfits and lots of customization tools to make your ninjas as unique as possible.

The main issue I have with this collection section however is that upon logging in and collecting my first Ninja ID cards and items I discovered that the vast majority up to about 50% of the collection itself was already unlocked for the start, while this has been a trend in the previous games this feels more like completing a jigsaw that already been half done and didn’t really make me want to push to collect the S-rank rewards throughout the Game Modes detailed below.

Game Modes

No Ultimate Ninja storm game is complete without several game modes, true the formula of previous games in the series the classic Free Battle and Online modes have returned, the story has now been replaced a further comprehensive History mode and there is even a brand new story section dedicated completely to Boruto, however this new story section might not be what players were expecting from Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections as a whole and may leave many people wondering about the direction the series is going.

History Mode

History mode is where the bulk of the Naruto story is covered, this covers the most important fights and aspects detailed throughout Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, the history mode ends with the final fight between Naruto and Sasuke within the Anime/Manga and doesn’t go to far beyond that nor steps into the territory of Boruto.

If you’ve played a Ultimate Ninja storm game previously this history mode is a very heavily abridged version of the overall experience, complete with stills from the anime and admittedly very poor but full voice acting. You’re also free to cover the History mode in any way that you wish as the History mode has been broken down into several chapters consisting of between 4-11 events and chapters along with story stills to present the experience.

While the History mode does a good job at covering the Naruto experience it is noticeably much smaller overall compared to previous titles, the freedom to choose where to start based on chapters is great but this does mean that the game does come off as very repetitive, the fights presented have already been done before with very little variation and the removal of the field maps means you never actually get to run around the village or battlefields watching the world expand around the story. Some fans might find that better, but I will admit not being able to run around and do extra missions for NPCs does lessen the experience as a whole for me.

It was a wise choice to name this History mode as this is not even close to a full story experience only covering the most noticeable points.

Special Story

Here we come to the main experience of Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections and is clearly where all the focus and content went towards. While I have two really big issues with this mode, (one I’ll go much deeper into during the conclusion) compared to everything else on option this is easily the highlight of the Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections experience.Written by original Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto Special story covers a completely new story featuring Boruto as the lead character as he deals with a mysterious new character named Nanashi all through the lens of the new and popular online game “Ninja Heroes” through his interactions online Boruto will learn of a hidden plot and a mysterious organisation using the new online experience to take a hold of the Ninja World.

As mentioned this is the highlight of the Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections experience visually this mode looks stunning and a lot of care has been taken to craft a story that is relevant and makes sense in the context of the Boruto story, with the sharp increase in Ninja technology it’s very interesting to see just how experience technology can get and how it impacts the classic stances of chakra and ninjutsu as a whole.

While not as over the top and bombastic as previous stories within the Ultimate Ninja verse this is a welcome addition and it is nice to see Kishimoto back in form with this story, however. In my opinion while this story is great it does suffer from two glaring issues, the first I’ll mention briefly here and go more in depth in my conclusion is that this is not the Boruto experience that would be expected, this could have easily been the DLC seasonal content rather than the main story for Boruto. Second, while the DLC is longer than the History mode chapters it is extremely padded towards the end having Boruto retread an albeit shorter version of all the main History fights that are already presented within the game. If I wanted to do those fights again I would just replay them in History mode, it comes across as superficial fluff and while it does have relevance to the overall story there could have been a much better way on implementing the whole “See what your father experienced” trope that always happens in Boruto related content.

Free Battle

The general main attraction for players of the Ultimate Ninja series, play offline matches with friends side by side or against varying degrees of AI difficulties the standard of Ultimate Ninja matches can be broken down into several different times and compliments the overall size of the roster, if you’re looking to practice with some of the newer characters or your a fan returning to the series after a long break this is best place to experience the new simple control systems and such on offer.

The mode presented in Free battle consist of – VS, Survival, Tournament, League and Practice. As these are just industry standards at this point I don’t think they really require individual covering, the options within each mode are quite staggering and should suit any player’s needs whether they’re a first timer or a veteran of the series as a whole.

Online Mode

Take your favourite team online and compete with others from around the world, Online mode has been a classic in the Ultimate Ninja series for many years now, while at current the options are only limited to casual and ranked battles, here is hoping that additional modes are released in the future. From experiencing the online people will be happy to know that the netcode is incredibly smooth as I never had any issues with lag or input delay throughout my time testing the rather extensive roster combinations.

