Video Game / Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

The saga comes to an end.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is stated to be the final entry in the acclaimed licensed game series based on the manga series of the same name by developer CyberConnect2 and Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the first Naruto game to be on the 8th generation of console platforms, and though initially dated to be release in Autumn 2015, it was eventually released on February 4th, 2016 in Japan, February 5th in Europe, and February 9th, 2016 everywhere else on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. A Nintendo Switch port was later released on April 23, 2020.

Along with the mandatory graphical update, the game brings back the popular cinematic Boss Battles after their absence in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution.

The game takes from where Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 left off, mid-way through the Fourth Shinobi World War, and covers through the end of the manga storyline, including its Grand Finale. Also, it creates some original story content that partially covers the gap between Chapter 699 and the Canon movie The Last: Naruto the Movie.

It's also the very first game of the franchise that, besides English and Japanese, also includes Mexican Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese voice acting for Latin America, also with the same voice actors from the Mexican and Brazilian dub of the anime.

CyberConnect2 released an adaptation of Boruto: Naruto the Movie as DLC on February 2017. Named "Road to Boruto," the DLC covers all the events of the film.

A new DLC was announced on November 2019 and released on April 23, 2020 alongside the Switch port. It adds Momoshiki and Kinshiki as playable characters, includes adult versions for the rest of the Konoha 12, and a new campaign as an expansion for Road to Boruto.

In 2023, Naruto X Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections was announced, featuring a revamped story mode that includes the plot of all 4 mainline games, as well as an original story centered on Boruto, plus gameplay changes and new characters on top of the entire roster of Storm 4.

Trailer 1, First gameplay demonstration, Trailer 2, Second gameplay demonstration, Trailer 3 Third gameplay demonstration, Fourth trailer, Fifth Trailer, Sixth trailer, GameStart 2015 gameplay teaser, 7th Trailer, Eighth Trailer

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Tropes exhibited by this game:

