Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles! BE WARNED!

[Kiel]

This is an important review of Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles

The game known in Japan as Naruto Uzumaki Ninden has been brought over to America.

I've played and beaten it, and it is dissapointing.

It's not a bad game, and actually pretty fun, but what's been done to the game is unforgivable.

The content of the game has been changed by Bandai America in order to avoid spoliers in the series (the game was released during the sixth season of Naruto in Japan).

These changes are more like gashes and deep cuts into the premise and overall quality of the game. The US Version features less than half of the game's cinematics and rendered cut scenes. The narritive is presented instead with bland textboxes, making for a very hollow feeling game.

Major changes are as follows:

-Tsunade has been cut out, replaced by an empty seat for still shots. All cinematics featuring her have been omitted.

-Kisame and Itachi have been ommitted, replaced by Kabuto and Orochimaru. While these aren't bad changes, nearly 50% of the game's story hinges on these characters, along with most of the cut scenes and dialogue.

-The overall story of the game has been changed, including the ending. The replacement story is hollow and feels jerky and sterotypical, like a bad episode of the filler.

-Character models and attacks have been changed to fit the timeline of the story. Shikamaru has not been promoted. While Gaara is still in it, he has been changed into an enemy character who appears only twice, instead of as a constant ally.

-Naruto's Rasengan has been renamed 'Power Strike' and its animation has been changed.

-Kyuubi Naruto no longer exists as a story element, used instead as a renamed power up.


These ommissions and changes water down the game, making it terrible. Fans of the current anime series sould avoid it.

If you've only seen the American broadcast, it's alright...but still not a very fulfilling game experience.

[shikagemaru]

After having writen this, I feel I may point out that you might not agree with all of my opinions...and frankly if you don't, get over it, I don't care e_e

I'm sorry, i'm going to say it. you know we're all thinking it. anyone who's only seen the american version of the anime is not really a naruto fan and whatever excuses they make are pathetic and inexcusable. you can't download it because your computer isn't good enough? read the manga. it's better. you'r computer still isn't good enough? go to the public library or something. get a job and buy a computer. I'm tired of hearing stuff like out of kristin holt "narooto" "oreechimeru" "sasooke" hihnahta" >_< BLOOOOAAAARGH!!!
the Lewis Black scream in lieu of a rant filled with language not safe for the kiddies.....
You know what? it's F*$&ing insulting is what it is. You know why they destroy anything that comes out of japan? because of 4kids entertainment setting a precident that anything that was drawn must be for kids. they censor content, language, you name it. they will change things to suit this 8 year old mentality. It makes me sick. the kind of things they're exposed to in japan is way more graphic than over here and they can apparently handle it. Naruto will flip off jiraiya or whoever he wants in the original manga. Honestly, right now I don't even know if i'm ranting incoherently or not because I'm just blindly raging so I'll try to make myself more....d**n, I'm even losing my vocabulary.
They take something wonderful and dumb it down for children, I find it ironic that I'm restraining my language for this, but I'll still do it. They'll market it as much as they can while still making it "safe". Anime isn't respected in this country. Voice actors, are generally not professional actors. Oh yeah, there are really good ones, but most of them will generally take whatever work is offered to them because they need the work. They love the fans and the fans respect them. Imagine if you will, if voice acting were the way it is in Japan. Seen as a profession. Where the perfect person for the role is the one that gets it. NOT the person that is willing to do 17 voices for one show for the price of one actor.
The censoring is the next issue. Why is it that when I gave naruto a chance on cartoon network, when naruto pulled off oroike no jutsu in front of the hokage did he just fly back in his chair instead of being flung back by blood from his nose? why is it that so much of the voilence that gives it meaning is taken out? why? because they think kids will start jabbing knives into their hands because they think they're naruto? well good for them if they do. then thin the herd. this branches off into a whole 'nother rant which i'll briefly delve in to. Why is it that in this country there's no such thing as self responsibility? either "satan" made someone do something" or "music" or "movies" or "video games" well guess what. In japan they have way more violent media. there's rape and more blood than all of quentin tarentino's movies. are there school shootings in japan? no. what's the violence rate over there? about one twentieth to one tenth what it is over here. then onto music, marylin manson is almost mainstream now, "alternative" music is way .....ternative. and I don't think the emo kid that shoots up the playground thanks linkin park as much as he does the parents that beat him or never paid attention to him, or the fact that he's a violent psychopath. there have been "witnesses" from the armed forces that call video games murder simulators because of the rush they get or the realism. well i call bull$&*! on that. if you're joining the military then maybe you already have a predisposition for violence. and "america's army" is about as realistic as pacman. unless you believe that after you get shot you regenerate, and that grenades can bounce off of walls like a tennis ball.
anyway, back on to the naruto and anime rant....where the hell was I?
Oh yeah, dissrespectful. The voice acting...the censoring...What more is there? The fact that it's bent for their own needs? the fact that the directors B*&#!slap the translators and say stuff like "BELIEVE IT" would be a great catch phrase. then the translators meekly say "but that means 'i already told you' and means more like he's been ignored his whole life and is trying to be clear and to the point so*SMACK*" and the translator is down. "Now, let's make every other line 'believe it' so it's marketable" then we see video game reviews giving naruto games an inane 2 out of 5, as if their opinions mattered or were even put forth in a meaningful manner....anyway. these games are 4-5 years old, and you can't pin gameplay on voice acting. then the ones that are more recent, well if you've read this topic then you know what they do for that.
Anyway....as you might be able to see, I'm sometimes easily set off, and have strong opinions. You know what though? That's because I care about what I love. I respect it and I'll defend it too.



-Also, uhh...you've played the japanese game I assume. I'm interested to see how that was, and if it'd be worth it for me to import since I'm far from fluent in japanese.