Conclusion

Generally, I like to cover some positive points before delving into the issues a game presents. However, I would be foolish not to cover several of the most pressing issues first, while I will say I did enjoy my time in Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections (try saying that three times fast) the problems became very apparent very quickly. First of all as mentioned the copy supplied was the Ultimate Edition so I immediately had access to all the DLC content drops including Maskless Kakashi, Naruto (Great War end) as well as the accessory packs which while extremely appreciated as a fan does not warrant the utterly ridiculous price-tag to purchase.

Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections Ultimate edition currently retails at 990.945 Swedish Krona, (conversion made from the PS-Store) which is an utterly stagger price for a game that ultimately amounts to little more than DLC content in my eyes. I will cover why I feel like this should have been DLC content shortly but not before really sinking my teeth further into the ludicrous pricing scheme for this game.

You would assume it being an “Ultimate Edition” that you would have access to all the content upon release, yes? Given the price tag I certainly would expect so, but wait… There’s more and not in a good way. If you’re the Ultimate Naruto fan you also have the option of paying a bit more for the Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections Sound Ultimate Bundle, what’s different about this edition you say? It’s literally just adding 5 additional songs from Naruto/Naruto Shippuden to the battle background music, while these 5 songs are absolute bangers for fans of the series, these are not even the full versions but the TV-Sized versions and what’s more the price tag on this just to access sounds and content that should have already been in the game is 208.538 Swedish Krona which is a complete slap in the face, so for anyone interested in owning the true “complete” edition of Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections you’ll be shelling out just over 1199.483 Swedish Krona to buy something that’s at best a now complete edition of the entire Naruto X Boruto series (which it’s not) or a very overpriced greedy cash grab of a DLC (which is most certainly is).

Adding onto the ridiculous price tag is the extremely poor voice acting quality on display, while it is claimed to be an error during the mixing and mastering the quality appears to be that of AI generated. Some phrases sound utterly terrible and don’t match the actions of the characters in anyway at all, which is incredibly strange since the majority of the game is going over the events of previous Ultimate Ninja storm games word for word, beat for beat so while the attempt at an update to the voices is appreciated, they could have easily just done just as well with the original content. Which brings me to the massive caveat of stating that this could have literally been DLC. While the changes to combat in terms of substitutions was long overdue combat in Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections feels no different from any other game in the series, it repeats the same story treads, same fights just adding additional characters from Boruto onto the roster and even then… It’s STILL missing characters.

You could argue that what else can they do since Naruto has been completed for a while, my response to this would be, how about actually fully adapting Boruto? You literally have the almost complete Kara faction that was introduced but you do nothing with the Boruto story itself and while the new story mode is very high quality compared to other content provided there is still no excuse to not have Boruto’s story at least covered within this game.

Characters such as (Baryon Mode Hokage Naruto along with Karma Jigen) are included. There is no included story to reflect them in any way shape or form which makes the assumption that anyone playing the game is up to date story wise which is not always the case. Perhaps they’ll appear in the future season passes but it seems extremely ill advised to not at least include the story of Boruto up to Baryon Mode as base.

Mis-steps and ill-advised choices such as this has led to a lot of people including myself included stating that this is a $20 DLC pack that could have been included with the previous title and not a brand new game in the series. I personally would have accepted this and was expecting a lot more given the ridiculous price-tag. Yes things were updated graphically, yes improvements have been made, yes the roster has been expanded once again but this is not worth the overall price and it would be wise to wait for a sale to come in.

Negativity aside, for players that haven’t been keeping up with the Ultimate Ninja Storm series this is an excellent point to get back into it, the graphical updates along with the easier control scheme while making matches far quicker than before shows that improvements have been made overall the the formula when it comes to actual gameplay.

Characters and outfits from previous titles are also included so it’s very easy to pick up and play overall your favourite characters no matter there place in the timeline, I’m thankful they have retained some of the filler characters as well as the non-cannon sections (Mecha-Naruto for instance still plays absolutely great) the roster is the strongest point, the new included story for Boruto as mentioned in this review above has a good story that makes sense overall and is a welcome addition to the overall experience, while I would want Boruto to be fully covered having something completely new to play is a welcome change, I just hope it could have been an additional DLC content portion in the season pass rather than an outright replacement for Boruto’s story.

Hopefully the voice issue can be fixed with a patch, Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections should be used as a learning tool when creating the new game in the series, I would think that due to the apparent backlash CyberConnect 2 and Bandai Namco will sit down and really think about what the community and fans want included rather than rushing to push a new game in the series as a cash-grab.

Skriven av: Steve Gilman