Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

By: Robert Murphy

There is no easy way to tell everyone this but there is sadly no robot Naruto in this latest edition to the franchise. Devastating, I know. Now that that's out of the way, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 picks the story right back up where players left off as the 4th Great Shinobi War is well underway. For those of you who have read the manga you know that this means there are intense battles, amazing characters and some of the most gut wrenching scenes to ever come from the series are about to unfold. But, does the game follow through as well as the core material did?

The combat system for the Ninja Storm games has already been a long favorite of mine, players can easily weave jutsu as well as use hand to hand combat against your opponents without it being too complex. When coupled with the climactic scenes for these final chapters of the series they offer up just the right feeling one would expect to get from fighting these legendary characters. Fights are also complemented by cinematic sequences that depict some of the raw action as it unfolds and the returning quick time button moments really drive them home as players unleash their characters attacks in full force. A small but interesting new mechanic that has been added here is the ability to switch freely from your support characters, so rather than fight alone with one character and having them unleash minor attacks, you can switch to them and use both of the characters techniques. A compelling feature since I prefer some characters to others or some signature attacks.

Other featured elements are a bit of a hit or a miss for the most part. Mob battles are a feature for certain story moments and in some regards they work like the scene where you first see Kakashi's chidori when he was a kid or when Obito kills all those Hidden Mist ninja that killed Rin. But, these can lead to monotonous story moments later on where you must simply beat wave after wave of the same generic enemies until you reach a certain closing point. What's worse is the optional story mode objectives that can require players to get a large amount of kills or strikes during these sequences.

Once players dig into the games main Story mode, Ninja Storm 4 found a way to take the story that many players already knew was coming but present it in a unique way. The story comes with different branching storylines as Naruto and Sasuke are the main characters truthfully for these final moments. Each of them went through something slightly different and so did the people around them, so the story follows suit as players will play different branching arcs that join up with one another when Naruto and Sasuke do the same. However, each story point itself is plays out in a rather bizarre fashion as each chapter is capped off by explaining the battle that is about to unfold with quick cutscenes that can often be really long. What's more is the cutscenes go back and forth between animated scenes and motion comic effects, both never really coming off as that appealing since the animations were poor and the lip synchronization was often completely off. The story itself doesn't ever derail and plays out all the great battles just as they appeared in the book but there was simply a bit much to sift through when you're trying to get those great battles.

Following on the heels of Story mode, players also have the games Adventure mode which is also a bit of a two prong experience. The story here brings up some of Naruto's best fights through it's many years as Naruto himself moves forward in the present as the hero of the Hidden Leaf Village and new adventures that come with it. It's an interesting way to bring Naruto and Hinata together as well as remind players more about the rich history the series has. Unfortunately, the adventure mechanic itself is really a big bust that felt thrown in as a side note when it could have all simply been incorporated into the Story mode itself. Adventure mode is filled with dull side missions that have you travel all over to fight a random character or go on an actual mission that just has you taking a letter to another village and all the games faults truly are more prevalent in this area such as the bad lip syncing and poor animation. 

Multiplayer battling continues to be an ear mark however for the Naruto games. The character roster now features the complete list of all the series characters with 61 players to choose from, each having their famous jutsus, attacks and variant costumes to try out. The different mode options for online play are limited but outside of a regular sparring match what did you really expect? Still there is an Endless mode, League, Tournament and Ranked/Player matches to choose from and test your fighting abilities against other players out there. The minor aesthetic features are still here as well, such as editing your own ninja playing card to feature pictures from the series and your own ninja tag line. 

Happily, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 took a huge step away from the features that were present in Ninja Revolution and gets back to the elements that work so well for the series in the past. While many of the additions to the game are only minor, they do offer new ways to fight such as the support switching feature in combat. But, the good does balance the bad here as the games Adventure mode and some other poor editions prevented a totally enjoyable experience here.

Good:

- Minor additions to the games already solid combat system

- Story mode follows the series perfect with an interesting presentation to following along with it

- A completed roster makes online and offline play

Bad:

- Adventure mode is a complete wash

- Story mode is sadly filled with bad cutscenes and overabundant dialogue

Scully Rating: 6.0 out of 10

RWBY Season 3

By: Robert Murphy

Those of you who have been with RWBY right from the get go know that the story is about many lovable characters who are attending Beacon Academy for hunters and huntresses. Everything is fun, bubbly and only gets serious for brief moments during the series where Ruby Rose and her friends must combat some upstart trouble makers. This season however follows a much darker path and the time for being kids must be set aside in order to combat the growing threat hidden away in the shadows, until now. 

