Naruto Online is... Good? No Really! Believe it!

So I'm gonna be very upfront, I never thought in all my years of gaming, I'd be writing a review about a Naruto browser game [here on Bananatic], nor would I be giving it a high score. Naruto Online is actually a pretty good game. There, I said it, it's an extremely competent game, is incredibly easy to hop in and do mission after mission and has every ounce of charm that the show had. And you'll see familiar plot points, characters and scenes from the show as well. It appears to use the main plot line from the show for its story, but since you're playing a character outside the main plot, sometimes you'll get to see scenes from a different perspective. Remember when they were training as their squad? Well, now you get to see what one of the side squads were doing while all of that was going on. It is a little funny to go into fights with Naruto and Sasuke while training with this side squad, but that's a pretty small complaint to be honest. It gave me a good chuckle watching it all play out.

One of the first things you'll notice about Naruto Online, is that they don't waste your time. It's using a Free to Play model close to what most mobile games use. And because it's based around that model, things like movement are pretty much automated. Need to do a mission? Click on the mission's name and it will auto-run you to that location. Not sure what to equip for the next battle? Open your inventory and hit Rec Equip. Not sure how to upgrade armor or weapons? Hit the auto-upgrade button. Eventually you'll run into side-quests, though they seem to be more like achievements than quests. So far I haven't found one that could actually be missed by just playing the main story. The game does have a few glitches here and there though, things like the auto-running, pathing you into a wall or a battle getting stuck, though these only happened to me once and a quick reload fixed it.

Finally we get to the battle system, what you would expect to be the meat and potatoes of the game. And while there is a lot of combat, I'd argue there's more story and plot than actual fighting. I imagine this will change over time though as I get deeper into the game. Most fights start with a mission placing you into an instanced area. In this area, you can click to move around, but be careful because enemies are roaming around this area as well. Most missions require you to defeat all enemies in the zone though, so it's not a huge deal if you accidentally come in contact with one before you're 100% ready. It is important to explore the areas fully though, as there is treasure and money scattered around. Combat itself is a pretty standard ordeal. It's turn-based and you have a meter at the bottom and as that fills, you can use abilities. It was a nice touch that they allow you to use QWER keys to use those abilities. Overall, combat seems a little too fast in my opinion but I imagine you get used to that over time. That's Naruto Online, a surprisingly awesome game that doesn't waste your time and claws at your nostalgia for what Naruto used to be, and it does it very well. 9/10