Before we walked into a very passionate interview with the President and CEO of CyberConnect 2, Hiroshi Matsuyama, there was some time for a bit of hands on action with the game. And at first, it was difficult to see what has been changed and what has been added, aside from the obvious things such as new characters. And the first thing that struck was that both Narutos from the original series and from Shippuden will be playable, suggesting that the game will cover the whole Naruto story so far.
And after sitting down with Matsuyama-san, a lot of the things that are going into Generations have now become much clearer. And it was certainly refreshing to see how passionate he was about his product. While his passion did remind us of Suda 51, Matsuyama-san brought along a real jovial and fun-loving demeanour, which is probably needed with some of the franchises that CyberConnect 2 has worked on. During a time when a lot of gaming involved institutions are headed up by business men and suits, it was great to see the head honcho willing to come out and talk openly and knowingly about the game and the series itself.
A familiar challenger approaches...
While emphasising that this is a game being built for the fans, Matsuyama-san brought up an interesting contrast between the types of feedback received from each major gaming region. In particular, he claimed that with the Japanese audience, their primary feedback came from a technical perspective. Their comments revolved around the positioning of bars, the balance of systems and depth of fighting. On the flipside, US and European audiences tended to leave more feedback regarding content. For example, there has been a constant clamour for including Zabuza and Haku in the game, who were two strong characters from very early in the series. He also expressed his surprise at how well versed and up-to-date the fans from overseas were.
Matsuyama-san elaborated that this was a key challenge to the development of the title, balancing the additions and tweaks to satisfy both sets of fans. However, there was another relationship that was just as important for getting the game off the ground – that between CyberConnect 2 and the animation studios. Matsuyama-san mentioned the trials and tribulations experienced due to the visions from both sides, as the developers had their vision, and the animation studios wanted to make sure that the integrity of their property remained intact. And after ten years of working on Naruto titles, he’s become intimately familiar with what is acceptable for both sides, and each side knows what to expect from each other.
Pistols at dawn.
As mentioned, the game will indeed cover all of Part I and Part II (Shippuden) of the Naruto franchise, all the way up until the most recent episodes that were aired in Japan. As such, both the story mode and the character additions will reflect this. Players can expect to see just about every major character from the Naruto canon to appear in the game. However, a point was made to say that original characters – those introduced in fillers – will not be included. Thankfully.
Matsuyama-san mentioned that there have been some changes made to the Battle system, but didn’t really have the chance to elaborate in the time that we spent. From what he did say though, there has been an effort from the development team to make the system more accessible, easier to understand and easier to get into. Just how they intend to do this, whether it be with tutorials or explanations, was not revealed at this time. However, it was mentioned that the rounds will be quicker to complete, with an intention for making a sharper and more accessible multiplayer experience. Some of the technical changes that were mentioned include the separation of the Chakra and Substitution gauges, as requested by the Japanese players.
Susano-o is actually the Shinto God of the sea and storms.
One of the biggest changes to the game came with the Story mode. The RPG overworld that players spent so much time in during the last two games has been scrapped. Instead, players will be constantly kept in battle, as they play through a variety of stories, across several different and important characters. Naruto and Sasuke will obviously have the biggest arcs, but the game will also allow players to experience the back stories of others such as Minato Namikaze and Itachi Uchiha. In particular, the developers and animation studios have worked very closely together to create new content that will be considered canon, which adds up to around sixty minutes of additional anime content. However, these arcs will be shorter than those of the main two characters. Understandably, Matsuyama-san was quite proud of this and it makes for an intriguing departure from the usual licensed rehash efforts seen.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is a title that is heavily geared towards satisfying the fans. And through Hiroshi Matsuyama and his passion for the license, it’s clear that the folks at CyberConnect 2 are big fans as well. There are still doubts over just how great a game it will be, but hopefully the changes and additions will make for a more compelling and substantial fan package, and get rid of the fluff that bloated the last title.
PALGN thanks Namco Bandai for organising the hands on time and to Hiroshi Matsuyama for giving the time.
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