From the reconstruction of Konoha to the escape of Sasuke, passing through the search for Tsunade and the learning of Rasengan. Are you ready to relive all this firsthand?
Again Konoha
Naruto The Broken Bond is the natural sequel to Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, the first episode of Masashi Kishimoto's award-winning manga series “Naruto”, which landed on Xbox 360 last year. On the work that has inspired and continues to inspire titles on all consoles, there is not much to say: it has been at the forefront of the weekly publications of Shonen Jump (worldwide authority in the manga sector) and for sure among the favorite cartoons of teenagers.
Naruto has been able to make the fortune of many companies that have had the opportunity to market branded products, not least the software houses that, continuously, try their hand at the arduous task of designing games more and more similar to the relational dynamics found in the original series, which are for the most part better than those present in many films, even by directors of a certain caliber.
Konoha, at the end of Rise of a Ninja, was left at the mercy of the ninja of the sand who had attacked her deceived by the evil Orochimaru, legendary sennin of the land of the leaf, blinded by the thirst for power. Following the epic clash between the Third Hokage and Orochimaru, of which you yourselves will be protagonists, your mission will be to recover Princess Tsunade, granddaughter of the first great Hokage and designated Quinto Hokage of Konoha. Against the background of your deeds, the reconstruction of the village of the Leaf, devastated by the invasion that has just ended and the hunt for Naruto by the organization Alba (Akatsuki) with which the events "of blood ”of the powerful Uchiha family, of which Sasuke is the lead actor and director at the same time.
Naruto, exactly as in the original story, will be guided in training by Jiraya, the legendary ninja who with Orochimaru and Tsunade, composes the triad of "Sennin". The fascinating Ero-Sennin, as he is called by the protagonist (due to the manias that even those who have never followed Naruto can easily realize), will teach him, throughout the journey, some "level A" techniques, including the Rasengan, created by the greatest of the Konoha ninja that ever existed: the Fourth Hokage.
The journey undertaken by Naruto and Jiraya, however, is not just a professional growth, it is rather a human journey for a child, marginalized by the community and an orphan, to whom fate, despite a thousand adversities, has reserved a glorious existence ...
All looking for Sasuke
It is decidedly complicated to talk about a game dedicated to the Naruto series if you do not believe you are talking to an audience already accustomed to the fantasy world in which our ninja lives. It is for this reason that in our "videogame investigation", from now on, we will imagine we are addressing an audience that is already familiar with Konoha and its inhabitants and is already at a next level: it feels the need to pass from the role of spectator to that of "actor" albeit virtual.
Naruto The Broken Bond, as anticipated, takes up Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, in the exact point where the shinobi of the Sand, led by Gaara and the false Kazekage (later revealed as Orochimaru), begin to invade the village of the Leaf, in the background appear evocations of monstrous animals such as Orochimaru's assault snakes that begin to destroy the review walls of the city and the various buildings that stand in front of them, the ninja of Konoha for their part obviously try to be right. In the general turmoil the Third Hokage and Orochimaru are fighting on the roof of the Chuunin exam arena: trapped in the technique created by the sound quartet, two of the most interesting figures in Kishimoto's masterpiece collide; as far as the dynamics of the game are concerned, it is already here, right in its first bars, that Ubisoft shows all the potential of the work done.
Orochimaru shows some of his most effective and terrifying techniques, the Third Hokage is in trouble but stands up to him, the fight is much more fluid and pleasant than the first chapter of the series and actually better thought out even than titles such as Naruto: Ultimate Ninja on Playstation 2, which made sliding combat (with some variations in depth) their strong point. During the fight, there is a frequent use of secret techniques (significantly increased compared to the past) to be unleashed with skill and with much more calm, with a greater chance of sending them to sign and therefore receiving gratification.
The QTEs alternate with the pleasant fight that this time has become more serene thanks to the possibility of reproducing the combos with more immediacy thanks to the "gym" mode, invariably managed by the fanatic Maito Gai, which allows us to learn and consequently make the most of it. all the resources our PCs are equipped with.
We have used the plural on the characters because this time not only will you be accompanied passively by your friends, nor will you limit yourself to replacing them if necessary, but you will have them available as a team with the possibility of commanding them, dividing them, using their skills and taking advantage of their pleasant company. . This is precisely the great novelty of Naruto: The Broken Bond, the exceptional possibility of having to use the single powers of our friends in combination to face not so much the fights as the main story.
It will not be long from the start of the game, in truth, that you will be forced to use the manipulation of the shadow of Shikamru or the transformations of Kiba in Akamaru, individually or in combination with each other in order to complete a mission: it is not fully describable the satisfaction of using Naruto's kagebunshin no jutsu to build a bridge of human clones and cross it using Kiba's visual hypersensitivity or go in search of explosive traps with Neji Hyuga's Byakugan.
For the rest we find ourselves again in front of the secondary missions of recovery of objects or fights, with the eternal search for coins and money to make a perennial outline to everything (it is thanks to these two elements that we will be able to buy equipment and scrolls that will implement some of our techniques), while for the "physical" growth of the character we must devote ourselves solely to completing the missions that will reward us with points to spend, as usual, in energy, technique, chakra and so on.
