Tuesday 03 Feb 2009

When Ubisoft released Naruto: Rise of a Ninja for the Xbox 360 in 2007, it was a pleasant and welcome surprise. Rise of a Ninja was the first Naruto game to really venture beyond the borders of the fighting genre, and instead provided a light but engaging action-adventure experience that stood out as one of those rarest of gaming specimens: a licensed game that was actually good.

Available exclusively on the Xbox 360, Naruto: The Broken Bond is the direct sequel to Rise of a Ninja. The second part in what is presumably a trilogy, it follows the same design structure as its predecessor, while also introducing some notable changes and adjustments. Unfortunately, these changes are a bit of a mixed bag, and the end result is that while The Broken Bond does shine in many respects, it is just not as consistently charming as Rise of a Ninja.

Meandering plot

Similar to Rise of a Ninja, The Broken Bond tells the same Naruto story as the anime and manga series. Whereas the first game covered episodes 01 to 80, this one covers the main story arcs of episodes 81 to 135. Fans of the series will already be intimately familiar with the entire narrative, and will find no surprises here. Despite covering such an extensive portion of the series, the developers have done a great job of fitting the story into the game’s length. I have not watched a single episode of the series, nor read the manga, but I found no difficulty in keeping up. It should, however, be pointed out that players unfamiliar with the source material should at least have played the previous game before tackling The Broken Bond, as otherwise much of the plot will be completely mystifying to them.

In some respects, The Broken Bond does a better job at telling the Naruto story as Rise of a Ninja did. In the first game, many of the cut-scenes consisted of edited clips taken straight from the anime series. This made the story presentation a bit jarring, as the video quality of these clips was not up to par with that of the rest of the game. This time around, all cut-scenes are rendered in the game engine, making for a far more consistent presentation.

It’s not all good, though. The first game kept its focus on the primary story arc of the series, and the result was an excellently paced and clear narrative. Here, however, the developers took the misstep of trying to include subplots from the series that aren’t necessary. The result is an uneven and clumsily paced narrative. The story starts off very well with an explosive and immediately engaging opening, but then veers off for six or seven hours of one inane side-plot after another, completely ignoring the central story. Towards the end, though, it manages to get on-track again, with a stunning culmination that will have most players on the edge of their seat. There is a major cliff-hanger ending, and hopefully there will be another game soon enough that will conclude the central plot. The central story here is good – darker and more fleshed-out than that of the previous game – but it’s unfortunate that they didn’t keep it focussed and streamlined.

Party game

The Broken Bond plays very much like Rise of a Ninja did. The game still follows a mission-based approach, with Naruto navigating large, open and detailed environments, with a focus on light but fun platforming, exploration and puzzle solving. This time around, however, the developers have opted for a party-based system where Naruto is usually accompanied by one or two of his friends. The special abilities (known as jutsu) are still present, but this time around players will get to use those of not only Naruto, but his friends as well. The result is that navigating the game world has been made a little bit more complicated, with many obstacles requiring the special abilities of multiple characters. It’s a fun and involving system, and definitely a step forward from that of the previous game.

Virtually all of the abilities from Rise of a Ninja make a return, but many are now simpler to use. Running on water or up vertical surfaces no longer require their respective jutsu to be performed at first. Tree-jumping has also been simplified and made a little easier. The developers clearly realised that players no longer wanted the same challenges as in the previous game, and the approach works well. The Broken Bond features even more collectibles than the first game, so players who enjoy exploring Naruto’s world will find lots of incentive to do so. As in the previous game, the Hidden Leaf Village has been expertly realised and brought to life, providing lots of exploration opportunities.

The game world seems quite a bit larger this time around, and the paths have been made more complex through the addition of specific puzzles and obstacles. Making one’s way through this world en route to a mission objective is fun… the first time. Unfortunately, players will traverse the same areas many, many times, and will have to overcome the same obstacles and deal with the same puzzles many times over. What makes it worse is that many of the obstacles are of such a nature that they can only be passed later in the game, and that not all obstacles are shown on the world map. Players will find it quite hard to plan a route to get to a mission objective, and will more often than not find themselves struggling by getting lost or doing too much backtracking. It really is unfortunate, as the core gameplay to be found here is very good. But the design and execution just make for a bit too much tedium and repetition. The design of the main missions could’ve also used a bit more variety and freshness; instead, players will find themselves doing more than their fair share of fetch-quests.

The sheer number of collectibles and optional challenges to be found in the game world will provide more than enough replay value for most gamers. A regular play-through of the story mode can take between 15 and 20 hours, which makes The Broken Bond roughly double the length of Rise of a Ninja. However, the repetition in the mission structure and the often unfocussed plot made the game feel just a bit too long for me – the developers could really have adopted a more economical design approach.

Kung Fu Fighting

The combat system again takes the form of that of a fighting game, with encounters taking place in a fighting stage, instead of the game world. The robust system to be found here offers a generous helping of combos and jutsu abilities, with moves pulled off in a cinematic fashion that sometimes makes it looks like players are watching an anime series. While it’s not going to rival SoulCalibur or Virtua Fighter, the combat system is quite a bit deeper and more complex than what one would usually find in an action-adventure game, and offers plenty of satisfying fighting fun.

As with the rest of the gameplay, the fighting system benefits from the party system. During combat, other characters in the party can be tagged into the fight. Doing so at the right time result in rather spectacular and damaging combos pulled off by two characters in tandem.

The enemy design could’ve used some work, though. While bosses and mini-bosses tend to provide unique challenges with regard to their fighting styles and available moves and abilities, the regular enemies are monotonous in their design, meaning that much of the fighting encounters become repetitive during the later parts of the game.

In a great design move that carries over from Rise of a Ninja, the fighting system is available as an independent game mode from the main menu. Players in the mood for a bit of light fighting action can access this mode at any time, playing it as one would play a fighting game. The mode ships with a very generous number of stages and characters, far more so than in Rise of a Ninja, of which most are unlocked by playing through the game’s regular story mode. Allowing for local two-player games, The Broken Bond is a great time waster when friends are over, and online versus play is also available.

Charming presentation

Like Rise of a Ninja, the presentation is again quite impressive. The colourful, vibrant graphics still make for some of the best use of celshading that we have seen, and the framerate is smooth as silk. The English voice acting can get a little grating at times (particularly that of Naruto himself), but fortunately the game ships with a Japanese language track that is far easier on the ears.

Overall, fans of Rise of a Ninja will find The Broken Bond to be a worthy but flawed follow-up. There’s quite a bit of quality gaming to be found here, but unfortunately the design flaws can get in the way more frequently than they should. While I wouldn’t advise anyone other than the most ardent Naruto fans to pay full price for it, gamers looking for a charming and enjoyable action-adventure game might be pleasantly surprised by what’s on offer here, provided they’re willing to tolerate some frustration.

Pros: Charming presentation; gameplay makes great use of different characters and their abilities; fun fighting mode.

Cons: Unfocussed and meandering plot; repetitive use of environments; uninteresting mission structures.

Rating:
Contributor:	Mark

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