I’ve had a com🎶plicated r🌱elationship with Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections ever since it was first announced. After years of waiting for the next mainline game in the series (or anything other than Shinobi Striker), the initial reveal decided to present it like some sort of HD remꦰaster of the original four games, which were al🧜ready widely available on most consoles.
Thankfully, that rough first showing didn’t stick with Connections for too long as, since that nightmare reveal, more highly-requested characters🌃 were conf💜irmed to be joining the battle. An exciting new story mode featuring Naruto and Sasuke f🍬ighting was also shown off, and, best of all, the battle♔ mechanicꦰs appeared to be getting a big rework based🐭 on the footage that’s been show🦩n off so far.
After having spent the last few months eagerly watching grainy clips on Twitter of Ultimate Ninja Storm pros trying out the game themselves at events, I finally got the chance myself at Gamescom 2023, and came away feeling𝕴 a lot more excited about Connections. It might still just be more of a stop-gap game akin to Generations and Revolution than a true sequel to Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 but, from my hands-on time with it at Gamescom, it’s shaping up to be the best-playing game in the series.
At its core, Connections will be familiar to anyone who’s played other Naruto games - you’re still mostly focusing on executing combo attack strings while also managing your chakra for extravagant special moves while trying not to use up all of your body replacement technique (which essentially lets you teleport behind an ene🔴my and ruin their combo) stocks.
That flashy goodness that has pushed Ultimate Ninja Storm forward as one of the most beloved anime arena fighters (well, it wasn’t going to be One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows, was it?) is still here in all its glory, but it’s all the little changes that make the difference. By far the biggest is that chakra shurikens have been removed in favour of each fighter having a second ju꧃tsu, which a💙re usually an enhanced version of their tilt move (which have also been removed).
That’s going to sound like a bunch of technical jargon to those who haven’t𒁏 played a lot of Naruto in the past, but it essentially cuts two of the game’s most useless mechanics and replaces them with something that everyone can, and will, use. That’s the biggest change, but smaller ones like health resetting for both players per round, increased chakra regeneration, items no longer being limited, and no chip damage on block all add up to make Connections play better than any other game in the series. The hour I played instantly felt a lot more fast-paced than previous games and less reliant on the same three combos and single jutsu.
The build I played also had access to most of the new characters coming to the game, including Baryon Mode Naruto, Kawaki, Karma Boruto, and even Delta, Boro, and Kojo Kashin. I’m not as fussed on the last few there and think Delta’s insta-kill Awakening move is cheap as shit, but I loved my time with the main characters' strongest forms. It’s a bit of a shame they’re relegated to Awakening Mode, but the new movesets are still great regardless.
Combine all of that with all of the smaller things that CyberConnect2 has added here, like the ability to choose between character colours (wild that that was missing for so long) and even add accessories to fighters like in Revolution, and it’s clear that this is aiming to be the most definitive Ultimate Ninja Storm yet, even if it's not got "5" in the title.
So far, the only thing that feels missing are new stages, as it doesn’t look like there have been any added to the game so far.🎶 I’d definitely rather CyberConnect2 focuses on sharpening up the gameplay and adding more playable fighters, but it’s a little disappointing not to have seen any so far. I’m also assuming that walking on walls has yet again been removed from the series, which would be a big shame considering how the series has treated the mechanic overall.
Even with an apparent lack of new stages, Connections still feels like it’s going to have the best mechanics and most content out of any entry in the Ultimate Ninja Storm series, something I certainly wasn't expecting when it was first shown. How I end up feeling about it as an overall package is going to mostly depend on how strong the original Boruto story mode is and how much story content from the first four games ends up being cut or moved around, but it’s looking like November is going to be big for the Hidden Leaf Village. Believe it.
