Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker

 PlayStation 4
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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  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 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    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 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.    … Expand
  2. 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, 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.    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, 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    … Expand
  3. Kaiosen
    Jan 9, 2022
    0
    Game is trash. Crashed 3 times within 10 minutes trying to play the Red and White Event. Game Blue screens way too often. There's more that could be said but it's not even worth the time mentioning. Find out at your own risk, but you have been warned.
  4. Kinokee
    Jul 28, 2022
    2
    One of the worst games I have played recently.
    - Lock on doesn't work. Regular combos don't track or even connect reliably. Skills don't track very well. The camera does it's best to work against you by constantly staring at walls. No I'm serious. Someone made a decision to make the camera stare at the wall whenever you're close. You lose lock-on when someone knocks you into a wall and    One of the worst games I have played recently.
    - Lock on doesn't work. Regular combos don't track or even connect reliably. Skills don't track very well. The camera does it's best to work against you by constantly staring at walls. No I'm serious. Someone made a decision to make the camera stare at the wall whenever you're close. You lose lock-on when someone knocks you into a wall and all you see is the wall. It's almost guaranteed death. Lock-on and regular attacks target by proximity. In a game with infinite minion spawning that sure af isn't going to help. Especially when there's a dozen enemies running around swarming you. In what world is this a good thing I don't know, but they decided on it.

    The single player sucks. There's no recap of wtf happened in any series which is really all I wanted. The net code sucks, expect to get dc'ed a lot. While in the middle of doing the last single player mission I got disconnected due to a network maintenance. I can understand those happen but there was not enough warning, I only got the 8 minute warning halfway through my mission. Single player is not tuned either. It's fight dozens of weak versions of a strong enemy. Do some boring other stuff. Can't skip scenes. And then run to goals on the map to extend your time. AND THEN FINALLY THE BOSS CAN SPAWN. The missions don't make any sense and I hate my life for playing them.

    The bosses and large enemies can shoot lasers and explosions that are unaffected by walls and geometry. Explosions go through buildings and walls and so do giant laser beams. Expect to get lasered to death with no ability to dodge (either because you're on a wall and your camera can't show you, or dodging correctly takes you into the projectile, even running straight in a line can't outpace their tracking because the AI fires tracking shots). Also some of the bosses in the missions have extremely high and will continuously spam one shot attacks at you. You can die from falling to your death but if you knock a NPC off they don't take damage and instead respawn somewhere else on the map. That's great, cool thanks. I'll spend the next 30 seconds looking for them while the mission timer ticks down. Maybe you want to play this in multiplayer to make it easier? The difficulty ramps up with extra players at an unbalanced rate where it's almost impossible to win some missions.

    The game has pay to win jutsus. Free players are at a disadvantage. The regular currency in game is useless. There's a store but it serves no use.

    Expect to run on walls when. you don't want to. Expect for you to miss attacks point blank. Expect to hate your life every moment you play this game. I can understand some people might really like this game, but they probably are 12, really like the series and never played anything better.

    Any video you see of someone doing "cool stuff" or some kind of "sick long combo" is imo zero testament to their skill. If anything you should see the hell the other person's camera is going through, spinning around, untargetting, not tracking, teleporting instead of reflect, running or standing on walls instead of escaping, dodging into attacks instead of away because it's not based on directional input, etc.

