Foreword :
I largely don’t keep up much with the fandom beyond seeing the occasional meme, artwork, random niche question, etc. For all I know everything that I’m going to say in this post and subsequent post has already been said a dozen times over. If something I say is extremely similar to what others have said before it’s just coincidental and not me ripping off the ideas of others (I’m not exactly being all that original I don’t think so it’s likely there will be conversational overlaps). I’m mainly posting this just to put the ideas that I have in my head out somewhere so that I can kickstart further brainstorming for myself and to open these ideas up to a larger forum.
Content of this Post :
As you can see from the title, I’m intending this post to be the first part in a small series of post discussing an idea for what would be my ideal Naruto game. This particular part will address the core ideas for said game concept (Like basic game mechanics and format). Subsequent post will expand upon these ideas or address matters such as a potential game plotline and whatnot.
Genre / Basic Format :
While I’m not opposed to having Arena Fighters, I have to say that I’m rather disappointed that Arena Fighters have become the predominant format for Anime games. I dislike being restrained to playing simply as a roster of characters in a lineup of small arena maps.
For this game concept, I would like to instead like to suggest a format much closer to the Attack on Titan games (Specifically the 2nd game and the 3rd game though the 3rd game isn’t out yet) or the Xenoverse games for Dragon Ball. Namely, I would prefer a single player game with Character Creation that lets you actually interact with the setting. This game would effectively function as an “Alternate Universe” type game where your character can - to some degree - influence certain events (Maybe you could even derail certain events entirely, but idk. Like perhaps you could prevent a characters death through your characters actions).
In my head, I’m also imagining that this sort of game would be split into a sort of trilogy that divides the overall experience across the Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto eras. I like the idea of bringing back the “Carry over save data from previous game?” mechanic that used to be more common back in the day.
Character Creation and Basic Gameplay Experience :
Like I’ve said, my ideal Naruto game is one that involves Character Creation. But what does Character Creation mean in the Naruto setting? Naturally there’s the surface level aesthetics of character creation, but beyond this one could also incorporate the general “capabilities” that Naruto’s world building gives us to work with. For example, off hand I could suggest an “Affinity and Perk System” where the player character can develop affinities for certain play styles by utilizing skills from that affinity and can earn / spend perk points to gain more generic benefits.
A player character that uses primarily Fire Style Ninjutsu would develop an affinity for Ninjutsu and additionally would develop an affinity for Fire Style. Fire Style Ninjutsu may be notably powerful but cost a lot of Chakra or something to that effect, which could be worked around by using Perk Points to increase the player characters “Chakra Control” to increase the cost effectiveness of techniques.
Alternatively maybe a player character mainly uses Genjutsu and Weapons/Kenjutsu. This character would develop an affinity for Genjutsu and Armed Combat, and they may use Perk Points to gain perks that increase the duration of Genjutsu or allow the player character to handle more complex weapons.
I’m not entirely set on the gameplay systems yet. I’d appreciate any ideas that y’all may have, but ultimately I like the idea of introducing a wide variety of options that the player can specialize in to create a fairly unique Shinobi. For example, I’d also like to have the Puppet Technique, Healing Jutsu, Sealing Jutsu, Summoning Jutsu (Even minor forms of it like summoning a normal sized snake, dog, hawk, etc), Barrier Jutsu, and all these other niche techniques beyond just “I shoot da fireball”.
Working with this general concept for making your character, I like the idea of them giving the player decently sized “Mission Maps” to unleash their character into. These maps would function as “Psuedo Open World Sandboxes” that are large enough to justify mechanics like high speed movement, wall climbing, chakra jumps, water walking, and whatnot. Plus, I’d like for these maps to be relatively interactive in the sense that the user could use the terrain to their advantage to some degree. For example, a map may have a river that would benefit a Water Style or Lightning Style specialist in different ways (Water Style would be more cost effective by a river and Lightning Style would deal more damage to enemies standing on or in water).
These Psuedo Open World Maps would - in my opinion - be better than a True Open World, which would likely be a lot of empty space (Like if you run outside the Hidden Leaf Village, you’re probably just gonna have a lot of empty forest).
Now that being said, I would still want decent map variety. I am opposed to the idea of having a single map being used for all missions near the Hidden Leaf for example, unless I suppose the size of this map is so substantial that it could include a decent amount of variety in terrain just on its own (I’m talking something large enough to include all the training grounds and the Final Valley) though it would probably be better to have things divided into chunks.
Missions / More Detailed Gameplay Aspects :
As was implied above, I like the idea of having a “Mission System” as opposed to something like a “Run Around and find Tasks” system for a Naruto Game. I’m not fully opposed to an all out Open World game where you just pick up quests along the way while working towards a larger goal (Like an Elden Ring experience), but I think it would be better to have the main story beats given to the player as Missions assigned by a Village. Perhaps you could pick up side quest around said Village to then handle in between Main Story beats as you develop your character and interact with canon characters or NPC’s, but for the Main Game Plot I think I’m standing by a Mission assignment system where they send you out into the field to have you complete a specific goal (For example, maybe you get sent to assist during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc where you’d be going through the forest trying to catch up to the Bro Squad).
Beyond the specifics of how you handle plot progression though, I want to dive further into interactions with NPC’s and canon characters as a form of player character progression. I generally like the idea of obtaining new abilities/skills/items/gimmicks by developing a bond with certain characters, though I’m also opposed to the idea of just ripping off techniques that are supposed to be innate to certain clans (For example, the Nara clan wouldn’t just teach you how to use their Family Jutsu just because you became buddies with Shikamaru).
I think a fun compromise would be to develop unique techniques based off of certain clan techniques that the player can obtain by observing members of said clan without outright stealing closely guarded clan secrets. For example, a player who bonds with Ino may be able to unlock a general Sensory Technique by observing her clan techniques. This is another thing I’d like to open up to the community.
I do also like the idea of having unique Jutsu just in general for the sake of the imager character having their own aesthetic to some degree. Like, I enjoy the idea of having a “Jutsu Creation System” though i can acknowledge that this may be impractical if you’re having a wide scope of options to begin with. I imagine that if you wanted to do this you’d effectively have preset options that can be aesthetically tweaked to fit an aesthetic (For example, maybe there’s a generic “Melee Elemental Ninjutsu” that functions like a Chidori or Rasengan that can have an optional look for each elemental affinity). Again though, I’m unsure of how you’d implement this in a reasonable manner without it becoming excessively demanding on those who’d make such a game.
Conclusion :
I’ll be ending the post here for now just to avoid being even more wordy than this already is. If I get any level of interaction I’ll probably follow through on subsequent post to develop things further.
For example, I already have ideas for a “General Plotline” post, and of course there’s room to reconsider or consider gameplay elements that the community might be interested in.
Thank you for reading this far if you have of course read this far and of course thank you to anyone who engages with the post.
