I really wanted to like this game, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I love the anime, but this game is just really boring. The storyI really wanted to like this game, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I love the anime, but this game is just really boring. The story (scenario) mode is mostly just a retelling of the first arc of shippuden, which is fine and was fun to play through in storm 2, but the gameplay in this game makes it not worth it. You have a very basic combo system and then a few jutsus and kunai that typically don't link together/flow very well. Fighting is the crux of the gameplay, so for the fighting to be lacking any satisfaction or stimulation is a huge blow. Then, there's the rpg system/elements. Each character has individual stats that can be increased by leveling up (i.e. through defeating enemies) or by using items. While this system sounds fun and interesting on paper, like I said, the combat is very boring which disincentivizes the player to level up. Instead, I always just found myself running and dodging to get to the boss since fighting the enemies is not required. In addition, as you play through the story, you unlock new characters that are at higher levels by default. Therefore, all the time I would have spent leveling up the last character would have been in vain since my newly unlocked character would still usually be better. This also creates a conflict of interest. I would like to strongly level up a certain character, but I also want to use the new character that I just unlocked, who will likely be much better than the one I am leveling up because it takes so long and is so monotonous to level them up. So, I believe the final character that you unlock in the story is rock lee who is at level 30. But you unlock Neji at level 25 and he has a ninjutsu that is extremely strong if you hit it (8 trigrams 64 palms). So basically, all I did was play as neji for pretty much the rest of the game. I believe by the time I stopped playing he was around level 50. I would select neji, then I would add supports like naruto, kakashi, or sai. This would give my ninjutsu and chakra buffs, categories in which neji already specializes. I would run past all of the enemies to the objective in every level to finally get to the boss. Once there, I would just spam 8 trigrams 64 palms until they were defeated. Like I said, since I was running past enemies, I was always under leveled for the boss, but that never really mattered. I would stock up on medicinal pills (which revive you) and duplex pills (which regenerate your chakra and health), and any time I would become low, I would just use the pills or I would die and neji would automatically use the medicinal pills. This is pretty much how you can boil down every mode in this game. Just spam an overpowered jutsu on the main enemy until you win and heal when necessary.
I did the exact same thing with neji in mission mode which is just a collection of filler missions. This was my least favorite mode because 80% of this mode is just running to the objective or trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Multiple times, after the mission, you would just have to return to where you started which is just meaningless padding that wastes more time, especially when other missions don't do this.
The only mode that I found kind of interesting was the akatsuki filler arc. Just the concept of me playing as deidara and blowing up all of the leaf ninja was really funny to me. However, after the first few missions, you realize your efforts are meaningless and the akatsuki never gets anywhere in the story and the characters are never actually affected by what the akatsuki does. For example, you fight naruto like 3 times. I blew him up with detonating clay every time, but he just keeps coming back seemingly unaffected. There just seems to be this disconnect between the gameplay and the akatsuki story which results in a net zero. Keep in mind, it is still just the same concept of "find an op jutsu and spam it and heal and regen if necessary". In my case, I just used clay birds and spiders from afar to blow up every enemy in this mode.
The same also goes for the survival mode. All you really do is fight bosses or hordes of enemies. Here, I just spammed sasuke's chidori which is more efficient for multiple enemies instead of neji's 8 trigrams 64 palms (more useful against singular bosses).
The battle mode is boring as well, because it's the same gameplay. Also, why are there only 18 characters? Jiraiya and Tsunade appear multiple times throughout mission mode, so why can't I play as them in battle mode? Where is Kurenai's squad and the rest of Asuma's squad? Again, I know that they weren't part of the arc, but neither were sai and sasuke and you can unlock them after the story. If anything, you should make them playable instead of the akatsuki and sasuke because then you would be able to use them in mission mode. The only positives I can say about this game is that it doesn't look bad for the psp, it's cool that they got the original voice actors, and it is fun to break.… Expand
