Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna Drive | a Review
originally published on 10/03/2021;
Hello everyone, I am the Hokage, G.E.M.Simov, a most excellent ninja, and I’ve come to be the proctor for the PSP Naruto Game exam. In this one - I’ll be chatting shit about a very underwhelming game, and that’s Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna Drive.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Also, I am a gameplay designer and a writer so I got the credentials to talk shit.
Gameplay
First off, this is not connected to the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Heroes (NUNH) franchise, so it’s no surprise that it’s… Quite underwhelming. It is very bare bones, and, instead of picking the fighting game genre, it’s more along the lines of an action-RPG-adventure title.
It features a certain type of character growth, but it is bound by Random Number Generation and is very limited, it has no game mode that allows the player to just fight against a certain opponent, and it lacks a large plethora of features that are, otherwise, found in the NUNH series, which I’ve come to expect out of Naruto games, as a standard has been set.
Well, if it is an action-RPG-adventure game, is it any good at being those things? No. I say it has RPG flavor to it because of the fact that I can’t quite put my finger on what, exactly, that game is - it’s not something specific, though. It has RPG elements - One element - and that is the growth of the characters, when it comes to power. It has action elements, in the vein that it has a dynamic combat system and real time gameplay. It has adventure elements because there are certain states that must be reached before the player can proceed, and there’s a heavy emphasis on story telling.
But it does neither of those very well. Each character has 2 moves. Either pressing the triangle button to use an item or their big Jutsu, which is just that, or pressing the circle button to go into a string of hits that can be finished off with a triangle button press to complete a combo. And that is everything. The amount of damage dealt by the characters is surprisingly low, requiring three, sometimes even four full combos to kill the weakest of enemies, and, other times, more than 5, even 10 minutes to deal with a boss.
What’s worse is that only the weakest enemies are susceptible to being staggered by the player’s attacks, while the stronger ones do not get staggered, which simply means that, if the player tries to perform a combo against them, the player will get stricken, lose a large quantity of health, and not even get to finish their combo.
Another big issue is that the game throws a large number of enemies against the player at the same time, and yet the player only has single target attacks that can, sometimes, hit two people at once, but, even with their Jutsus, it’s all just focused on a single opponent, and, having to focus on one guy while being wailed on by three others does not feel good.
The items that can be used are quite underwhelming, as well. One of the common items - a Shuriken or a Kunai - is unbelievably weak, dealing around 5% of an enemy’s health in one hit, travels slowly, can be dodged, and does not stagger the enemies it hits. It’s there as a means to be utilized against enemies who explode upon death, and can hurt the player badly if killed through melee combat, but that gimmick is not fun, because it takes at least 10 seconds to kill an enemy with tools.
The biggest problem, however, is that this game is set in a 3D environment, and, as such, the player has even less buttons, than they normally do on a PSP, to control their character. The bumper buttons - those are used to navigate the camera, and it is quite clunky. The way attacking works is affected by the direction the player’s character is facing, and some other mechanics are affected by the direction the camera is facing, which creates a situation that is, oftentimes, quite annoying and even confusing.
What is the draw, however? Well, the game features teams. When the player gets into a mission (which is the only mode of play), the player either selects the character they will play and their three teammates, or they have those selected for them by the game. The teammates roam about with the player, controlled by AI, and help out by attacking the enemies, tanking hits and even healing.
The player can direct them with the square button to use a Jutsu, which has a cooldown on itself, so you can’t spam it, and that’s all the control the player has over their team. Generally, they aren’t really stupid, those who can heal will try to heal either themselves or the player character if they are low on health, while the damage dealing ones will just do damage. The issue is that the means by which the targeting for their Jutsus (when directed by the player to used them) are tied in with what the player’s camera is currently looking at, so, if the player is not facing the enemy, the teammate will just attack the air in front of the player. It’s wonky at best.
Lastly, the most interesting thing that can be done, is the “Kizuna Combo”, which can be performed on a stunned enemy (which I’ve no idea how to do consistently, even though I’ve beaten the game with an S rank in all missions) by pressing the triangle and circle buttons simultaneously. Half the time, it does not work, because the player character must be facing the stunned enemy. The other half of the time it does not work, because the player character uses their item or Jutsu, and breaks the stun.
In the rare cases when it DOES work, it’s quite fun. The 4 members of the team start tossing about the enemy, and the player must press a button to continue the combo (of tossing the enemy around), or a button to end the combo and then deal massive damage. After a certain number of hits, the way the combo ends becomes even cooler, while, the more hits there have been, the faster the enemy flies about between fists. IF, however, the player fucks up and doesn’t continue or end the combo, they get slammed in the face by the enemy’s body, taking around 30% of their maximum health as damage, and the combo ends, with the enemy taking almost no damage. So, in short - good concept, mediocre execution.
Lastly, on the subject of bosses - really, really bad. They cannot be staggered by attacks, and there are gimmicks involved in each fight, which, on paper, would have been good, but the fights are so wonky (due to the camera controls), and last so long (due to the fact that the bosses have around 30 times more health than other enemies), that the gimmick becomes boring and tedious by the middle of the fight.
I commend the design team for coming up with a gimmick for each boss, but they really failed to bring the conception and the gameplay into a symphony of fun. Overall, that’s the issue with the game - it’s got a good idea, but it fails to really get it manifested into something worthwhile. 1/3
Presentation
It’s a PSP game from 2011. It looks worse than other PSP games from 2011, and it does not look as good as some PSP games from before 2011. It utilizes still shots of the characters for some cutscenes, and then utilizes fully animated (but in 2D) wonder in other cutscenes, which are somewhat weird, though there’s nothing inherently bad about them.
The sounds in the game are very uninspired and it feels as if the developers have reused a large number of Sound Effects, being very generous with sprinkling them about. In just the first 30 minutes of gameplay, a certain sound effect is played almost 10 times - and it’s one that’s normally meant to be used as the end of a joke. The music is really uninspired - mixing rock and traditional japanese instruments to bring about an almost droning ambience, which, by itself, would not have been too bad, but the manner in which it is picked and let loose all over, in the most inappropriate scenarios, just ruins it quite harshly.
Overall, the game has a really uninspired presentation that I really, really dislike. I mean, Legacy of Kain’s newest game, released in 2003, looks better and has a more pleasant presentation. Alas - a 1/3
Story
I have read Fanfictions that are better than this. It’s got some a little of “hey bro look, new cool village, super strong secret, something happens, fight them now!”, a pinch of “these characters don’t behave like that!” and a large helping of “what the fuck is this dialogue bro you’re not even talking about the same thing, do normal people talk and act like this?”. It’s not good. It’s really, REALLY not good. Compared to, say, the first NUNH, which had NO story, it’s worse. And I gave that game a zero. Thus, this also gets a zero. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? The Legendary Point that I denied to give to even games other people would consider master pieces? Do I want to give it to this shitty PSP Naruto game? No. 0/1
Conclusion
2/10. You don’t need to play this, you don’t want to watch a play-through of it online, you don’t care about the story. Don’t play it. It’s just bad.
I hang this on the wall of shame and sigh heavily. Damn, it looked pretty promising.