Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, known in Japan as , is a fighting game developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows (through Steam) in February 2016. It is the sixth installment and the final main installment of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series inspired by Masashi Kishimoto's manga Naruto, and the sequel to the 2013 game Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst. It was also the first Naruto video games released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as well as the first to include Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese voices in the Western release.
The narrative follows the Leaf Ninja Naruto Uzumaki and the Rogue Ninja Sasuke Uchiha as they participate in a world war between shinobithe Fourth Shinobi World Waragainst the terrorist organization Akatsuki and unite to defeat it. Similar to Storm 3, the game uses regular fighting systems; however, players can switch among a team of three fighters who can assist each other. Other returning elements involve boss fights, where quick time events are required to reach hidden scenes and hack and slash areas. The expansion version is entitled Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 – Road to Boruto; this version, under development, was compiled with three other series titles as Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy and released on in August 2017. It adds new characters from the 2015 film, Boruto: Naruto the Movie, and adult versions of the younger fighters.
The game was developed for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One over a two-year period. CyberConnect2 took advantage of the hardware's potential to incorporate more fighting mechanics and add new fighters. The game received generally-positive reviews, according to Metacritic; its narrative and graphics were praised, but critics were also divided about the length of the story and the depth of the controls. A Nintendo Switch port of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 – Road to Boruto was released in April 2020. Including Road to Boruto, the game had sold 15 million copies by June 2026, making it one of the best-selling fighting games of all time.
Gameplay
Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 gameplay is similar to that of previous games in the series, in which players battle each other in 3D arenas. A returning feature, omitted since the original Ultimate Ninja Storm, is the ability to wall-run; players can battle on the sides (walls) of each arena. A major change to the feature is the ability to have one character on the wall and the other on the field; the second player was originally also moved to the wall to keep the battle flowing and the system in check. Its roster includes 106 fighters from the Naruto universe, including duplicates of the same characters, such as Naruto (Part 1) and Naruto (Six Paths Sage Mode). The game also includes characters from the films The Last: Naruto the Movie (2014) and Boruto: Naruto the Movie (2015).
The option to select one of three fighting types was removed; it was introduced in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, restoring the rest of the series' strongest attacks, Ultimate Jutsu, and Awakening system, which enhances the fighting capabilities of fighter for a limited time. Another new feature is the ability to swap characters during battle, similar to games such as Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Awakenings and Ultimate Jutsu can be shared by switchable characters; players can build their meter with one character and switch to the other, using the same abilities with the other character (which shares the life bar). Also new to the series is the ability to break weapons and armor in free and boss battles with the ability to inflict elemental damage; fire can burn away clothing, but players can get rid of fire by moving quickly across the area or being attacked with water.
A player can initially play the main story mode following the Fourth Shinobi World War set after the events of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst, divided into lineal chapters involving the parallel encounters Naruto and Sasuke have until reuniting. Optional chapters focused on the supporting cast's past are also available to play. Similar to previous Storm games, the history mode has boss fights with quick time events and hack and slash elements. Upon completing the mode, the player can travel across an open world to recreate fights from previous series installments. The DLC Road to Boruto also focuses on the same open world but restricted to Hidden Leaf Village with side quests being available upon completing its main narrative.
Plot Story Mode The story begins with a fight to the death battle between the founders of Hidden Leaf Village: Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. Several decades later, the Fourth Great Ninja War is fought by the allied Shinobi forces from the village where Naruto Uzumaki reveals that the villain leading Akatsuki is Obito Uchiha: the presumed-dead best friend of Naruto's mentor, Kakashi Hatake. Obito and his partner, the reanimated Madara, awaken the legendary Ten-Tails to defeat Shinobi forces. The Rogue Ninja Sasuke Uchiha is uncomfortable with his hatred of the Hidden Leaf Village, and has the first four Hokage reanimated to learn about the village's real origin. After realizing that his late older brother Itachi Uchiha and the First Hokage, Hashirama, fought to protect the village regardless of cost, Sasuke's Taka team and the four reanimated Hokage aid Naruto's group.
