Hello, PlayStation.Blog readers, I’m Hiroshi Matsuyama from CyberConnect2, the developer of NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM. I’m very excited to have this opportunity to speak with you all about the game. Since this is my first post, I’ll cover the basics today.
I’m sure some of you that have seen our trailers for the game have thought “I bet this is just a pre-rendered movie” – but it’s not! Everything from all of our trailers is 100% real-time footage from the game running on PLAYSTATION 3 hardware that you will all be able to experience when the game is released next week.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm features two main game modes for players to enjoy – “Free Battle Mode” and “Ultimate Mission Mode.” In Free Battle Mode, you can play as one of 25 characters from the animated series. The battles aren’t strictly one-on-one either – you can bring two support characters into every battle, who will help you out in short bursts. This is the same three person team structure as the TV series, but now you can create your own teams with all sorts of original combinations. We’ve put a lot of effort into our battles to make sure they match the look and feel of the animated series. You can perform all sorts of amazing moves with your favorite characters and even fight on walls and run over bodies of water.
Ultimate Mission Mode lets you take on 101 missions across Naruto’s Hidden Leaf Village, which acts as a hub for the game. Here, you can acquire new Jutsu moves, purchase items, and even chow down on a bowl of noodles at the Ichiraku Ramen shop! The game’s storyline covers episodes 1-135 of the Naruto animated series, so it’s incredibly comprehensive. In addition to the head-to-head battles, you’ll encounter huge boss battles, races through the forest and tree-climbing battles in this mode.
At the strong request of our fans in North America, the game offers full voicing in both English and Japanese with all the original actors from the animated series. We’re also going to be releasing downloadable content for the game well into next year. It will mostly focus on new support characters and missions and best of all, it will all be FREE!
These are just the basics of the game, but if you want to check it out for yourself, we have a playable demo that you can download from PSN right now. In my next post, I’m going to give you an exclusive look at how we made the game, so check back here soon!
I remember FIRST hearing about this game, and got pretty excited, it’s like you are actually playing the cartoon!
thanks for the post!
FREE DLC is awesome. I may rent this, seeing as how I’m not the biggest fan of Naruto. It does look incredibly stunning…
I want this game!
I’m upset that this game won’t have trophies, it would be one game I would enjoy earning them all on. Maybe in a patch?
I agree with depward on both points. Free content is awsome, and this is a game I will have to rent. The demo was fun, but being dumped into a battle with little/no instructions made it annoyingly hard. If I can play a bit from the beggining and learn the game correctly I may enjoy this one.
I’m surprised and impressed at the fact that a licensed (and anime) title has come so close to center-stage. It looks good, plays well, and seems like you guys really put some solid effort into it. Bravo, and I wish you the best on your launch. I’ll be doing my part though, if I’m being honest, this will probably be pushed back to X-mas.
By the way, and sorry if I’m asking the wrong person, but any word on the PS3 Tales game? I love the series.
Cannot wait!
I know this is early but will you guys be using the engine for a naruto Action/Adventure RPG that goes into the shippuuden series? That would be great [or just an RPG that doesn’t really have to do anything with Naruto]
Anyways, I played the demo. Really beautiful game!
Your game looks STUNNING! I played the early access demo from Qore a while back and I was blown away. The only thing I noticed was that the recovery time from a “knock down” hit seemed a bit long and really could make the fighting portion one sided. I hope this was reviewed.
I wish some of the mission mode was available to play. My hopes is that it exceeds what Rise of a Ninja has set as,what I think is, the new bar for Naruto games. That game wasn’t perfect also but it really immersed you in the game
Thank you for the positive response to the demo! Please keep in mind that the demo was released months before the full game was finished, so there will be even more polish in the retail product, taking into account a lot of the feedback we received from users.