|
On the 8th of October 2007 we were invited to Ubisoft's offices in Chertsey (UK) to have a play of the forthcoming adventure game Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, which is based on the popular animated series that is aired not only in Japan but the US and Europe. The series has a massive fan base and the game is looking like it will provide hours of entertainment, not only for the fans of the series but for newcomers as well. I am not a fan of the series and haven't even seen a single episode, but I have always shown an interest in Naruto the game as it looks absolutely stunning with its use of a distinct anime art style. Having briefly played some of the game at a Microsoft event in September, I was eager to have a more in depth play of the game's story mode as well as the versus mode.
The Story Mode
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja features an intriguing story mode which is set within the first 80 episodes of the series. The game's opening movie gives a brief overview of Naruto's birth and growing up, as well as showing that the world in which he lives in is a dangerous place. Once the game begins proper, players take control of a disheartened Naruto as he has failed an exam to become a ninja. His failure has earned him little respect from the inhabitants of the town and basically Naruto sets his sights on becoming a powerful ninja, no matter what it takes.
The town is full of other ninjas and general folk going about their business, although as Naruto approaches them they shout at him and generally regard him as a nuisance and scum. It's a dire situation for the young Naruto until a glimmer of hope presents itself to him. There's another way to pass the exam as explained by the character Mizuki, but it involves Naruto stealing a special scroll. This is where the game begins proper as Naruto runs off to grab the scroll. The game's opening offers a gentle introduction to the basics and so if you've never heard of Naruto (the series) before then it's as easy as any adventure game to get to grips with. The task of stealing the scroll simply teaches you that the game has some platform elements to it as Naruto has to jump onto wooden planks and ledges to reach the scroll. In the build that I played I did encounter some issues with the game's camera, which although you are able to pan using the right thumbstick, it did feel a little cumbersome and awkward when in close proximity to solid objects. During the jumping onto platforms the camera entered a fixed mode which was a little disorientating and somewhat made timing the required jumps more tricky than they should be. However the difficulty here was pretty low and so it didn't pose too much of a problem. Hopefully the final build will have these issues fixed.
After grabbing the scroll, I was tasked with running back to Mizuki as quickly as possible. This task is in fact an introduction to one of the many mini games available in the game. Basically you have to navigate the terrain (in this case some pathways) hitting checkpoint markers before the time runs out. It was pretty simple as the pathway was literally one route and you are provided with a arrow which shows you what direction you need to go. There is also a mini map on screen at all times which shows points of interest and by pressing the Back button a larger map can be viewed. The maps show available quests, missions, challenges, fight challenges as well as locations of Masters and stores - (you can even spar against masters at any time, although I found Sakura to be exceptionally tough). Without spoiling any more of the plot; once the scroll is delivered more madness ensues as you enter the game's combat tutorial. Naruto: Rise of a Ninja features not only platforming and adventuring, but also a comprehensive fighting engine. The fight engine is pretty much the same as the versus mode, although in the story, Naruto can use various features not available in the versus mode.
Once fighting is initiated, you enter a typical face off situation with whoever you are fighting. The typical health bar is displayed at the top of the screen, as well as your opponent's and there's also another bar which shows your available Jutsu power (more about that in a moment). The combat is fast and felt very much like the later versions of Mortal Kombat. You have simple attack moves which are broken down into vertical and horizontal attacks and players can jump, duck as well as dash and side step, with additional moves becoming available depending on if you are using these actions. There are also moves which allow you to launch your opponent into the air so you can extend combos and guard break moves. Countering an opponent's attacks warps you behind them and allows you to unleash a quick flurry of attacks to their rear if they are too slow to realize your location. In the story mode you can visit masters (main game characters associated with the story) who can train you more moves. These additional moves are purchased with points earned from completing quests and missions.
The Jutsu moves (special moves) are quite unique in their execution and require you to use the left and right thumbstick, whilst holding the Left Trigger (see detailed guide below) followed by charging and releasing the left trigger once an aura around your character levels with an on screen bar. At first I couldn't get the timing right but with a little practice (5 mins) I was able to perform these quite easily. luckily you can press the LB button which brings up a menu screen that details what Jutsu moves you have learnt, as well as what items you are carrying and other interesting details about your character. An interesting component and one that is useful if you are taking a hammering is the option to use a Memo Clip once your health bar reaches zero during a fight. Memo clips can be purchased from various people and basically are priced depending on how much time they offer. Once activated you have to rapidly tap the A button to replenish health and chakura. This is very useful should you be in a position where you are beaten by an opponent who also has little health left.
