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Does The Next Naruto Game Seriously Look This Good?
*UPDATED* - Best Cel-Shaded Graphics Ever?
*UPDATE* - Found a trailer on YouTube, thought you might want to see these gorgeous hand-drawn-style graphics in motion.
I am not a fan of anime. It’s weird, because I’m such a complete junkie for American comics and animation, and I love Japanese lore; ninja, samurai, Fox Demons, etc. There’s just something about the Japanese style of animated storytelling that I can’t connect with. There’s also the fact that pretty much every anime character looks and sounds exactly the same to me. As a result, I’m obviously not a fan of games inspired by anime and manga, either. I’ll take the X-Men or Batman over InuYasha or One Piece any day of the week.
That being said, I have to admit that the screenshots for the upcoming PS3 title, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, look astounding. If these are in-game graphics, we could have the best looking cel-shaded game of all time on our hands. If they’re pre-rendered, then carry on normally.
Click for full-size images
Right square in the middle of my dislike for anime, there’s a special little section of disdain reserved solely for Naruto. The character is obnoxious and annoying, his catch phrase, “Believe It!,” is utterly asinine, and seriously, what kind of ninja wears a safety orange jacket? Not very stealthy. Still, though, If this game seriously looks this good I may have to break down and buy it, then play it on mute.
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Comments
yeah, i'm with you veggie - anime is just not my cup of tea, outside of a few standout examples such as ghost in the shell. but these screenshots looks seriously awesome. here's hoping they represent actual gameplay!
I really, really hate how good this looks and refuse to believe it.
I "Believe It!!". I recently got "Appleseed: ExMachina" on Blu-Ray and the animation on that is a blend of CGI and cell-shading and looks fantastic. It looks great but more Final Fantasy: Advent Children (looking more realistic than animated). Seeing Appleseed and having played games like the Simpsons (this gen) and Okami (last gen, sorry Wii, you're just gamecube's awkward teenage brother), I really think that this is what cell shading for HD consoles should look like. It should look as good or better than the Standard def broadcast version for sure, and I agree with FemJesse, they do need to get a popular adult anime series and make a game that looks this good for the adult audience. Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex perhaps? Great series by the way. Lot of robots. Hot girl robots. :-)
I have a hard time believing that the end product will look this good... I mean, I guess it's possible, but like FemJesse said, it looks better than the show.
I too have trouble believing that will be the end product. I mean, come on, professional CG Animators have trouble pulling off cell shading this good to begin with (and they use pretty big renderer computers) So how Bandai managed to pull this off realtime is baffling ;)