From the Top: NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: Ultimate Ninja STORM 3 Full Burst HD

Welcome back to my obstinate journey through the wonderful world of NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM. Fuelled by both nostalgia and obsessive curiosity, I'm here to see how the series progresses, evolves, and to simply learn what it's all about! If this is your first time reading, I recommend delving into the earlier entries as well, as I will be referring to the other titles in the franchise.

The previous title ended on a high note, with our lovable protagonist, Naruto, defeating the Six Paths of Pain, talking the erstwhile big bad into bringing everyone that died during the attack on Konoha, and finally being recognised by the very villagers he fought so hard to protect. Ultimate Ninja STORM 3 picks up pretty much instantly, as the ninja world is slowly reacting to the threat of the Akatsuki and their new leader.

The game sets itself apart very quickly as we play through a tutorial set in a flashback: controlling both the Fourth and Fifth Hokage, we are introduced to a new system of “difficulty”. In certain key moments, the player is given a choice between the Hero path and the considerably harder Legend path. Though the choice won’t really change much in terms of the story, the paths may have unique dialogues, mechanics, or even battles to experience. Thankfully, you can always replay the other path later, so you don’t have to worry about missing out.

In addition to this, we’re also introduced to the first large-scale boss of the game, fought against the nine-tailed beast itself. In this battle, we have to dodge attacks and rally our troops as Hiruzen tries to fight the raging demon. The scale and animation on display are very impressive, and it seems Ultimate Ninja STORM 3 hit the ground running in terms of presentation!

Now, after fighting through both encounters (acting as a general tutorial), the game proper begins as we join Naturo et al. recovering from the fight with Pain. Much like the previous title, we are free to roam around Konoha, though this time, the whole map has been rendered in-game instead of a mix of rendered content and still images. It looks great and the ongoing construction adds a nice flair of continuity from the previous events.

The first few moments are comfortably familiar as we go through the usual rigmarole of setting the scene and getting to grips with the gameplay, helping around the village. At first glance, very little has changed in addition to a simplified Substitution (aka dodging) mechanic in battles, which I always had trouble with. Ultimate Ninja STORM 3, however, quickly goes in a very different direction as we near the start of the Fourth Shinobi World War: horde combat.

Yes, taking an apparent leaf (pun intended) out of Dynasty Warriors’ book, we suddenly find ourselves playing as Sasuke, who is invading the meeting of the five Kage. We take on multiple grunts and some stronger enemies while using the familiar fighting style of the game in a new space. Sure, the amount of enemies is seldom more than a handful, but the shift in genre and mechanics is a surprise, though not a bad one. The combat is simple and over much too soon, but it does raise my hopes for further dalliances into other genres!

After Sasuke is done being edgy, we return to the more common gameplay of exploring the Ninja World and taking on missions… though I do feel like there's something a bit off. After a few plot beats concerning Madara’s apparent return and the setting of the stage for the upcoming war, we very quickly seem to be locked into a never-ending spiral of plot! Naruto sets off to a moving island to train with Killer B (from which we are not allowed to leave, naturally), after which we basically jump into the middle of the large-scale battles going on; I never even finished the first quest I got!

To its credit, however, the game does a flabbergastingly amazing job at reanimating some of the pivotal moments in Naruto Shippuden. The models are surprisingly emotive and the devs have managed to add some emphasis and weight to quite a few scenes. The meeting between Naruto and Kushina, for example, had me choking up.

As Naruto settles into training with his newfound powers, the rest of the Shinobi world prepares for war against “Madara”, who aims to capture Naruto and extract the Kyūbi from within. Surprisingly, this is where Ultimate Ninja STORM 3 shifts gameplay again, though only slightly. Shifting the playable character to Shikaku Nara, we are suddenly tasked with overseeing the Great Ninja War.

Taking place in small segments, we are given the choice of the different squads taking part in the many theatres of the conflict, each with their own characters to play and enemies to face. After each battle, the overview of the war as a whole would be updated and we could pick another group's fight to play out. This seemed like a very cool idea, as it gave some gravitas to the whole situation… though I do wonder how much freedom I actually had.

After the first mission, where I picked some familiar faces, I decided to go for a group with some more obscure characters I couldn’t really recall, only to be shown a small text window explaining the squad's situation without any playable content. It is possible this section was much more linear than I thought, though it is hard to prove without playing through again.

Regardless, the war goes on, and we finally jump back to Naruto as he starts to suspect something is amiss upon being told to not leave the special training cave he is in. Being the menace he is, he immediately leaves and realises what's going on and rushes to join the fray, also throwing us into, pretty much, the endgame.

The last few missions consist of taking on Madara with the Five Kage and fighting Obito with Naruto and Killer B. Both battles are visually spectacular, with the Madara conflict featuring an honest-to-goodness flying section of sorts, which I was not expecting. However, the bouts themselves were somewhat plain, relying more on gimmicks than what I’d call fair combat.

Bizarrely, this is where the game ends. Madara and Tobi are fought off, everyone returns to Konoha, and Naruto gets called a cool guy or something. I’m a bit hazy on the Naruto Shippuden anime itself, but I’m pretty sure this never happened, and it felt very abrupt. Sasuke’s storyline seemed to peter out entirely, and I am again left wondering how the developers mean to drag out the final moments of the story into a full game… they have done it before, so maybe my doubt is misplaced. I certainly hope so!

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja STORM 3 is an odd stop in this journey: where the leap from NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM to NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: Ultimate Ninja STORM 2 was a clear and all-around upgrade… I felt this was somewhat messy. I can not deny that the level of animation has improved sharply, and the QTE-ridden cutscenes are fantastic, to say the least. The new Substitution mechanic is much better and gameplay in general felt smoother and more dynamic… but in terms of the single-player content, the reason I’m here, I cannot say this was a good direction.

Featuring a few too many new gameplay modes that were soon forgotten, the game felt very confused on what it wanted to do. Sure, the horde sections were fun, and the Legend/Hero splits in missions added some variety and replayability, but there was very little in terms of exploration or adventure; we just went from mission to mission, cutscene to cutscene. I recall having a mission from the start of the game that I was unable to complete after my first session, as I never seemed to return to Konoha.

Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed playing through NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: Ultimate Ninja STORM 3 Full Burst HD, but I am concerned about the direction we are heading. I very much enjoyed the exploration aspects in the previous games and would be sad to see them go! I’m also wondering how well the game can stretch the remaining content. There is potential to dive deeper into the many alternate realities of the Infinite Tsukuyomi and maybe give some of the other characters some room to shine. If nothing else, I just hope they keep up the amazing animation.

Join me next time as we finish up this journey by jumping in the final game I’m looking at, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: Ultimate Ninja STORM 4 Full Burst HD!