Going back to the adventuring element of the game, you are able to free roam around the town and interact with various people. There are two types of main objectives you can activate as well as challenges and these are presented as Orange or Blue scrolls or other icons above peoples heads. Orange scrolls represent quests which once complete can earn you money and increase your health. The Blue Scrolls are related to story missions and can increase your Chakura (the amount you can use your Jutsu powers). The inhabitants of the town all have icons above their heads representing how they feel towards you, and as I already mentioned, the entire town hates Naruto from the offset. By completing quests for people they will then display a smiley face instead of the angry one that they have when they dislike you. Pressing the Y button shows an overview of all the people and whether they like you or not; in this case it was labeled Konoha Rating which I assume is the name of the town. There's an interesting feature about the inhabitants, because helping people results in them helping you in return. So for example, wandering around the town, people make derogatory comments towards you if they display an angry face, whereas those that display smiley faces will say hello and speak favourably towards you. In one quest I was tasked with finding another character who was hidden somewhere within the town; now I could have spent an age running around aimlessly trying to find them (the town is fairly large) but by pressing the X button when near people who like you, they offer you a hint and an arrow (Kunai) pointing in the general direction which appears at the top of the screen. It doesn't give the exact location when you are further away from your objective but certainly helps. The closer you get to the objective the more detailed the hint until eventually I was told the person I was looking for was hiding on top of a building near a bridge. This gameplay mechanic is pretty cool and means that your job can be easy or difficult depending on who you help or not.
There are plenty of quests available which involved things like collecting coins for shop keepers so they could open stores. The first was the Ramen shop (ramen is food which Naruto can eat which in turn replenishes health). Health is constant and doesn't recharge after a fight, so ramen is useful for when Naruto is out in the field as he can buy and carry it with him. I needed 10 coins for this particular shop keeper and these are scattered all over the town - around buildings and on rooftops. Naruto can also break objects such as trash cans or rubbish bins (depending on where you are from) which reveals coins. A prompt appears (press X button) when you are near a breakable object. Coins can be collected at any time and used to purchase goods from the stores. Once this was complete, the store opened and another quest became available which was delivering ramen to people scattered across the town. The idea here was to find them before a timer runs out. There were up to 10 levels of difficulty for this particular mini game, and not only was I rewarded with cash for completion but also the people who I had delivered to, became happy with me.The other stores I completed quests for were the Weapons store which provided me with items such as Kunai (throwing blades) for use during fights - they actually can stop opponents from using Jutsu moves. Scroll store which allowed me to purchase various upgrades to my attack moves and a book store which sold movie sequences. The Scroll store for example sold upgrades, such as strength - which enhances combo damage. Fury - which enhances rage mode damage. Rage - which increases rage duration. Weapons - which increases throwing weapon damage. Mastery - which increases killer move damage. Scrolls to equip more powerful scrolls can also be purchased but my funds were pretty low.
Quests and missions seemed to remain active regardless of whether other quests were pending and so what was useful was being able to review quest and mission objectives by holding the X button. You can also highlight individual quests in relation to the arrow which shows you what direction to head and in relation to the help people offer you.
One interesting feature early on during my play was the fact that you are able to use the Jutsu moves at any time, as scattered around the game world there were various doors or objects that could be broken using a jutsu (marked by cracks or damage). Jutsu moves can be upgraded and so early on I was able to break some objects but needed an upgrade for others. In this case I was rewarded with a gold coin which unlike the regular coins can be used to upgrade weapons. The gold coins are harder to find and although visible at times, require a little more thought in how you can grab them. The collection of these harks back to the platform element in the game and should please completists who have to find them all. Fans of the series will be familiar with the Sexy Jutsu which transforms Naruto into a sexy female. It can be used during fights and also in the field against people with heart symbols above their heads. The Sexy Jutsu is pure comedy, especially the reaction people with broken hearts give (I won't spoil it for you). Again mending broken hearts is a mini game in itself as people require different levels of Sexy Jutsu for it to work on them.
Playing Naruto Rise of a Ninja felt amazing, and with no prior knowledge of the animated series, I instantly felt compelled, engrossed and empathetic with the young ninja. The gameplay is very solid and although it felt like there was a lot of go there, fetch that mentality behind the gameplay, the fighting and general level of freedom balanced this out. The scenes lifted from the animated series added some humour and tension to various moments I encountered during the story based missions and the overall look of the game simply captures the flavour extremely well. Other than the issues I had with the camera at times, the game flows very smoothly and has many excellent little touches. One complaint I did have was the fact that pressing the X button would make Naruto talk out loud (to ask for help) if you did this when near a breakable object, it would somewhat slow the game down as a screen would pop up and stop Naruto in his tracks rather than break the object. It did become annoying but I'm sure the developers will fix the issue for the final release.
If you are into fighting games or adventuring, even both, then Naruto Rise of a Ninja is going to be well worth a look. It's colourful, bright, full of humour and excellent to play. The build I played showed that there was an option for downloadable content, although I cannot say whether this will be tied to the story mode or versus. Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is great fun and I can't wait to get my hands on the final build of the game and get fighting and exploring the game world. Naruto is released at the 30th of October for the US and the 2nd of November 2007 for Europeans.
