Our third edition of "the abridged version of Naruto's plot from the anime that I still haven't watched to completion in video game form" has us with this game. For the most part, I really don't have much to say about general "fighting in the fighting game" gameplay this time, since most things from Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 were carried over to this game, just with a bigger character roster.

That's not to say there aren't differences, though. Gone are the days of spamming the substitution jutsu, because now there's a meter limiting how many times you can use it at once before it goes on cooldown. Guarding still exists, and in your usual 1v1, it's about as useful as it always is in a fighting game, but put a pin in that.

One of the other main major changes is how they changed Ninja Tools. Bots can't use them anymore, but instead of getting the items to make them one time and you have them forever, they're a 1 time use resource you have to buy multiples of at a shop. While this isn't the biggest deal since the game showers you in money, more than enough to keep you stockpiled on your favorite stuff, there's another system in place that limits things.

Unlike Ninja Storm 2, tools are put into two categories, Hero and Legend. Only Hero items can be put in the Hero tool set while Legend items can only be put along with other Legend items. Hero items are primarily heals and buff items along with some debuffs while Legend is pretty much all attack items with one or two things that aren't just for damaging the enemy. On top of this, you can only have 1 of each item on at a time unless you level up your Hero or Legend level to either let you use higher level items (because they have levels too, because why not) or more than 1 item.

So how do you level them up, you ask? Well, both sides get points after winning fights, but the big gains from Ultimate Decisions. These are usually decisive moments in major story battles with big significance, allowing you to choose an easier or harder encounter. Even though I spent pretty much the entire game only using Hero items, because I'm bad at fighting games and needed the healing items mid-fight, I always picked the Legend path for the coolness factor. In this final chapter, this would turn into a critical mistake.

Before I get to that, Ninja Storm 3 adds a new feature. Mob battles, where, as the name implies, you fight a mob of enemies. They're usually easier to handle than in a 1v1 encounter, but it is nice they're trying out something new even though I think they've already got a pretty good gameplay formula going here.

One thing that did disappoint me, however, was the sheer lack of side content during the main story. I get that, in the context of the plot, there wasn't much room for sidequesting, especially in the second half, but even the first half of the game has borderline no sidequests or bonus content. Sure, you can play some fights in the Ninja World Timeline, but you need timeline pages that are locked behind the main story, and some are just cutscenes with no fight. There is apparently a loose plot end left behind that can be accessed by doing a bunch of sidequests after the main story, but I'm probably not going to do it.

Now, the part of the game that began to sway my opinion towards the negative happened at the very tail end of the game. I know this game was made before the manga finished, so the end events aren't canon (and Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 exists, so it's clear the story's not over), but I did enjoy the spectacle of the 5 Kage vs. Madara fight. Everything after that was where the problems began, and part of it was self inflicted. The Legend choice of the first part of the final battle is a (borderline 1, but) 2v6 (3 at a time) battle, where the camera is jank, you're getting swarmed by attacks from all sides, and they can borderline just combo you to oblivion.

This leads into the second phase, where you are put up against 6 giant enemies (2 at a time) + 1 dude who you fight after each two giant enemies. Did I forget to mention you not only DON'T get healed between these fights, but you also, for some ungodly reasons, can't use or refresh your Ninja Tools for this section. If your health is already low from the beatdown in the first fight, you're fighting an uphill battle. You can heal and reset, but it tanks your battle rank. One of the giants is a spam happy flying enemy, which isn't the easiest to hit, and you still have to worry about the regular dude between these giant fights too.

I thought Pain in Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 was bad, but this fight was honestly the single worst fight in all 3 of these Ultimate Ninja Storm games I've played so far. The third phase wasn't as bad, mostly because you get healed, and the final phase is just a good old, no gimmicks 1v1, which was totally fine. It was a cakewalk compared to the first two phases.

The ending does leave the feeling of "this isn't over yet," which, once again, Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 exists, so of course it's not over. I'll probably get around to it...eventually.

(Final playtime is 65:52, mostly due to doing optional stuff. I also did do both endings).

Before beginning, I will TRY not to be biased in my opinions whenever I bring up Bravely Default II. While I do think, in almost every metric, this game blows that one out of the water, I want to try at least being a little fair. Just a little bit, though.

Originally a Switch 2 exclusive (even though it also exists on the 3DS), I never expected the HD Remaster to become multi platform. I didn't even know they just dropped it on Steam right away, so now I have even less incentive to buy a 450 dollar console. Anyway, this is still the same Bravely Default as the one on the 3DS, but in HD this time. After a quick Google search, turns out it's the exact same price as it was back in 2014. I'm not going to think about how that makes me feel ancient and move on.

At first, the story feels like your generic Final Fantasy flair. 4 crystals, warriors of light, evil empire trying to stop you and do villainy things, the usual. The story does not stay in that direction, however. As one who played this game on the 3DS, an interesting part of this playthrough was seeing the "in between the lines" moments during the story and how it all connects to the big endgame that one usually wouldn't pay much mind to in a first playthrough.

