Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 Review

When the always busy denizens of the Hidden Leaf village are threatened by an evil force released from a nearby village, it’s up to Naruto and the gang to set things right. Featuring up to 30 playable characters from the Naruto television series, players tackle an all new mission in this role playing follow up to last year’s Path of the Ninja game.

Using the dpad or the stylus, you navigate through the world of Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 until you run into one of the very frequent random battles that the game throws at you. Whether you like that mechanic or not is pretty subjective, but at least the battles themselves are relatively quick thanks to the intuitive menu system that allows you to quickly select commands. Again using either the dpad or stylus, you move through a scroll-wheel type menu that’s simple, yet efficient and allows you to quickly pick your attack type and target. My preference was the stylus for battles and the dpad for navigating through the world, but either option works fine for this game.

Either way, you will probably tire of the endless battles against opponents that quickly become too easy. It is only when fighting boss battles or some of the tougher regular battles that the game’s fighting mechanic and strategic squad member usage and positioning come into play. While I’m usually not a fan of tough role playing games, less battles against slightly tougher opponents would’ve made better use of the game’s battle system. The game allows you to tag party members in and out of battle, and allows the player to reposition their player either closer or farther away from enemy combatants, affecting how much damage you can deal to that enemy.

Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2’s visuals are akin to a Super Nintendo-era RPG, albeit with much more going on, and the benefit of a second screen to keep track of vital stats. The most impressive part of the presentation are the two-screen battle animations that occur when a player uses a jutsu attack. Fans of the series will enjoy watching their favorite characters perform powerful moves that range from summoning to substitutions. The rest of the game plays out using 2D sprites and scrolling screens, in a style very similar to countless other 2D role playing games but of course featuring the Naruto universe.

The audio in Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 is fairly lively, with tunes and voicework that will be instantly familiar to fans of the television series. Even if you have never been exposed to a Naruto game, the game’s vibrant score matches the tone of the visuals and provides a solid aural background to the action playing out on-screen. The one drawback to the sound design is that the included voicework tends to get repetitive after a while, mainly because of the frequency of random battles throughout the game.

One of the best parts of Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 is the addition of Wi-Fi battles via Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection service. After progressing through a bit of the story, you are able to access an area that grants you the ability to battle either friends or complete strangers online. The battle mechanic works much the same way online as it does in the main storyline itself. Aside from a slight tweak in how you use chakra (and the ability to block or lessen jutsu attacks), you’ll find a similar pacing and flow to the online matches.

Tomy has ensured that players have incentive to battle online, awarding Wi-Fi points and special ninja cards for players who log on and battle. As a bonus, battling through Wi-Fi on Saturday yields extra points for players. When you go online to battle, you use the same lineup of characters you have equipped in the main quest, along with their attack list, armor, and stats.

This integration of online battles into Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2’s main quest helps to motivate players to log on, and indeed I had no problems finding random strangers to battle online during the evenings. Unfortunately, as with other online titles on Nintendo platforms, the actual interaction with non-friend players online outside of the battle is non-existent. There is no voice chat, or any way to communicate with the persons you are battling online. Another issue is that the matchmaking doesn’t seem to worry itself with player skill level, which means that players looking to join the Wi-Fi battle community early on will be crushed by players whose characters have much more powerful attacks and equipment. Indeed, I was crushed several times until I was able to reach further in the main quest and level up my characters.

The Nintendo DS is home to many good role playing games, meaning that Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 faces some stiff competition for a gamer’s attention, yet having the benefit of the Naruto license and the lure of an active online battle system will likely be this game’s biggest draws. Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 will please all but the most hardcore role playing game fans, despite some of its flaws. And of course, fans of the series and role playing games will be impressed with how thoroughly the developers have enveloped the franchise around a solid and lengthy main quest.