The fourth entry in the Ultimate Ninja Storm series isn't as good as the second entry, but it's still an epic.
The story picks up from where the second game left off; Naruto defeated Pain and the Hidden Leaf Village is on the path to recovery. Unfortunately, there is a war brewing and it looks like it's going to take the ninja world by storm. Last game, we found out that the masked member of Akatsuki; Tobi, was Madara Uchiha, a vile ninja defeated by the First Hokage in the past, in disguise. He has assumed control of the shattered Akatsuki and brought Sasuke in with them. Naruto is still on Sasuke's trail and they cross paths after Sasuke attacks the Five Kage Summit; a meeting between the ninja world leaders. After their fight, Madara swoops in and takes Sasuke away.
The rest of the story is pretty entertaining, even if there is a lot of slow story sequences. If you follow the manga, it's cool to see it play out in a more interactive form. There are some differences between the manga, show and the game but they don't really stand out, other than the ending. The ending is vastly different than the manga, since the game seems to follow the anime. Either way, the story is interesting, if not a little slow. One of my only real issues with the story is the ending, it would've been nice to see some closure already, this is the fourth game in the series afterall. Another big issue is that there are a lot of characters still alive at this time in the story that just flat out ignored and a lot of them are more interesting characters than the ones that the story focuses on.
The gameplay is pretty much the same as in the previous entry. You fight one-on-one in a small arena with the ability to take in two assists each. You exchange punches and ninjutsu while using substitution jutsu to appear behind the enemy and break out of a combo. The gameplay is extremely simple and there is very little depth to the combat. The game was made mostly for cinematic purposes it seems since the boss fights are fantastic. The boss fights are basically the same as the normal fights, just that there are cinematic points in the battle. All are accompanied by quick-time events and, while they are becoming overused, they fit really well here. If it wasn't for the cinematic moments, the game would be like every other anime game, repetitive.
The combat system has received some minor updates and the roster has been boosted to around 80 characters. The issue here is that they all play the same, they all just have different moves and looks. The updates to the combat system are hardly noticeable as well; assists have health bars, some awakenings can be used at any time in battle and assists are somewhat more difficult to boost so you can't rely on the triple ultimates. A lot of the characters have separate forms with slightly different moves which is kind of annoying as well. You find yourself fighting the same fights just with different opponents and the only break you get is when you fight a boss, which are the only fights that play different.
There is another style of combat scenarios called Mob Battles. There are only a few of them in the game and they play the same as a one-on-one battle just with multiple opponents in one arena. They aren't terrible and handled better than I thought they would be, but there are too few of them to break up the monotony from the normal combat. The Ultimate Justus are also still disappointing, in the original Ultimate Ninja Storm they are cinematic, epic attacks and since the second game, they are toned down even if they are still epic. The story sequences are also really overwhelmingly long for a fighting game. Thanks to the story scenes, the game could last you around 12 hours.
Even though this is a licensed game, it uses original music. The music is fitting and some of the tracks stand out as great tracks though most don't stand out. The game can be played in both Japanese and English and whichever you play in is all up to preference. I, personally, played in Japanese and the voice acting was great. That's not to say the English is bad by any means, a few of the characters can get annoying, namely Naruto, but you'll adapt to them though you shouldn't have to, of course. Following in the tradition of the Ultimate Ninja series, the menu sounds are extremely annoying after a while.
The visuals are still as attractive as ever. The cel-shaded visuals still look brilliant and the vibrant world of Naruto is brought to life in all the color. All the characters are animated fantastically and look like they were taken straight out of the show. To be honest, the game might look even better. The cinematic combat scenes look excellent and are pure eye candy. If you want a looker that isn't a gritty realistic military shooter, this one will not disappoint on that front. Most story scenes are just the character models standing around making little gestures with text boxes, however, and that will start to look bland despite the models looking really great. Battles still look great overall, even though the environment is bland and flat. While it still looks great, it hasn't really improved in the last two entries, making this a repackaged visual package.
PROs
- Combat is simple and easy to get into
- Ability to escape from combos makes fights mostly fair
- Story is interesting and keeps you wanting to see what's next
- Boss fights are excellent
- Voice acting is great, option to play in either English or Japanese
- Visuals are bright and colorful and look great
- 80 characters to fight with, which is a lot
- Mob Battles work
- Some music stands out
- Final fight is epic
CONs
- Combat is a little too simple
- Text based story scenes drag on
- A lot of characters are left out of the story
- Characters basically just look different
- Environments are dull and flat
- Most story scenes are bland
- Not enough boss fights
- Not improved enough over the previous entry
- Naruto's voice in English can be pretty annoying
- Sequel hook
Overall, if you played the previous entries and want to see how the story progresses, this game is worth it, though you might want to wait until the price goes down. It's a decent anime game with some epic battles and some pretty visuals. It doesn't hold up to Storm 2, it's basically a repackaged Storm 2 with different storytelling and less bosses. It's doesn't really disappoint since the story progresses nicely and there are still some fantastic bosses, but there are many missed opportunities for some boss fights. If you want to see Naruto's story continue, go ahead and pick this game up. If not, there isn't really anything here to pull you in.