The start of the series begins much as you would expect it to as Ruby and her team prepare for the Autumn festival and compete with classmates as well as other cools in competitions that test their skills as huntsmen and huntresses. This whole ordeal capitalizes on perhaps the most captivating aspects for the show and that is it's fight scenes. A Pokemon style battle arena is brought forth and the stages vary with each and every match up so you will see beach levels, mountain levels, forest levels and all of them coming with their own environmental challenges to face while the teams are fighting one another. All the fights themselves are spectacular and show off the skills the Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang have all acquired since they joined the school and became teammates. Their teamwork being one of the best parts to see as they combine all of their skills to make excellently choreographed attacks against the opposing teams. 

This setup also sets the stage for many characters to appear from team RWBY's respective pasts. Ruby and Yang's Uncle Qrow (pronounces Crow) makes his first appearance and despite his outward drunk/smart ass behavior, he will be a major player in revealing all of the evil activity going on behind the scenes for the past two seasons. Weiss also gets an unexpected welcome from a former family member when her sister Winter comes to Beacon alongside of General Ironwood and his massive army of robot soldiers. She is just as cold as Weiss was when viewers first met her but later it is revealed that she left home just like Weiss did and followed an unorthodox path, in their father's opinion anyways. Lastly, we learn a great deal more about Blake's past when the White Fang makes their own moves on Beacon this season. Their leader Adam having a long teased history with her that now has come back to haunt her. 

While this all may seem like great editions to the story that will drive home a much more serious plot line, many of the ideas get muddled along the way as all of this information tries to be crammed into the story in progress. Qrow is not just in town to see his family as I said and he in turn reveals what Cinder Fall and the rest of her cronies have been trying to achieve. The end game seems to be nothing but true chaos for Cinder but in order to get there she needs more power, even more the impress amount she already wields. This ends up coming from a bizarre story about four legendary huntresses that were thought to be nothing but an old fairy tale. It would seem that it was anything but that however and when it comes time for it, an ultimate sacrifice must be made by one of the shows main characters in order to acquire this power. The real issue with this turn of events though was how quickly it gets thrown into our story and then must be accepted as fact. 

There are more signs of these thrown at the wall ideas when Qrow reveals more about Yang's history. It would seem that somehow he can speak to his sister (Yang's mother) who was presumed dead and yet must be in some other plane of existence? It really makes no sense and little time is spent exploring what this could all mean for Yang's character down the road. It seems very crucial to question this because by the end of this season Yang has gone through quite the ordeal, she no long is the same smiling ass kicker she has been this whole time and its hard to see how she will recover after everything that happens to her. Other instances of thrown around ideas are all too common, between Winter revealing a hidden power she and Weiss possess and the odd abusive love story between Blake and Adam and Ruby possess some hidden power herself too by the end. There is truly just far too much going on this season and far too little time to get through it all properly. 

What remained rock solid thus far was the overall story that was established after last season with Cinder and her team preparing to unleash all out war on Beacon. Her plans devastated not only Beacon but our main characters too and in almost George R.R. Martin fashion, all bets are off. Cinder effectively causes untold despair for just about everyone which is what attracts a massive amount of Grimm to the city in all shapes and sizes. This includes the biggest Grimm we've ever seen to date but the overall tone shift proved to be an interesting one to say the least. It offered a new layer of depth that I didn't expect to come from a show with such a light hearted feel to it, heck other shows like this don't even go this dark when it comes to the world being taken over by some evil force so it's truly something to be admired. 

By the time RWBY 's third season comes to a close there is a great deal of information to digest and that isn't necessarily a good or a bad thing. There are plenty of new ideas floating up in the air but none of it is really concrete by the end of the story. However, Cinder Fall and the rest of her team have proven to be a force to be reckoned with after causing untold death and despair for our main characters, offering up a different experience for this season that I did not see coming from an anime like this. So overall the future for RWBY can truthfully go down a very solid path if all the ideas brought up this season get more time to grow and develop, but only time will tell if that will happen.

Good:

- A much darker plot line than I ever thought to come from RWBY

- Top notch fighting scenes remain throughout

- Solid trademark humor the show is known for

Bad:

- New plot lines are all over the place

- Interesting ideas but so much left unexplained or ignored on the way to the end

Scully Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Psycho Pass: The Movie

By: Robert Murphy

In the past Psycho Pass has merely been focusing it's stories inward as people have come out in opposition of the Sibyl system and all that it stands for, they've wanted to turn it up on it's head and make those who loyally follow it question what kind of world they are living in. Psycho Pass: The Movie however looks outward to the world outside the "peaceful" society that Japan has established for itself and tries to spread it's grand views to other lands. Naturally, it's people are not as accepting as those who have spent so long under the watchful eye of Sibyl and so Akane Tsunemori must travel to a land ravaged by civil war and a guerrilla force that is led by a former member of her team.