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The fight against Ten-Tails Madara, which was cut short in the manga in favor of Kaguya's introduction, gets this, particularly the part where he activates both eyes after utilizing Infinite Tsukuyomi. He even uses Limbo Perfect Susanoo clones.
  • The story mode also has an add-on to Sasuke's meeting with the past Hokages. After he talks with them talking to them, the First through Third Hokages decide to test Team Hawk and see if they're up to the challenge ahead, leading to Sasuke, Suigetsu, and Jugo vs. the First through Third Hokages.
  • The Final Battle of the canon series is also expanded on dramatically, and every moment of it is gripping.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: The last part of the fight against the Ten-Tail's first form features Kurama running from the abomination to lure it into a trap at the end of a long canyon.
• Amazon Chaser: True to canon, Naruto is this with Hinata. During Adventure Mode's main quest, Naruto tells Sakura that Hinata was amazing when she tried to save him and fight Pain, and even though she lost, Naruto says "she still looked awesome." When Sakura tries to persuade him to personally tell Hinata all of this, he's (unsurprisingly) confused about that, but he exclaims "It won't change the fact that she's awesome!" He repeats the sentiments when he, Sakura and Hinata recall the latter's fight against Neji during the Chunin Exams preliminaries.
• Animation Bump: As with the art, it has gotten even better here. This is especially true with the detailed closeups of Madara's face towards the end of the first trailer.
• Anime Theme Song: "Spiral" by KANA-BOOM is the opening song for the game.
• Art Evolution: The art has only gotten even more detailed thanks to the jump to 8th gen. That is saying a lot.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: While previous games had giant boss fights, this game is truly able to capture the insane scale of the giant creatures thanks to the hardware of the PS4 and Xbox One. The below mentioned Gamakichi is as big as his dad, at around 100 meters tall. In the final portion of the demo, your body surfs on the Ten-Tails' tails. Yes, its tails.
  • Lampshaded by Sasuke when fighting a giant Ten-Tails clone.
    Sasuke: Now that's just ridiculously big.
• Badass Family:
  • Hinata, Neji, and Hanabi have a Team Ultimate Jutsu - that also guest-stars Hiashi.
    "The Hyuga clan is the strongest in the Leaf!"
  • On the other side of the family tree, Minato, Kushina, Naruto, Hinata, and Boruto—provided one pre-orders—are also all playable.
  • The same with Sasuke, Sakura, and Sarada.
• Bait-and-Switch: Literally made a gameplay element. You can bait your enemy with a jutsu, dash or anything and switch to another character with the tag system to throw them off guard. The character you switch from will still be there, but will act as a support while the character you summoned will be the one you control.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Obito and Madara are the main antagonist of the game, with Obito being the more active member and Madara being the mastermind who came up with plan in the first place, and is the reason Obito is the way he is.
• Big Ball of Violence: Naruto, Sai, and Sasuke's Sexy Reverse Harem Team Ultimate. When Sasuke refuses to participate, Naruto and Sai jump him and forcibly strip him, resulting in this.
• Black Blood:
  • The scene where Obito slaughters the Hidden Mist Village ninja after Rin's death is Bloodier and Gorier than any other moment in the game series (even the US version, which adds more blood), but when you kill them they die in a huge splatter of black blood.
  • In the aftermath of the Final Battle, Naruto's and Sasuke's blood is colored black.
• Bloodless Carnage: Neji's death later on is rather clean compared to his death in the manga and anime.
• Boss Battle: These make their triumphant return for the final game, and if anything, has only gotten more insane than before.
• Call-Back:
  • The Final Battle of the game has a callback to the eighth Shippuden opening theme song, "Diver", and it will rip your heart to shreds.
  • Many parts of Adventure Mode features the characters telling Hinata about events that previously happened in the story.
  • Naruto and Hinata's new Combination Attack references their Rasengan/Eight Trigrams Twin Lions Crumbling Attack combination from The Last: Naruto the Movie.
• Call-Forward: In Adventure Mode, just after the War, Shino wonders what he could do to help people, besides fighting. When three kids disappear after playing hide & seek, Shino and Naruto take the matter into their hands and search for the missing kids. After finding the kids, Shino lecture them about not using ninjutsu to play, the kids and Naruto nods all together. Shino is baffled as to why Naruto nodded, but Naruto answers that Shino sounded like a real Academy teacher so he did it out of habit. Even Iruka, who watched from afar, noticed Shino acted like a real sensei. In the epilogue of Naruto, Shino does indeed become an Academy teacher.
