Does Ninja Gaiden still work in 2025, in a world where soulslikes dominate the high-skill action game subgenre? I played Ninja Gaiden 4 for the first time last weekend, and my answer is unequivocally, yes, absolutely, 1000%, Ninja Gaiden not only still works in 2025, but it is a high-speed, stylish breath of fresh air. It was my favorite thing I played amongst all of the games I covered at this past weekend’s various showcases, and as someone who considers Ninja Gaiden Black the finest action game ever made, I left incredibly happy.
A mere 25 minutes of hands-on time with Ninja Gaiden 4 isn’t remotely enough to make a judgment call on where PlatinumGames and Team Ninja’s sequel will fit into the hierarchy of the franchise, but it was enough to make me feel like a badass killing machine and still challenge me in the process. Which means Ninja Gaiden 4 is off to a good start in terms of dialing in that ever-so-special Ninja Gaiden feeling as PlatinumGames takes the lead, with Team Ninja guiding them. “The game is fast,” said PlatinumGames producer and director Yuji Nakao. “We wanted to make sure it feels like a modernized high speed game…while staying true to what Ninja Gaiden is.” He added, “We are going against the trend” – meaning, soulslikes.
I played as young Raven Clan member Yakumo in Chapter 1, which isn’t the very beginning of the campaign – that honor goes to a tutorial section – but for all intents and purposes it is. It’s set well after Ninja Gaiden 3 (shh, we don’t talk about that one!) in a near-future Tokyo amidst the return of the Dark Dragon. Sadly, I didn’t get to play as Ryu Huyabusa, but I can’t wait to do so. I didn’t mind too much in my demo though, because I was having so much fun as Yakumo.
See, Yakumo has some of Ryu’s classic tricks – Izuna Drop, anyone? – while also unleashing his own in the form of Bloodraven attacks, which are deployed by holding the left trigger and then pressing X or Y. These are large area of effect offensive maneuvers, but they take longer to wind up and execute. It was my old habits and not being quick enough to adopt these new moves that doomed me in the large encounter near the end of my 25-minute hands-on session. I won’t make the same mistake next time. And unfortunately it means I didn’t get to face off against the Chapter 1 boss, who you can see in action in the video at the top of the page.
If you’ve played Ninja Gaiden games before, you should feel pretty comfortable right away, even though there is certainly plenty of new stuff to learn and get used to: Tapping right trigger at the right moment to block an incoming attack and set up a counter. Wall-running and tapping Y to take the head off of a low-level enemy. Holding Y with Blood Essence – seemingly in place of Ninpo, at least for Yakumo – still uncollected on the battlefield after your previous kill so you can use them to power an Ultimate technique on the foe still alive in front of you; it’s all still here. Oh, and don’t forget to assassinate enemies quietly when you get a chance.
If anything, Ninja Gaiden 4 feels faster than ever. Even Yakumo’s running speed feels faster than Ryu’s did in the older games. It’s also somehow even bloodier than ever. Things started to get gory in Ninja Gaiden 2, but here the crimson fountains spray every which way, constantly coating Yakumo in a Carrie-like coating of plasma. Arterial spray gets everywhere when slicing and dicing a handful of foes. It’s like a vampire’s dream come true out there. Let’s all sit back and watch this awesome sequence for the next minute and a half or so – which I remind you again is only from the first proper level of the game!
Oh, and here’s more good news: the camera is actually pretty good now! It’s certainly evolved over the years, but thankfully in 2025, it no longer seems to be a detriment or distraction to the player. Certainly a lot more time will be needed to verify this initial impression, but the camera didn’t annoy me once in my entire hands-on session.
Difficulty modes, meanwhile, can be adjusted on the fly if, say, you’re playing on Hard and want to drop it to Normal for a particularly tough boss. An easy mode is here, too; it’s called Hero mode, but I didn’t get to test it out to see just how forgiving (or not) it might be – I spent my time on Normal difficulty. Also, baked into Normal, at least (and presumably Hero as well, but I’m not sure about Hard yet), is a feature that offers you a helpful item if you’ve failed a particular encounter a few times. On that last big rumble I was too slow to bring Yakumo’s new attacks into, I was given a large healing elixir to help me on my next attempt.
Ninja Gaiden 4’s checkpoint system now takes some stress out of trying to find a save point with ample health and supplies. A red-eyed raven can also be approached, which triggers a visit from a friend who can unlock combat skills in exchange for the in-game currency you’ve accumulated. You can also go into a practice mode from here too that lets you get familiar with your moves (which I didn’t waste time doing during my short demo).
And yes, there are collectibles to look for as well. They’re called Gourdys, and they’re little adorable creatures that you have to complete a quick-time event sequence in order to secure. I found one Gourdy and it was only two rapid-succession button taps to bag it; we’ll see if the QTEs get more complicated and difficult the deeper into the campaign you get. I’m not sure yet if collecting them will yield any sort of greater reward.
I’ll be honest: I came into my first hands-on session with Ninja Gaiden 4 with extremely high expectations. If PlatinumGames and Team Ninja screwed this up, I would’ve been very vocal about it as a 20-year fan of the series. But thankfully, they seem to be on the right track towards getting this right. If they don’t, the series is probably dead forever. But I was smiling the entire time I was playing Ninja Gaiden 4 – even when I got killed. Its need for combat speed is matched by its sense of style, and all I want to do now is play Ninja Gaiden 4. The Year of the Ninja might truly be magical, between the excellent Ninja Gaiden 2 Black earlier this year, the extremely promising Ninja Gaiden Ragebound that we also just played and adored, Sega’s seemingly focused 2D revival of Shinobi, and the biggest one of them all, PlatinumGames’s Ninja Gaiden 4. I’m as optimistic as ever that they’re going to nail this when it (Izuna) drops on October 21.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
