#this woukd explain why Naruto games are in the state theyre in

[r0semultiverse]

Anyone who works in game dev or with game developers to unionize, feel free to add to this post as well! I also know I am biased due to my nostalgia and I won’t pretend to be a know it all when I can’t remember multiplication tables in my head from so many years ago lol

Spicy hot take opinions time: Naruto to Boruto Shinobi Strikers wouldn’t have been as much of a hit had it’s 3D art style not been heavily influenced by the Ninja Storm Series.

No worries, we’ll get into the mess that is Naruto Online/Naruto Online Mobile later in this post, calm your britches.

As soon as I saw the first “Naruto Project” trailer drop a part of me was like “interesting little design differences from the previous Storm games huh? It’s not??? What do you mean this isn’t Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 5???” These aren’t they best gifs as two different characters but I’m tired and felt like it had to be said.

There’s just something about it that feels way too much like Ninja Storm, but also not enough like Ninja Storm.

I’m just speculating of course, leave me links to any details you got on this if you do! It’s something I thought of ever since that trailer dropped and we didn’t see the 5 a lot of us waited so long to see. Not saying good or bad, but I do miss the hype and excitement around a new Ninja Storm game.

Seems like the closest thing possible is Naruto Online Mobile (and it’s likely originally planned PC version Naruto Online, the browser and app game) which came out in 2017-2018 and is still getting updates. Does anyone know the artists who made these games both look somewhat (and in the case of Naruto OL, exactly like) “Storm” in appearance?? I want to follow them on social media and see what they’re working on next if it’s even the same 3D artists who worked on Ninja Storm? Might just be fans who became devs and are keeping that style alive.

What did you all think? The mobile version of the Naruto Storm essentially copy game is exclusive to overseas and VPNs sometimes even cant get you through the bs because of this QQ program thing I guess. Then you got Shinobi Strikers and while yes I imagine it’s quite fun to play (I’m broke and socially awkward), I just feel like it holds onto Storm’s looks and just doesn’t feel the same when I’m watching people play it. It feels off putting almost?? The gameplay looks amazing though! Maybe the games look that way because that’s what “everyone expects” so they had the character design be extremely similar to appeal to that mindset of things.

I honestly really want to play both games! Even that third mobile one where it uses an almost 2D fighter system like the original Naruto Ultimate Ninja games, but the 3D models and animations from Ninja Storm! If anyone has an emulator not full of bs that can run that and Naruto Online Mobile, let me know!

Anyway I guess to sum it up, I feel like the Naruto game devs’ higher ups divided up the artists, programmers etc. from the Naruto Storm series and thought that making a bunch of separate games was a good idea and that no one would notice?? Not saying Shinobi Strikers isn’t good, it looks fantastic, but it pulls in the Ninja Storm style that has always been vibrant and colorful and puts it into this more realistic heavy colors type of situation and it just feels so off to me. As for Naruto Mobile, they really thought taking all the assets from Naruto Storm and setting up an RPG style grind mobile game as the next Naruto official game was a good idea (not that I don’t enjoy it though and it is, but they chose both of these paths potentially over more Storm games with memorable cinematic and battle sequences and boss gameplay that hasn’t been able to be replaced anywhere else as far as “same energy” is concerned. The perfect Naruto game would be for all of these devs to get together and create maybe like an optional RPG mode? (I’m Naruto OL, you still somewhat control the fight as it’s happening) but aside from the optional RPG part of it, just to combine their games all into one would be amazing.

And yes, part of me is still salty that Naruto Storm’s assets got turned into a a role playing game that was underfunded by higher ups and then later they saw the money coming in and were like “oh yeah you can make that nostalgic Storm game now the way you want to” to the devs.