Thus far, the plot lines for both Psycho Pass and Psycho Pass 2 have been so engaging that I never found myself curious as to what the rest of the world was like outside of Japan's borders. While the story focuses merely on the shores somewhere in Asia's mainland there is a distinct impression that the world is dire need of stability and safety everywhere you go. Sibyl is willing to offer just that in this latest entry into the series but it appears to be going poorly as an unknown group of terrorists breaks into Japan in order to punish those who have unleashed this force on them. Akane and her team fortunately got wind of the attack before anything serious occurs but something even more disturbing comes about once the situation is investigated further. It would seem the  leader of these terrorists is Shinya Kogami and he has been preventing Sibyl and their sympathizers overseas from gaining control over the land. Determined to discovers the whole truth for herself, Akane sets out to find Kogami and have him reveal the whole story as well as determine what Sibyl is really planning. 

Immediately the situation seems bleak for Akane and this land as it's cities and people are battered from the constant fighting and unrest that has plagued the land. The only prosperous area is the technologically advance island city just off shore of the mainland where Sibyl and the areas leaders have settled and begun to implement the new order of things. The area looks just like Japan but there are some very disturbing sites when you look closely at the peaceful atmosphere. Many of the citizens inside are forced to wear collars that constantly check their psycho pass due to so many people having above average hues with war, violence and hate being overly common. 

These people sadly have become a servant class inside of the city where they are treated as lesser for just having a questionable hue. They must take separate buses, are only allowed to work menial jobs (if they get any at all) and are also immediately blamed in altercations if the other party is a none collar wearing person. What's even more disheartening is the simple fact that if any of these people's hues go too far above the already agreed upon new limit under Sibyl then they are killed instantly by the governments aggressive military police force. It is a tough pill to swallow and since Akane has no authority here she must look the other way in the hopes that she can eventually get to the bottom of what is happening here.

This is where the movie definitely shines however and it's with Akane front and center confronting yet another Sibyl debacle. After two series Akane has become something of a potent force against all of Sibyl's misdoings and it in turn actually values her input when critical moments arise. It's made her so much stronger than the scared little girl who first joined Kogami years ago on their first mission and so when the two of them come together again it is quite the interesting turn around. Akane is able to read Kogami and determine what he is feeling, knowing instantly that he did not intend to become leader of a resistance force. Kogami along side of her is also still rock solid as a character and his current situation leaves for some unflattering parallels to a man he once killed for being able to bring out fanatical devotion in people. This is because he has done just this with the rebels around him, not deliberately, but the people in the camp all look to him as some sort of savior to their cause and it worries him. 

While Akane and Kogami are at the forefront, the rest of the cast manage to garner some interesting screen time in the movie. Ginoza has changed drastically alongside of Akane by becoming more relaxed and open with what is going with himself personally and this includes revealing his needing to punch some sense into Kogami. It's not anything major for the story but it's a bit of light fun in another dark Psycho Pass entry. But by far the most interesting side characters to come out of all this was Akane's partner Mika who has taken a different path after discovering Sibyl's secret. She has essentially become the systems willing watch dog since then and her role as this is far more established here as she not only brutally tortures someone to get information but also she is constantly challenging and critical of Akane's methods. Mika praises Sybil here at the end when everything is revealed and played off as a massive success, it ultimately feels like a massive conflict between her an Akane will be coming in a possible new season.

That factor alone is the only thing wrong with the Psycho Pass: The Movie and that's the fact that it is less of an overall movie as it is a continuation of everything that came before. The story furthers many different plot lines and creates an overall solid new story to go along with all the new developments. So the fact that the story itself is not a beginning to end or stand alone event is not a bad thing to have here in any way. Adding on top of the excellent story pieces you have Akane and Kogami together once again and showing off just what type of characters they have become. As always too Sibyl is on constant source of intrigue for the story and seeing how it can effect the outside world is a terrifying thought. In the end, all the pieces come together and Psycho Pass: The Movie proves to be a stepping stone to greater things down the road. 

Good:

- Akane and Kogami together again

- Seeing Sybil being used on another society is both terrifying and interesting

- Side character development and stories that could lead to future plot lines

Bad:

- The "movie" is less stand alone and more of a continuation of everything we've seen so far

Scully Rating: 8.8 out of 10