1. Story

2. Gameplay

3. Playable Characters

4. Reception

5. References

Naruto Shippuden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising is an adventure game. The game was developed and published by Namco Bandai games. It was released on October 6, 2009.

Story

The story begins in Sunagakure, the Akatsuki duo of Deidara and Sasori made their way to the village in search of Gaara. Deidara went off to fight Gaara alone while Sasori guarded the entrance. Gaara intercepted Deidara during the battle and managed to crush one of Deidara's arms using his Sand Binding Coffin. Despite his improved ability, Gaara's newfound desire to defend Sunagakure proved to be his downfall. When Deidara tried to destroy the village with his Explosive Clay, Gaara absorbed the blast by levitating the sand below. A direct attack by Deidara forced him to recall the sand that crushed Deidara's arm, which contained a small portion of explosive clay within. The clay then detonated, incapacitating Gaara.

After Deidara departed with Gaara, Kankuro attempted to stop the Akatsuki members alone, but his puppets were easily fought off and destroyed by Sasori, who was revealed to be the maker of Kankuro's puppets. Sasori poisoned Kankuro in the process, leaving him to die. The Akatsuki duo took Gaara back to their lair, where their leader summoned a giant statue to extract and seal Gaara's demon. The sealing ritual took three days.

Upon hearing of Gaara's kidnapping, Team Kakashi left for Sunagakure. On the way, they met with and were joined by Temari, who was on her way back from being Suna's representative at the Chūnin Exams in Konoha. On their way, Naruto Uzumaki told Sakura Haruno and Temari that he is the host of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox and that Akatsuki are after the demon inside Gaara. After learning this, Sakura vowed to do everything she could to protect Naruto from being a victim of Akatsuki. Temari was thankful that there was finally someone who could understand Gaara and grateful to Naruto for changing Gaara and attempting to save him.

After arriving at Sunagakure, Team Kakashi learned of the attack on Kankuro. Despite the failed attempt by the medics on-hand, Sakura cured Kankuro, thus demonstrating her skill with medical techniques. Sakura also developed several portable antidotes rather quickly. Using a piece of Sasori's clothing found on one of Kankuro's destroyed puppets, Team Kakashi was able to track him, thus leading them to Gaara. Temari offered to assist them, but Chiyo, another puppeteer and Sasori's grandmother, went in her place. Back in Konoha, Tsunade decided to send Team Guy as backup for Team Kakashi.

While Team Kakashi tracked Sasori through the piece of clothing, the Akatsuki leader sent Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki to deal with Team Kakashi and the approaching Team Guy, respectively. In a forest, Kakashi Hatake and Naruto were able to defeat Itachi after some effort using one of Kakashi's clones and Naruto's new Big Ball Rasengan. Meanwhile, Team Guy was largely disabled by Kisame, leaving Guy himself to fight Kisame alone. Guy emerged victorious by opening six of the eight chakra gates to perform his Morning Peacock technique, which allowed him to pummel Kisame to death. However, both Akatsuki members were actually entirely different people in disguise. They were made into weaker copies of those they were impersonating through Nagato's Shapeshifting Technique.

Despite their victories, the two teams realised their battles were distractions to buy time for Akatsuki to extract Shukaku from Gaara, which would kill him if completed. At the Akatsuki hideout, a barrier was blocking the entrance. Directed by Kakashi, Team Guy removed the

four seals maintaining the barrier, but a fail-safe created clones of them as a further distraction. Ultimately, the many delaying tactics employed by Akatsuki are successful, as Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura and Chiyo found Deidara and Sasori guarding Gaara's lifeless body. This led to Naruto entering tailed-beast state rage upon seeing Deidara sitting on the Kazekage's corpse. While Chiyo and Sakura fought Sasori, Deidara flew off on a clay bird with Gaara's body, with Naruto and Kakashi in pursuit.

Although Sasori "wore" Hiruko's puppet and controlled it from inside, this technique of puppeteer fighting soon proved to be futile against Sakura and Chiyo. By controlling Sakura like a puppet, Chiyo was able to get Sakura close enough to demolish the puppet with one punch.

