A Familiar Start | Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 – Road to Boruto Review

With its final DLC, Road to Boruto, CyberConnect 2 delivers more of what made Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 so good. A few new characters, a new story mode and some side missions are included to continue the popular Naruto saga. While the next generation DLC of Naruto is identical to the core game, the respectful nature in which the source content is handled on top of the game’s always addicting combat makes this a must play for any Naruto fan.

Road to Boruto follows the story of the Boruto: Naruto the Movie beat for beat. It tells the story of series protagonist Naruto’s son, Boruto, who takes part in learning the ninja way. Because of his father’s duty as the seventh Hokage, Boruto resents his father for not being there to see him grow. This offers a unique relationship between father and son, and it leads Naruto’s long-time friend and rival Sasuke to take Boruto under his wing. This time around, the story is short, but excellently paced. A huge mistake from Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is the odd switch between fully animated in-game cutscenes and screen grabs from the anime that felt choppy.  Here, we see the anime cutscenes thrown out and the in-game animation takes center stage, and it works so much better. The story feels cohesive and tight, with the absolutely stunning animation being shown off in full force.

Although the DLC is paced well and doesn’t outstay its welcome, it does feel a bit short even when considering the new side quests. It shouldn’t take more than one to two hours to complete the main storyline, and the side quests, depending on your skill level, shouldn’t take more than another hour to complete. Take in to account that most of the environments you run around are the same one’s from the vanilla game (minus a few new arenas), and Road to Boruto starts to feel like less content than advertised.

Road to Boruto plays exactly like Ninja Storm 4 without any major mechanic being introduced in the DLC. You’ll use chakra attacks, hand-to-hand melee and kunai knives just like before to pummel your opponents into the ground. A handful of new characters are introduced in the DLC, and with them come the over-the-top finisher moves that have elevated every fight from epic to unbelievable.

The main story mode in Road to Boruto is a mix between the story mode and adventure mode from the base game. You can run around the hidden leaf village to complete side quests or go straight to the main story missions. The side missions can be anything from training sparring to shooing away birds from the streets, so don’t expect hugely engrossing side content.

One of the final boss fights in Road to Boruto is slow, clunky, and nearly ruins all the fun missions that preceded it. Without spoiling the plot, two giant characters are summoned, and they fight in what’s supposed to feel like an epic fight – but it isn’t. Though these are nothing new to the game, none of Ultimate Ninja Storm 4’s over-sized characters felt as frustrating to control as what’s featured in Road to Boruto. Every attack feels way too slow, and it’s hard to tell when you or your opponent will attack first and makes every close up contest unpredictable. This makes the spamming of long range attacks logical, if not mind-numbingly boring and tries to completely undermine the game’s climax. This, luckily, is saved by a great final – and normal – fight, but it comes dangerously close to leaving the worst possible final impression. With a full game release, annoying fights like this one can be easy to forget, but when it’s only one of just over 10 fights, it’s that much harder to forget.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4’s Road to Boruto DLC doesn’t offer new mechanics or improve upon the status quo from the vanilla game, but that’s okay. The base game is fantastic, and this is just more excellent fan service content that will satisfy any Naruto die-hard. While the price for the DLC is steep for how short it is, the level of detail and polish make it worth the admission alone.

This review is based on a review copy of the PlayStation 4 version of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 – Road to Boruto by CyberConnect2. Review copy provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment.