Narrative Project - Game Review I: Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations.

In the story mode of Naruto Ninja Storm Generations, the player can pick between different tales/stories to play though.  These stories follow the events of the actual anime and manga, which the game is based off. I’m going to be focusing on one of the first stories which follows young Naruto’s journey from getting his ninja headband to participating in the Chunin exams to trying to save his friend Sasuke who wants to join the enemy in order to get stronger and defeat his brother. 

This storyline incorporates many of Booker’s defined storylines, such as the Tragedy; because Sasuke’s older brother killed all of their clan and family, Sasuke wishes to follow a path of revenge. Then, when Naruto surpasses Sasuke’s strength and growth rate Sasuke decides he must leave their village in order to gain power. Naruto doesn’t have the power to bring him back. Also, earlier on in the game, the village’s leader is killed in battle, landing a huge blow to everyone living there.

The death of the village leader, Sarutobi Hiruzen, landed a huge blow to the people of the village.
 The emotional and physical turmoil created by his death drives part of the story forwards.

This also links into ‘Overcoming the Monster’. The village leader died due to Orochimaru, a defective ninja, launching an attack on the village. The village leader sacrificed himself in order to save the rest of the village. The evil, Orochimaru, survives however and becomes one of the main villains in this story arc, along with the Akatsuki, a syndicate after the power sealed within Naruto. They each have to be defeated once, with the player using different characters from the village to do this following the plot of the anime. In a more emotional sense, Naruto also tries to overcome the monster in Sasuke by forming a close bond of friendship in order to try and purge the vengeance from him.

Sasuke chooses to sever his bonds of friendship, instead choosing the path of revenge and losing himself to
this monster, aswell as to Orochimaru.

Because the storyline just follows the plot of the anime, it immerses the player in the game on the assumption that they are huge Naruto fans and want to re-live the events within Naruto’s life. To an extent, this works. The clips from the anime transition into stills with a voice-over giving the player a quick overview of the story, with battles inbetween to keep them interested and engaged in the game. However, this back and forth between voiced scenes and a battle gets monotonous and predictable. Yes, the story is intricate and it’s interesting to watch some memorable scenes from the anime. Sometimes these even have a very small twist so that they fit into the game better, but overall the story mode isn’t well explained enough for people who have never watched Naruto before, and for those that have it’s just like a shortened version of the anime but with a bit of interactivity laced in. So whilst the narrative does make the game fun and interesting, it gets a little boring and tedious after a couple of hours. I think if it added extra content into the game, like new side missions created just for the game, it would be a lot more immersive.

Animated scenes play out parts of the anime.

Afterwhich, there are a number of stills with text and a voice-over to carry the rest of the story.

Between these stills are battles for the player to fight, making the game interactive.