Naruto storm 3 is actually the 4th game in the storm series ( lol you would think there were three ) and about the 20th game in the ultimate ninja series lol. Its actually the 9th game in the ultimate ninja series. I have been in love with the series sense it first started on the PS2. In fact one of the main reasons I wanted a PS3 was because Naruto Storm was releasing on PS3 as an exclusive! I remember having so much fun playing Naruto Ultimate ninja with my friends. So its pretty clear I was excited to get this game. Although I didn't really like the previous game in the series, Naruto Generations because of the lack of any change and a lackluster story I was still hype to get this game. Perhaps I should have saw this coming, but I was very disappointed when I got to play this game. The story was mostly boring and a mess, Multiplayer was laggy and frustrating and the characters have been basically the same sense Storm 2 which released 3 years ago. And this is all coming from someone who loves the Naruto series.
In depth review
Single Player/ Story Mode:
In the beginning of the series when Storm 1 and 2 came out the story was clearly the highlight of the game, especially in Storm 1 because you were able to play as Naruto and free roam anywhere you want. However in Storm 2 they got rid of the free roaming and added a different way to navigate through out the world. Its like a restricted path way you would walk through to navigate through out the story.You can even interact with some of the surrounding environment. Even though this wasn't as fun as the free roaming in Storm 1 it still worked out and was enjoyable.
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| Storm 2's Story liked like this |
Storm 3 uses Storm 2's way of getting around in the story but with much smaller places to go and are sometimes uselessly added making them feel tedious and boring. Often times you will end up in a battle then walk down a 2 second long path and have to go into another battle. Instead of feeling like I have went into a different area it seems like a useless minute of just walking forward to get to the next battle. There is much less to interact with in Storm 3 then in Storm 2 and when you do interact with the environment you only find in game money called ryo. In previous games you can find rare collectibles to make special weapons. For some reason they decided to take that feature out which makes interacting with environments feel useless.
During the story you will play in battles often. Luckily this part of the story is actually entertaining and fun. This is because the combat system is the best the series has seen. There have been many changes sense generations fixing unbalanced characters ( Tenten and Onoki) and fixing the substitute recovery bar. The only thing is there are many battles that feel useless through out the story. Many of the battles aren't important to the story at all and seem to be added on just to make the story feel longer. It makes the story drag on and feel very boring and often pointless.( Like why do I have to battle Yamato 3 times for no reason!!!! ) This makes the important battles feel less fun sense you had to go through about 5 pointless battles just to get there. None the less the battles are pretty fun when they don't feel pointless. Also note that the game has added battles against multiple of opponents ( like 10 at a time ). This isn't a ground breaking addition to the series but the battles are pretty fun and actually do make sense in the story.
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| A battle scene in Storm 3 |
By far the best part of the story are the boss battles. These were introduced in the original Naruto Storm and have always been fun to play and watch. They are huge battles that make you think fast as you have to complete a series of quick time events to complete it.They look like they are straight out the anime at times. Storm 3 does not disappoint when it comes to the boss battles, as it has some of the best ones the series has seen. They are truly fun to play as the quick time events actually feel like you are influencing the battle as it goes on.This is defiantly the best part of a rather lackluster story. If you want to see one of the boss battles here is a video of one of my favorite battles from Storm 3 ( It starts at 3:20):
Also as a side note Storm 3 also adds a hero and legend choice. This choice only appears during special battles and will determine how hard the battle will be. After completing the battle it gives you points toward your legend xp or hero xp depending on which one you chose. This will only unlock items and seeing as I went though a whole playthrough without using a single item this is a pretty useless addition Also the story has a few side missions after the main story ends but most of these are fetch quest and aren't fun at all.
Even though the boss battles are extremely fun the rest of the story fails to be almost any fun at all. The roaming sequences feel pointless and are just boring. While the battles are fun to play, you'll quickly become bored after the many pointless battles the story makes you play to progress. All these features hold the story back and make it a long and boring mess. Unfortuantly the boss battles aren't even fun enough to make the story worth playing.
Multiplayer:
Naruto Storm 3's multiplayer is fun most of the time and very addicting to play. There are plenty of online features to get into like ranked battles, tournaments, survival, and player battles. The online features are great and let you have plenty of things to do. The battles usually run smoothly but often times I would be in a battle that was frustratingly laggy. Being in a laggy game is extremely frustrating and makes you feel like you are being cheated because the button inputs will be so delayed. Also note that most people online do not play fairly this isn't the games fault and did not effect the review score but it shows how unbalanced some characters are.
The game also has a local versus mode were you can play against your friends locally. The local battles are the same as online without the lag and also have a lot of the features that online has like verses mode tournaments.
Characters:
Perhaps the most anticipated thing in fighting games are the characters. Even though Naruto Storm 3 has the largest roster of characters to date do not be fooled, most of the characters are exactly the same as they were in storm 2. Same costume, same combos, same jutsu, and same ultimates. They have literally not changed at all. There are about 10-15 new characters that were added that weren't in the series before like the Jinjuriki but most are just imported from the last Naruto storms with no difference to them what so ever. I don't expect for them to add brand new combos and ultimates to each character but if the character is important to the anime then it should see some change. Just adding characters from past games with no change seems lazy of the developers and is very disappointing. Also there are some characters that are clearly unbalanced. The storm series is notorious for unbalanced characters sense with some you can spam one move and win the match. Storm 3 tried to fix it but still has many characters that are just way to over powered. I will give credit were it is due, I do think the new characters are well designed and the new ultimates are refreshing to watch. I just wish they could have done some slight changes to characters that have sense no change sense storm 2.
Also as a side note oddly some characters shown in the trailer and story mode for the game are not playable characters. Characters like the edo kages and the seven ninja swords man are oddly not added into the character roster. I don't know why the developers didn't add them sense they seem already programmed into the game.
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| Storm 3 character roster |
Graphics:
The Storm series have always looked good and Storm 3 is no exception. Storm 3 looks excellent from the actual gameplay to the amazing looking boss battles. The whole game looks like its straight from the anime. The characters pop off the screen and some of the new combos look really awesome.
Also as a side not the game has had a steady stream of DLC which is really cool. Even though there just costumes for characters I like the support. I'm happy to see the developers supporting the game after its release which they don't normally do.
The Result:
Unfortuantly Storm 3 just feels like a copy of Storm 2 with a slightly larger character roster. It fails to do anything different with series at all. I feel if the developers spent a little bit more time fixing the story and changing a few characters it would have been a good entry into the Storm series but because there are almost no changes to the game, it feels like a boring experience that not even the hardcore Naruto fans will enjoy.
I give it a 2 stars out of 5
Positives
+ Some new characters
+ Boss battles are really awesome
+ Cool DLC
+ Graphics are great
+ Better battle system
Negatives
- Boring story
- Tedious battles
- Boring side quest
- Laggy multiplayer
- Most Characters have been the same sense Storm 2!
- Unbalanced characters
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