From the Top — NARUTO SHIPPUDEN Ultimate Ninja STORM 4: Road to Boruto

Welcome back for one last time to my meandering through the first four titles in the Ultimate Ninja Storm series, where we have successfully followed the lonely orphan, Naruto, on his journey to self-realisation and acceptance. Though the last game left me on a bit of a low note, there is still hope, as we have one last stop! Before that, however, if this is your first time joining us, I recommend catching up on the earlier instalments, as this is pretty much the conclusion of four games and about eight years.

I was originally going to skip over the Road to Boruto expansion, as I’ve never quite connected with little Bolt (aka Boruto) in the same way I enjoyed Naruto’s journey. However, my colleague let slip that this additional chapter was actually closer to the earlier games’ style of free-form adventure, so I took it upon myself to give it a shot in the hopes of ending this journey on a more positive note. Oh, how naive I was.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN Ultimate Ninja STORM 4: Road to Boruto follows along with the animated film of the same name, taking place about fifteen years after the battle against Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. Our beloved bumbler, Naruto, is now just over 30, head honcho in the Hidden Leaf Village, and happily married. As he is much too busy for shenanigans, the story instead focuses on his firstborn son, Boruto, who is cross because the ninja-president doesn’t want to hang out with his son… or something; the plot lost me quite quickly. People from the moon are here and want to eat a magic fruit; Sasuke and Naruto are simultaneously the most powerful people in the world, but keep getting punted like kickballs; and the world now has wrist-mounted scroll guns that let anyone use advanced jutsu. It’s a lot.

Happily, the game starts off promisingly! We take control of Boruto, and after a small tutorial fight, we are set loose on the streets of the new-and-improved Konoha. I will admit, the game does make it feel lived in, with plenty of characters wandering around and things to see. After a few steps, I was randomly accosted by Sakura’s daughter, Sarada, who wanted to have a friendly bout. OK, fair enough. The weird thing is, however, that I can select any unlocked character to use in this match… including Six-Paths Naruto. The fight didn’t last long.

This odd encounter was, sadly, a sign of things to come. As I continued on, more random encounters popped up, either asking for resources or wanting to tussle, and I received a few inconsequential side quests. Regardless of the slightly tedious content, I was still excited to see where the plot was going, as there seemed to be plenty of it! I had been playing for just over an hour and had only unlocked two of the 10 major side tasks. Boruto met Sasuke and became enthralled by his cold demeanour, as many fans were, and accepted an experimental (and controversial) ninja tool from a scientist who honestly looked like he was in the wrong anime.

The plot picks up exponentially during the Chūnin exams, where Boruto is disqualified by his father due to using technology instead of magic! The forthcoming lecture from Naruto is cut short, however, as the Otsutsuki (the aforementioned moon people) invade. A quick sidenote, I wonder if the Naruto universe considers the Chūnin exams cursed, as bad things tend to happen around them? Anyway, our heroes fight the lunar invaders and manage to push them back in a few very impressive animated scenes. The extraterrestrial enemies take umbrage with being beaten, however, forcing the Seventh Hokage to tank a massive explosion, seemingly perishing during the fight.

What I assume was supposed to be a sombre scene in the film is cut short, however, as Sasuke basically says, “nah, he’s alive. Let’s go”, and… we’re in the final fight of the expansion? Yes, despite unlocking only a few side tasks and seemingly having plenty to do, the main plot is very short indeed, consisting of a handful of fights and a few cutscenes. Our heroes win, Boruto and his dad make amends, and the stage is set for the start of the Boruto series itself. I assume I’m supposed to keep working on the optional content after the final fight, but I was honestly pretty fed up at this point, so I decided to finally hang up my headband and call it quits.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN Ultimate Ninja STORM 4: Road to Boruto felt like a slightly improved version of the base game’s Adventure mode. The missions are pretty disjointed and inconsequential, the areas themselves are only small explorable areas instead of an open-world map to explore, and it honestly just felt like a lot of busy work. Maybe I’m being a bit unfair to the expansion, but I was hoping for a lot more, even though it does take a few steps in the right direction.

In conclusion, Road to Boruto was a bit of a letdown. Yes, it did have more of what I wanted to see and presented a few amazing cutscenes, but it was marred by the general busywork and lacklustre feel of the whole. Funnily enough, this is how many people seemingly felt by the continuation of the Naruto story in general, so maybe it is fitting. In any case, here ends my journey through a classic series.

You may think it's sad that we end on a note like this, and it can be a bit disheartening. However, the whole idea of this series is to follow along a franchise and see how it evolves and changes in response to the world and advances around it, be it good or bad! Yes, I found the last few entries to be more and more lacklustre, but I also got to see and understand how the mechanics came to be. I can definitely see what the developers were attempting, and am still glad I took on this project. Thank you, then, for sticking with me. I look forward to seeing you again whenever I find another series to obsess over and take From the Top.