    I hate this game and I think it gave me white hair.    … Expand
  5. SuperkenGaming
    Sep 12, 2018
    4
    Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker
    Just not fun.
    Are there tons of hours of potential joy in shinobi striker? Yes. Did I put tons of hours into this game and experience this joy? Absolutely not Infact this is more of a rant and less of a review, this is for the non Naruto fans like myself that see a competitive combat game and thing wow this could be fun.. im here to tell you that it    Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker
    Just not fun.
    Are there tons of hours of potential joy in shinobi striker?
    Yes.
    Did I put tons of hours into this game and experience this joy?
    Absolutely not
    Infact this is more of a rant and less of a review, this is for the non Naruto fans like myself that see a competitive combat game and thing wow this could be fun..
    im here to tell you that it isn’t..
    now im not about to go into all the menues or even deep into what this game has to offer, there are reviews out there better than this one that does all of that for the Naruto fans…
    im just here to tell you in one mof my strangest reviews of all time that this game is just not fun..
    its bad.
    you sart creating your character with super limited options, though as you play the game youll unlock scrolls which works as loot boxes to unlock new weapons and gear for the different clases to really bing some uniqueness to your character.. but after this what is there?
    honestly not much…
    there is a missions arena which is in my opinion the best part of the game and actually decently fun, you can play solo or co op with up to 4 players.. there is voiced acted dialog, a great variety of missions and boss fights..
    its genuinely fun at times running the walls and dashing through the air…
    but as someone mostly interested in story amd world bulding this mission arena didn’t keep my attention for too long…
    and if missions arenas aren’t for you theres a competitive 4v4 with 4 different match types that are just awful…
    this mode is what had me most intrigued about this game.. what had me wanting to give it a try…
    they go for capture the flag and capture and hold with a Naruto twist… I high fous on traversing which does add a dash of fun.. but the combat here… it just isn’t satisfying…
    i felt mostly as if I were button mashing instead of playin competiivly .. though to be fair you can learn different moves and create different load outs for different modes to enhance this…
    but overall the competitive side of this game is just so unaccessable that it never got its hooks in me.. it never had me excited to hop back in when I would die… I never had the illusion of feeling like I was good at the game,, which is what I feel any good competive multiplayer mode should do… it should make you feel like youre making progress and youll have their number the next time.. but I just didn’t feel that here… a mixture of the button mashing, the awful camera, the enemy locking… I just fult frustrated trying to enjoy this game..Again there are better reviews out there than this one if you want a more in depth take on shunovi striker..
    but as a non Naruto fan looking for just a fun competitive game…
    I feel like shinobi striker is a bunch of unfun garbage…
    The mission arena saves this game from being complete garbage, but is nowhere near enough to justify picking this game up.
    I give Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker
    a 4/10    … Expand
  6. Chanyboy
    Dec 27, 2020
    1
    I’m genuinely **** pissed, I can’t even hop on and play this **** ass game, it won’t let me go online the one thing it was supposed to do. For the three training missions I got to play offline, they were boring and basic arena battles **** this game avoid this **** like it’s the plague.
  7. NeroProject
    Sep 29, 2021
    0
    Big fan of Naruto and Boruto anime but this game is so disappointing. Waste of money, I want refund!
  8. Petakyah
    Apr 19, 2019
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Matches are only six minutes long and does let you use enough subs or jutsus... i just cant play this naruto game because of that.… Expand
  9. Thikag
    Dec 1, 2019
    4
    O jogo é ruim. Cheio de bugs e inconsistências nos combates. Além disso, há glitch que são usados para se tirar vantagens, e esses glitches já existem há muito tempo. No entanto, a Bandai não se esforça para arruma-los. Para piorar a experiência no jogo, a Bandai não faz uma seleção justa dos participantes dad batalhas. Entao se você for jogar esse jogo sozinho, a Bandai vai fazer com queO jogo é ruim. Cheio de bugs e inconsistências nos combates. Além disso, há glitch que são usados para se tirar vantagens, e esses glitches já existem há muito tempo. No entanto, a Bandai não se esforça para arruma-los. Para piorar a experiência no jogo, a Bandai não faz uma seleção justa dos participantes dad batalhas. Entao se você for jogar esse jogo sozinho, a Bandai vai fazer com que você fique em uma equipe com pessoas que ainda estão aprendendo a jogar, enquanto os adversários já estão em um nível muito alto. O que resulta na sua desvantagem. Também há problemas com o balanceamento das habilidades, no jogo há jutsus que paralisam o adversário e com isso pode-se fazer um combo e tirar muita vida dele. No entanto, não há, na descrição da técnica, informação de que esses jutsus reduzem a defesa ou algo do tipo. Agora se você for usar a lógica e utilizar uma técnica que informa que reduz a defesa do alvo e tentar fazer algum combo com isso, o dano não vai chegar nem perto do daquele combo que não tem relação nenhuma com a redução de defesa, esse tipo de inconsistência também se repete em outros momentos. Também não há motivos para se comprar as DLCs, o jogador não tem vantagem nenhuma por gastar dinheiro no jogo. Há técnicas e glitches no jogo base que deixam muitas técnicas de DLC no sem utilidade nenhuma. E para finalizar, há um problema na exibição das informações de vitórias e derrotas do jogador, se você cair numa equipe inexperiente contra uma equipe com jogadores muito experientes e tentar pelo menos forçar um empate não valerá de nada seu esforço porque não há a seção de informação de empates, eles colocam os EMPATES na contagem de DERRROTAS, então não motivos para se esforçar em uma batalha em que você já perdeu. Não recomendo a compra de jogo muito menos de suas DLCs.… Expand
  10. KevinGostosin
    Apr 10, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Jogo cheio burguês o jogo é paitoin e a jogabilidade é boa mais o jogo cheio de kid/burguês… Expand
  11. das_dennis
    May 21, 2023
    0
    pay to win - you only need three words here but i have to write more seventy five words
  12. Owa
    May 7, 2020
    2
    There's so much wrong with this game it's laughable; terrible jutsu customization, character customization sucks since 90% of the clothing's from a canon character and that takes away from your ability to immersively create a ninja. There's no story, just trash grindable missions and even the pvp sucks since you can't even select your game mode. There'sa bunch of pvp related issues, IThere's so much wrong with this game it's laughable; terrible jutsu customization, character customization sucks since 90% of the clothing's from a canon character and that takes away from your ability to immersively create a ninja. There's no story, just trash grindable missions and even the pvp sucks since you can't even select your game mode. There'sa bunch of pvp related issues, I could write a book about them.… Expand
  13. MatheusQ
    Jul 7, 2020
    1
    The game is good and the concept of the game is so unique and fun to play. However, the servers are **** as hell always disconnecting and lagging even with a 500MB/s connection and it breaks all the fun in the gameplay. It's the only detail but it's such a big one that I can't enjoy the game anymore.
  14. ThatLethalSoul
    Aug 2, 2020
    3
    I really want to like this game, but after playing it for just a day saying that I'm incredibly disappointed would be a severe understatement.

