Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
61

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 23 out of 29
  3. Negative: 4 out of 29
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  1. TheSixthAxis
    Sep 6, 2018
    80
    This might be the first Naruto game in a long time that does something new, blending anime with class-based online battles. The idea may seem a little strange but it works well, and it would be great to see Bandai Namco build off this with other anime franchises in future. Shinobi Striker is well worth your time if you like the Naruto series and even worth trying out if you just want a new multiplayer experience to get lost in.
  2. Multiplayer.it
    Sep 9, 2018
    75
    Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker is a very different title to the Storm Serie, but the ninja are in great shape and the online component has been enhanced.

Awards & Rankings

75
#75 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2018

User Reviews

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User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 120 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 52 out of 120
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 120
  3. Negative: 42 out of 120
  1. Sarobi
    Sep 5, 2018
    4
    Naruto games aren't the most technical fighters out on the market. You won't find that you need to pour hundreds of hours into any of theNaruto games aren't the most technical fighters out on the market. You won't find that you need to pour hundreds of hours into any of the Storm series to master combo's and what not like other fighting games. The Storm series does well enough to be fun, and provide a decent competitive experience when it came to multiplayer.

    With that said.. Shinobi Strikers is not like the Storm series at all, and doesn't try to be in many ways. Combat is overly simplistic and repetitive. You will find that you have two main forms of attacks; Quick attacks and Heavy attacks. You can swap the styles of combat out for projectile combat, but it doesn't change much. You are greeted to a cool down system that is similar to what you'll find in MOBA's and Hero shooters. You get two "special" abilities, and then must wait for them to recharge with time. You'll find that using these attacks are 80% of the game.

    There is not much of a counter system in place. You can block for what it's worth, but the game is designed in a way that makes it useless. You can use a substitution Jutsu every 10 to 15 seconds, so if you use it around multiple players.. you are doomed to take damage and or die right away. This is a big problem seeing as there is a few attacks that are just overpowering, and can wipe you out quickly.

    The controls are.. passable to say the least. You'll find that the camera angles are wonky, and that your character often doesn't do what you want them to do. That's not to say they are so horrible that it's declared broken... but it definitely isn't good. And to be quite frank, it's a shame the controls are this bad in a game that is mainly focused on mobility.

    An "all online" Naruto game sounds fun on paper, but this isn't how you do it. It's a game that wants to be several things, and fails to even be decent at one of them. They put a fair amount of detail into customization and unlockables, and that seems to be where they got it right. Sadly they designed it so that you'll have to spend hours upon hours grinding out missions that are just attack and defend objectives on a timer. You don't even need to play the game to find this out. Just search up the achievement/trophy list and see how many of them are time consumption based. 1000 wins, 1000 matches in this mode, and that mode. It's a drag to think you have to spend this much time on a game that feels broken most of the time.

    Overall.. I am disappointed with my purchase. If you can, rent this game. Buying it and giving Bandai Namco your money for this lazy and poorly thought out game will only give them power to continue making games like this.    … Full Review »
  2. AshMerks
    Sep 4, 2018
    10
    This game is great, it's very true to Naruto and very addictive. Extremely immersive and just all around fun, highly recommend.
  3. Yeroc93
    Sep 10, 2018
    3
    After seeing the first trailer and playing the open beta, I decided to take a chance on it, and came into the game with low expectations, yetAfter seeing the first trailer and playing the open beta, I decided to take a chance on it, and came into the game with low expectations, yet still ended up extremely disappointed. There are a lot of issues, so I’ll break it down into categories.

    Content:
    The first thing I noticed is the complete lack of content. You have solo and co-op missions, and online PvP modes, and that’s it. Not only is there no story mode, but the missions are all the exact same missions repeated multiple times over, with increasing difficulty. In PvP, you not only have just one or two options available to play of the four listed, but you don’t even have the option of choosing which game mode you play. If that’s not bad enough, you only have one option for each class as opposed to multiple loadouts for multiple items objective types. This means that due to the randomized PvP game mode type, you often have the wrong loadouts, and cannot play the given match properly (i.e. having a base build but being stuck in capture the flag). Even customization is lacking, as you are only given only a small handful of colour options for character features, and preset colours for each garment. To make matters worse, there are 4000 items to choose from, but you often get doubles of stuff you already have, and scroll loot drops are RNG. To give context, I logged almost 100 hours on the game and still only have 250 or so of 4000 items available. To further limit customization options, specific skills are placed on each item, which can’t be transferred, added, or removed, which further limits how expressive you can be. Personally, I feel a skill tree or having a list of skills to choose from for yourself would have been a much better option.

    Gameplay:
    A lot of people have complained about controls, but I found the problems to be more so the camera angle and extremely shallow combat system. There are no combos, and instead the player can simply button mash his way to a kill. Even blocking doesn’t do much, and you are only given one substitution at a time to escape “combos”, which makes the shallow combat even harder to swallow. On top of this, the lock-on system is horrendous, as it not only affects the camera, but it often locks-on to the least important character (i.e. won’t automatically lock-on to the mission boss, or PvP player that’s inside the base or has the flag). This results in an infuriating struggle with the lock-on system, while trying not to get killed in the process. On top of that, every single mission consists of boring timed obectives, regardless of game mode or mission type. Even the enemy wave set missions are timed, which is ludicrous. Even further still,, there is countless bugs and glitches to even begin to mention in this review, which severely hinder the game even further.

    Network/online play:
    Speaking of bugs and glitches, the online connectivity is horrendous. You not only have to spend at least a half hour trying to connect to a Ninja World League match, but all game modes and types often crash and boot the players. To make matters even worse, whenever the servers crash and disconnect you from a match, you are the one who gets penalized for it, causing you to drop rank online. There isn’t even an option for casual or ranked play. Whenever there is no Ninja World League event under way, there is simply a quick match option. There isn’t even any team or rank balancing either. New players are often tossed in with S rank players, and teams themselves are always unbalanced in the sense that all the skilled players are often on the same team; though thankfully the game’s combat system is shallow enough that this isn’t always a huge issue. All of these aforementioned issues have persisted despite multiple server maintenance periods (two in two days to be exact), and even a system update.

    In conclusion:
    As someone who has followed Naruto since he was a child (I am currently in my 20’s), I simply cannot recommend this game, particularly at its price point. It was clearly released before completion, and it would be hard to recommend to anyone, even at $30. After looking into the studio itself, I noticed that they have never released a game made to completion before, as their only game is some obscure early access free-to-play third-person-shooter on Steam. This makes me wonder what Bandai Namco was thinking when allowing such a team to develop a game for such a popular series. It feels as though the studio not only bit off more than they can chew, and lacked the skills necessary to make the game that they imagined, but it also feels like they simply copied the formula of their early access free-to-play, without the in-game purchases. If you’re looking to create your very own custom ninja and living out your childhood shinobi fantasies, you will have to wait a while longer. In the meantime, you would be much better off playing as Naruto and friends in the Storm series    … Full Review »
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