Published by Namco Bandai, Uzumaki Chronicles 2 follows the young, fiery, and fox-like Naruto, along with his companions, as they attempt to stop the Shirogane Clan from resurrecting their Master Puppet - the world-ending, "puppet of all puppets." Yikes. This game is, in the most basic sense, a standard beat-'em-up, where you run around and wail away on a bunch of enemy ninja with a handful of different characters. And while each character has a few combos and a couple special techniques that harness their chakra, there's really nothing more to this title than what you see in the first five minutes. And it took a little under ten hours to beat.
But before we open our onslaught of criticisms that will likely drown Naruto in a sea of bubbling angst, let's discuss the background of the game, as well as some of its better qualities (we like to stay positive!). As mentioned above, the game centers around one primary plot device: the reemergence of the Shirogane Clan, who once used shadowy puppets to wage war against the surrounding nations. Although it seemed as if they had completely died out, it turns out that their greatest success/mistake, the Master Puppet, was actually sealed away in five Spirit Orbs, awaiting the moment when it could be once again released upon the world. The story begins when the Shirogane Clan once again rises up to challenge the other nations in an attempt to revive their secret weapon and bring their brethren back to full power. You mainly take on the role of Naruto, a ninja youth from the Hidden Leaf Village, who is assigned to not only defend his homeland and assist the neighboring countries, but also put a stop to the puppet handlers once and for all.
We should clarify that when we say "puppet," we don't mean "sock-puppet." These are human-sized devices that serve as soldiers, which can be manipulated by a clan member from afar. And while the majority of the battles in this game involve these killer puppets, you'll battle a variety of different foes, though most of them don't stray too far from the "generic ninja design." The game is structured in a relatively straightforward manner. The meat of the game is contained within Story Mode, which is divided into ten chapters. Each chapter generally starts off at or near the Hidden Leaf Village where Naruto receives his briefing, levels up his stats, gears up, and heads out. Once you're on your way, you have the ability to select a point on a small world map, which will cause a tiny model of your character to run from point A to point B. During this migratory period, you can be interrupted by a random battle, which will transport you to a local environment where you square off against some baddies. Once you arrive at your destination (there's usually one main destination for each chapter), you enter it for another series of battles and cutscenes. That's all Story Mode is. There's no change to these core gameplay mechanics throughout the entire experience.
So what are those mechanics, you ask? When you enter into an actual environment, you can move around with the left stick and rotate the camera with the right. Pretty standard. Use square for weak attacks and triangle for strong ones. Circle puts your battle items to use, and X can execute your jump, flash jump, dash, and your Substitution Jutsu. Don't worry, for the most part, that single-button, multi-functionality works fine. Otherwise, R1 and R2 activate your special techniques, while L1 locks on to an enemy and L2 switches out your character. Yes, you do use a team of up to three people, but only one can be active at a time, and there are no team attacks to speak of. Bummer. Is it just us, or have team attacks not shown up in these sorts of games recently? We want more team attacks! Anyway, a friend can jump in during Story Mode and take control of another character while you fight, but the camera is so terrible, so dizzying, that we actually felt sick when playing. Literally. It was almost impossible to control.
When not engaging the Story mode, you can eventually unlock a pretty extensive list of extra Missions, which reward you with money (called Ryo) for purchasing items, Skill Chips and other goodies. Skill Chips are one of the more interesting elements in this game. They allow you to upgrade your character's abilities by placing the chips on the character's Skill Plate. By arranging the chips on the grid-like plate, you can endow your ninja with more techniques and better stats for combat. The idea is to find the best combination of the different-sized chips to place on the grid, in order to gain the maximum benefit.
Unfortunately, these extra missions are extremely repetitive, and only offer you the same sort of gameplay experiences that the Story Mode provides. So essentially it's just a Story Mode without the story.
There's also a Survival Mode, which is, alas, more of the same, and a two-player versus mode that delivers exactly what you'd expect. In other words, this is a simple game, one that may appear to have an impressive number of options, but ultimately lacks the variety that these sorts of titles need in order to break up the repetition. If only the Missions Mode gave you a more diversified list of objectives, and alternative mechanics to enjoy them with - we could have had a well-rounded experience.
But let's talk a little bit about what this game does right (it's a tragically short list). Something we noticed right away, surprisingly, is the game's music. It's quite good. Whether or not it adheres to the tradition of Naruto musical themes is irrelevant; Uzumaki Chronicles 2 has a cool, sometimes beautiful soundtrack, with a lot of flute, electric guitar and ninja kiai. Some of the tracks are terrible, indeed, but a good many of them (including some of the menu tracks) are a blast to listen to.
The only other positive element of this game is the Skill Plate and leveling systems, only because they offer the ability to upgrade your characters in whatever way you choose. Introducing RPG elements into a game of this type isn't a revolutionary idea, but it still works, and it can enrich the otherwise generic battles with a sense of accomplishment. For example, during combat, fallen enemies release little orbs of varying colors, the golden ones being orbs of Virtue. With this Virtue, you can upgrade the health, chakra, attack, defense, etc., of all the playable characters, creating much stronger warriors with which to do battle. And while there's no inherent reward for leveling up your characters, it does become a necessity later in the game as your foes grow in strength and number.
So now for the sea of angst.
Don't be fooled by the introductory cinematic (which is sadly our favorite part of the game). Uzumaki Chronicles 2 is in no way as cool as it's made out to be during that cinematic sequence. In fact, the intense, eastern-style ninja rock, coupled with flashing images of sweet anime action, made us want to play the game. But listen well: don't make this mistake! Uzumaki Chronicles 2 is, all in all: not good. The few positive qualities, which we tried so hard to mention above, do nothing to cover up the bad qualities that become apparent after only a few minutes into the game. And while we could go on for quite some time about these nasty traits, we'll present just a few of them in no particular order.
The game is flat-out boring, and beating up on these enemy ninja just isn't as satisfying as it should be. Worse still are the extremely poor, almost infuriating load times, as well as the frequency of such load times. We often found ourselves waiting five to ten seconds to move from one area to another. And just a few steps down the hall would lead to another loading point. It's simply unacceptable.
Another severe shortcoming of the game is it's absolutely horrendous dialogue. Not only was it unoriginal and uninteresting, but also something was seriously off, either in the original material or in the translation. For example, we were stunned to hear such lines as "there is not any other place they could be hiding," and "the next time we meet, I'll slice you up in eight different ways!" Oh yeah? Make it nine! And while these poor bits could technically be forgiven had they been nestled in much grander, more vividly presented scenarios, they shine clear as day in what could be some of the worst cutscenes we've seen in a long time. Obnoxiously awkward pauses litter the dialogue of Uzumaki Chronicles 2, almost as if they were intentional, and scenes that should take a few seconds drag out forever as you grind your teeth together in frustration. Just watch (if you dare) the first cutscene that opens the Story Mode, and you'll fully understand what poorly directed, poorly executed dialogue segments are all about.
Not even a fantastic plot could save this dialogue, and Uzumaki Chronicles 2 certainly doesn't have one. Uninspired and miraculously predictable, only one thing surprised me during the whole narrative, and it wasn't much of a surprise. If you have any experience with anime or videogames at all (which you should, since you're reading this article), you'll be able to see most of these plot points coming from a mile away. For a title that relies heavily on its narrative to encourage you to continue, this is a terrible flaw.