izigame.me

Should have been an expansion to Storm 4, not a standalone game


This 'game' is ultimately not worth it, and you'd be better off sticking to Storm 4 instead. Storm Connections is basically like the game in between the main story games, like Generations and Revolution. There's no new story content - canon, anyway - unless you count the members of Kara, Kawaki, Baryon Mode Naruto, and - with the upcoming DLC (why?) - Borushiki, being playable characters in free battle.

You can no longer use the 'tilts' in fights either! Or chakra throwables for that matter. Instead, the chakra throwables is their alternate ninjutsu move. For example, take Sasuke (Boruto). In Storm 4, when selecting him to use in free battle, you have to choose whether his ninjutsu attack is his Heavenly Hand Power, Inferno Style: Fireball Jutsu, or his Onyx Chidori. Whichever one you pick, is the one he'll use when prompted. In this game, he has both HHP and the Inferno Style Fireball. The chakra throwable prompt has been replaced by the second ninjutsu attack. Personally, I don't mind the change - I never used the chakra throwable attack anyway. But I can see why people wouldn't like it, because it's an adjustment after having it for all the previous games. But no tilts! Sasuke can't use his Almighty Push anymore. But, like how in Storm Revolution where you could not use awakening if you were a 'ultimate finisher' type, it might just be a thing that'll only be present in this game, and not any future ones.

The game has 2 story modes. One is the 'history mode' where you basically relive all the main battles of the original Naruto and Shippuden for the 1,000th time. Getting S Rank on those 'tougher' fights is so much easier in this game's version - because you don't get penalized or lose for missing quick time events, and the enemy AI is not as difficult. But, like in Storm 4 fashion, it tells all the story in between the fights through anime screenshots and slideshows with commentary over the top.

The other story mode, is a unique storyline with Boruto (post-Karma, pre-Kawaki), where he's trying out a Naruto based VR game, but it turns into this extremely bad and boring storyline with the usual tropes of redemption and Boruto unnecessarily caring about someone. The first 2-ish hours of the story is boring random free battles where Boruto is playing with Shikadai and Inojin, except they're both playing as Shippuden characters in the game. The overarching story doesn't kick in until later, and it ends with a boss battle with some random nobody character who idolises Pain (sounds like he didn't watch Shippuden) who can apparently even go toe-to-toe with Naruto and Sasuke at the same time? All the while, there's no manually running from Point A to Point B through the Hidden Leaf like you could in the previous games, the entire story is one long cutscene (albeit separated by chapters) with fights breaking up the pace. The biggest gripe I have with this story mode, however, is that is forces you to relive Naruto's memories and go through most of his main fights like you do the History Mode again! All the while it shoehorns in a character that the anime 'disposed' of a while ago to give them some semblance of relevance. You shouldn't waste the time playing it yourself, and it would be better watching it on YouTube, where you can at least skip a lot of the boring or repetitive parts, if you're curious enough, but too sceptical to buy.

You also have to buy all of the finish scenes for all the characters in free battle all over again. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if the game didn't nerf the amount of Ryo you earn for winning fights, doing story, etc. Anytime you win a fight in this game, you earn about 300 Ryo on average now. Storm 4 had you earning several thousand. Then, they made the finish scenes, and anything else you'd want to buy extremely expensive. Buying a single finish scene is about 30K. It's like they made it as an incentive to grind the game, because you'd have no reason to play it otherwise.

The only good thing about the game, is that it's definitely the most impressive and visually stunning when it comes to graphics. The only good thing about the unique Boruto story, is how good some of the cutscenes look - some of them even looking better than the anime. They make for pretty screenshots, if nothing else.

Can't say anything about the Online experience, since I never play on those modes anyway. But from what I can tell, most people just stick with Storm 4, and the lobbies of this game are empty most of the time. Could be wrong though.

Ultimately, this game ain't worth buying. It should've just been an remastered expansion and UI update to Storm 4, especially since it uses the same engine. If it had just been an expansion, that was being sold for around $20, it likely would've been more popular. You'd get a graphics overhaul, some new characters and movesets, the history mode for all the fights but with the graphical improvements, it would've done better. Could'a done without the unique Boruto story though. But no, instead, it's a full priced standalone game which just isn't worth the money. Besides the fact that it's mostly a Naruto based game, with some Boruto elements sprinkled on top. Just feels like Bandai Namco are too afraid to move on from Naruto's story and start focusing on Boruto's.