Oh, yes, there is that whole stamina thing you'll have to watch out for. See, pulling off anything more than a simple attack drains the stamina. When enemies die, they cough up stamina restoring orbs along with Virtue (read: experience) that can be spent to upgrade Naruto's base health and stamina levels. Augmenting these base levels are Skill Chips, little items you can purchase that boost attack, defense, special attacks, hit points, stamina, and gift Naruto with special abilities like air dashes and extra clones to attack with.

Ah, but there's a catch (there's always a catch). See, to really bulk our little hero-in-training up, the Skill Chips have to be plugged into Skill Plates -- pre-shaped configurations that limit how many chips can be slid in. Like those fun little tangram puzzles, the Skill Chips come in specific shapes and sizes, and if they're too big or too complex for the Skill Plate, you no can upgradies. Sorry, Charlie.

So yes, suffice it to say there's a rather modest amount of customization available. The upgrades, Virtue currency dropped by enemies, stat increases and scads of enemies to kick and punch through all help give the game a sort of light RPG feeling. It's not exactly an action RPG, but it's certainly close enough that we were hooked by the basic idea of equipping and upgrading the main character.

And it's not all Naruto either. If you've got secondary characters in your party, you can summon them with the L2 button. They're usually quite different from the sassy blonde ninja, and all come with special attacked delivered via the R1 and R2 buttons which can overcome obstacles that Naruto can't on his own. You can also choose to banish them before their stamina runs out (since it drains constantly while they're in use), thus creating a chain of attacks and unique special moves.

In our limited time with the game (or at least what we're allowed to talk about), we ran a number of simple missions; restoring customers to a general store that had fallen on hard times, escorting goods along a bandit-ridden path, helping a fledgling ninja earn his stripes with a scavenger hunt in an ninja-riddled forest, helping a candy maker get back his core ingredients, etc. What started as simple kick-the-smack-out-of-bandits objective quickly progressed into... well, going to different cities and doing the same.

It wasn't all like that; side missions actually popped up, adding a little flavor to the otherwise constant brawls that took place on the way to the next cutscene. We only played one; a two-on-two battle where chaining in your sub characters successfully and using their moves was the determining factor of the game (y'know, beyond winning). Completing both the regular "beat 'em all up" and the "beat 'em all up while doing more stuff" side missions gives you a Virtue bonus and some much-needed special abilities.

Though you're not really given the opportunity to explore the towns (at least from what we saw), you can make pit stops to check out shops and talk to folks when the mission affords the opportunity. Shops are actually a little funky in that they basically work on a barter system; you give up what you have to get something the store is selling; more powerful/valuable items are obviously going to get you more, but you can trade a bunch of lower-powered ones that enemies commonly drop to get what you need.

Outside of towns, the overworld map is basically split into a set of nodes in between major points. The minor points serve as catalysts for in-game cutscenes which basically turn into fights after things are over. At any point between major stops, you run the risk of getting ambushed by bandits/ninjas, which in turn provides an opportunity to level up a little.