Ninja Gaiden 4 is the latest entry in Koei Tecmo’s long-running Ninja Gaiden series developed in collaboration by Team Ninja and PlatinumGames. After playing through the game and seeing what it has to offer, it’s clear that the series is back in a huge way.
Earlier this year, we saw the release of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a new sidescrolling 2D entry in the Ninja Gaiden series, but Ninja Gaiden 4 is something else entirely. Similar to how the 2004 3D action reboot led by the late Tomonobu Itagaki, simply titled Ninja Gaiden on the original Xbox, was a reboot for the series, Ninja Gaiden 4 has similar energy.
Ninja Gaiden 4 also marks a big moment for Xbox Game Studios on the heels of recent news, such as the increased prices for Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.
It’s been over a decade since the last mainline entry and now the iconic franchise is branching out more than ever before with a game that’s not only published by Xbox Game Studios, but is launching simultaneously across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Times have certainly changed.
Embracing a new hero
Despite what you may assume, huge amounts of Ninja Gaiden 4 don’t actually feature Ryu Hayabusa as the main controllable character. In fact, you begin the game and play huge swaths of it as Yakumo, an up-and-coming prodigy from a rival clan.
This decision was made to make the game feel more approachable to new players after such a long hiatus, but the call has mixed results. You’re introduced to concepts and ideas within the mythology in a way that both Yakumo and new players can appreciate, which is great, while still offering easter eggs for existing fans.
Plus, Ryu still appears quite often in the game offering familiarity and is playable throughout sections of the story as well. Besides all of that though, everything still feels very much like a Ninja Gaiden game even when you’re not playing as Ryu. It’s a great example of tapping into the source material in a fun way for new and old fans alike and serves as a great way to revive a series very smoothly.
Where I think the game stumbles is in Yakumo himself as a character. To be blunt, he’s got zero charisma and even the voice actor’s delivery comes across as bland and uninspired. Compared to the supporting cast of characters who are full of energy, and oftentimes feel quite distinct and unique, Yakumo is more like a less interesting version of Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud Strife.
Perhaps it wouldn’t have been as big of an issue if there wasn’t so much banter between Yakumo and the rest of his team. All of the mid-gameplay conversations and full cutscenes are constant reminders of how dull Yakumo is, especially in comparison to Ryu’s effortless cool factor.
Fortunately, from a gameplay perspective, there are a few things that help Yakumo stand out against his much more famous counterpart. After the first few chapters of the story, Yakumo starts to acquire a wide arsenal of weaponry from staffs that transform into hammers to long glaive-like weapons that can become blood-soaked drills.
Throughout the game, levels are littered with checkpoints where players can trade currency for healing items and other consumables, as well as train to learn new maneuvers for battle. Not to mention each weapon has its own upgrades and move lists as well. The amount of flexibility and depth of progression on display is remarkable when you consider just how fast-paced combat is already. You rarely go more than 30 minutes without unlocking some new way of decapitating your foes, so it takes a long time for combat to start feeling repetitive.
However, it does eventually happen. In the past, these sorts of games were closer to the 8-10 hour range and Ninja Gaiden 4 is double that on average. While it does earn that extended runtime by offering a game packed with content and amazing action, it can’t maintain both the relentless speed of its action and continue iterating with new ideas.
Triggering different moves and abilities in Ninja Gaiden 4 is less about button combinations and more about positioning and situational awareness. Dashing in by pressing A and X at the same time, or rolling the left stick in a circle before holding down Y result in entirely different moves for completely different moments. Assessing the enemy in a split second and recollecting precisely which move you need for that scenario is crucial and it takes time to build up that muscle memory in a game like this.
Effortlessly cool
One of the best features of Yakumo in combat is his Bloodraven form in which he infuses his weapons with blood, granting them outlandish new forms and tremendous new power. While fighting, you’ll gradually build up a blood gauge that can be expended at select moments to engage dramatic flourishes of power that literally paint the environments red.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is an exceptionally violent and bloody game. Yakumo spends far more time dripping in blood than he does not and it’s rarely his own. Plenty of attacks will slice enemies in half, lop off heads, and remove limbs in single strikes, and there are several mechanics built around maximizing that violence to be as effective as possible.
Despite all that, it never feels gratuitous. The action is so over the top and the blood is so nonstop that no single moment lingers long enough to feel gory or even realistic. There’s a sci-fi sheen across the cyberpunk setting, which provides just enough obfuscation of the humanoid enemies so you never feel like you’re brutalizing people, but instead demons and monstrosities that need to be dealth with.
It’s a careful balance that not all action games manage to handle, but it absolutely works here. The style, the vibes, and the personality of the world and gameplay work together in a careful balance with the result being a dance of blood and swords. It couldn’t work any other way.
Plus, as is customary for the series, Ninja Gaiden 4 is a very demanding game. There are plenty of difficutly options to force it to adapt to your own skill level, which is great to say, but playing on the default Normal setting with those aids turned off definitely delivers a challenge. It seems slightly easier than past entries by comparison, but certainly still very tough to master.
There’s been a large move towards more difficult, punishing, and high skill-needed games over recent years, but much of that could frankly be traced back to 2004’s Ninja Gaiden. It’s fitting then, that the long-awaited new entry in the series carries that legacy forward.
Conclusion
Ninja Gaiden 4 is a phenomenal action game. Over recent years, it’s started to feel like the art of making extremely tight, well-balanced, well-paced, and fun to play linear action games without bloat has been lost, but Ninja Gaiden 4 is a strong reminder of how much value this genre can bring.
In order to nail this genre, though, developers absolutely must continue to push the boundaries of what its combat allows by injecting new ideas at every turn. For the most part, PlatinumGames and Team Ninja nailed it. Yakumo is a boring lead by comparison and gameplay does eventually start to feel repetitive after over a dozen hours of dismemberment and bloodbaths, but it doesn’t detract very much.
Players can expect to spend approximately 16 hours to get through all 19 chapters of Ninja Gaiden 4’s storyline, however, that may fluctuate depending on skill level and difficulty setting. If you play on easy, also known as Hero difficulty, then you’ll take far less damage in combat, which is a good way to get through trickier encounters without completely sacrificing the game’s challenge.
However, if needed, there are also lots of other toggles to aid you that can even go so far as automatically triggering abilities, changing the game from a fast-paced high skill-ceiling action game into a button masher. Having those options is great, as it doesn’t detract from the experience if you prefer to crank up the difficulty for yourself.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is an incredibly polished experience that should serve as the shot of adrenaline the franchise has needed for years. This is an ideal testament to the absolute wonder of a great, linear action game.
Rating: 4 / 5
Disclosure: A representative on behalf of Xbox Game Studios sent me a digital download code of the game for this review. The game will be available for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on October 21, 2025. I played the game on Xbox Series X for this review.