With his first puppet destroyed, Sasori was revealed, looking just as young as he did when he left the village. He summoned another puppet to continue the battle: the Third Kazekage. It was here that Sasori revealed that he had not only killed the Third Kazekage, but he had also actually made his body into a puppet. Likewise, he had done the same to 297 other people and planned to do the same with Sakura and Chiyo after winning. With its unique Iron Sand ability mixed with Sasori's poison, the Kazekage puppet was exceptionally dangerous. Chiyo summoned two more puppets to fight against it. These puppets were puppet versions of Sasori's parents, which he made to remind him of them after they were killed by Sakumo Hatake early in his childhood. The puppets were left with the village when Sasori deserted it. Using the Iron Sand and poison, the Kazekage puppet was a tough fight for Sakura and Chiyo. However, the antidotes Sakura had developed before departing from Sunagakure allowed them to continue the fight. Having been trained by Tsunade to pick up the enemy's attack patterns, Sakura was able to easily dodge Sasori's subsequent attacks and demolish the Kazekage puppet.

After another puppet was down, Sasori revealed the secret of his youth: he had made himself into a puppet. In response, Chiyo used White Secret Technique: The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets to summon Monzameon Chikamatsu's ten masterpiece puppets. To mock the display, Sasori used his Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets to summon 100 of his human puppets. During the fight between these puppets, Sakura used a chakra-sealing orb on Sasori. Though it appeared successful at first, Sasori revealed another ability he had. As a puppet, Sasori did not only have numerous weapons to fight with, but he also could reassemble himself when destroyed, making him seem impossible to defeat. However, it was revealed that the only part of him that remained alive, and thus able to use chakra, was his heart, which contained a talisman labelled 蠍. When trapped in a seal performed by four of Chikamatsu's puppets, Chiyo used the mother and father puppets to stab through his heart. In spite of the victory, Chiyo believed that Sasori allowed himself to be killed — he saw the attack coming and chose not to react, and he died in a way similar to how his parents used to embrace him.

At the end of the battle, Chiyo, Sasori, and Sakura were all fatally wounded, but Chiyo used a One's Own Life Reincarnation's technique she originally developed for Sasori to save Sakura's life. The technique uses the user's own life energy, making it fatal to use to animate a puppet or reanimate the deceased, but Chiyo survives since Sakura was still alive. Sasori's last words (as a reward to Sakura for defeating him) were that he had a spy in Orochimaru's ranks, whom he was supposed to meet in Kusagakure ten days later.

During the time of the fight with Sasori, Naruto and Kakashi were chasing after Deidara. Kakashi activated his own version of the Mangekyō Sharingan and aimed to use it to take Deidara's head. However, it was difficult to aim, and all he managed to remove was his arm. Deidara tried to retreat, but Naruto destroyed his clay bird with Rasengan and retrieved Gaara's body. Enraged and powered by the Nine-Tails' powers, Naruto seemed to be defeating Deidara with Rasengan, but it turned out to be a Clay Clone. Still enraged, Naruto started to appear feral as he transformed into his two-tailed form. Kakashi recognised the bad sign and used a Chakra-Suppressing Seal he had received from Jiraiya to stop the transformation from proceeding any further. Naruto subsequently reverted to his normal form.

As the rest of Team Kakashi and Team Guy caught up with Naruto and Kakashi, Deidara found himself unable to escape. He swallowed some clay, turning himself into a human bomb. Neji Hyuga saw this and told everyone to get away. Deidara then swelled up and detonated. As the dust settled, Kakashi collapsed from exhaustion, explaining that he used his Mangekyō Sharingan to send the explosion to another dimension. With Naruto carrying Gaara's body, the two teams headed back to Sunagakure.

Stopping in a grassy field near the village, Sakura checked on Gaara and pronounced him dead, making Naruto very upset. Chiyo moved toward Gaara and tried to use her reincarnation technique, but she didn't have enough life force left to bring Gaara back to life. Naruto gladly lent his own chakra, and Chiyo was able to revive Gaara at the cost of her own life while the shinobi of Sunagakure watched.

