NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS Review Summary

With an excellent story, huge roster, and gorgeous graphics, this fighter still feels rushed, weaker than Storm 4, and plagued by broken online.

Excellent story mode quality: The story mode is widely described as good, interesting, and progressively better. It features cool fights and important Naruto elements, sometimes offering a challenge.

Huge character roster: The game boasts the largest roster in the series, with around 130 characters spanning Naruto, Shippuden, and Boruto. This provides extensive variety and replayability for fans.

Great animations and graphics: Animations are well done and a treat to watch, while graphics are significantly improved, beautiful, and solid. The game runs smoothly on PC and looks stunning.

Highly positive overall reception: The game is broadly praised as very good, incredible, amazing, excellent, and fun. Reviewers consistently highlight it as a great experience overall.

Engaging Boruto story mode: The original Boruto story is emotional, well-constructed, and creative, bringing nostalgia while offering something new. It is often considered the best and most developed part of the story mode.

Story mode is rushed: The story mode is widely criticized as rushed, lacking detail and cutting important battles. It is often described as a slideshow with minimal interaction.

Inferior to Storm 4: Players overwhelmingly find the game worse than Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, citing less content, worse story, and fewer mechanics. It feels like a downgrade despite being a newer release.

Online mode broken: The online mode is frequently unplayable due to constant crashes, bugs, and connection issues. Many players report being unable to complete matches or play with friends.

Not worth the price: Players feel the game is not worth its price, even at a discount. The lack of content and poor quality make it unjustifiable for the cost.

Online lag and disconnects: Online matches suffer from severe lag and frequent disconnections. Players are often matched with high-ping opponents, leading to a frustrating experience.

Story mode content and structure: The game features a story mode that covers Naruto's story and includes a Boruto arc or special story. It summarizes the Naruto and Boruto stories, though some players find it rushed and lacking important battles.

Slideshow-style story presentation: Story mode uses a slideshow or PowerPoint-style presentation with static images instead of animated cutscenes. This minimal interaction approach is frequently criticized for feeling static and less engaging.

Online multiplayer with ranked mode: The game includes online multiplayer with a ranked mode where players climb through ranks. However, online matches suffer from matchmaking issues and occasional lag, impacting the experience.

Two jutsus per character: Characters now have two ninjutsu (second jutsu) per match, with the second jutsu consuming chakra. This replaces the charged shuriken mechanic for some characters and adds strategic depth to combat.

Core fighting mechanics: Combat mechanics include attacks, combos, and jutsu usage, forming the core gameplay. The system is refined from previous entries, offering a familiar yet updated fighting experience.

Frequent Game Crashes: Many players report the game crashes frequently during play or even on startup. This is the most widespread technical issue, affecting normal gameplay and causing frustration.

Crashes During Online Matches: The game crashes or closes automatically specifically during online play, often when starting a match or mid-game. This severely impacts the multiplayer experience.

Severe Online Lag: Online matches are plagued by lag, high ping, and delay even with wired connections. This makes battles feel unresponsive and dragged out.

Unstable Online Connections: Many players report unstable or bad connections during online matches, even with players from the same region. This leads to a poor multiplayer experience.

Steam Deck And ROG Ally Issues: Performance on Steam Deck and ROG Ally is terrible, with crashes, stutters, and FPS drops. Compatibility issues with Proton/SteamOS may be the cause.

Skip, Play Storm 4 Instead: A recurring recommendation is to buy Naruto Storm 4 or the earlier Storm games instead of this title. Reviewers describe Storm 4 as better, more polished, and more complete.

Buy Only On Deep Sale: Numerous reviewers say the game is only worth it at a steep discount, commonly suggesting 40-70% off or heavy sales. At full price it is widely considered a poor value.

Not Recommended Overall: A large share of feedback explicitly advises against purchasing the game at all, calling it a waste of money and not worth the hassle. Many reviewers say they cannot recommend it to anyone regardless of price.

Only For Naruto Fans: The game is mainly recommended for dedicated Naruto or Boruto fans, while non-fans are often told to avoid it. Even some fans note that the story experience may be better elsewhere.

