One of the worst games i've ever played online ever, My recommendation would be to avoid the online at all costs.
Then comes Storm 2, with more than double the roster of the first game, and all new game mechanics. Storm 2 is one of the worst balanced fighting games ever to grace a PS3.
No doubt the first storm game was perfect in my eyes. Only thing it lacked in was a decent story mode. But as far as fighting goes its perfect. I'm good at that game and i can win people and the challanging AI on full handicap and still have a fun time. Yet Storm 2 im finding it impossible to gain even one victory online due to the horrible netcode. And shady online player base that resourt to spamming or using cheap tactics such as counter picking a character that naturally has an advantage over the character you picked.
Thats my gripe. It trys to be a competitive online fighting game but it fails so hard. So really for the core fun and experience the game is men't to be played against the AI offline or with some friend, sadly the computer is somewhat dumbed down in storm 2 compared to the first game. Online, the combos are pointless and are always 99.99% countered with a team ultimate or some other move that talks 50% of your health away. And thats another gripe i have with the game. Why downsize the health bar when you have two very overpowered moves you can win with? You either have one or the other not both. CC2 should of kept the three health bar system from the first game and not include the team ultimates at all, it just messes up the balance in a bad way. This way Ultimate Jutsus are just that ULTIMATE and game finishers. And going back to the melee system. Its abolutly pointless. And i mean it. While the melee combos do look flashly. Why risk the counter when you can spam fireball jutsus or Susanos and be immune from any melee damage. And it breaks the game. Melee characters like Hidan are pointless online because of the KNJ system again completely breaking the balance.
Players can basicly spam the block button and be imuine to all damage and melee attacks making Hidan pontless and worth nothing online. Thankfully the character is a blast to use offline againt the AI. Least the AI plays fair and used a variety of moves.
Some characters like Itatchi are clearly overpowered. Yet some characters like Yamato are cleary so weak a kitten could beat them. Itatchi has if not one of the best awakenings ever. And even a newbie who spams with him can take a full health player down to 0% health in seconds well before the awakening ends, Yet Yamato cant even win online, i have yet to see a good yamato or hidan player who can play against itachi online. The balance is a mess.
The player should recharge charka so much slower than they do and KNJ should have a cooldown.
Thankfully the rest of the gane is fine, Offline is a blast with a decent story mode and offline AI to fight again. Or 1v1 normal player versus which is also fine if you get a good and fair playing opponent. The game gives you the choice to have japanese language and english. Thus me speaking english i always play the game on english it to me gives the game that real Naruto experience with me being a dub watcher. The Japanese voices i really dont care for. But for the sub watchers is great none the less that they can listen and play the game in japanese.
The graphics are good but they feel a step backwards from the first game. The animations in the first game were much better, but i've taken that as more characters means less time to develop and perfect a smaller amount of characters the first game had. But the colours and shaders are much better on the second game.
Soundtrack is also somewhat lacking, while the musical score is fine. Its odd how Namco get the liecence to make naruto games but not be able to use the music that is associated with the show, again it comes off as odd but not bad, as i previously said, the music is fine.
The character roster is huge more than double than the first game, while some characters are still missing like Haku and Zabuza the roster feels pretty complete.
Going back to the gameplay again. The balance is horrible. Some characters like Naruto feel pretty well rounded. Kakashi also feels decent. But characters like Karin are uselesss, it's clear the developers spent more time making the more known characters like sage mode Naruto good while the others bad.
And again this brings me to the puppet users. Never have i seen characters so badly designed. First off they have two blocks more or less. Sasori has this really bad glitch that allows you to do infinate amout of attacks with his tilt based attack. This again is game breaking. And secondly he can be spammed so badly, But this isn't the worst offender. Nope. Deidara is hands down impossible to beat once he has his combos going. He's a range character and from a gameplay perpective theres nothing wrong with that. But all the player has to do is press the square button all the entire match to win. Because he has no other moves.
I could keep going on and on but i'd rather not. So to sum it up. This game looks and sounds really good, the offline vs is a blast to play on, the game has a decent if average singleplayer story mode. And has in my opinion one of the worst onlines ever in a ps3 game. It's caused me so much stress and has actually made me cry at one point because i just cant beat online due to the failed mechanics. They should of made Storm 2 play exactly like storm 1 but with some tweaks. Not change all of the game for the worse. Would i recommend this game? Yes i would if you like playing offline with others or the AI but i would avoid the online on this game. It's got one of the cheapest online player bases i've ever seen.