Naruto Games With The Most Complete Stories

Like a lot of more popular shonen anime, Naruto and its follow-up series have spawned many video game adaptations. There are fighting games, RPGs, and even an arcade card battler based on the ninja series. Many of these games have tried their hand at retelling the story arcs of Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, with varying degrees of success.

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A handful of the Naruto games have even tried telling their own original stories featuring the series’ main characters. Not all the games have put the story front and center, with some choosing to focus more on action and vs. fighting gameplay. Many Naruto games have done a good job bringing the anime to life in 3D though, whether that’s through telling their own story, or recreating classic arcs. These are the Naruto games with the most complete stories.

1

Naruto Shippuden: Naruto vs Sasuke

DS Side-Scrolling Action

• Released: July, 2008
• Developer: Tomy

Released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2008, Naruto Shippuden: Naruto vs Sasuke is a sidescroller that continued the Naruto: Ninja Council series and retains much of the gameplay from those earlier 2D games. The game focuses on a smaller series arc to tell a complete story, retelling the Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission.

That’s the part of the series where Team 7 goes after Sasuke for a supposed rescue, along with new member Sai. It’s a relatively short arc, spanning around 20 episodes of the anime. The story focuses heavily on the relationship and rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke, hence the title of the game. Focusing on a small, but significant, arc like this means the game gets to tell a deep and complete story that will be intimately familiar for Naruto Shippuden fans.

2

Naruto: Rise Of A Ninja

Naruto Origin Story

Fighting

Adventure

Action RPG

Systems

Released

October 30, 2007

ESRB

T // Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence

While many of the more recent Naruto games have included exploration and open environments, Naruto: Rise Of A Ninja was one of the first Naruto games to adopt this structure. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the game combines full 3D exploration and platforming sections mixed with 2D fighting game-style combat.

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It also tells a faithful recreation of the original Naruto series, including scenes from the anime itself, from the beginning all the way to the end of the Invasion of Konoha arc. Rather than chopping up scenes and skipping the less action-based parts of the series as many of the Naruto fighting games do, Rise Of A Ninja captured more of the series’ identity with the acrobatic exploration, side quests, and NPC interactions.

3

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4

Fighter With A Story

• Released: April 2007
• Developer: CyberConnect2

Building on the fighting game combat of the previous Naruto: Ultimate Ninja games, Ultimate Ninja 4 took an interesting approach to its story. The game featured RPG-like progression in its single-player story mode, and had players complete an original storyline set before the start of Naruto Shippuden, before transitioning into retelling the early part of Shippuden‘s story.

The retelling of the Shippuden introduction arc ends abruptly, but the original storyline, The Black Shadow, tells a complete and engaging story. The gameplay also took a step forward from the previous Ultimate Ninja games, introducing the idea of clashes and taking advantage of the series’ flashier aspects, like Naruto’s Nine-Tails transformation, with the addition of Awakening Jutsu.

4

Naruto: The Broken Bond

Naruto Narrative

Systems

Released

November 18, 2008

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes

Naruto: The Broken Bond is the sequel to Rise of a Ninja, and it goes deeper into the series with another faithful retelling of the anime’s story. It picks up where the previous game left off at the end of the Invasion of Konoha arc, and continues the series up to the end of the Sasuke Retrieval arc – around episode 135 of the anime.

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Unlike the previous game, The Broken Bond recreated all scenes in 3D, instead of mixing in cutscenes from the anime itself. The game retained the 3D adventure gameplay of Rise of a Ninja, adding more environmental exploration aspects, and iterated on the fighting game-style combat with the addition of tag-teams. Its retelling of these pivotal arcs from the main series is well executed, and the game world feels more alive and populated than its predecessor.

5

Naruto: Path Of The Ninja 2

Original RPG Storyline

• Released: July 13, 2006
• Developer: Tose/Tomy

There aren’t a whole lot of Naruto games that tell their own original story, but Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 is one of the few that does. The story isn’t going to satisfy fans in the same way as the classic arcs of the main series, but it does tell a complete, self-contained tale. It’s a typical video game setup. The player needs to collect 5 items, in this case Hope Mirrors, to face off against the antagonists and thwart their plans.

While the game wouldn’t win any narrative awards, it at least gets some credit for telling an original story. It further differentiates itself from the majority of Naruto-based games by using turn-based combat and RPG progression mechanics. The combat has a surprising amount of depth, using front and back rows for unit placement to give increased strategic options to the player. It only really forces the player to make use of their strategic options in the game’s harder boss fights, but it’s a nice translation of the Naruto character roster’s abilities into turn-based RPG form.

6

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

A Step-Up In 3D recreations Of Classic Scenes

Fighting

Adventure

Strategy

Released

October 14, 2010

ESRB

T // Cartoon Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes

Fighting games aren’t generally known for their stories, but one of the core concepts of the Ultimate Ninja Storm series is recreating Naruto‘s most epic battles in a cinematic way. This means that each game has tried to incorporate elements of the series’ story to connect these events. Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 attempted to elevate this storytelling, using a more linear structure for its story mode than the first game and providing more narrative elements in-between fighting stages.

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It’s still a re-telling of Shippuden‘s main events, from Naruto returning to Konoha up to the fight with Pain. It was the best 3D recreation of these scenes at the time, though, and Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 finally told its story in a way that even a player who hadn’t watched every episode of Naruto could understand.

7

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 5

Ultimate Ninja Perfected

Systems

Released

December 20, 2007

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 5 was the last game to be released in the Ultimate Ninja series under its original name. It’s one that many Naruto fans might have missed out on, as it was only released on the PS2 in Japan, eventually coming to Europe but not the US. It built on the already excellent fighting game gameplay with the addition of assist characters.

As a sign of future Naruto games moving toward more narrative elements, Ultimate Ninja 5 separated its story into the single-player RPG mode and allowed players to roam as several Konoha characters to interact with NPCs and follow the series’ events that the game focused on (that’s the Kazekage Rescue Mission and Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission arcs). It’s a familiar part of the series, but interestingly, the game followed the manga rather than the anime, as it covered events past those which had been included in the anime at the time.

8

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

The Best Fighting Game Story Mode

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

Fighting

Action-Adventure

Released

December 17, 2015

ESRB

t

The Ultimate Ninja Storm games have elevated their storytelling abilities throughout the series. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 might have the best and most complete story of any game in the series, as it was the first one that actually finishes the story of Naruto Shippuden. Ultimate Ninja Storm 4‘s main campaign re-tells the Fourth Great Ninja War, the final arc of Shippuden.

The game arguably tells this part of the story better than the anime did, as it skips some of the unnecessary filler the anime included during this arc. That’s not all though. After the main campaign is finished, players can continue to explore and uncover battles that recap the past events of Naruto and Shippuden. That means that Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 feels like it has one of the most complete versions of the Naruto story.

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