Naruto PS3

[TVC15]

Well, I like the way it plays, but I'm not thrilled with the visuals.  For how much it visually gets better than the 360 game (textures, lighting), it seems to get a lot wrong (fade in, SEVERE aliasing on black lines).  Aliasing is the most annoying graphical problem, and being in a cell-shaded-ish game amplifies the problem.

As far as the play goes, it sorta resembles the 360 version, although the battle system is a smidge different.  I only put about an hour in, but overall I'm pretty happy with my purchase, although I'm not so happy about playing through the fucking naruto origin again, although it's not fair to blame that on the game.

[Van Cruncheon]

the naruto origin is thankfully truncated and confined to the tutorial missions. i kinda like the tree jumping/climbing missions, and the fighting is spectacular, but OI i hate collecting shit in it compared to the 360 game.

[drohne]

yeah, demo would've looked great with some aa, at least for intro poses and stuff -- jaggies really kill the effect of the cel shading. was hoping they'd fix that for the final release. kinda fun though...might rent it at some point

[maxy]

GT gave it 7.5
Nobody cares about Naruto

[cool breeze]

yeah, demo would've looked great with some aa, at least for intro poses and stuff -- jaggies really kill the effect of the cel shading. was hoping they'd fix that for the final release. kinda fun though...might rent it at some point

yeah, I was hoping it would have been fixed by final.  I still say it's the best cel shading in game and when moving around it isn't that apparent, but during the cutscenes (which look awesome) they start to become really noticeable.  My only worries are that every character plays exactly the same since the two in the demo did, and other than that I thought it was a fun demo.

And right now I'm thinking I will pass on the 360 sequel since the demo reminded me too much of the first 360 game with barely any fixes and I'm not sure I really want to play more of a game in that style.  Maybe if there are more impressions I would check it out when it's cheap but I still hated the combat and unresponsive platforming.

[MrAngryFace]

I also think the animation is better, but yeah, fade in but the jaggies arent THAT bad

[Smooth Groove]

 

So Naruto ain't that great either?  Now I don't know if I should go with R2 or Naruto. 

[MrAngryFace]

I want to be honest with some people here, why does Naruto suddenly get interest? These games have NEVER been above a 7.5 in quality. The Dragon Ball Z games ever fare worse. To actually enjoy these games you have to be a fan of the show. Hell I am a fan of anime in general and that only took me so far.

There isn't some magical 9.0+ Naruto or Dragon Ball Z game out there.

[Smooth Groove]

I want to be honest with some people here, why does Naruto suddenly get interest?

Well, Naruto got a lot of hype about its graphics.  You know how much of a graphics whore I am!

[MrAngryFace]

Its some of the best cel shading, but to be honest I found the .Hack GU games much more impressive

[Smooth Groove]

WTF, PS3 graphics can't even live up to the standards set by 2nd tier PS2 games?

[MrAngryFace]

If .Hack GU was hi def omg...looks good upscaled

[Jansen]

1080p support? trophies? online?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I already know there isn't online. which is lolz for a fighting game being released these days.

[close]

and the aliasing is bad.

[dark1x]

The game doesn't interest me in the slightest, but I still think it's the most impressive example of cell shading to date (despite the image quality being a tad rough).  It's all in the animation and incredible use of motion blur.  I would love to see these techniques used in a more interesting game.  I can only imagine how much more awesome Tales of Vesperia could have been had it visuals of this quality (ToV LOOKS nice, but is very stiff in motion).

[TVC15]

1080p support? trophies? online?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I already know there isn't online. which is lolz for a fighting game being released these days.

[close]

and the aliasing is bad.

No 1080 i or p support.  No idea about online or trophies.

[Don Flamenco]

I want to be honest with some people here, why does Naruto suddenly get interest? These games have NEVER been above a 7.5 in quality. The Dragon Ball Z games ever fare worse. To actually enjoy these games you have to be a fan of the show. Hell I am a fan of anime in general and that only took me so far.

