There are a lot of Naruto Games out there, though there have been few that have strayed away from the Fighting Game genre. This time around Tomy introduces Naruto Dragon Blade Chronicles for the Wii, featuring a 3rd Person Action game.
How does this game compare to other Naruto games? Full review and video review after the break.
Story
The game is very story driven, as it almost feels like one of the various Naruto Movies. The story takes place right around the Itachi Pursuit Arc, though it departs from the real storyline. Essentially one of the last ancient Dragon Guardians: Kuroma is attempting to release the legendary Genryu (Elemental Dragons) for revenge. His sister Akari has fled to Konoha looking for help. It’s up Naruto and crew to travel to Mount Konryu to try to stop him. Though it’s not just the Konoha Ninja’s that are heading that way. Both the Akatsuki and Hebi clans are also going, each with their own purposes.
Gameplay
As mentioned above the series departs largely from the established gaming styles of Naruto. Generally most games either feature a Fighting Game style or Sandbox with RPG/Fighting Game elements. This time around Tomy introduces a 3rd Person Action game. I have to say I was pretty excited about this, I feel the Naruto series could really adapt to that style. Though the game does a poor job at implementing it.
Gameplay mostly consists of light exploration mixed with heavy combat. Each room you enter there are a grip of baddies spawned. On occasion they pull a Devil May Cry and seal off the area until you defeat each baddie. As you’re exploring you will find treasure chests containing various Special Move Scrolls. On occasion the special moves are used to get to new areas. For example there is a Mud Wall Scroll, this allows you to create a Mud Wall that you can jump on to reach higher areas. Unfortunately this goes largely unused as the exploration if very limited.
Large portions of the game revolves around combat. Early on in the game it’s explained that the area you are fighting in effects your Chakra. To fix this you have specialized outfits but have limited Chakra to play with. The combat is mostly fighting with light on Special Moves. There is a combo system but it doesn’t feel much like there is any purpose to it. As most of the combat consists of spamming the attack button and just trying not to get hit from the baddies. You do however get to play as both Naruto and Sasuke. I myself preferred Sasuke cause he was much faster.
Graphics
Well first off the game is on the Wii. So going in I wasn’t expecting much. The intro is actually a Anime opening featuring all the characters. The actual engine isn’t to bad. The close ups look pretty good for Wii standards. Though there was a lot of problems with the Game slowing down. Often times during combat the game engine would slow to a crawl.
Sound
The game features full Dialogue form the English voice actors. While this wasn’t my cup of tea it’s executed very well. Though during the dialogue sequences you couldn’t move the conversation along you could only skip the entire scene all together. Which meant sitting through a huge amounts of story. The music wasn’t to bad either, my wife mentioned it reminding her of Fzero GX. I tend to agree it’s very Rock with light on the Naruto music elements.
Overall
I’ve played a lot of Naruto games in my time, this game certainly was one of the worsts. I wouldn’t recommend it for the average gamer though I could see a much younger audience perhaps enjoying it.