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The Lowdown
Pros: Something that fans of the series and RPG lovers will enjoy
Cons: Won't appeal to gamers who already have a distaste for even the
shortest RPGs
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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When you mix one of Japan's top watched anime series and Japan's
favorite video game genre you already know you have a top selling video
game. Even though the days of when every franchise had their own "rpg"
game has been passed Tomy has decided to resurrect this idea and create
a Naruto RPG. Not even half a year since the last Naruto Game Boy game
and only two months before the highly anticipated Naruto Narutimett Hero
2 comes out, Naruto: Uketsugareshi Hi no Ishi (aka Naruto RPG) hits the
shelves. We know Tomy is going to make a truck load of money from this
game not only because of the franchise and the genre choice, but because
it a polished well executed game.Naruto RPG is a very traditional
RPG. There are no innovative leveling up mechanisms, there is no
"training" and there are no classes. On the one hand this is Naruto
RPG's greatest weakness, since it will only appeal to gamers who can sit
through a traditional RPG. Even though the game clocks in about a twenty
hour play through fans of the series who can't stand an RPG won't even
make through half of the game's life span. When I say Naruto RPG is
traditional I mean it goes back to the roots of console RPGs, which go
back to the Super NES and NES. To put it simply expect to do a lot of
walking, a lot of leveling up and a lot of random enemy encounters.
Battling random enemies is something that is part of every RPG, even
more so in Naruto RPG. The random encounter frequency is high compared
to more modern RPGs like Final Fantasy X-2. Expect to engage in a battle
every 15 steps or so. All these random battles are essential because
enemies get exponential stronger than you. You'll need to spend time
finding random enemies so you can level your characters up enough to
complete an area. The leveling up system is simple stuff. You gain a
level and your stats like strength, defense and so forth go up. Most
justus, the equivalent of both magic and special abilities, are learned
just by increasing your characters' levels. The only thing that
experience points don't add to is the strength of a particular jutsu.
Characters can increase the level of some of their techniques by using
them frequently in battle.
The battle system is rather primitive. You have the most basic
commands: Strike (i.e. fight), guard, jutsu (magic), use, and run. The
system is turn based and the order of the turns is shown on the right
hand side. The characters names move up the bar from the bottom to the
yellow area. When they just touch the yellow area they get their turn.
If you choose a basic command like fight or defend your turn will
instantly happen. If you do a jutsu you'll need time to charge it. Your
character will move up the yellow area and will unleash the jutsu when
they reach the red bar. Many familiar jutsus and some new ones are in
the game. Sakura easily becomes one of the most useful characters
because she can cure, cast the grand fireball attack and use a water
attack that can hit all the enemies. Naruto has his traditional Kage no
Bushin jutsu, where he makes clones of himself. These clones give Naruto
extra attacks each round. Sasuke starts out using fire attacks and
eventually get the powers of the Sharingian. There are some nifty nods
to the Naruto series within the battle that fans will like. Instead of
seeing a "miss" when enemies miss you, your characters will turn in to a
log. Another really cool thing is instead of just making a flash on the
screen critical attacks compromise of two characters attacking in sync.
You can also perform team jutsu attacks. If you do Sakura's Inner Sakura
jutsu and then Naurto's fart attack, the attack will change from
poisoning one enemy to all enemies.
The story of Naruto RPG follows the Naruto series, even though it
doesn't seem like it at the beginning. You'll get to see Kakashi (the
three ninja's sensei) train Naruto and his team. You'll also see many
familiar fights that were in the TV show and get to play them out. The
story progress through missions, that the ninja team must endure.
Missions are given out by the Hokage, the leader of Leaf Village. Once a
mission is completed you go back and talk to the Hokage and then the
next mission begins. At the start of the game players who even have
knowledge of Japanese can find the first mission extremely frustrating.
If you can sit through a bit of confusion, the mission system works
pretty well. By your fourth mission you'll be entering the Haku-Zabuza
saga.
The graphics in Naruto RPG are well done. The graphical designers
managed to capture almost all of the important characters in the series.
They made full sprite sets and a picture box for when they talk. The
battle backgrounds look cool too. Even though there isn't a wide variety
of backgrounds to fight on the ones that they have look great. The music
is also pretty good. Most notably the background music during battles,
which is an original score that is inspired from the anime soundtrack.
Naruto RPG is an excellent example of an RPG that makes good use of
the Game Boy Advance hardware. Even though the game doesn't dare stray
from the RPG formula, what it does it does great.
If you haven't been following the series you will need to be fluent
to get the story. Even if you have been following the series the game
has so much text that you will need a high level of Japanese or a
complete FAQ to play through it.
US Bound?
Licensing issues pose the greatest threat for this game not to be
released in the US.
Overall
Naruto RPG is a game for those that like or love RPGs. It's also designed for fans
of the series to enjoy. If you meet both of these qualifications don't hesitate to pick it up
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