Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm

GR: Do you still have three levels of Chakra moves?

HM: Special moves sequence is preset for one per character so you won’t have three leveling conditions that it was in the previous Ultimate Ninjas.

GR: So the [Clone Jutsu] we just saw is the only one for Naruto?

HM: Right now, yes, that is Naruto’s special move, but as you progress in the story you’ll be able to unlock other types of moves which you can actually customize.

GR: Sexy Jutsu?

HM: [laughing] I think Sony is a little bit uh…

GR: Oh, really?

HM: So of course you have the standard change features. And special throw moves. And one of the special features, if you look on the top, there’s an L and R buttons- with Sasuke and Sakura on the top. And this is the first time you can summon them to the field to aid you. So for example in that case Sasuke will come out used his jutsu move.

GR: Can you play as just Sasuke?

HM: As long as you have the third character set as Sasuke for example, you’ll be able to navigate… so one of the special other moves, for example, is you can summon them while you’re trying to collect Chakra. It doesn’t have to be during the battle.

And one of the points on top is, once you use it, is a timer that has to fill up before you can reuse it again. So one of the differences in how good a player can actually use it is timing and situational uses of [these] support characters.

GR: Will items still appear on the battlefield?

HM: At this time it’s a little different. You can use the D-pad which an item and location on it and you can use different items on the battlefield.

So for example that’s a special balloon. And this item palette actually differs depending on the character you actually choose. Right now both of them are the same. But like in the retail version for example, actually have Naruto’s favorite cup noodles, cup ramen.

GR: So will the levels give any power-ups?

HM: This time first of all it’s basically broken in two basic modes. One is the battle mode... and there is a mission mode. In the battle mode, essentially, the theme contents of actually making adjustments... accommodations is to change the jutsu that’s being used and also changing the characters that’s acting as your support characters. So you’ll be able to change those as the game progresses.

And for the mission mode, you’ll essentially be navigating Naruto within a huge field and within that mode, there will be different kinds of power ups you can collect. And let me show you something a little different. For example, that one was an open field but inside where it has actual walls, you can actually move across the... Wall battles. And if you take damage, they crumple to they fall towards the ground. And the scene goes back to a ground battle.

GR: Have you guys done away with the cineractive Chakra scenes? Oh, there they are.

[laughing]

HM: One of the things you notice, this is all being rendered in real-time. So it’s not just like a cutcene that’s being introduced but it's just something that’s physically being calculated on this spot.

GR: Very seamless.

HM: Yes. So even though the jutsu that showed the different kind of environmental changes that’s applying, depending on the field you play, that field environment will match the action behind what you’re actually playing. So right now it’s just stone ground, but if it was in field, you’d see the grass behind you. So it renders according to the actual area that’s being fought.

In the mission mode, it’s not only just a simple one-versus-one battle type of a mission, but it also incorporates kinds of missions, such as chase missions for example, item collection missions. To the extent that there’s even a mission in there where you’re supposed to look for a hawk that has a scroll in its hand and you have to try and get it by shooting at the hawk and get it to drop.

As you complete the missions, the missions are made into levels. So as you progress in the missions, you’re actually able to reenact the anime TV series from the first to the 135th story. So it’s all a matter of progression according to the story.