• Combat Breakdown: True to canon, Naruto and Sasuke's Final Battle. They go from throwing Fantastic Nuke-level firepower at each other to barely being able to stand.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Every single fight that has more than one party member during the story has a unique victory quote and Secret Factor that plays when you win the fight as said character.
  • Whenever you fail to complete part of Adventure Mode, Hagoromo is only depicted as a mysterious shadowy person. As soon as you know who it is in-game, he is completely visible. This happens however you play through the game.
  • When fighting against the revived Madara, if he hits you with his Throw, the game adjusts the animation for it to show his eyes closed, since at that moment in the story, Madara had lost both of his eyes.
  • Normally when playing as Tailed Beast Form Naruto or Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan Sasuke, they use the Kurama avatar mode and Susanoo respectively. If you have a team consisting of just them however, the Awakening instead changes to the Susanno cloaked Kurama avatar.
  • When you play the Road to Boruto version or install the Road to Boruto content, the title screen now shows Naruto as the Seventh Hokage.
  • When you select Hinata or Sakura's Boruto era costumes, they're referred to as Hinata Uzumaki and Sakura Uchiha respectively.
• Distant Reaction Shot: Ultimates from late in the series devastate the landscape. Ultimates from The Last era are visible from orbit.
• Downloadable Content:
  • A season pass has been revealed for the game, with three download packs revealed so far, including two new scenarios, a new character pack, new combined Ultimate Jutsus, and all the costumes from the previous Storm games.
  • A bonus DLC pack was announced, featuring content from Boruto, as well as content previously exclusive to pre-orders, including Kakashi as the Sixth Hokage.
  • A final DLC pack added content from Boruto: Naruto the Movie, as well as the Boruto-era outfits for the surviving members of the Konoha 11 who didn't get them in the previous pack.
• Evil Overlooker: The box art has three of them: Madara and Obito side-to-side, with Kaguya looming over them from further back.
• Fast Ball Special: At the end of the second demo, Gamakichi does this to Naruto and Sasuke, using his immense size to throw them at the Ten-Tails like a baseball pitch.
• Fusion Dance: Naruto and Sasuke can combine Kurama and Susanoo, like Madara once did fighting Hashirama. Madara's version of Susanoo-clad Kurama is an enemy, and Sasuke's is playable during boss fights. Naruto can also combine three Kurama avatars into a single six-armed, three-faced avatar.
• Game-Over Man: Hagoromo appears whenever the player character falls in story mode, offering to bring the player back with either a boost in defense or attack.
• Grand Finale: For the Ultimate Ninja Storm video game series, since it covers the final arcs of the manga, as well as, through DLC, the first arc of the sequel manga!
• Greater-Scope Villain: Princess Kaguya and her enforcer Zetsu.
• Guy on Guy Is Hot: A Combination Attack between Naruto, Sai, and Sasuke results in this, with Naruto and his clones transforming into a bunch of scantily-clad pretty boys, a reluctant Sasuke in the back. Many female characters outright faint in apparent glee (Sakura, Ino, Karin, Tsunade, Mei, and Kushina) or shock (Tenten and Chiyo). Even Kaguya is left dumbstruck long enough for Sasuke to launch a surprise Amaterasu attack. Other characters don't seem to react at all before an annoyed Sasuke takes advantage of the distraction to attack.
• Hair-Raising Hare: Kaguya's Tailed Beast form is a giant white rabbit with three eyes and ten arms extending from her massive bulbous tail.
• Inconsistent Dub: In one scene, Boruto's name is spoken as "Bolt" by Naruto. The subtitles use the correct spelling.
• Insecure Love Interest: True to canon, one of Naruto's Secret Factors that can be triggered reveals that he is this to Hinata. If you play as Kurama Mode Naruto and fight against Hinata, and he uses his Tailed Beast Planetary Rasenshuriken on her, the Secret Factor that triggers has Naruto telling Hinata "I can't be letting you see anything uncool coming from me!"
• Jerkass Realization: Sakura, Ino, and Tenten all get hit with this during the "Angels and Demons" sidequest. They try to tell Hinata about how unthoughtful and childish Naruto can be, among other issues, but Hinata remembers moments from the examples they give that say otherwise. She turns all of Naruto's bad qualities into good ones, shocking the girls by how accepting of him she is. The girls finally realize what jerks they are for badmouthing Naruto, and consider Hinata to be an angel compared to them, which is where the title of the sidequest ties in.
• Jump Cut: The first trailer starts off with Naruto and Sasuke colliding in mid-air for their Final Battle, only to switch to the Final Battle between Madara and Hashirama in the same positions.
• Kaiju:
  • Susanoo-clad Kurama vs. Hashirama's wood golem is very reminiscent of giant Kaiju battles of old.
