Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles is a PlayStation 2 Action-Adventure game developed by Cavia and Namco Bandai, based on the Naruto franchise. It is set after the Search for Tsunade arc of the manga and anime, which had not aired in North America at the time the game was released, resulting in Itachi, Kisame, and Tsunade being cut from the English version, Choji's and Gaara's outfits being altered, and the Rasengan being renamed the Power Strike. The game has RPG elements, including a world map and the ability to customize Naruto's abilities.
The game follows Naruto's day to day life fulfilling various missions for the Hidden Leaf in the wake of a sudden increase in the number of bandits and armed thugs, until a rash of disappearing ninja unveils a sinister plot by Orochimaru to destroy Konoha using an army of undead ninja.
Tropes the game provides include:
- Action Girl: Averted, surprisingly. None of the female characters are playable, and while Sakura does appear in some of the FMV, the game's set long before she Took a Level in Badass. However, there are off-screen moments of action-girlness, such as Hinata shyly stating that she was the one who captured the criminal that Naruto is tasked with transporting back to Konoha.
- Ax-Crazy: Gaara zigzags this. In the localized version seeing as the game is set before his Heel–Face Turn it naturally makes sense that he’s still crazy. The Japanese version is set after his Heel–Face Turn so he isn’t all that insane there. Surprisingly his health bar as a boss in the Japanese version still has his trademark Slasher Smile despite this.
- Big Bad: Orochimaru, who's been collecting dead ninja and resurrecting them with a parasitic fungus to create an army of zombies.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The English release of the game would have had one of these had Itachi and Kisame not been cut out.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: One of the boss fights is against a swarm of giant praying mantises, which end up being incredibly difficult to kill and one of the hardest fights of the game.
- Big Eater: The reason why being teamed up with Choji to find some Tamasaburo - a famous and addictive candy - for Anko is a bad idea.
- Blood Knight: Gaara, in keeping with his pre-Heel–Face Turn attitude. Sasuke also shows signs of this, jumping at the opportunity to fight Naruto to the death.
- Casting a Shadow: Shikamaru's abilities revolve around shadow manipulation.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Gaara can soak up a ton of damage with his Shield of Sand. Cursed Seal Sasuke also has a lot more health than regular Sasuke. The Praying Mantises take up even more damage individually.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Gaara's shtick is sending waves and bullets of sand at you from a distance, soaking up damage with his Shield of Sand, and teleporting if you get too close. The boss fight can be difficult due to his attacks having a long range and being hard to dodge.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Naruto's Sexy Jutsu can be used to stun enemies, even working on zombie ninja, and combine with the Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu to create the Harem Jutsu.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The localized version of the game removes a ton of content that trims down the story and replaces certain key characters due to the source material in the game not being aired in the US, leading to many instances of this.
- The timeframe of when the game takes place is obvious in the original release, it takes place some time after the Tsunade Search arc and prominently features her as the game's Mission Control and Exposition Fairy. The localized version obfuscates this, removing any scenes of Tsunade, Itachi and Kisame. No mention is made of who the current Hokage is in the former's case and Kabuto and Gaara instead take center stage as primary antagonists in the latter two's case. Gaara's antagonism also suggests that his Heel–Face Turn hasn't stuck. Despite all this, Neji still wants a rematch for his defeat at the Chunin Exams and Naruto is well aware of Kabuto's true nature. Overall it's suggested it might take place either after the Konoha Crush arc or the Tsunade Search arc, but it's a convuluted jigsaw either way.
- The mission where Naruto and Shikamaru infiltrate Sand Castle is heavily edited so that Gaara can take Kisame's place. The first two cutscenes where the pair are sent to investigate the Sand Village and meet up with Gaara are removed, leading to confusion as to why the Sand Village is even allowing foreign invaders to snoop around their land. The battle with Kisame/Gaara also ends with Naruto comatose, which makes sense in Kisame's variant since Naruto is recovering from Itachi's Tsukuyomi, but makes little to no sense in Gaara's variant since all he really did was just fight Gaara under circumstances not too different than any other boss in the game.
- The Eeyore: Karin Kagura starts off as a gloomy girl when Naruto first meets her due to being depressed over her father's recent death and the decline in her store's business. After mission 10, however, she develops into a cheerful, friendly girl.
- Elite Mook: Each class of enemy has a subtype that has a lot more health, deals a lot more damage, and fights a lot better than the others.
- Escort Mission: Several, usually to protect a merchant's cart from waves of attacking bandits but also to escort a prisoner and prevent his buddies from freeing him.