    First, I will say that something I do enjoy is the ability to make your own character, and there's a fair amount of customization options that are available. However, that "fair amount" is just the hair and clothes of already existing canon    I really want to like this game, but after playing it for just a day saying that I'm incredibly disappointed would be a severe understatement.

    First, I will say that something I do enjoy is the ability to make your own character, and there's a fair amount of customization options that are available. However, that "fair amount" is just the hair and clothes of already existing canon characters with reskin options, so it gets a little upsetting when you realize the makers didn't even bother to put in the effort to make some original content.

    Secondly, and with a bit of an anecdote: I've been playing Naruto games since the first generation, Ultimate Ninja and Uzumaki Chronicles, was released on PS2, so needless to say I went into this game with a few baseline expectations.
    1. Button-combo attacks. Pretty much EVERY Naruto game I've played had a variety of attacks that you could use by stringing together button combos like in any other fighting game including Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. This game somehow doesn't have any at all. All you do is press a handful of buttons to do weak attacks, strong attacks, block, jump, and cast a measly 2 jutsus that cost.
    2. This game's free roam is... sad, to say the least. Being that there really isn't any. You get a single lobby area with a few "shops" (if you can call them that) floating around and the few NPCs to talk to and... that's it. Seeing the price tag on this game I would have expected to at least be able to explore some more of the Leaf village, maybe even some of the forest areas, but there just... isn't anything. Somehow Uzumaki Chronicles feels like it had far more free roam than what we were given here, and considering that even free MMORPG games like Champions Online have MASSIVE maps for free roam exploration, this is tragic in more levels than one.

    Speaking of Champions Online, this game falls in two more places that its free companion does: absurd microtransactions and repetitive gameplay. There's a lot in this game that's locked out under microtransactions and DLC, and if you don't want to pay up your options are severely limited in what you can achieve. The meager amount of abilities you have quickly grow boring no matter what playstyle you pick, and I bought the deluxe edition while it was on sale so I got a few bonus trainers to work with but, lo and behold, you don't get anything out of training with them, no new skills or anything, unless you pay up for their specific DLC pack.

    Furthermore, I was under the impression that the "Digital VR" area was a training room that was training me for real threats that would occur as part of a side-story that would develop as I progressed further in skill, and I was left waiting in VAIN to be able to have a "real mission" outside of it, but it just never happened. The entirety of the game is all in either the VR digital missions or in PVP. So technically speaking, no, there isn't any real story in this game, and nothing to strive for achieving through leveling up your character since you don't gain any extra strength or skill buffs outside of gaining lootboxes for a chance of unlocking cosmetics and weapon items.