  • The second gameplay trailer involves playing as a full sized Gamakichi in a Dynasty Warriors-styled Beat 'em Up section. The kicker? He's so big, most of the Ten-Tails clones sent at you, aside from the occasional elite Mook, are killed with every step you take due to their small size. The death count for the Ten-Tails clones is literally in the thousands by the end of the section.
  • The Ten-Tails makes the other Tailed Beasts seem tiny in comparison.
  • The boss battle against Kaguya's Tailed Beast form shows she makes Kakashi's Complete Body-Susanoo seem minuscule in comparison.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • The game goes all the way to the end of the manga, freely showing things that had not been depicted in the anime at the time of this game's release, like Kaguya, Kakashi's Susanoo, the Final Battle between Naruto and Sasuke, and Naruto's and Sasuke's kids.
  • Subverted with the Final Battle with Kaguya when you stream the game, where any portion of the story then is blanked out as soon as you hit START.
• The Matchmaker:
  • Sakura is to be expected, but Kakashi of all people plays this role to Naruto and Hinata after the War, freely abusing his authority as the Sixth Hokage to pair them up on missions in the hopes of something developing.
  • Hanabi also devoted some of her free time to trying to push Naruto towards Hinata.
• Mr. Fanservice: Madara, who has a shirtless model in the story mode that's used in a battle, but is never seen outside of story mode.
• Ms. Fanservice: Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Temari and Karin's outfits show more skin when they suffer an "Armor Break". Suspiciously so, since unlike Hinata and Tsunade, they're not canon to the story. And all the boys sans Naruto and Sasuke only get scratches...
• Oh, Crap!: Madara gets quite a few:
  • In the split second before Guy hits him right in the face with Night Guy. Heightened by the fact that Minato and Lee stop his counter attack right beforehand, leaving the Uchiha completely defenseless.
    Madara: Oh, no...
  • When Naruto and Sasuke's Combination Attack sends his own Colony Drop meteor right back at him.
  • True to canon, right when Black Zetsu back-stabs him to resurrect Kaguya.
  • Kaguya also gets one right before she's sealed again, complete with a massive Nightmare Face, screaming in fury.
• Opening Boss Battle: This game follows on its predecessor by also making you face two boss fights in a row for its first battle in a flashback sequence, the first being Madara Uchiha with you as the First Hokage, and the second being the Nine Tails clad in Susanoo armor with you as Hashirama's Wood Golem.
• Physical God:
  • Obito and Madara in their Six Paths forms, having become the Jinchuuriki of the Ten-Tails, are referred to as living gods in the fourth trailer.
  • Kaguya Otsutsuki also gets the chance to show why she was worshiped as the Rabbit Goddess, and feared as the Demon. Black Zetsu even calls her "God" at one point.
• Power Fist: One of The Last Naruto's jutsu has him cover his fist in Kurama Mode chakra before punching his opponent.
• Press X to Not Die: QTEs return, and have made an evolution in terms of interactivity, and even start glowing when you press them fast enough.
• Promoted to Playable: The Support system is excised completely, with, instead, you tagging in the two other characters you bring into the battle.
  • As a result, after being support-only characters in Storm 1, Generations and Revolution, the rest of the Sound Five become playable characters in this game, via DLC.
• Pummel Duel:
  • The final part of the Hashirama vs. Madara fight demo has Susanoo-clad Kurama and Hashirama's thousand arms wood daibatau get into this. The former has six arms. Sound familiar?
  • Kaguya engages in one with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura simultaneously.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Kaguya Otsutsuki can use chakra to pummel enemies with her Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack.
• Say My Name: One more time...
  Naruto: SASUKEEEEEEE!
  Sasuke: NARUTOOOOOO!
  Hashirama: MADARAAAAAA!
  Madara: HASHIRAMAAAAA!
• Sequential Boss: Most of the story fights in this game, especially the boss battles, are in multiple parts with little to no breaks. The fight against Six Paths Madara take the cake, encompassing the majority of Chapter 3.
• Ship Tease:
  • When Hanabi stalks Naruto during the "My Sweet Older Sister" sidequest, he notices her stalking is very Konohamaru-ish.
  • Since Adventure Mode takes place before The Last, there are a few characters who make an effort to try to get Hinata close to Naruto, such as Sakura, Kakashi and Hanabi. In Adventure Mode's "Angels and Demons" sidequest, Sai thinks to himself that Naruto is a lucky guy to have Hinata because she's close to him and cares about him.
• Shout-Out:
  • At some point during the fight between Madara and Hashirama, they both do hand-to-hand combat on a wood dragon missile. This is very similar to a moment from the final duel between Jeanne and Bayonetta from Bayonetta, in which the two fight on a missile at a similar point In their battle.
  • The Pummel Duel from the first demo is one to Asura's Wrath as noted above.
