Summary
Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connectionshas brought theStormseries of games into the modern era. Being the first game in 7 years, the title had high expectations to meet and plenty of new content to cover.Ninja Storm 4came out in 2015, a year beforeBorutoentered into circulation.BorutoDLC was released for the game, but theStormseries has been absent for much of the sequel series' life. Fortunately,Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connectionsmakes up for this with its vast roster and its compilation of events from both series. Like previous entries,Ninja Storm Connectionslets players create matches between characters that have never fought against one another in the show, spanning the entire franchise’s history.
One of the most significant features ofNinja Storm Connectionsis its roster size. With over 130 playable characters at launch, the roster is one of the biggest of any game. The sheer scale of the roster, which pulls from all the franchise’s long history, means that things like power scaling needed to be flattened somewhat. Despite this choice, the roster size is still one ofNaruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connectionsbest features.
Features in Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections
How Does Power Scaling Work In The Naruto Franchise?
Power scaling is a common phenomenon in shōnen anime where a character’s power is compared against some metric. This is done so that when a character gets stronger, the audience understands the weight of their doing so. As the series progresses, the characters grow stronger and face tougher challenges. This presented an interesting dilemma forBoruto; fans are familiar with the universe and know the scaling, but the new series follows newer, less powerful ninjas. This meant that the characters had to get very powerful very quickly to provide the same caliber of action, or the author had to figure out how to make low-stakes encounters feel high stakes. This dilemma led toBoruto’s power creep problem.
Power Scaling in Boruto is All Over the Place
Young characters like Boruto and his squad mates routinely perform techniques that characters in the originalNarutoseries struggled to pull off. On top of the kids being immensely more powerful than the previous generation was at their age, access toscientific ninja toolsmeans that weaker characters with the right gadgets can come out on top. Rather than resetting the series power scaling,Borutohas, controversially, allowed it to go out of control. This conception of power scaling is fundamentally incompatible with the fighting game genre thatNaruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connectionsloosely fits into. While arena fighters like it are typically more casual experiences, there must still be a semblance of balance.
Ninja Storm Connections Flattens Power Scaling
Because any ofNaruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connectionscharacters can face off against one another, the flattening of power scaling is a necessity. The goal of fighting games is to provide players with an arena to fight one another on equal footing. Without this flattening, almost all the pre-Shippudencharacters would be immediately eviscerated by newcomers inBoruto. Making characters from earlier in the timeline weak would also make that part of the story mode less engaging, weakening a large chunk ofNinja Storm Connections’lengthy playtime. Ignoring the power scaling ofBorutomay make the game feel disconnected, but it is ultimately necessary.
Discarding Power Scaling Allows for Better Gameplay
Flattening the power scaling has allowed for all ofNaruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connectionsgame modesto be playable with the entire roster and for the offline and online versus modes to play in a mostly balanced manner. One of the biggest appeals of the game is being able to play as one’s favorite character, and maintaining balance allows for this to happen, even if it discards the power scaling of theBorutoanime on which the game is based; doing so allows for the gameplay to thrive where it otherwise wouldn’t.
