I’ve been playing video games since the Naruto franchise for almost as long as I can remember, and the demo of NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS has reignited the excitement. When the game was first announced, most of the shine went to two things, both of which were featured prominently in early trailers. One or two new playable characters (Indra and Ashura Otsutsuki) were revealed along with a glimpse of their move sets. Second, the game revealed that it has an original story mode with a new character capable of using Susanoo. All of this is interesting to some extent. The problem is that it’s not important enough. What I mean by this is that the initially revealed information doesn’t appear to be a significant enough improvement over Storm 4, which already had nearly every recurring character in Naruto and had several DLC packs featuring the characters. Boruto object. NARUTO fairy.
The game has come an incredibly long way since that first reveal. We at Anime Corner were lucky enough to spend some hands-on time with a playable demo of NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS at New York Comic Con, and it made my excitement for the game through the roof. There are some changes to the game mechanics that I think are worth mentioning. More importantly, however, I finally got to play with all-new characters, which is what makes the new Storm games so valuable.
Naruto booth at New York Comic Con
Changed Mechanics
The main changes I want to talk about are, in no particular order of importance:
Tilt moves have been removed. Shuriken Chakra has been replaced by a second jutsu for each character. You can be hit by almost any attack while on the ground. Long, lingering combos take damage penalties, even (and especially ) when you combo an ultimate attack into them Health resets between rounds in battle, dealing more damage when parrying and items are not limited
Personally, I find the removal of tilt moves a bit annoying (there are some long-standing combos developed by creators like AfroSenju that build on them) but the addition of a second move is quite nice. Growing up playing the Ultimate Ninja games on the PlayStation, I’m quite used to having multiple jutsu options for each character, especially given how many techniques exist normally in the series. Removing chakra shuriken is a welcome change for me, as they are very boring for the vast majority of characters in the Storm titles. Usually, this move is just throwing multiple shurikens rather than a few, instead some characters will throw a special weapon of some kind. NARUTO possible in these games.
Speaking of combos, the combo length penalty is probably my favorite gameplay mechanic change. To explain how this works, when you perform a combo attack by pressing the attack button and extend that combo by adding ninjutsu, release chakra to continue the combo chain, or use ultimate attack, the damage you deal will decrease proportionally to the amount you deal.’extended combo. Sometimes this damage reduction can be very significant; while testing this out and unleashing an obnoxiously long combo on the opponent (sorry, whoever it is) and finishing with an ultimate attack, this move costs less than a quarter of a health bar his. Usually these attacks can take away half or more of someone’s health. While fighting games of course rely on combos, I think this change, along with increased chakra regeneration and the ability to hit people on the ground, will break up the monotony of the game while increasing its tempo. I no longer have to wait for my opponent to roll away and jump after being knocked down, and I’m actually encouraged to knock them down and start a new combo to maximize my damage. That’s a very smart change.
New character from Boruto
NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS features 7 brand new characters and brand new versions of several other characters. Kawaki, Ashura, Indra, Jigen, Delta, Boro and Kashin Koji make up the new characters while Naruto, Sasuke, Boruto, Sarada and Mitsuki see changes to their existing Storm characters. Several fan-favorite characters were also included in the demo and, disappointingly, many players saw fit to use Minato instead of the new characters half the time. My personal favorite of these new characters so far is Kashin Koji. I’ve always been a Koji fan in general but his Storm character feels like what Jiraiya should have always been in the game. He moves quite quickly and continuously launches fire chains and toad-related techniques. He’s a great balance of melee and ninjutsu combat with powerful combos, my personal favorite character type in these games. Others were also quite satisfied. Kawaki is very true to his fighting style in the manga and anime and moves no more like a ninja than the others. Jigen can throw giant blocks at people just like in the anime, and characters like Indra and Ashura have moves that are definitely inspired by their side arcs in the anime. Luckily, they don’t complete Naruto and Sasuke clones in the overall battle even with some moves.
The revised characters are also fun to watch. Baryon Naruto mode is clearly a highlight here and is absolutely fantastic to play. Others, like Mitsuki, had (in my opinion) extremely bland and boring moves in Storm 4 and now have more unique, personalized moves (e.g. like Mitsuki has sage mode).
Looking forward to Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections
This demo doesn’t offer any details about the game’s story mode (or the new elements within it), which is one of the main things I’m curious about. I imagine those could be included in the officially released demo or with new Naruto episodes instead of the convention demo to show off the new gameplay and mechanics. The Storm franchise is one that, like many anime-based video games, always finds a way to recapture my attention and excitement even before a full game hits the world and its elements. Important new elements are revealed. I think the changes we’ve seen so far, especially with the characters that have been added, will generate enough excitement to keep many people coming back to play the game. Storm 4 launched in 2016, and the game’s online community was more or less dead until the announcement of NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS, which revived it as people honed their skills. The meta for players will certainly change and will cause some excitement as people are forced to adapt to old habits and learn new ones.
NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS is scheduled to release on November 17, 2023 for Xbox (One, Series For full details on the game and pre-order details, you can check out the official website here.
© 2023 Sony Interactive Entertainment/Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
