The Sound Four will be playable in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 via a post-launch downloadable content pack, Bandai Namco announced.
In a PlayStation Blog post, Hiroshi Matsuyama, president of developer CyberConnect2, says the team has been “pouring over countless manga issues and anime episodes to create the best versions of The Sound Four possible.”
Matsuyama further talks up the sequel in the post:
Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 has the largest roster of characters we’ve put into a Naruto game. If you have a favorite Naruto character, chances are he or she will be playable! The development team has been hard at work creating cool and interesting concepts with a lot of the characters. These range from characters “Awakening” into different forms with all-new attacks and completely different playstyles, to new combo attacks, hidden techniques, and Combination Secret Techniques that require players to use specific characters to unleash amazing attacks. I was even surprised when I saw the team’s proposal regarding the new character line-up.
One of the biggest changes to the gameplay is the dynamic between main team leader character and sub-characters. In previous games your team of three characters consisted of the main party leader and two sub-characters that players could summon for assist moves during the battle. Now players can swap between all three characters during the battle to be used as the team leader bringing with it a host of new strategies for team formations and battle tactics. It’s an incredibly useful tool to help hone and improve your skills.
So far I’ve been chatting about characters and battles but I’d be crazy not to mention the superstar of the game, Story Mode. We take you all the way through the 4th Great Shinobi War to the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke. I may be a bit biased, but when all the pieces come together; atmosphere, animation, art, special effects, gameplay, and music, I feel like it’s a work of art. The final battle is so amazing it even made me cry.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 will launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 9 in North America and February 5 in Europe.
View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.
