Naruto Games Special.

Apologies for a rather unexplained absence, due to a shattered elbow (not the most fun way to spend 6 weeks, awkwardly trying to balance a controller in a cast), my ole' faithful giving me the RROD treatment after 3 years of being my loyal servant and gaming partner, was actually most gutted about that which is so weird, as well as matters of my personal life giving me hell, but here is so not the place to discuss any of that really is it?

So, I decided that I would review my latest obsession, the rather expansive Naruto games franchise. So far I have played 3 of these games and have to say that they piqued my interest further when is came to the anime and manga franchise and as a result I really am totally and completely hooked and it seems to be a long term addiction. Not that I mind really but it does prevent me from getting things done!

Naruto Rise of A Ninja. (2007)
Developed by: Ubisoft
Platform: Xbox 360.

Starting at the very beginning of the story of the number 1 Knuckleheaded Ninja. This game begins with the Academy Graduation exam where a group of young shinobi begin their careers as Ninja. The Hidden Leaf Village is full citizens who detest Naruto, which leads to a torrent of abuse until you perform a number of social quests to make them become more friendly towards Naruto. This game covers the first 3 series of the anime, from the Land of Waves story to the Chunin Exams and climaxes with the epic battle for survival between Naruto, Sakaura and Sasuke.

Game play is pretty simple both in battle and in the field, although it has to be said that the missions and quests do become repetitive and it follows the linear story of Naruto's progression. You can perform techniques with the use of the left trigger and the analogue thumb sticks, but the controls tend to be explained to you as you go along. The game almost teaches you how to play which is nice. You become aware of Jutsu which are learned from talking to Kakashi, The 3rd Hokage, Iruka and the lovable Pervy sage. You earn star points for each mission completed and these can be traded for new skills or even improvements on jutsu and over all abilities.

The village is completely explorable and theres no ground you can leave untouched, there is even an achievement thats hard to get that involves you getting up on to the roof of the Hokage's mansion. I don't know about you, but when I finally got up there through the underground tunnel, I really liked the view from here!! 


Outside the story there are a number of support quests and missions that Naruto can do to improve himself further. This includes the rather entertaining Ramen deliveries for Naruto's favourite Ramen shop, a race against time to deliver meals to hungry customers who are waiting in some of odd places including rooftops and even over the lake. You can engage in timed games of Hide and Seek with the Hokage's grandson Konahamaru, races given down to Naruto from Jonin and even small skirmishes with Naruto's friends.

Over all this game is entertaining to play but there are a few short comings with it. The first of which is some of the voice actors are not the ones used in the original anime and some of them sound so weird, confusing to the player. Also the random encounters and inability to heal in battle does become somewhat frustrating, especially after you have been playing for 8 hours and just want to get something done. Yes... I sat there for 11 hours playing this thing! Laughing at making Naruto fart by holding the charge buttons for too long. Online mode is a bit dead, but I think that is purely down to how old the game is so I can't hold that against the game.

Overall Score: 7/10
Entertaining, but I wish there had been more to do.

Naruto The Broken Bond (2008)
Developed by: Ubisoft
Platform: Xbox 360

Ubisoft really pulled out the stops in their second effort in the Naruto game franchise. Carrying on exactly where the first game left off and the player is to take part in the final battle between Orochimaru and Sarutobi Sensei, before going through the next stages of the the funeral and the quest to find Tsunade. The player goes through the next few parts of the story, this time being able to play as other youngsters in the Konoha 11. Theres more in store in terms of minigames, side missions and the return of the rather entertaining "Lovelorn Villagers."

Again theres the fun of exploring the expansive village, but some areas are much easier to reach. The tree action sequences which gave me a lot of hassle before have been improved and they're a lot more do-able. The environments actually have more detail and are rendered even better than before. There is a much better Vs mode with more characters which can be unlocked. There is something enjoyable about kicking the snot out of someone as Itachi and using Sharingan to my advantage. In this game you learn the powerful Rasengan and Chidori techniques as well as using certain characters to access certain areas.

The story mode is a bit more exciting and cuts out a lot of the fillers that were in the later series of the anime, but the story does progress to Sasuke's deflection from the village and the pursuit for him. With unlockable characters such as Kimimaro and the other Sound Ninja, Kisame Hoshigaki and Cursemark Sasuke. This is like an expansion of the 1st game, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining.

The battle sequences are a little easier to get to grips with, an ability to heal youself and the need to build up the lower gauge to be able to use jutsu makes the fights a lot less repetative, returning of course with Rage Mode and the idea of using the thumb sticks and handsigns in order to perform techniques, including the incredibly powerful Rasengan which you gradually learn to master. 

My biggest gripe however was the slightly dizzy camera or a slight glitch where the characters will forget to follow you meaning you have the irksome task of fetching them.

Overall Score: 8/10
Excellent 2nd game and brilliant follow up to Rise of A Ninja.

Right your review of "Ulitimate Ninja Storm" will be on it's way, but I wanted to play a lot more before writing it, but I assure you. It is coming soon.

-Sin-

So... Erm....

Yeah, I have been spending WAY too much time on my PSP again and forgetting that there are so many other games that have been awaiting my attention. Oh and my old Xbox decided that after being booted by a mardy ex and generally screwing up "conveniently" since I kicked him out in May (long story, not the point mind), that it had had enough of working now and decided that it was going to do the dreaded RROD (Red Ring Of Death = Nastybad not work anymore...) and I was left thinking "Oh fantastic yet another outlay on Tuesday" but that's OK I was thinking of getting a new one eventually anyway it has to be said.

Well enough of my grousing and grumbling about it. My adoptive little brother Josh (who is frankly awesome) said I could borrow his Xbox until Tuesday so I'm back in the game. HA! There is no stopping Sin when she wants to game is there?

