When it comes to the Naruto franchise, I'm a stickler for developers doing something new with the series, instead of relying on the same storyline and characters that fans have seen used hundreds of times by now. TOMY is one such developer, who doesn't just take what they are given and pump a game out for bucks. Instead, TOMY has gone out of their way to not only include a story never seen before, but have created a handful of new characters to round out the Naruto universe, and delve into a part of the mythology rarely touched upon – the Anbu. In a recent chat, we talked with Nobby Matsuo (Producer) about the upcoming fighter for the Wii.

Based on the information given to us on the call, a huge selling point for fans is going to be the inclusion of several new characters, two of which stem from the Anbu black-ops, who aren't seen all that often in the series, except for a few background shots. "Unlike the previous Revolution," Matsuo said, "we've distanced ourselves from the main storyline of the television series, and decided to do an original storyline. The one topic that really came up for us was the Anbu team. The Anbu aren't very prominent in the TV show, but they run in the background. They're like a black ops operation and handle a lot of the assassinations and espionage related stuff, and they report directly to the leader of the Hidden Leaf Village. They don't come up prominently in the foreground as characters, but they appear in the background as masked characters, in terms of like the Chunin Exams. So they're basically specialty ops. What I noticed was that no game really brought them up to the forefront. They're a really cool organization that I was personally interested in doing, and I ran across a lot of reference material for Naruto when I was doing the previous Revolution, and I thought it would be cool to bring them to the forefront. We were afforded a very fortunate time where we were done with the Sasuke retrieval arc and we've hit the filler arc episodes, so we had a lot of freedom to go out on a tangent and create an original storyline. We talked a lot with the licensers and they thought it was a really cool idea."

New Revolution Characters

Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 will delve into several new Anbu members, but one will be a character already established in the Naruto universe – Yugao. "A lot of people aren't familiar with Yugao…she was honestly only in one or two episodes of the show, but she was one of the most prominent figures of the Anbu series. You don't know her name or background, so we had to do a lot of digging around. She is one of the most notable figures so we decided to add her into the game. She didn't really fit into any of the other Clash of Ninja series, so we basically had to start from the ground up, come up with a concept, what her special attacks would be, what her strategy would be, and what not. She was definitely a really exciting character. She's one of the fastest characters ever created for the game," said Matsuo

Since the TOMY team was already working on an original story – presumably revolving around the Anbu – it was only natural to also want to develop new characters to go with the story, as Matsuo told us. "We also wanted to create some original characters for the organization since we created an original story, and there's so little covered in the TV storyline, we found the opportunity to create some original characters. We went to the licensers and discussed with them about creating original characters that are inline with the Naruto universe, but at the same time make them our own and create two unique characters never seen before – Towa and Komachi. Towa and Komachi were very difficult, because they're equipped almost identical since they are Anbu. The most difficult thing we wanted to do was differentiate them significantly. If you look at them in the screenshots they look like they play very similarly, and what the developer and I agreed on was to make them very divergent in terms of playing characteristics. So you'll see Towa is fairly hand-to-hand combat based, and we wanted to give him some unique abilities that make him standout. Towa's special ability is using tattoos and running chakra through them and making chakra based weapons with them. Komachi has more ranged attacks, like dagger hairpins in her hair, which she can use and control. It was a very fun experience to put them in there without losing the Anbu look and style."

So how does one go about adding to a series that is usually very closed off when it comes to expansion outside of the original canon of the series? "It's basically passed around," said Matsuo. "We had some crazy ideas over here. I want Towa to be able to do this kind of things. I want something that defines him as a character instead of a generic Anbu. We'll get some drawings and sketches and storyboards for their moves, and then we'll come in and take a look, make some suggestions, and then we send it to the licenser to get their opinion and advice on whether it's not part of the Naruto universe or it is acceptable."

Though it may sound like it, not everything about the new characters and story was smooth sailing from beginning to end, as Matsuo told us about one particular incident during the creation process. "For one of our villain characters, we came up with some very cool and unique costumes, but they flat out said, 'No, that's not part of the Naruto universe. That's like a sci-fi episode or something.' Fortunately, everyone was very cooperative with us, and wanted to see what we could do and put together."

Yugao and Komachi

With TOMY getting the greenlight to create these new characters, it essentially places them within the official realm of canon. When asked if the original characters might appear somewhere down the line in the manga or anime, though the current answer is no, there is always the possibility. "They do have every right to take them and put them in there. They're definitely cool enough. I mean, once you get your hands on them and start playing with them, they're definitely one of my more favorite characters. If they end up showing up in the manga or animation, I'd be totally stoked about that."

Besides the unique story and original characters, TOMY has also added some new modes as well. "We've added the Tag Team mode in there, so you can select two characters and tag in and out and perform combos and cooperative attacks. We have the Survival Kumetai mode, so it's basically like the Oboro mode from the Clash of Ninja series in Japan, but a little more advanced and the enemies you can fight well over five opponents at once as you progress along. We've also added the Mission Mode. Besides the Story Mode, Mission Mode will give each character up to ten different tasks," said Matsuo.

Speaking more on the subject of the Tag Team system and its cooperative attacks, Matsuo added, "There are characters that have specific tie-ins like the Hyuga family, so Neji and Hinata do a combined attack, and if there is a relation there they will do a unique attack. Each character, however, has a generic one, so they can be combined with anyone to perform a generic one, but if you have the right combination you get a unique combined sequence."

TOMY didn't just stop there, however, as they also included a potential game changer in terms of the way players attack and defend – the paper bomb. Often seen in the manga and anime, but rarely used in videogames outside a one-time projectile in other fighters, the paper bomb really had me intrigued about all its possible uses in terms of fighting strategies. "I was actually surprised Japan had never bothered to think about using the paper bombs," said Matuso. "I suggested adding a new feature with the paper bombs and noticed it could change the combat system, so it adds a lot more strategic elements to it. It does use a lot of chakra and everything, but it lets you put proximity bombs in certain locations, on objects, or if you face a lot of opponents who like turtling a lot, I wanted to add another way to break through that guard with the paper bomb and then get the combos in. So I wanted to add a new element on top of what we already had and were happy with. You essentially go into another stance, and you decide whether to throw it at your opponent or on the ground. Paper bombs actually appear in the TV show so it's actually from the series, and they are essentially explosive daggers you can stick into the ground, the wall, and then use chakra to detonate them remotely. So basically we transferred that into the game so you can plant them into the ground, objects, or people and remotely detonate them or have them explode immediately."

Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 is set to release this October, which for this fan is not fast enough. After hearing about all the new modes, gameplay changes, and original characters, I just needed to experience them now. Sadly, I must wait and be patient, for that is my nindo way.