Multiplayer Requires Friends: Reviewers say the multiplayer is not worthwhile without a friend to play with, and recommend it mainly for local co-op or single-player. Solo online play is frequently described as disappointing.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $30.00.

Game completion: 40.0h.

Story completion: 6.5h.

Endgame: 70.0h.

Fun is available immediately in arena combat and local or co-op play, especially with friends; enjoyment is mode-dependent, with story and online issues acting as friction rather than delaying a later click.

Friction: boring story mode and weak slideshow cutscenes; terrible online connection and inability to play with friends; tedious proficiency and title grind; removal of tilts for second jutsu and limited jutsus; crashes and spammers in multiplayer; forced repetitive VR fights to progress story.

Unlock drivers: playing locally with friends; playing online with human players; focusing on arena combat and character roster.

Disillusioned Storm Series Veteran: Plays through story modes, compares mechanics and content with prior Storm games, and mixes fan-service exploration with online battles. Motivation: To continue the Naruto Storm series and see it match the depth, story coverage, and polish of earlier entries. Stance: no buy.

Casual Newcomer Naruto Fan: Plays story and special story, casual local or online matches, simple controls, and character variety rather than ranked competition. Motivation: To enjoy accessible Naruto arena combat and the large character roster, often as a first Storm game or with friends. Stance: buy.

Ranked Online Competitor: Focuses on ranked PvP, meta character picks, jutsu timing, and online matches; treats story and casual modes as secondary. Motivation: To compete in online ranked matches and master the arena fighting mechanics against other players. Stance: sale.

The lower-VRAM Windows cohorts are mostly negative due to crashes and broken online play, while the 12-15GB VRAM cohort is mixed with both stable 60 FPS reports and frequent online crash complaints.

Windows <8GB VRAM: negative. Reports are dominated by frequent crashes, broken online play, lag, and poor optimization, despite a few positive match experiences.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. All included reports are negative, citing constant crashes, unstable online matches, and connection or penalty issues.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: mixed. Some users report stable 1440p 60 FPS performance, but others report frequent online crashes, lag, and penalties.

Steam Deck: The filtered reviews show mixed Steam Deck experiences, but frequent crashes are the dominant technical barrier. Users report random in-game closes, post-match crashes that trigger bans, and serious SteamOS/Proton performance and stutter issues. Controller support is also criticized for poor mapping. Although some users report seamless play, the explicit frequent-crash evidence places Steam Deck friction in the Broken range.

Linux and Proton: The feedback is mixed. Some users report the game runs well on Steam Deck with no problems, while others explicitly report constant Steam Deck crashes, random closes during play, a serious SteamOS performance bug, and possible Proton/SteamOS driver or power-management compatibility issues. There is no evidence of anti-cheat, DRM, or launcher blockers tied specifically to Linux. Overall Linux/Proton friction is moderate: playable for some, but unstable for others.

Monetization: The reviews confirm a full-price game that also monetizes through a paid Season Pass, multiple DLC character packs, and high-priced cosmetic and music DLC bundles. Players repeatedly report that characters and basic cosmetics are locked behind extra purchases, and some allege cut content was resold. A single review also mentions a season battle pass and daily-login grind. There is no clear evidence of real-money gacha, lootboxes, or direct pay-to-win for this title, so the case is best classified as aggressive DLC monetization rather than casino-style predation.

Inferior to Storm 4: This game is widely considered inferior to Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 in nearly every aspect, including story, content, and overall quality. Many describe it as feeling like a mere update or DLC to Storm 4 rather than a true sequel.

Falls short of older entries: Comparisons to earlier Storm titles like Storm 2, 3, and Revolution frequently highlight that this game lacks the innovation, story quality, and engaging confrontations of its predecessors.

Ultimate Edition DLC contents: The Ultimate Edition includes downloadable characters and a season pass, but some customization items are not covered. There is no upgrade path for existing owners to access these extras.

Part of Storm series: It is the fifth entry in CyberConnect2's Ultimate Ninja Storm series and is often compared to the franchise's bridge games like Revolution and Generations.

Recycled content from Storm 4: A common criticism is that the game heavily reuses assets and content from Storm 4, with minimal graphical changes and a similar feel. It is often described as a copy-paste with more characters.