- Final Boss: Orochimaru naturally. He teleports across the room and lunges from point-to-point with his Kusanagi and occasionally throws out a hard-hitting wind jutsu. In the original release, after his first battle he summons Manda, and attempts to have the party eaten, only for Naruto to summon Gamabunta for an assist, pinning down Manda so that the party can fight Orochimaru on top of him one last time. He actually averts One-Winged Angel in his second form and instead just draws his Kusanagi properly and gains a murderous aura.
- Finger Poke of Doom:
- Kakashi's Thousand Years of Death is an overly-glorified kancho.
- Neji's 8 Trigrams 64 Palms is a rapid-fire barrage of pokes that has some of the highest damage in the entire game if it lands.
- Flash Step: One skill in the Skill Plate is the dash which is where Naruto can basically teleport a short distance through speed. Useful for getting out of tight spaces. Enemies can use them too.
- Funny Background Event: While Naruto is searching for Tamasaburo, two of his shadow clones run headlong into each other in the background.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Sasuke lets his jealousy of Naruto get the better of him in "Coastal Disturbances" and "Punishment", and it leads to a boss fight.
- Let's You and Him Fight: A reoccurring element in the game is Naruto fighting his allies. For instance, there is his tussle with Choji over a rare candy and a friendly rivalry rematch with Neji. It is played most straight in "Coastal Disturbances", where the leader of a group of bandits forces Naruto and Sasuke to fight to the death after taking a woman hostage.
- Me's a Crowd: Naruto's Multi Shadow Clone jutsu is a practical way of fighting multiple opponents at once. Attacking while in Jinchuuriki Mode automatically spams it as well.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The title cutscene is comprised of FMV clips from the game, including some that were taken from deleted content.
- Pink Means Feminine: The female bandits dress in purple and pink, in comparison to the male bandits' more practical green and brown getups.
- Protection Mission: A large number of missions involve protecting a location or cart from waves of bandits. They can get frustratingly difficult later on.
- Random Encounter: While travelling the routes between towns, Naruto will randomly be attacked by groups of thugs.
- Running on All Fours: Naruto runs like a fox when using the Nine Tails' chakra.
- Shock and Awe: Kakashi's Lightning Blade and Sasuke's Chidori.
- Slaying Mantis: One of the boss fights involves duking it out with two giant deadly praying mantises.
- Slice of Life: The first part of the game starts off with Naruto being sent on random missions that do not connect to each other. In other words, daily ninja life outside of long scale adventures.
- Super Boss: On New Game Plus you can refight any boss in the game on the World Map by visiting specific nodes so long as you don't have a mission active. These rematches have inflated health and damage and must be fought with Naruto alone. Due to the cuts to the localization, only 12 of the 16 refights are available. This is also the only way you can fight Kakashi and Shikamaru solo.
- Super Mode: Naruto can enter his Initial Jinchuuriki State (which the game calls "Nine Tail Power") for increased attack speed and damage and auto-spamming the Shadow Clone technique, but only if he fills up a combo meter and is below 50% health. If the player fulfils certain conditions defeating him, Sasuke taps into his Cursed Seal Level One for a second round during the boss battle in "Punishment".
- Superpowered Evil Side: One of the late-game bosses in the original release is against a half-transformed Shukaku Gaara. He amps up Gaara’s already formidable techniques to nigh-instant kill levels and has a devastating slash as his new basic attack.
- Tag Team: When paired up Naruto can swap places with other characters until their chakra meter runs out.
- Timed Mission: The "protect the merchant's cart" missions have the caveat that if the cart is broken or the timer runs out before all enemies are defeated the goods will be stolen.
- The Unfought:
- While Itachi is present, he leaves most of the fighting to Kisame. The closest to a fight against him comes from him creating a doppelgänger of Naruto while he’s under the influence of his Genjutsu.
- Kakashi is the only ally you don't fight in the main campaign (barring the exception listed below) as he's a Jonin and would easily send Naruto packing. Instead he's one of the post-game boss encounters, and is probably the closest example of a true Super Boss since the other bosses would have already been defeated on a previous playthrough.
- In the localized version, Shikamaru's solo encounter ends up being this until the optional bosses are unlocked on New Game Plus. This is due to the missions where he was fought in the Japanese version being cut, meaning his team-up with Sasuke and Super Boss are the only instances where you fight him.
- Wolverine Claws: Some of the zombie ninja have three blades attached to the back of their hands.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 20, "Closed For Business", reveals Orochimaru and Kabuto are aiming to cause this using a green mist that brings dead ninja back as zombies.