    So for the TLDR: This game has somehow even less options of equipable spells that Diablo 3 gave as options, and the cooldowns on abilities will get you killed much faster than Diablo because of the fast-paced combat, the combat itself is bare-bones and boring with no combos or special attacks outside of TWO jutsu slots, half the game presented is locked behind paywalls and microtransactions, and as the cherry on top the character customization is meager and disappointing.
    Buy this game only if it's on sale, because if you pay full price you're getting ripped off.    … Expand
  15. ZLeisure15
    Dec 29, 2021
    0
    Never in my life have I played a such unbalanced game in my entire life. Not only are the controls kind of hard to get down but the fighting mechanics are just simply awful. The matchmaking is not balanced at all. The concept all though unique is just disgraced by the gameplay. Never buy this game. I’m a huge Naruto fan and even I can not find any redeeming qualities about the game
  16. ElCriticasNo
    Jun 21, 2022
    0
    Este juego no vale los 60 dólares ni de palo, tiene muy poco contenido y no se le podrá añadir por que no hay DLCS de contenido que de hecho si habría valdría 20 dólares para arriba conociendo a BANDAI NAMCO, es nefasto, que la "Historia principal" sean como misiones secundarias que hablando de eso son malas misiones dónde tienes que spamear o no sales ileso de las misiones con sasukeEste juego no vale los 60 dólares ni de palo, tiene muy poco contenido y no se le podrá añadir por que no hay DLCS de contenido que de hecho si habría valdría 20 dólares para arriba conociendo a BANDAI NAMCO, es nefasto, que la "Historia principal" sean como misiones secundarias que hablando de eso son malas misiones dónde tienes que spamear o no sales ileso de las misiones con sasuke susano. Son varias misiones pero no son suficientes, el Multijugador también es una guarrada ya que hay tantas explosiones que no entendes nada y y un jugador causal como yo no podrá ser más competente por que quiero divertirme igual eso es cada uno, tampoco hay un PvE o si lo hay pero en entrenamiento. No puedes jugar con los personajes originales a no ser que este el evento de Ninja Mundial l en entrenamiento. La personalización del personaje es buena pero no compensa lo suficiente las demás cosas, sin dudas un título olvidable y malo. Títulos similares como Xenoverse 2 son mucho mejores que tiene los aspectos de este juego pero mejor. No lo recomiendo para nada.… Expand
  17. Jdotdeedot
    Jul 1, 2022
    4
    This is a generic naruto game. The most generic naruto game ever. It has very low lows and barely and highs. One of the biggest sins of this game is the recycled VR missions. Another sin is the pay to win dlc characters in this game. Some of the best and most useful abilities in the game come from the dlc. It's truly awful. I guess the coolest part of the game is actually making a narutoThis is a generic naruto game. The most generic naruto game ever. It has very low lows and barely and highs. One of the biggest sins of this game is the recycled VR missions. Another sin is the pay to win dlc characters in this game. Some of the best and most useful abilities in the game come from the dlc. It's truly awful. I guess the coolest part of the game is actually making a naruto character to your liking. But overall this game is bad.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

75
#75 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Mar 6, 2019
    60
    If you are tired of those old, epic single player storylines and local versus matches that your usual Naruto games offer, here's your chance! Shinobi Striker is anything but that. Not everyone's cup of tea, but gives a breath of fresh air to a long running fighting games series. Me? I'm up for some more of that stale air of the Storm series! Not a bad game, though.
    Read full review
  2. Riot Pixels
    Dec 30, 2018
    65
    Shinobi Striker is in a dire need of maps and modes, and looks like the developers have no idea on how to tackle this problem.
    Read full review
  3. DarkStation
    Nov 2, 2018
    40
    Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker is not a great game. Though it has an entertaining character creator and some fantastic customization options, separate the game from the license for a second, and it becomes clear that Shinobi Striker is a sub-par action game and an even worse multiplayer experience. The game sets an interesting foundation for future Naruto games, if only conceptually, but no one save for the bravest of Naruto fans would likely enjoy Shinobi Striker in its current form. Better off next time, Naruto. Believe it!
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »