Review: Naruto: Broken Bond, by Ubisoft Montreal
by
Stuart Holland
This review was originally a series of tweets, which is why it is structured as it is.
This review was a part of my “Back Catalog” series in 2020, where I went back and achievement hunted in games that I had previously started, but not completed.
Next up on #BackCatalog was, very briefly, Naruto: Broken Bond!
This is one of a couple of games that I have that actually isn’t in the back compat program, so I’ve gotta bust out the actual physical Xbox 360
Broken Bond is a fun Naruto game - it’s surprisingly RPG-like considering that its primary mechanic is being a fighting game. (A 3D anime fighter like the classic DBZ fighting games.)
Very nicely stylized so it has aged better than many older games
I think it’s the voice cast from the show? If not, they are some very talented soundalikes!
I was doing well on achievements too! I didn’t get very far in when I first played it, so lots of straightforward story stuff to do. It’s also been a long time since I watched Naruto, so it’s a nice trip down memory lane
However, all of this is past tense because my venerable 360 appears to be dying. At the moment, it refuses to recognize any game except Eternal Sonata is in the drive
I’m tempted to try to fix it by taking it apart and cleaning it out
I’ve done that with a few other consoles, but it’s a fair chunk of work. I’ll move on to some other games and see what I end up doing
IT LIVES! Possibly not for long, but the drive realizes there is a game in there every now and again, so with some effort I seem to still be able to play
When you finish a combo in Naruto: Broken Bond, it plays a sound effect that’s a kind of buzzer
I swear it’s exactly the same sound my dishwasher makes when it’s done
This is very confusing
I have finished the story for Naruto: Broken Bond. A lot of its achievements were loaded up together in the final series of fights, so lots of new ones there!
Most importantly, when I loaded back into the game after the credits, all of the collectibles now appear on the map.
And I am so happy
In-game collectible tracking is such a great system. I wasn’t gonna bother with the gold coins, but I will now!
Also, Broken Bond is, like, low key really hard! It’s tricksy. Most of the game isn’t that hard, but it’s pulling its punches.
There’s a “win a tournament” achievement that looks super easy - a tournament is a single player mode on the main menu where you play a like 6 fights in a row to win a bracketed tournament
And you can even retry individual matches if you lose!
I have tried 3 times and failed. About half way through the tournament, the AI takes off the kid gloves and absolutely wrecks me. It’s very impressive - the difference is night and day
It’s like that post-game arena in Pokémon that actually gets super competitive as you get farther into it. I’ll never forget the first time the AI’s Latios used Trick to give me a Choice Scarf.
Pokémon’s AI is top notch, it’s just going easy on us most of the time
I have now finished all non-multiplayer achievements in Naruto: Broken Bond! And while the multiplayer does still appear to be available (it doesn’t error out or anything), it doesn’t look like there’s anyone to matchmake with
This achievement turned out to be much easier after you unlock the later characters, who are much stronger
There’s a “win a tournament” achievement that looks super easy
I’ve enjoyed Naruto: Broken Bond - I think it mainly suffered when I played it first because I tried to play it immediately after its predecessor, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, and I’d just had enough Naruto at the time
There’s been a bit more time now! And it has been a long time since I watched the show, so this was a nice trip down memory lane!
And in those last few achievements in Broken Bond, I’ve now reached 4,000 total achievements won! There are more to go, so on to the next game!
Oh, and of course, my 360 appears to be getting more reliable with use!
Hopefully it was a build up of dust that ongoing spinning discs have improved a bit. It still takes a bit of “turn it off and back on again” to get it to recognize the game, but it gets there!
I’m sure there will be another non-back-compat game somewhere in my future line-up (I’m eyeing one or two, but they won’t be immediately next). So we’ll see how well it holds up!
Naruto: Broken Bond
