Naruto Shippuden Is Simply Amazing
As any Naruto fan knows, almost 3 years have passed since Sasuke betrayed Konohagakure. Naruto's now much cooler, all around. The main thing that impresses me about Naruto is how much more incredibly mature he's gotten. Still as strong willed as ever, the story begins with an awesome original story about Naruto rescuing a girl from being a self-sacrifice to a demon in a mountain, then moves right into the official Shippuden story about rescuing Gaara from the invading members of Akutsuki.
The RPG is without a doubt the most fun to have with this game. Naruto controls almost exactly the same as before, but he has a few new moves, like the Shadow Clone Jump. Wandering around aimlessly is non-existent here, because there's always something to do with the game world. Hunting down 30 frogs, or capturing 50 bandits (all disguised as playable characters) are two examples of the kind of thing you'll be doing. These challenges are actually challenging too, because they span out over the massive world. There're so many places to see and explore, you can hardly believe it's all on a PS2 game. And it's smooth, too. The graphics are tough to beat, because it's all detailed, and it animates without a hint of slowdown to be see anywhere. Tons of NPCs are all around, so the places you visit are never dead unless they should be, like deserts or far-out forests. The NPCs are generally nothing special. They have a little dialogue, but it's average. Some of it's good, some of it's or uninteresting. Even as the story progresses and you talk to other ninja, the things they say can be cheesy. A lot of them just point out the obvious.
The fighting itself hasn't changed much. You still fight in side-scrolling arenas with two planes to jump back and forth between. There're new and old locations to visit, as expected. The new ones are as good as the old ones, and the old ones get new paintjobs as usual. There's nothing especially remarkable about any of the arenas that really sets any of them out from before. The RPG world is much cooler, but it's likely you'll spend more time there anyway. You'll even get to fight there. Now, as you run around, you'll meet crowds of enemies and have to take them all out in the new master battles. These battles are much more interesting, and a much better graphics display. Don't get me wrong, the others are fun, too, but these are the best. You usually fight between 4 and 6 enemies and must beat the ever-living crud out of them. This basically means pressing the CIRCLE button over and over again till you have enough to use a jam attack, which does much more damage. You can also learn more attacks by building up experience and growing in action levels. The master battles aren't particularly difficult in the beginning, but they get there eventually, rising as you do. Just bear in mind that it's fun to beat enemies around, and fly higher and higher in the air and watch Naruto zip around like a light beam.
The audio is pretty good. The dialogue is the only real downside there is. As I said before, they generally just point out the obvious, so it's not that interesting to listen too. The music and sound effects are better though. Besides the usual tapping as the characters run and the air rushes that play when you jump or fall, there's also the noises that play when you land a hit in combat, or unleash an ultimate jutsu. But, the music's what I liked the best about the sound. A lot of it sounds simply epic, except in places like the very center of the Leaf Village, which is as light-hearted and cartoony as the themes on the anime. Everything fits, and the music tracks are long, so you don't have to listen to them over and over. I've never really paid much attention during the battles (regular or master), but I think that's pretty repetitive, because I've noticed that I hear the same part of a song a lot. The music still sounds good, at least. Besides the dialogue issue, it's ear-candy.
There are a lot of characters to fight as in the regular battles, too. 52 characters all together, though most of them are the younger characters from the first part of Naruto. The bad part about this is only the older kids and adults have any chance, because the younger kids don't have enough reach to hit. The new characters' attacks are way too exaggerated. It looks pretty ridiculous in a lot of ways. Flashy, yes, but it makes fighting much slower in pace, because you have to really plan a strategy, you can't just fly in there and fight at top speed. The only thing left to make the fight feel fast is whenever you clash attacks and have to play rock, paper, scissors. Whoever wins lands a hard-hitting attack, and if it's a draw, nobody gets hurt. It's cool to watch and fun to use. These battles are okay whenever you play against the computer players, but they're not much fun against other humans, it's mostly just frustrating. You can't dodge attacks very easily, you can't substitute unless you press the button at EXACTLY the right time, and you can't rebound unless you press the button at EXACTLY the right time. These things combined make the good looks and sounds not very good, because it's too frustrating to play the game like that. The natural response is to hit the buttons as fast as you can, but it only sometimes works. It's made worse by the fact that all those multiplayer and customization options are no good if you can't enjoy it in the first place.
True, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4 is a lot of fun and the sheer size (and it also works the way it's supposed to) is amazing, but the combat system's not good enough to make it a fighter like it should be. It's too sensitive and too slow. Graphically and audio-wise, you can't find any better on the PS2, so check it out if you're a big Naruto fan, or you're looking for a top-notch RPG.