I've been attacking Dissidia still and for some reason have taken to playing it just before going to bed. It seems that I find some kind of perverse pleasure in kicking the shit out of a load of characters before bed. That's OK I guess and its not like I physically go out there and knocking the teeth down people's throats. Controlled aggression. Or something like that. As well as embarking on FF VIII on the PS2 (it was actually a PSx release, BUT I have a PS2 so thats how I play it).

Over the next week, I think Tom wants to see how I fare on F1 2011, and I will probably do my own review of it. The only driving game I play is Burnout, it has to be noted so this could be really REALLY interesting!

Keep on Gaming!
-Sin-

Dissidia 012 Duodecim

FORMAT: PSP
RELEASE: March 2011

After it's release in 2008, the original Dissidia title was received well by fans of the series. It allowed the player to play as favoured villians such as Emperor Mateaus and the ever popular Sephiroth, in a whole new idea. The idea was to combine all the past heroes and villains in an alternate universe where they are caught up in a battle between the gods, Chaos God of Discord, and Cosmos Goddess of Harmony in an attempt to quell the endless cycles of battle and the struggle between good and evil. The player was presented with the package of an RPG and an unconventional "Bravery" based battle system.
 
Before I go any further, let me explain the bravery system .What you see here is a typical battle scenario. You have the vertical bar which is your character's EX gauge (fill this up, do a HP attack, press Square and something VERY nice happens). Then you have the 2 horizontal health bars showing the fighter's current HP. Above these are a set of numbers, each shows the character's current "Bravery" which is either increased or decreased depending on the other fighter's attacks. Lost yet? It took me a while. If you run out of "Bravery" you enter "Break" which nullifies your HP attacks, until it recharges OR you do a moot attack which only serves to recharge your Bravery. When you do a HP attack, providing you have the Bravery, your attack will take that amount of HP from your opponent, so if your Bravery is 1208, then your HP attack will do 1208. Also, that little number between the bars? Well that is what is known as "Stage Bravery", all this means is that when you inflict break, you get that "Stage Bravery" added to your Bravery so that you can do some REAL damage.

It was somewhat confusing and they only seemed to tell about 75% of the story. The heroes all learn about friendship and team work while looking for crystals in order to save the world from utter chaos. This game, it must be said had me swearing with frustration at first, but once you get past it and enveloped in to the story (which seemed a bit weak in places it had to be said) you do start to enjoy it and it rewards you with Accomplishments and PP (to buy new elements for the game).

Duodecim seemed a little bit of a moot point really. The scenerio unique to this game was decidedly rather short, then was coupled with a truncated version of the original game's story mode. That seemed a little bit of a waste, but then I looked in to all the hidden extra stuff you have to play with and was blown away. Such as the Reports mode where you have a story and as you read it, you can highlight certain areas to see either a short FMV sequence or a fight with 1 or 2 characters.

It also seems that they have tidied up the more complex part of the game, in battle it seems a bit smoother and things like Bravery are more fairly distributed among the players. The Battle Colosseum of the original game (which I spent hours slacking off with) has been replaced by a more challenging Labyrinth mode where your character is stripped of equipment and accessories and tossed in to a 2D labyrinth and has to battle their way out. Other new features is the addition of a free-roaming environment for the characters to gain treasure, summonstones and other skills to give them the edge in the next Gateway. In addition to the 20+ character cast in the original game you are given some extras, Lightning Farron (FF XIII), Yuna (FF X), Laguna Liore (FF VIII), Tifa Lockheart (FF VII), Kain Highwind (FF IV), Gilgamesh (FF V), Vaan (FF XII) and Prish (FF XI).

In all, I feel that this is a good game, but I don't think it is as good as the original, but as it is a prequel, it does whet your appetite enough to want to go back and play the original again.

My score out of 10: 7

-Sin-

About:

Who Is SacrificedSin87?

SacrificedSin87 is actually my gamertag on X Box Live. The name came when I had just delved in to the world of X Box gaming and I was looking for a new and different name, this name came from a random band name I was chewing over. It's been my tag now for nearly 3 years and I think it's kind of stuck.

...But, you're a girl?!

Sorry to shock those who believe gaming is just a pursuit of overgrown teenage boys. But yes, there are girls who game. Yes we are just as good and YES some of are not only attractive, BUT we have boyfriends and we like to game with them.

What Consoles do you have?

My gaming area consists of 2 TVs, an X Box 360, a PS2, a PSP and a DSiXL. Over the years I have had a Sega Master System (both a Master System 1 (with "Safari Hunt" and "Hang On" built in) and a Master System 2 (with "Alex Kidd in Miracle World") as well as the "Light Phaser" and many MANY games) which I had when I was 8 years old. A Super Nintendo, which was borrowed for ages off my oldest brother, again with games and add-ons. An original Game Boy, again from my brother, multiple PSX (the last of which was given to my by my Dad and it lasted till I was 18, I had it when I was about 13), my last one actually went down a set of stairs in a fit of rage. I am on my 4th PSP (multiple times of having to sell it, and my 1st which I wore out) and my 2nd DSiXL.

You did WHAT to a PSx?!

It stopped working. Well I lost my rag and threw it down the stairs. I was 15 or 16 at the time so was at the peak of hormonal teenager. It worked better after that.

Finally, what games do you like to play?

I will play pretty much anything. But my favourite type of game has to be the RPG. In particular the Final Fantasy franchise. I could type until 4 AM about my love of that, BUT it's pretty much a well documented fact that I love Final Fantasy.

In this blog, I am focusing on putting forward objective reviews of different games that I play. This blog may be written by me, but it will not be as focused on my life or health as "My Journey" is. This is a gaming blog. 

-SIN-