When Sasuke's forces reach Naruto's group, Obito is overpowered by Kakashi and absorbs the Tailed Beasts to become their vessel. Through their combined forces, Naruto and Sasuke defeat Obito and remove the Tailed Beasts. However, Madara defeats all four Hokage, after reviving himself using the weakened Obito's body controlled by Zetsu. Now using Akatsuki's Sealing Statue, he takes the Tailed Beasts, including Naruto's Nine-Tailed Fox's Yang part, and mortally wounds Sasuke. A reformed Obito and Sakura Haruno try reviving Naruto while Kabuto Yakushi heals Sasuke. The first ever ninja, known as the Sage of the Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsusuki, appears in Naruto and Sasuke's dreams and gives them new powers to defeat Madara. The weakened Madara is betrayed by the true supreme leader of Akatsuki, Black Zetsu, who infuses his chakra to revive Hagomoro's mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki. With the help of Kakashi and Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke seals Kaguya and Black Zetsu; Obito dies in the battle while trying to protect Naruto and Kakashi. Following the final battle, a weakened Madara makes peace with Hashirama and dies as the Hokage return to the afterlife, but not before Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze wishes Naruto a happy 17th birthday. Naruto and Sasuke have a final fight to decide the village's real fate in the Final Valley, where they fought before. As both suffer the loss of one arm each, Sasuke admits defeat realizing how his terrible actions affected his friends. The game ends with a time skip; Naruto is now the Seventh Hokage raising his hostile son, while Sasuke returns to the village.
After the original story mode is completed, the game unlocks a new story mode set shortly after the war's end and before the time skip. The narrative focuses on Naruto, his friend Shikamaru Nara, and the Hidden Sand Village Leader Gaara. The three ninjas travel around the world with a team to complete missions and remember previous battles (which the player must win).
Road to Boruto The downloadable content Road to Boruto is set fifteen years after the Fourth Great Ninja War. The adult Sasuke battles two unknown fighters descendant from Kaguya. Meanwhile, Naruto's son, Boruto Uzumaki, a young Leaf Ninja, trains with Sasuke and Sakura's daughter Sarada Uchiha and Orochimaru's artificial son Mitsuki under Konohamaru Sarutobi. The village is peaceful (thanks to Akatsuki's defeat), but Boruto is annoyed that his father misses his younger sister Himawari Uzumaki's birthday due to having become a busy person due to his hard job as the Leaf's leader, the Hokage. Returning to the village, Sasuke tells Naruto about the two Otsutsuki fighters he met; he meets Boruto for first time, and becomes his new teacher. During a ninja examination to improve rankings, Momoshiki and Kinshiki invade Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto allows himself to be kidnapped by the enemies to protect the village; Sasuke then gathers the other leaders of 5 Kage from other villages and Boruto to rescue him. The mission is successful, and the two Otsutsukis are defeated by the combined forces of Naruto, Sasuke and Boruto. Now in peace and reconciled with his father, Boruto continues doing missions, ending with a friendly spar against him.
Development
Storm 4 was originally intended to be a PlayStation 3 game, but its development was changed to the next generation of consoles to take advantage of hardware capability. CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama conceived the base narrative, beginning with the fight between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, over an eight-month period. Each character took fourteen months to be developed. According to Matsuyama, the game's budget was higher than previous titles () due to the work needed on each character. Although the previous titles were released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 was developed for next-generation consoles as a result of demands by video-game marketers. CyberConnect2 took advantage of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One hardware to enhance the title's graphics. The team developed the game's narrative to pick up where Storm 3 Full Burst, Storm Generations, and Storm Revolution left off, and included an adventure mode set after the story. Matsuyama gathered a number of developers for Storm 4, hoping that the upgraded hardware would complement the manga, and said that its final volume inspired him to design the game.
Instead of keeping up with secondary characters, CyberConnect2 conceived the Leader System so players could use two independent fighters simultaneously. Matsuyama promised to return to the numbered titles' boss battles because they are popular with fans. Since the manga had finished by the time the game began development, he wanted Storm 4 to have boss fights with visuals surpassing previous installments. Matsuyama cited one boss fight where Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno summon giant animals to combat the Ten-Tails, with Naruto's giant toad Gamakichi "surfing" through the Ten-Tails with a wooden sword. To improve game length, Matsuyama also wanted an online mode. Unique techniques, not present in the manga, were created to fit the pairings which were popular with fans.
Matsuyama wanted to add material from the New Generation Project, which was begun by the series when the manga ended its serialization in 2014. The team listened to suggestions by fans, based on the previous games, to make the battle system easier to work. A mechanic brought from previous games are the walls, where the player can lose a fight by falling from the ring; early in Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 development, the staff debated implementing them in boss fights. When he saw the finished product, Matsuyama was moved by the final fight between Naruto and Sasuke. He sketched the two fighters, intending to put it on the game and promising gamers that they would enjoy the fight.
The hardware enabled a new mechanic in which the player character can receive assistance from another character with fire- or wood-based techniques; the details of each differ. Matsuyama noted that the implementation of running on walls was controversial among the staff; one demo focused on environmental effects, such as smoke and sand. Asked about adding Hanabi Hyuga to the cast, Matsuyama said that it would be her The Last: Naruto the Movie incarnation.