Comments on: Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: review

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:24:08 +0000

The quick time events in this game are amongst the best I have ever seen. They really are so good that I can forgive the utter tedium of running from point a to point b over and over again with nothing to do other than rummage around in some flowers to find a nut.

For a while, at least. But when you add the pain of doing this for hours on end with the maddening amount of loads UNS2 has, 7/10 is a realistic score for me.

You can argue fan points back and forth, from where I’m standing, no interest in Naruto or anime in general, this game is enjoyable but does have some large faults – doesn’t matter what game it is, if it makes you say things like “oh come on, for *biological act between two or more same species animals* sake” it’s got some problems.

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By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:46:21 +0000

Now THIS is a game I don’t mind sinking my teeth into.
Unlike Dragon Ball Z, I don’t feel as if I am playing the same game 10 times.
You must admit, the cinematics in this game are quite amazing.

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By: Ian D

Ian D — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 11:05:05 +0000

We’ll just need to agree to disagree, it seems.

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By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 05:19:13 +0000

Sorry for multiple posting, but to be a little clearer, you said it yourself–it’s the same person, but they’re speaking at different times. So it makes complete sense that the words aren’t always going to be translated the same–the context is different.

Besides, honestly, when it comes to Japanese, you learn more about the character’s personality from the way their verbs are conjugated, the way they’re pronouncing their words (ie accent, deliberate slurring, deliberate attempts to sound cute, etc) and by the pronouns they use than you do from the actual words themselves.

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By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 05:15:50 +0000

“Even from a fan perspective there are some faults to point out. The first is that even with a roster of over 40 characters your favourite may be missing. You might also uncontrollably yell out the likes of “Ino?! Why waste a space with her instead of ?” when you see the completed list – which also features a guest appearance from Lars of Tekken.”

I do agree with this point, but to be fair, the included cast of characters makes sense. Of course Zabusa or Haku aren’t in this game–they’re dead long before the start of this game. Kurenai’s pregnant, so she can’t be in it. Things of that nature. I do miss Kurenai, but I understand why she’s not in it.

Though I must say that Ino is actually surprisingly good–at least more than you would expect given that she does nothing of note at any point in the series! Her normal jutsu is fast moving, tracks and has high priority, while the start up to her Ougi (which can be kind of difficult to hit with sometimes) can be used to dodge incoming attacks/other Ougi’s, if timed correctly. Her jutsu inflict poison, and her throw is VERY fast (though it SUCKS when you miss and she falls on the floor for a few seconds anyway–though that was a nice touch). Anyway, she’s decent.

Tenten, on the other hand…

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By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 05:10:13 +0000

“The plot picks up at the start of the Shippuden time-line and in a single paragraph tries to summarise roughly 250 episodes/manga issues that preceded it in the original series. This is as detailed as the game gets in trying to explain exactly what is going on; who Naruto is, who Sasuke is and why one cares so much about the other despite the apparent hatred. It doesn’t even attempt to explain tailed-beasts, Akatsuki or the ninja world the story is based in to any great degree.”

I somewhat disagree here too. If you press the A/X right away when the opening story pops up, yes, all you get is one line about Naruto being a ninja. However, if you wait (though in all fairness, there’s nothing to tell you there’s more story) it tells you all you need to know. A good portion of those anime episodes you missed were filler with no effect on the plot. And let’s face it, even though the Chunin exams were a fairly large story arc in the first season, do you really need to know anything about it in order to understand what comes later? I don’t think so. All you really need to know is that Naruto is a ninja with a demon fox in him–his former friend Sasuke ran off with the bad guy 3 years ago, Naruto has been away training to bring him back, and there’s an organization that wants to get Naruto and anyone else with tailed beasts inside them. Deidara and Sasori talk about how they’re after the Jinchuriki, and how Jinchuriki is the name for a person with a tailed beast inside of them.

Also, aside from the fact that knowledge most of the first season is completely unnecessary to understand/enjoy the game, Almost every other Naruto game has gone over that same exact storyline. I mean, even Ultimate Ninja 3 on the PS2, which came out several years ago started from the beginning and went up to right before where this game starts. Even without that, there were two other Naruto games on Xbox previously that covered that same storyline. And let’s face it, if there are new people coming to this game that aren’t Naruto fans, they probably got it because they saw it or heard about it from a friend, in which case, their friend can answer any of those irrelevant questions. I mean, the Konoha ninja’s identities aren’t important as long as you know they’re the good guys, and almost all of the bad guys are introduced after the start of the game anyway.

I just think you’re being too hard on that aspect.

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By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 04:59:40 +0000

You made it perfectly clear and I still completely disagree with you. As I already flat out said the meaning of the word wildly varies. I can say the same word in one context and it’ll mean something completely different in another context. If I stub my toe, and yell “Kuso!” I may as well be saying “crap!” or “Damn!” If I realized I left something super important at home and yell “kuso,” I might be saying something closer to “Fuck!” If I’m playing cards and someone else wins and I say “Kuso” I could be saying “dang.”

This is something anyone who speaks Japanese at an intermediate level or higher would be able to tell you. Those bad words don’t really work in Japanese the way you seem to want them to…

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By: Oni-Samurai

Oni-Samurai — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:50:25 +0000

“The one I’ll chose to point out is that why then is this on a console which never saw the first game released?”
If you a referring to the 360 then you’re right, but the ps3 has the first naruto ultimate ninja storm.

I don’t think not knowing the plot of naruto before shippudden will hurt newcomers as I played dragonballz budokai 2 & 3 without having seen the anime and enjoyed the game thoroughly (I was aware of the anime but due to work couldn’t watch it at the time) although once I had seen the anime, I appreciated the games even more and tried to mimick the events of the anime in versus and story modes.

The trouble with naruto is you can’t watch it on sky anymore, I missed it. again. However I’ve watched it twice online and will definitely be getting this.
Overall your review was good btb

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By: Ian D

Ian D — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:30:43 +0000

Depending on how the translator felt is exactly why it is inconsistant. No effort was made to match the personality of the person speaking.

The example I gave was of the same character speaking at different times. Perhaps I didn’t make that clear enough.

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By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:46:25 +0000

“The second annoyance is that the translation from Japanese to English is all over the place. The severity of the bad language is about as inconsistent as an Alzheimers patient’s recollection of their family. One word in particular is translated into everything from “Dang-it!” to “Bastard!”.”

This is a really bad example of this. Being a Japanese speaker myself, I can guarantee that this isn’t a “bad” translation, or “inconsistencies.” Japanese does not have a lot of specific curse words like English does, and even a word like “kuso” (shit) can vary in meaning and intensity depending on who is saying it. It can mean actual feces, it can “fuck!” (as an expletive), it can mean “crap” “damn” “shit” “dang” and any other similar expressions, just depending on context, and how one feels like translating them, because all of those words in English are expressed with that one Japanese word. To put it into perspective, kids can say “Kuso” and not have it be a big deal, whereas small children who say “shit” in English will probably get a lecture.

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