The Perfect Storm has arrived.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is the 7th game in the insanely popular Naruto game series Ultimate Ninja Storm and the 4th in the main Storm games. The story is the continuation from where the third game ended, and it chronicles the end of the Great Ninja War and beyond, eventually tying up and finishing along with the actual manga. The promotional material called this game “The Perfect Storm.” After playing the game for hours on end, they weren’t playing around.

Ok, to preface this: I am a huge Naruto fan. I have been a huge fan since the original series. The series was kind of my escape as a child, and is still my escape today. And the Ultimate Ninja Storm titles are one of, if not, the best anime adaptations to ever hit consoles. But Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is in a league of its own. The gameplay hasn’t changed much, if at all. However, that’s not a bad thing. The fighting is extremely fast and flashy, even if inputting the combos is very simplistic. The Ninjutsu in the series is what made it so special, and Storm 4 does not shrink from showcasing the flashiness of them. They are extremely diverse; each character has different jutsu and not one jutsu is the same. Even better is the Secret Techniques that each character has. These are the actual highlights of the game and it shows. The Secret Techniques are legitimately jaw-dropping. The graphical design made each move so jarring and explosive, and that’s just the single techniques. Introduced in Storm Revolution was combination Secret Techniques. Those are even better than the single Techniques, as characters like Naruto and Sasuke use their signature moves to make things even more explosive and awesome. The characters are great as well. Each character, good or bad, has a different personality and play style, which is a lot of fun to see and to see some of the interactions with them as a team in some of the Combination Secret Techniques.

The Story mode is surprisingly different from the other series. The story is split into an actual story mode and Adventure mode. Adventure mode isn’t as engaging as the Story mode; it’s you playing as Naruto going around Konaha village and doing missions. While sometimes it can be funny and somewhat engrossing, it pales in comparison to the actual story mode. The story mode in Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is one of the best story modes in a Naruto game ever. The story is formatted like a map, where you can take branching paths, but everything leads to one event. The visuals for the cutscenes are among the series’ best yet, and the gameplay bonuses they add to some of the story moments make the game extremely engrossing. The end of the game, which coincides with the end of the series, is a beautiful way to end the 19 year old tale. As a fan of the series, the end was so fulfilling and the way the game portrayed the end actually made me cry. After playing through, I can safely say there is no other way to end the Naruto Shippuden franchise through a video game then how Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 did. I cannot speak about the online mode, as I have not tried it much. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is meant for local play, per my opinion. So I will not comment on the online.

Even with all these praises, there are flaws. Balancing is a big issue. Some characters hit harder than others, and some are faster than others. That’s a huge draw in fighters and Storm 4 doesn’t do anything to change it. Also, while I love a lot of the secret techniques, some of them are admittedly stale and lacking in explosive personality.

In the end of the day, developer CyberConnect2 delivered the best Naruto game ever made. They kept what made the games great and added to that. While balancing is an issue, it doesn’t change the fact that Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is the best Naruto game and the best swan song to one of anime’s most treasured stories and characters. This is definitely an early contender for 2016 Fighting Game of the Year.