"Naruto RPG 2, the expansion, now available in stores!"

Naruto is probably one of the most successful Japanese anime series nowadays, but there should be a limit on how much you try to milk a license's cow. Every fan was probably be looking forward to this game, but suddenly it turns out being slightly more than a carbon copy of the previous 2 Naruto RPGs for the Nintendo handheld consoles.

The maps continue looking exactly the same as you may have seen in the previous title, and so does the location of each item, every area and every store. Strangely, most of those places are now given an uninteresting role, with the player finding some generic phrases when interacting with the people in there.

Battles also suffer from this curse, with a new battle interface added BUT which seem to provide the exact same options as the old one. Each character seems to have a lot more special attacks than before, but most of them turn out being nothing more than worthless moves that you'll never even use. By the time you complete the adventure, Naruto will have more than dozen moves, and you'll probably only use 2 or 3 of them.

Remember the big world map seen in the previous games? Here, there's nothing like that. Instead, on the only 5 (or 6) places where you would get to see it in this game, there's a simple mini-game where you'll be controlling Naruto. Its target is simply coming from point A to point B in a platform-like area, where you need to collect 20 crystals and 1 frog. While this could be an interesting solution to this type of event, such interaction is seen every time you try to cross that path, even if you just mistook your way. Going back, you would have to face the same path all over again, which is just boring after a while.

Perhaps the only interesting thing about the game is its ability to go online. While that Wi-fi option allows you to at least fight other users from the entire world who have the game, it provides nothing new. It's fun for a bit, but after a while you'll be wishing for another game.

Now, while those problems could be understandable or acceptable on a good RPG, that's surely something you won't be finding in here. It is rather possible to complete the game in less than 10 hours, and while it has a very limited replay value, I doubt you'll be playing it for more than 20 hours. Maybe such lack of replayability can be compensated in the Wi-fi mode, which I couldn't try (as I don't have such connection), but that surely doesn't make up for this lack of play time. There is an interesting amount of secret characters to unlock, but the task involved in doing so is harder than you may imagine and requires knowledge of the Japanese language.

The story, included in the game, isn't in any way related to the series, besides presenting the same main characters. A new group of bad guys invade a small town, and a girl manages to escape it. Strangely, soon after this attack, the small town fills with a strange darkish fog, and your characters fail to advance further, due to the fog's strange effects. You are then sent in a quest to retrieve 5 plate-like jewels, which turns out being the usual predictable plot.

The graphics, exactly as everything in the game, resemble the ones in the previous RPG chapters of this series. Such lack of improvement doesn't make them fully bad, but they aren't good either. While detailed and allowing you to see all the characters as you would have liked, they don't aim at being better than before.

As for the sound, which sometimes also resembles the one in previous chapters, it is interesting and of good quality. Most of the times it seems to fit the series and the action occurring in the screen, and most players will probably enjoy it. I did, and never felt the urge to turn it off.

Clearly, I had to complete this review by stating that this is really one of those games who simply tries to make money out of the series. Huge fans may be wanting to get it, but everyone else would better stay away form this.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/06