In Naruto: The Broken Bond I saw Neji, Shikmaru, and Naruto use some of their signature moves. However, they weren’t using them in the heat of battle. When Naruto senses danger white lines appear above his head. This warning is an indicator for players to switch to an ally like Neji. After Neji activates his Byakugan the screen changes colors into shades of blue and dangerous explosive tags are illuminated. Later in the level Naruto solves a puzzle by using shadow clones to build a human bridge while Shikimaru flips a switch by controlling his shadow.
I spotted a few original characters not created by Viz in the mission so I asked Ceri Young, Script Writer of Naruto: The Broken Bond, about them and how they fit into the game. Young explained, “This part of the story is about Naruto and his friends and they’re going after Sasuke. We wanted to give you a sense of who those friends are. So, we’re using these original missions we created to explore the friendship and explore the new characters. We work very closely with Viz and Shueisha to make sure that these are true to the characters. Everything we do goes by them.“ Naturally, the next question is if we get to play as any of the original characters to which Young quickly replied, “No, not the original characters. Mostly the original missions we’ve done involves the main characters from the story.”
Naruto: The Broken Bond has its fair share of combat too, but the epic fights in story missions are quite different from an online battle. You can’t just punch Kaubto’s lights out. No matter how many Naruto Barrages you do Kabuto won’t die. He just heals himself. The only way to finish him off is by using the incomplete Rasengan technique which leads right into the Sannin Fight.
Last year Naruto: Rise of a Ninja dazzled with its visuals. This year Ubisoft faces fierce competition from Namco Bandai who plans to release Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm around the same time. Young isn’t afraid to complement the competition when she said, “They’ve actually done a very good looking game. Our games are very, very different. They are focusing more on the fighting and we’re focusing more on the adventure mode, but we still do have a strong fighting mode. I think if you have a PS3 and if you have an Xbox 360 you really need to get both because they really are completely different.”
Images courtesy of Ubisoft.