Back at the battleground, Deidara emerged from the ground, revealing that it was his clone that destroyed itself. He went off looking for the right arm that he lost. After finding it, he encountered Zetsu and Tobi, a mysterious individual who wished to take Sasori's place in Akatsuki. Tobi's carefree attitude about Deidara's condition angered Deidara, and he attempted to strangle Tobi in a comical fashion with his feet after one-too-many callous remarks.

After paying their respects to Chiyo and bidding Gaara and his siblings' farewell, the Konoha shinobi returned home. Naruto stated that these situations were always a bit awkward right before Gaara extended his hand to him in gratitude. Since Naruto was not too sure how to react, a small trail of sand wrapped itself around Naruto's hand and brought it to Gaara's. As the Konoha-nin prepared to leave, Kakashi was still exhausted from his overuse of his Mangekyō Sharingan and had to be carried back by Guy. Guy did so piggyback style as he found it easier to carry him for an extended period of time, disturbing everyone present except Lee, who remarked that Guy was training. Lee then proceeded to offer to carry Neji, who bluntly refused.

Gameplay

The game covers the Kazekage Rescue Arc.

Playable Characters

• Naruto Uzumaki
• Sasuke Uchiha
• Sakura Haruno
• Kakashi Hatake
• Shikamaru Nara
• Rock Lee
• Tenten
• Neji Hyuga
• Might Guy
• Sai
• Gaara
• Temari
• Kankuro
• Itachi Uchiha
• Kisame Hoshigaki
• Deidara
• Sasori
• Sasori (Hiruko)

Reception

The game has received mixed reviews. Ryan Clements of IGN was disappointed, stating that Naruto Shippuden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising follows the same story as Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4 and is not fun to play. He further commented that the game's battle system can be frustrating, and he described it as "a mediocre game at best"; Clements offered the game a score of 5.0 out of 10.^[1] Despite praising the game's music and the English voice cast's work, Allen Rausch of GameSpot also characterized Naruto Shippuden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising as "mediocre" and offered it a score of 5.5 out of 10.^[2] Aaron Birch of Den of Geek liked the presentation and the ample game modes, but he still viewed the game as "dull", with "small, often empty levels", and commented that he had begun to tire quickly when playing the game; Birch offered the game 2 stars out of 5.^[3] On Metacritic, Naruto Shippuden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising received a metascore of 60 out of 100 based on 15 critic reviews and a user score of 6.0 out of 10 based on 11 ratings.^[4] Brian Dumlao of Worthplaying described the game as "pretty decent", with a great sound, but with average graphics; Dumlao remarked the similarity between it and other Naruto games as well, and he offered it a score of 7.0 out of 10.^[5] Rory Smith of GamesRadar+ said that while fans might enjoy the multiplayer mode, the dialogues are too long and the missions are reduced to "wandering through unremarkable environments"; Smith offered the game 3 stars out of 5.^[6] Gabriel Vega of Neoseeker stated that the game offers new choices to players and has a decent stage size, but he added that the execution of the game is "clumsy"; he offered the game a score of 7.4 out of 10.^[7]

References

• 2005 UNCAF Interclub Cup
• 2005 UNCAF Nations Cup
• 2005 UNCAF Nations Cup squads
• 2005 Under 21 Rugby World Championship
• 2005 United Indoor Football season
• 2005 United States DVD Releases
• 2005 United States elections
• 2005 University of Oklahoma bombing
• 2005 University of Oklahoma Bombing
• 2005 Uruguayan municipal elections
• 2005 Urus-Martan Mi-8 crash
• 2005 USC Trojans football team
• 2005 USC vs. Notre Dame football game
• 2005 U.S. Figure Skating Championships
• 2005 US Nationals
• 2005 U.S. Open
• 2005 US Open
• 2005 U.S. Open Cup
• 2005 U.S. Open (golf)
• 2005 Utah State Legislature
• 2005 V8 Supercar season
• 2005 Vancouver municipal election
• 2005 Venetian regional election
• 2005 VES Awards
• 2005 VFL season