Finally, noteworthy are the many skill competitions and various lotteries that are found around the villages, some are real minigames that are able to test your ninja skills, but some of them, however pleasant, are a little difficult to complete.
Audio and Video
In Naruto The Broken Bond the 60 frames per second are seen and how, the endless races among the trees as well as those in the meadows, as evidence of your decidedly out of the ordinary powers, will be characterized by an excellent fluidity of movements with drops in frames reduced to the bone. Overall, Konoha is identical to the previous episode but has been improved in several respects at the same time; first of all, the atmosphere of the village perfectly reflects the historical events that have interested it, secondly it is more difficult to “cheat” in climbing over walls and reviews due to the ghost effect of some construction. Still, the colors manage to use almost all the pantone available, we go from cold shades to other very hot ones with others that remind us of being in front of a title borrowed from cartoons from manga and oriental souls. 
In this sense, the contrast between the characters and the city of Konoha and in general the surrounding landscapes is quite deep, in fact the characters seem almost "added" to the background, as well as the evocations give the same effect, which is not always pleasant, if from a part of the landscapes perfectly convey the idea of depth and three dimensions, the main characters seem flattened and Naruto in particular, unlike the others all faithfully reproduced, leaves a little to be desired especially in the details of the face.
The rooms are treated with great attention to detail, but in addition to Konoha with the Hokage palace and all the rest, although the explorable area has significantly increased, there are no other places equally well made and the endless forests in the long run give the feeling of always being in the same place. Furthermore, the perfect Konoha, holding the camera fixed on the characters on more than one occasion, showed an unpleasant lattice effect that acts as a patina to the elements on the screen.
To conclude, the animations of the secret techniques and evocations leave you with a certain ease with your mouth open for the incredible resemblance to those seen in the inspiring work, while the opponents with which we will clash this time are much better realized and more varied: we will not again be forced to fight against hundreds of ninja-copies and indeed, the level of some is very high to be able to be right at the first attempt and without using the precious energy pills (in fact the enemies are divided according to the ninja classification reached: ghenin, chuunin, jouinin, jonin).
The audio sector is flawless for Naruto lovers: the entire adventure of "The Broken Bond" is accompanied by some of the most beautiful music of the anime (semi-divine works by Toshiro Masuda), while the sound effects are perfectly in line with the strand of beat 'em up in which our game can easily be inscribed.
The game is entirely subtitled in Spanish and thanks to the possibility of opting for subtitles in the mother tongue, the entire work acquires greater credibility for attentive and passionate players of the anime, as clearly the English dubbing does not do justice to the characterization of the original characters and for the vocal nuances and for the synchronous with the expressions (difference that is more marked for all those who enjoy the so-called “subbed” anime - subtitled Spanish-Japan).
The Broken Bond Online
Certainly could not miss an online mode for this title, despite having been devised, at least this time, a sufficiently long-lived main quest that manages to easily reach 13/14 hours without counting all the subquests. The online mode, we said, allows an almost unlimited enjoyment as, as you can imagine, it is focused solely on the "fighting" part of Naruto The Broken Bond.
In fact, when connected to the Live service, the combat mode "VS", "Two", "Custom" and the "Ranked match" mode is available. For the first three modes there is not much to say: they are one-on-one or cooperative fights in turn, with the additional possibility of choosing the terrain on which to fight; for the Ranked Match, on the other hand, we cannot but spend a few lines. During the ranked match, you will be catapulted into a real tournament during which with your favorite character (to be chosen as in the other online modes among many and among the main ones of the story told up to that point) you will have to try to rank up from the lowest, that of a student, to the two highest, that of Jonin and Hokage. Each battle won will assign you skill points that will advance your career, but do not worry even in the clashes with characters with more experience you can get some points despite not being able to win, just take away a good amount of energy from your opponent (opportunity this last very useful because at a certain point you will find only professionals of the online game that if they did not allow you to scrape together any victory they would easily throw you into anguish and boredom, nipping your career as a ninja in the bud).
All in all, the online modes are clear and immediate and the fights quite rewarding especially when your level is similar to that of the opponent you are facing, which certainly cannot be said in the event that there is an unbridgeable gap between you, in the which case you will hardly notice that you have started the match if not for a small detail that will appear in a few seconds: the final KO.
final Thoughts
Naruto The Broken Bond is a title essentially dedicated to the "indoctrinated" by Masashi Kishimoto, we seriously doubt that those who are fasting to the exploits of the blond Jinchuuriki della Foglia can fully appreciate its characteristics, but we are certain at the same time that if the obstacle is overcome initial (in acquiring familiarity with the powers of the different characters), anyone would be pleasantly fascinated. In fact, who would not be able to feel a shred of emotion finding himself in the guise of summoners of Gamabunta or Kazuyu in the clash with the perfidious Manda summoned by Orochimaru? 
For all that has been said so far, without a shadow of a doubt, Naruto: The Broken Bond published by Ubisoft and distributed on the market starting from last November 21, appears to us, in the company of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm on PS3, one of the best dedicated titles in circulation to the fabulous world of the ninja of Konoha.