However, all discussions of Bravely Default always land on one major point, and the single biggest negative of the entire game. We're talking literal "drop the game" worthy levels of negative here, and that is a majority of the second half of the game, Chapters 5 through 8. Sure, on one hand, you get a chance to try out all the jobs (besides 1 until late Chapter 6) against the Asterisk bosses, and in some cases, they get new info added to their cutscenes. However, main story content is not only glacial, but the repeat bosses, up to 4 additional fights with the same goobers you already dealt with in Chapters 1-4 can get VERY old very fast, especially if you have a strong setup to obliterate them. Even worse is the backtracking for two of them, as the entire encounter pool in every dungeon is changed starting in Chapter 5.

Chapters 7 and 8 are the worst offenders. You get ZERO new story content, unless you go for the alternate ending. The only upside is that the Asterisk bosses are placed in new, harder to handle formations, where the Chapter 8 bosses really show off the power of their individual jobs. Even then, it doesn't change how badly the game's pacing gets the Old Yeller treatment, and you have to endure it if you want the satisfaction of hearing Serpent Eating the Ground during the final boss fight.

If you've played Final Fantasy V, this game's job system should be pretty familiar. I have not played that game, though, so 3DS Bravely Default was my second game with a job system, the first being Final Fantasy X-2, but I honestly don't like the Dresspheres as much as this game's job system. Mix and match the various tools given to you to turn your little warriors of light into walking nukes or support juggernauts that can even make it so your enemies can't even damage you. I personally feel breaking the game is part of the point of a job system like Default's, and unlike a certain other game that came out in the future, turn order is based on agility and not a pseudo ATB system where characters can get multiple turns before others.

Of course, some jobs are better than other. Ninja literally stomps on physical attackers while something like Black Mage falls off very hard in the second half without wasting 3 supports slots on Pierce Magic Defense as the Magic Defense of enemies surges in the second half of the game. Phys is basically king in this game (barring a couple of exceptions who ever have monster defense or literally are immune to phys.) As some may know, Bravely Second goes in the polar opposite direction with how OP Spellcraft is.

But you're probably wondering "what's so Remaster about this game? Isn't it just the 3DS game ported to modern systems with HD?" Well...they added minigames. A rhythm game and one where you play around in the airship. Granted, this game was originally a Switch 2 exclusive, so controlling these activities is a little jank with a controller (or you can use two mice, who even owns 2 mice). On top of that, the Airship Panic minigame only has 3 scenarios barring the tutorial and the rhythm minigame has one of it's songs locked to beating the final boss. But apparently we needed a full version of Love in the Crossfire, so that exists now, I guess.

No longer being on the 3DS, some changes had to be made. Bravely Second, the mechanic, not the game (for now, hopefully) is gone. In it's place is an item you put on your Special Attacks in order to break the damage limit, but this is locked behind those minigames (or you can get one from the optional superboss at the end of the bonus dungeon in the true ending only.) The ability to lower the encounter rate to 0% has also been relegated to an accessory, with the max you can do from the menu being 50%. If your party is strong enough, this shouldn't be a concern, but even so.

On the topic of "stuff from the 3DS version having to be reworked to work on modern systems" is the Nemesis encounters. Originally big monstrosities of death haunting Norende Village are now the party's living nightmares if they happen to use a Nightmare Pillow at an inn, usually obtained from the Chapter 5-8 optional asterisk fights, giving an incentive to fight them. The game, as far as I know, doesn't tell you which Nemesis spawns where, though, so I had to look that up during my playthrough.

The final change regards Norende Village and getting more villagers. Naturally, StreetPass and SpotPass don't exist on modern systems, so they had to find a workaround to that problem. Entering wandering souls (or whatever they called them), that spawn in every few hours, two per town, that can add to your village's numbers for those great items and equips (and Special Attack moves and parts).

As for things I'm pretty sure weren't in the original game, dungeons now tell you the general level range you want to be at, which is a carryover from Bravely Second. Another even better carryover from Second is the ability to make sets. Want to save your random encounter killer strategy to build your party for the latest boss fight? No problem, you can make a set for it. You get 10 sets and it really helps with saving time having to switch over stuff when you want to either try out a new thing or change your builds around for the scenario. This is a very welcome addition that they removed in Bravely Default II for some reason.

At the end of the day, it was nice to play this game again, even if I wish the second half was trimmed down significantly or at least had more going on. At least the first half had some character conflict going on to keep things interesting, especially during the end of Chapter 2 and most of Chapter 3. Hopefully, in not 1,800 years, we get a Bravely Second HD Remaster...even if I'm not a big fan of that game's protagonist, but for totally different reasons for why I'm not a big fan of Seth from Bravely Default II.