The Combat System
The combat system utilized in Naruto Online is beautiful, and its the bread and *er to what makes this game so addictive and fun. The main attraction is the strategy hidden within what a lot of people assume to be a basic game, and those who acknowledge the game's intricate battle system are the ones contesting for rank 1.
You start the game off by selecting between Katon, Fuuton, Suiton, Raiton and Taijutsu - all with their own weaknesses and advantages. Sadly depending on which one you pick means if you want to truly contend you're forced to restrict yourself to certain combos, and builds. One such example would be Katon (Neji / Sasuke / Kabuto, Naruto, and Sakura) for most the game until you unlock superior allies.
However linear some paths may be with this system, the pros still outweigh the cons.
Pros:- Ways to counter certain builds.- Ways to optimize your character and team to either fix your weakness or build off your strengths.- Positioning, and initiative - enabling strategic plays. Landing that heal just before your Sasuke dies? That won you the round.
This post was last edited by Eigo at 2016-12-7 00:29

Ninja Diversity

The amount of characters you can unlock from the Show is astounding, especially for a free to play game where you can unlock each and every one of those characters without the requirement of a pay-wall.

I counted 111 options, these include various forms such as Jiraiya (Sannin) and Jiraiya (Sage Mode) for example.

Just to re-iterate, its an amazing amount of variation - and I can't wait to see what other characters they plan to add into the game.

Map Design

The map design doesn't hurt your eyes, it's fairly static - but some locations stand out and you have to appreciate that most of the areas are accurate - or try to be as accurate as possible and still queue us into where our characters are / have travelled to.

- Sunagakure's entrance, for when you locate and find the Fourth Kazekage's Corpse.
- The TI (Team Instance) for Zabuza Momochi, its straight out the Anime / Manga - Great Uzumaki Bridge, nostalgia tingling.
- The next, and last one for this list... seeing as I've still got quite a lot more to explore is the destroyed Konohagakure, and Kyuubi Event. It shows a devastated Konohagakure, with nice contrasts of where we always see completely fine... just ruined, and broken. One thing I would like to see though is the non-destroyed Konohagakure being slowly destroyed each time the Server is unable to defend it from the Kyuubi attack.

Game Modes

The amount of things we can do is immense,

- Arena Battles
- Ranked Battles
- Survival Trial
- Chase Trial
- Ninja Exam
- Rich Field
- Kyuubi Invasion
- Team Instance Event
- Group Convoy Event
- Group Plunder Event
- Teaming Up With Players (to kill mobs, etc)
- Challening and Dueling Other Players
- Maintaining Your House (?)
-....

Woops, did I mention that all the above is what I do when I run out of Stamina? Yes, this game is immense - and now let me list the things that require Stamina...

- Instances
- Epic Instances
- Quests ...

99% of the time you always have something to do, and I hear they plan to add in even more modes -.... do they know I need to have a life?

Pay To Win Verus Free To Play - Is Naruto Online friendly?

As you play throughout the game you come across these three symbols.
http://puu.sh/sGfnU/894f291b1d.jpg
From left to right we have Coins, Coupons and Ignots.

Coins are what you get from doing... pretty much anything in-game.
Coupons are what you primarily get accompanied with Coins in Events, Going Up the Rank Ladder, among other things like 'Try Your Luck' and this month's 'Monthly Card Pack'
http://puu.sh/sGfCS/6bb822946f.jpghttp://puu.sh/sGfHG/ce3b4e4770.jpg
And finally, Ignots. They are only available through the exchange of real-life currency.
http://puu.sh/sGfMH/cfa5576760.jpg

Now. The question is... Does this game have a paywall, blocking you from being the best? No, not at all. A fine example of this is the amount of Coupons that are handed out to players, and in-turn Naruto Online allows you to substitute Ignots for Coupons for nearly everything, and one such game feature is 'Lucky Board' where you can buy dice for 20 coupons, or 20 Ignots. And each time you pass around the board you unlock a Lucky Box - which can get you a lot of sweet items, such as level 5 upgrades and even fully unlocked Characters.
http://puu.sh/sGfZM/1cebf03c4c.jpg

So, with that... this game is only as pay-wall as you make it out to be in your mind. Sure it isn't as quick or easy if you were to buy Ignots but compared to other games its just a minor hurdle or detour - and as they say, 'if you bump into a hurdle, just jump over it'.

With that said, I do appreciate the occasional quest handing me stamina potions, true life saver - if Naruto Online were money grubbers as a lot say, they wouldn't offer free Stamina Potions out (which I've ac*ulated 6 of so far in 2 days) and have you buy Stamina... leaving me not having the urge to buy Stamina.