Patreon button  Steam curated reviews  Discord button  Facebook button  Twitter button 
3DS | PC | PS4 | PS5 | SWITCH | VITA | XB1 | XSX | All

Naruto: Path of the Ninja (DS) artwork

Naruto: Path of the Ninja (DS) review


"If you are not a Naruto fan, allow me to explain some of the premise behind it: a young hyperactive ninja named Naruto Uzumaki wants to claim the title of Hokage, which would make him the greatest ninja in his village of Konohogakure. In doing so, he becomes part of a three-man rookie squad lead by a jonin, an elite ninja, who go on various missions to earn money for the village’s economy and increase their own skills. One of young Naruto’s first missions brings him face-to-face with a philosoph..."

If you are not a Naruto fan, allow me to explain some of the premise behind it: a young hyperactive ninja named Naruto Uzumaki wants to claim the title of Hokage, which would make him the greatest ninja in his village of Konohogakure. In doing so, he becomes part of a three-man rookie squad lead by a jonin, an elite ninja, who go on various missions to earn money for the village’s economy and increase their own skills. One of young Naruto’s first missions brings him face-to-face with a philosophical opponent that forces Naruto to think about his meaning in life and adopt his own ninja way of fighting for his beliefs and teammates. Along the path to his dream of becoming Hokage, various events conspire as Naruto and friends find themselves thrust into the center of malevolent schemes orchestrated by two separate evil masterminds.

If you ARE a Naruto fan, aside a few minor character switch-ups in certain battles, there is not one single deviation from the plot set out by the manga. Nor is there, with the exception of two twenty-minute missions at the very beginning of the game, any extra content added to Naruto: Path of the Ninja that might give you a purpose to relive the story again. Touch screen use is minimal, not offering anything engaging aside from a five-minute mini-game midway through the title (do not even begin to think that the microphone and second screen might have found themselves a second use in here). About the only thing that might be compelling you to play it is that it is a Naruto game, and it is an RPG (as opposed to the fighting or adventure games your library might be full of by now).

Making matters worse, the game only goes through about two-thirds of Part I of the Naruto storyline, giving the game (for the slower players) a possible maximum of 12-15 hours. Of course, the exclusion of any further plot is not surprising, since the rest of the plot had not existed at the time it was created; the game is merely a port and translation of a previously Japan-only GBA game released in 2004 (on a surprising note, the port may actually be the substandard version; evidence shows that an optional boss and sidequest were removed). It shows, too; the graphics are fairly archaic in comparison to 2007 DS standards. While Path of the Ninja DOES use an anime style, making the aging less notable as opposed to a game that relies photo-realism, the texture and detail that is used to decorate the Narutoverse is still minimal enough to mark the art style as lacking. One cannot help but wonder that, if this game were built from the ground up for the DS, how cel-shading could look in portraying what could have been a colourful world of vibrant hues such as in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. In comparison, Path of the Ninja uses a make-work of a more limited palette from its GBA days.

Thankfully, the sound quality is very good and preserved in the porting, with most of the tracks being taken directly from the show. The actual songs themselves are fairly upbeat when they need to be, especially with the awesome boss music, and the songs meant to illustrate the more moody moments are brilliant (such as the tense and jumpy music when going through a certain late-game dungeon, or the slow harmony played during sorrowful moments). A few quotes in the game are also voice-acted, and they are done with enough elegance and maintenance of tone to be enjoyable when they do occur.

Of course, the meat of any video game is the gameplay; where its fate as a classic or a chump is decided. For the sake of this dissection, allow me to compare Naruto: Path of the Ninja to Final Fantasy, a game twenty / seventeen years its senior. Path of the Ninja has attack, items, and fleeing the battle; pretty much battle options that every RPG on the face of the planet has, including FF. PotN also has the ability to use Ninjutsu, special techniques that use up a numerical value called Chakra (the inner energy of a ninja) that can cause a variety of effects or just plain old extra damage. Wait a minute...this sounds exactly like magic, which basically every RPG on the face of the planet has. To PotN’s defence, it also allows you to defend yourself for a turn and to change the formation of characters for when engaging in battle...something that only every other RPG on the face of the planet has (but not Final Fantasy!). Other elements that PotN has to offer are random battles, levelling up, and opening chests to get items.

About the only neat thing is that as the game continues on, you gain three permanent ninja abilities that allow you to scale cliffs, walk across water, and break giant boulders with your bare hands. However, they quickly lose their amusing qualities, and you begin to wonder why you could not have just gotten these techniques at the start of the game so you do not have to painfully dredge up the patience to walk across bland areas chock full of enemies that give off absurdly low amounts of experience for the amount of time it takes to defeat them (the only reason this game might even take 12-15 hours; in fact, so crappy are the pickings that by the time you get to the final area, you will still be using the same training nest from four hours ago) just to find usually useless items that could not be gotten before. At least the after-game gave me a couple of cheats that basically allowed me to godmode in every battle from that point – however, by the time I already made it to the end of the game, my only thoughts of continuing to roam the uninspiring countrysides of the Land of Fire was “Why bother?”. The same holds true for the three 'sidequests' the game offers. I quote 'sidequests' because first, all three of them are item collectathons. Second, eleven out of twelve items involved in the first sidequest are obtained automatically throughout the duration of the regular game, and another does not actually work. Only the one sidequest really has any worth to it, and when two out of the five items are found simply by walking around the Hidden Leaf Village (the settlement where Naruto and co. live in), it is not really much.

It is not to say that Naruto: Path of the Ninja has even a single game-breaking flaws. It really does not. However, it is absolutely as cookie-cutter generic as you can get out of a Dragon Warrior-esque battle system, and it fails to try to settle its eyes on any ambition higher than to simply exist. If you are a Naruto fan or somebody who simply enjoys any generic RPG they can get their hands on: by all means, try this game. Otherwise, simply pass over it if you ever see it in a game store bargain bin or on a download site, as there are simply too many RPGs out there that offer better.

3.5



darkstarripclaw's avatar
Community review by darkstarripclaw (December 19, 2007)

A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.

More Reviews by darkstarripclaw [+]
Papers, Please (PC) artwork
Papers, Please (PC)

Papers, Please is mercilessly satirical with its subject matter, taking place in a fictional backdrop of Second-world countries. Some of it is blatant, with the various propagandising, to the more insidious. As a Customs Inspector, you are responsible for processing several applicants a day, whether foreigners or Arsto...
Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure (3DS) artwork
Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure (3DS)

While Rhythm Thief is an obvious collection of musical mini-games, the game is also part point-and-click. While going around Paris, you get treated to a decent bit of recent French history, some of it coming into play as the game's story runs itself out. Phantom R's nightly occupations, stealing unique items from museu...
Altered Space: A 3-D Alien Adventure (Game Boy) artwork
Altered Space: A 3-D Alien Adventure (Game Boy)

The game dumps you off in a small room, expecting you to travel through several rooms in many different possible paths until you find an elevator or teleporter that takes you to the next level. The game takes an isometric perspective, with developers Software Creations having also created the isometric Solstice ...

Feedback

If you enjoyed this Naruto: Path of the Ninja review, you're encouraged to discuss it with the author and with other members of the site's community. If you don't already have an HonestGamers account, you can sign up for one in a snap. Thank you for reading!

You must be signed into an HonestGamers user account to leave feedback on this review.

User Help | Contact | Ethics | Sponsor Guide | Links

eXTReMe Tracker
© 1998 - 2024 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. Staff and freelance reviews are typically written based on time spent with a retail review copy or review key for the game that is provided by its publisher.