Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2

Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 is a sequel to the first Path of the Ninja role-playing game on Nintendo DS. With traditional turn based mechanics and Super Nintendo graphical and animation stylings, this anime-RPG offers simplistic gameplay in its 6-8 hour running time.

Story

As Naruto (or 30 of his allies and, surprisingly, enemies) you'll set foot on an adventure to find five mirrors in order to seal away an ancient beast. Set free in the hilariously titled "Valley of Great Evil," by antagonistic ninja, the beast is causing all sorts of trouble across the land, and, once again, Naruto is the sole person who can stop it. Complete with idiocy, insults and all the tropes that make the long-running anime series popular, the dialog-heavy game keeps the text-based story moving at a very steady clip to keep it interesting.

As the tale progresses, Naruto encounters plenty of allies and foes to aid him in his quest to prevent the beast from destroying the world and everything in it. Again, the game is incredibly traditional and doesn't focus on the story so much as the gameplay. The story for Path of the NInja 2 is a wholly original one that doesn't play out in the

Gameplay

When you aren't wandering around in a top-down 2D view as you explore various sections of Naruto's colorful world to find treasure chests, secrets and items, you'll be watching text dialog exchanges as well as using the DS's stylus and microphone to perform various actions. The meat of the game is its turn based combat, traditional in its mechanics as you'll merely click through a menu to select your attacks, defend, flee, and spell-casting-alike Jutsu abilities. The menu in this DS RPG, however, encourages the use of the touch screen by making the menu based on radial navigation, though the d pad and buttons can still be used. Players also have the option to shift their characters through three planes, from front to middle and back in a horizontal row. When closer to enemies, players' characters inflict more damage but are more susceptible to damage, while being further back juices characters' defence and lowers their attacks.

Various Jutsu attacks require rapid tapping of the screen as well as spinning a wheel left or right on the Nintendo DS's touch screen in order to eek out some use out of this older-feeling RPG.