The Versus Mode:
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja not only features what is going to be an excellent adventure, but a comprehensive versus mode as well. There are two modes of play which are Tournament and Versus. The Tournament mode is a single player affair which pits you against CPU opponents. Your job is to fight through the list of characters until you have beaten them all. The Versus mode is a one on one bout versus a CPU opponent or versus a Human. As with the Tournament rounds you can set various options such as game difficulty and time limits to number of rounds. It's fast, it's furious and similar to the story mode fighting, but with some of the upgrades unique to the story mode absent. What is a huge bonus is being able to fight opponents via Xbox Live although I was unable to try this feature. Sadly there was no option for practice but obviously you can choose to plug in a second controller and just practice against the character that you leave standing there.
Naruto - Versus mode details:
The options you can set prior to matches in the options are the number of rounds which can range from 1-5.
You can set the match timer to from 30 ,60, 90 or infinite
Full list of Tournament/Versus mode playable characters (might not have included unlockable characters).
Naruto
Rock Lee
Gaara
Orochimaru
Haku
Zabuza
Neji
Kiba
Kakashi
Sakura
Sasuke
On the character select screen the left and right triggers highlights stats for the character based on Power, Speed and Range which ranges from 1 - 5 ( with 5 being best).
Full list of character stats:
Naruto has 2/5 power, 3/5 speed, 3/5 range
Kakashi has 4/5 power, 3/5 speed, 4/5 range
Rock Lee has ?? power, ?? speed, ?? range
Gaara 1/5 power, 1/5 speed, 4/5 range
Orochimaru has 5/5 power, 2/5 speed, 2/5 range
Haku ?? power, ?? speed, ?? range
Zabuza 4/5 power, 2/5 peed, 3/5 range
Neji 3/5 power, 4/5 speed, 1/5 range
Kiba 3/5 power, 2/5 speed, 3/5 range
Sakura 1/5 power, 4/5 speed, 3/5 range
Sasuke 2/5 power, 3/5 speed, 2/5 range
Basic Controls
B - block
A - Jump
X - horizontal attack
Y - vertical attack
R trigger - grab
Left trigger hold to input Jutsu moves
Right, Right or left, left (depending on which way you are facing) - Dash
Up/Down - side step
RB - throw Kunai
LB cycle weapons (story mode only I think)
PERFORMING JUTSU MOVES:
Jutsu moves are performed by holding the left trigger and then using the left thumbstick for first part of move and right thumbstick for the second. So for example up, up is performed by moving the left thumbstick up twice, then up, right would be performed using the right thumbstick - two circles indicate which stick to use. You must then release the left trigger when the chakra charge reaches the highlighted zone (a circle glow around character - release Left trigger once the circle reaches the bars). There can be more bars to line the charge to, for more power but this obviously takes more time and leaves you open for being hit. If you fail to line up the charge correctly you will leave yourself open for attack briefly. If you line up the charge successfully You must then push two attacks which can be any combination of A,B,X or Y buttons such as X, Y to choose your moves and then press the same buttons when prompted whilst the move is performed. If your timing is slow, your opponent will block the attack. There is a small window of opportunity and so practice will make perfect as you learn when the prompt will trigger during the attack move scene that shows automatically during the attack sequence.
COMPLETE LIST OF JUTSU MOVES PER CHARACTER
The first two inputs are performed on the left thumbstick and the second two inputs the right thumbstick. You hold the left trigger to activate the Jutsu and release to left trigger once charged and aligned with the on screen bars. Your Chakura bar replenishes over time and depletes when you use Jutsu moves.
Naruto
down, down, left, right - sexy Jutsu
Up, Up, left, right - shadow clone jutsu
right, left, up, up - chakra concentration
Rock Lee
Gaara
up, up, left, right - Sand Burial
down, down, left, right - Armour of Sand
Orochimaru
down, down, left, right - Genjutsu
up, up, down, down - Striking Shadow Snake
Haku
Zabuza
right, left, down, down - Water Dragon Jutsu
right, left, up, up - Chakra Concentration
Neji
up, up, down, down - 8 Trigrams 64 Palms
right, left, up, up - Chakra Concentration
Kiba
right, left, down, down - Fang over Fang
right, left, up, up - Chakra Concentration
Kakashi
left, right, right, left - Lightning Blade
down, down, left, right - Sharingan
Sakura
down, down, left, right - Palm Healing
right, left, up, up - Chakra Concentration
Sasuke
right, left, down, down - Fireball Jutsu
left, right, right, left - Chidori
down, down, left, right - Sharingan
COMBO LIST EXAMPLE (can be accessed during pause menu) example Naruto
X X X X
X X X Y
(Hold left)X X X X
(Hold left) X X X
Y Y Y
VERSUS STAGES:
Land of Waves Forest
Forest Hideout
Leaf Village Shrine
Leaf Village
Riverside
Tazuna's Bridge
Leaf Village Arena
Training Field
Ancient Tree
Leaf Village Forest Floor
Please note that the build played was not final and so stats and moves are potentially incomplete.
|