There isn't some magical 9.0+ Naruto or Dragon Ball Z game out there.

I haven't watched a single episode of naruto, but I picked up the 360 game for $10, just to see the graphics.  The gameplay is good enough, though sparse.

[Smooth Groove]

I picked up 360 Naruto 'cause TVC recommended it.  I haven't tried it though. 

From what I understand, the 360 game is more of adventurer while the PS3 game is mostly a fighter?

[cool breeze]

360 game is like a mix of adventure, platformer, and fighter.  I thought it was pretty bad at all three, but some people enjoyed it more.  It probably has the worst camera so far this gen (seemed to be fixed for the sequel tho).

I did enjoy Naruto for the most part, and like Bleach I'm only still following it because I invested all this time already into it, I still enjoy the games regardless.  I like my shallow animu fighters.  I also like my arena fighting games.  This game covers both, so I'm happy enough.

No 1080 i or p support.  No idea about online or trophies.

I don't think it has either of them, but the Gametrailers thing mentioned it has in game achievement things.  I know it has no online at all.

[Don Flamenco]

The camera definitely requires some babysitting.  I thought the fights were pretty decent...reminded me of Rival Schools/Project Justice, though obviously not as deep.  Otherwise, it's too heavy on collecting. It needs an open world setting like Oblivion or Zelda. though I understand that companies tend to put a bare minimum of effort into these games and makes them easy, since they just sell to fans/kids.

[Jansen]

i had a LOT of fun with the 360 game.

[cool breeze]

I consider it more than the camera didn't let you babysit it properly, yet it wasn't competent enough to function on it's own.  It actually felt like I was struggling with the camera, almost as if the developers made that a game mechanic to add difficulty to the game.  For me the fighting system felt like a hong kong knock off of the Gamecube Naruto fighting games.  The special moves were somewhat interesting when they let you control the attack, but the ones you used in the main story as Naruto were all QTE based.  The platforming was just unresponsive and didn't give you a good idea if you were going to land on something or not (this could be attributed to the camera more than the controls), and the double jump was just finicky because instead of like every other game out there that lets perform the second jump after the initial jump, in this you have to press jump twice right away.  Oh, but doing different specials using the analog sticks was pretty cool, both in and out of fights.

[Mr. Gundam]

So is this only a fighting game or is there an actual adventure/platforming/roaming mode as well?

Oh my God, why am I interested in this? NO!

[cool breeze]

From what I've read it has a mode where you run around Konoha (the big village) but all you really do there is collect things and talk to people.  It's sounds like a hub world similar to NH3 for the PS2, not the more detailed focus like it was in the 360 game.

[Van Cruncheon]

there's a big hub area where you get missions and collect rewards and power up yer characters. missions are either fighting matches (which look ridiculously awesome in terms of animation/effects), a simple dodge-the-obstacles rail race sequence, or a simple in-town "parkour" sequence. the game was primarily designed to be an arena fighter first and foremost -- which it does really well, balance issues notwithstanding -- and an adventure game a distant second.

[TVC15]

The fighting engine is actually decent in this, too, compared to the 360 version, which I recall having some choppy animations that ruined the flow of battle.

[Smooth Groove]

I don't even know why I trust TVC's impressions.  He hardly spends more than a hr on any game. 

[TVC15]

I don't even know why I trust TVC's impressions.  He hardly spends more than a hr on any game. 

There are too many games coming out, and I must own them all!  I still stand by my Naruto 360 recommendation.

[Smooth Groove]

There are too many games coming out, and I must own them all! 

Are you a Pokemon fan?  That sounds like a game you'd love. 

[TVC15]

There are too many games coming out, and I must own them all! 

Are you a Pokemon fan?  That sounds like a game you'd love. 

The latest batch of DS pokemon games were just too slow and clunky for me to get into.  I did like the original game, but I hadn't played any of the sequels until the DS came out.

