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Review
Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2

Role playing games and I don’t always get along, especially the Final Fantasy-style RPGs with the side view turn-based battles and endless levelling up. Because Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 is an RPG, I was hesitant to play it even though it involves one of my absolute favourite anime series ever.

While I didn’t end up hating the experience, I found that the overall game could have used a bit more polish. The story is akin to one of the many filler arcs in the anime. A group of baddies is attempting to control a spirit creature that releases the hate in everyone. One of the villagers escapes with a component to trap the creature and your job as Naruto is to recruit a group of ninja to help seal the beast away forever.

The game is very reminiscent of RPGs of the 16-bit era of gaming. Both graphically and aurally, memories of Super Nintendo revealed themselves, resulting in nostalgic experience. It’s rare that a new game can do this, and this is part of the allure of Path of the Ninja 2. While there are plenty of challenges, it’s really only time that stands between the start and finish of the game. The simple interface allows players to easily roam the countryside, and there are certainly enough gimmicks to make the experience a bit different than average fare (yelling things into the microphone, and side-scrolling fast-paced platformer-like levels that act as a transition between regular countryside roaming and city exploration).

The combat system is also fairly decent. Placement affects your attack/defence and there are a lot of playable characters. Most of the random monster encounters can be easily dealt with using your standard attack, but when the boss battles appear you’d best start to utilize strategy. Even during combat, the touch screen is used to charge some of the special attacks (for maximum damage!) and also to allow players to perform counter attacks.

Path of the Ninja 2 is probably the most fun for Naruto fans. To anyone else, it might appear to be nothing more than a standard RPG. Wi-fi battles enable the use of a player’s developed party (with collectable weapons and attribute modifiers to help beef up the team) to take on other people, which is a fairly good game extending experience.

One flaw I must have to point out is the lack of means for fast-forwarding dialogue during conversations and skipping animations of techniques during battles. This sort of thing really weighs the game down and takes away from what could be a fun jaunt for a few hours.

Posted in DS, Reviews |