Naruto, for instance, can perform his shadow clone jutsu to cross any broken bridge, and as luck would have it, nearly every bridge is broken.

This proves necessary, because more often than not, each party member possesses a jutsu, or ninja power, that must be used to overcome some environmental obstacles you encounter. You’re typically accompanied by a friend or two, and you can switch between the members of your party at any time. This is a third-person action game in which you usually play as Naruto, and most of your time is spent venturing out of the safety of Hidden Leaf Village to complete various missions. The Broken Bond tries to do a lot of things and ends up doing very few of them well. But between these two high points are a staggering number of underdeveloped storylines accompanied by boring fetch quests, which rob both the story and the gameplay of any sense of momentum. And it builds up to a solid conclusion, too, when Naruto and his fellow ninja are faced with a situation that tests just how much they’re willing to risk for one of their friends. The story here starts out strong, with a dramatic battle that ends in tragedy. Unlike Rise of a Ninja, which incorporated clips from the anime to move the plot along, resulting in some jarring transitions between 2D and 3D, The Broken Bond uses its own beautiful graphics for all of the cutscenes, creating a much more cohesive experience. The Broken Bond’s Story mode picks up where Rise of a Ninja left off and covers events that span episodes 81 to 135 of the anime.

Naruto the broken bond review