  • In the fight between Perfect Susanoo Sasuke and Perfect Susanoo Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki Madara, the overall atmosphere of the fight, plus having to destroy certain objects guarding the boss before you can damage it, is very similar to the first phase of the final fight between Dante and Mundus from the first Devil May Cry.
  • Kakashi in his Perfect Susanoo fighting Monster Kaguya is executed very similarly to the final fight with Cubia's Avatar Battle phase in the last volume of .hack//G.U..
  • Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura engaging in a Pummel Duel with Kaguya. Kurama, Sasuke's Susano'o and Kaguya's Eighty Gods Vacuum (see Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs above) doing the punching makes it look like a stand battle is taking place. You could even say Sakura's using Hamon.
  • The entire second part of Naruto vs. Sasuke devolves into a fist fight that's near identical to Old Snake vs. Liquid Ocelot.
• Shows Damage: Characters can suffer from "Armor Break" as a fight progresses, which results in them getting visibly bruised and beaten and sometimes losing articles of clothing and armor (for example, War-Sakura loses her Chunin flak jacket and headband in addition to the other wounds she acquires).
• Signature Attack: All Uchiha clan members have access to the classic Great Fireball Technique.
• Stalker without a Crush: Hanabi spends the entirety of the "My Sweet Older Sister" sidequest stalking Naruto to learn what kind of man he is, since she feels he's not good enough for Hinata. She then challenges him multiple times, giving him a bigger handicap each time. Naruto only starts realizing the similarities with Hinata after she stands up again and again after losing their duel.
• Tag Team: The first game in the series to feature this, replacing the old Assist character mechanic from previous Storm games. Unlike in Capcom vs. styled tag systems, all characters share a single health bar, which simplifies gameplay and leads to shorter rounds.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Both The Last versions of Sasuke and Naruto have Ultimates and a Team Ultimate that go into this territory, even by the end of the manga's standards. Sasuke's is called Chidori: Planet Splitter, where Sasuke entraps his opponents in a Chibaku Tensei and then uses an insane version of Chidori to go straight through them and the planetoid sized Chibaku Tensei, which causes an explosion visible from space.
  • Naruto's is Naruto: 5K Uzumaki Barrage, which has all the clones punch at his opponent at insanely fast speeds, ending with all of them using a chakra punch with an explosion also visible from space.
  • Their Team Ultimate Jutsu really takes the cake here, as Sasuke covers his arm in Susanoo and Naruto covers his in Kurama Mode chakra, and they then bro-fist the opponent so hard it makes an explosion twice the size of their normal Ultimates, and even cracks the planet where the explosion takes place.
  • And for good measure, the Combination Attack between Six Paths Naruto and Rinnegan Sasuke has them combine the moves they used in their last battle, purposely causing the insane explosion that devastated the Valley at the End.
    Naruto/Sasuke: SIX PATHS: ALMIGHTY SCREAM!!!
  • The entire Akatsuki's Combination Attack: Everyone gangs up on the poor victim, Hidan, Kakuzu, Zetsu, Sasori, Deidara, Orochimaru, Itachi, Kisame, Konan and Pain, everyone takes a shot. The entire attack lasts 30 seconds.
• Tsundere: Temari to Shikamaru's Oblivious to Love. During Shikamaru's Tale DLC, Ino waits for Temari since she was scheduled to come to the Hidden Leaf Village, but she's nowhere to be seen. Shikamaru finds Temari after she broke her ankle. Shikamaru listens to her rant about the Chunin Exams match when he forfeited, saying she doesn't acknowledge the result. Shikamaru then piggybacks her to the Hidden Leaf as she turns red from the embarrassment. After he drops her off, Ino mentions that Temari actually liked the ride. It's one of Temari's rare deredere moments.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: One teaser of the game's bosses shows Sasuke in Perfect Susanoo Form fighting against Six Paths Mode Madara and his Limbo Susanoo clones in a Shoot 'Em Up-esque midair fight similar to Rail Shooters like Space Harrier.
• Unstoppable Rage: Obito, Kakashi, and Minato pretend they forgot about Rin's birthday so they can surprise her later. Having heard that the boys forgot Rin's birthday from said girl, a raging and furious Kushina comes and asks the boys to explain themselves. Minato tries to calm Kushina, to no avail. The fight starts, Kushina is in permanent Awakening mode.
  Kushina: HOW.DARE.YOU.FORGET.MY.LITTLE.RIN'S.BIRTHDAYYYYYYYY!? *cue Mass "Oh, Crap!" from the boys*
  • A more serious example comes when you're playing as Obito, after seeing Kakashi kill Rin and pass out, completely surrounded by over a hundred ninja. He goes completely crazy with sheer rage and horror, and utterly slaughters the terrified ninja.
    Hidden Mist Ninja: Hey! Are you a Hidden Leaf Ninja?!
    Obito: AAAAAAARGH!
• Walking Shirtless Scene:
  • Madara in Story Mode after Obito is defeated.
  • Also Guy, after using Night Guy, both in and out of story mode.

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