[bork]

I imagine this plays similar to the Narutimett Hero games from the PS2/PSP, since it's from the same developer? 

After watching the Gametrailers review, I am not interested, but it does look damn nice visually.  The move list showing "combos" as OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and OOOOOOOOO down OOOOOO wasn't helping.  It isn't THAT shallow, right?

[Bebpo]

I love the graphics, but I'm not buying any more year 1 Naruto games.  How many games have done this plot already?  When they do the post-timeskip sequel I'll pick it up.  Maybe they'll figure out how to add AA by then  

[TVC15]

Man, I liked the 360 version so much that I actually tried to watch Naruto.  What a mistake that was.

[WrikaWrek]

Game looks beautiful, but reading reviews it seems once again these games are more than happy on being "show merchandise" instead of being something on the level of the show, as they don't seem too interested in re telling the story in game form.

[bork]

I love the graphics, but I'm not buying any more year 1 Naruto games.  How many games have done this plot already?  When they do the post-timeskip sequel I'll pick it up.  Maybe they'll figure out how to add AA by then  

Kinda typical for anime games based on long series.  Dragonball and Bleach do it too.

[bork]

Man, I liked the 360 version so much that I actually tried to watch Naruto.  What a mistake that was.

I don't get what I am missing.  I just can't sit through an episode, and this is coming from someone who loves Dragonball.  My wife is nuts for the Naruto manga and whenever she gets a new volume, I thumb through it and get sleepy.

I guess not everything can be as awesome as Detroit Metal City.  I bet you'd like that, TVC.

[Bebpo]

Naruto is a terrible anime.

The manga was good for major arc.  Then it got shit and will be shit until it ends.  Kinda like Bleach.

[bork]

Oh man...Bleach.  I liked the very beginning of it, and then it just got ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  And what is up with like every character wearing the same black clothes?  Nice and dull! 

The new PSP game is fun though.  They switched from the yucky 30 fps 3D fighting mechanics to a 2D platformer/action-based style, and you can get other characters to come out as helpers or play as them.  I will probably buy the Wii game too if Treasure does as good a job on it as they did with the two DS fighting games.

[cool breeze]

Naruto is pretty shitty.  Don't bother watching it.

I imagine this plays similar to the Narutimett Hero games from the PS2/PSP, since it's from the same developer? 

After watching the Gametrailers review, I am not interested, but it does look damn nice visually.  The move list showing "combos" as OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and OOOOOOOOO down OOOOOO wasn't helping.  It isn't THAT shallow, right?

From the demo it was still pretty shallow (the two characters were exactly the same), but just because the combos are laid out like doesn't mean that's how the fighting is.  It is kind of like saying Fable 2 was entirely about mashing X when you actually had two other types of attacks to mix it up.

[bork]

[CurseoftheGods]

I picked up the LE today at EB Games. I usually don't buy limited editions, but Namco just jacked up the MSRP of the regular edition to $69.99 and was stupid enough to leave the LE priced the way it was ($74.99).

Scamco indeed.

[MrAngryFace]

Too bad 360 and ps3 games cant merge. 360's fighting is annoying but it has all the story. PS3's fighting is ace, but everything else is uhhhh

[demi]

I saw one of the Naruto movies on Cartoon Network (stone of Gelel?) and the only thing that stood out was how Naruto sounds like a lesbian butch dyke

[cool breeze]

It's worth getting if you're a fan of steel book cases like I am.  It's really nice and reversible.  One dumb thing is that they stuffed so much shit in the case that it can't close properly unless you put the plastic cover around it.

[bork]

I saw one of the Naruto movies on Cartoon Network (stone of Gelel?) and the only thing that stood out was how Naruto sounds like a lesbian butch dyke

[MrAngryFace]

The real trick to Naruto PS3 is hoping around a lot and timing your block so you appear behind them and get to win. I think the real challenge isnt in beating the AI so much as meeting the weird mission requirements.