Ninja Gaiden is one of those series I’ve always admired and been interested in, but besides dabbling a bit with the 3D entries, I never went back to explore the rest of the series. The original titles are notorious for their difficulty, and since they came out over 35 years ago, I’ve been reluctant to give them a try. Thanks to Dotemu, after playing a couple hours of the newest entry in the series, NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound, I think this is exactly the jumping on point I needed to get into this series.
Taking Control of a New Hero in NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound
My preview for NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound began with a training level, where long-standing series protagonist, Ryu, is training one of his disciples, Kenji. I worked my way through the training grounds while getting tips from Ryu on how to deal with enemies, platforming and how Kenji’s charge attack works. Some enemies will have a glow around them, and when killed, they will make Kenji’s next attack be stronger and instant kill some larger enemies. You can also stand still and hold down the attack button to create your own charge attack, but this sacrifices a little health in order to do so.
The controls are solid and I felt comfortable with the movement and attacks of Kenji after only a couple minutes of play time. Moving through rooms while wall-jumping and slicing through enemies never got old. I particularly love using Kenji’s air attack to bounce off of enemies and their projectiles to avoid pits or combo together enemy kills. The developers really nailed the movement and basic skillset here, and it makes Ragebound a joy to play.
It’s a bold move for the first new game in the Ninja Gaiden franchise in over a decade to feature a new protagonist, as Ryu is in a supporting role. However, as someone who isn’t as familiar with Ryu’s story, it felt good to come in with a fresh character and not have to worry about missing key information or lore to understand who they are. It’s less intimidating for those who want to get into the series but never knew where to start.
The first real level of the game doesn’t hold any punches and immediately threw me straight into the action. After training, Ryu leaves on his own quest, and Kenji’s village is almost immediately attacked by demons. Hordes of these demons come flying at me as I progressed through the level with there being very little moments of respite in-between.
I died a few times working through this first level, but thankfully there are some pretty generous checkpoints sprinkled throughout that made dying not as much as an inconvenience as it could have been. The level concluded with a boss fight in a burning building against a large demon. This boss fight had a clear pattern to learn that didn’t feel cheap or difficult to read.
Uneasy Alliance
My demo then jumped ahead a few levels, where I was introduced to Kumori, a member of the rival Black Spider Clan. Kumori and Kenji had made some sort of pact allowing Kenji to share power with her. Due to the demo skipping a few levels, I did not get to see how these two made their pact or what circumstances brought them together. However, there is a little playful dialogue between the two sprinkled throughout the remaining levels that show how both aren’t that happy about being teamed up together.
With Kumori, Kenji can now call her forward to throw kunai’s to either kill enemies or hit switches that would otherwise be out of reach. There are also now red glowing enemies that when killed with one of Kumori’s kunai give Kenji an instant charge attack. This attack can be used either with his sword slash or on a kunai throw. Enemies will also start to have auras around them that are either blue or red, and hitting them with a charge attack of the corresponding color allows finishes them off.
On top of this, there are also altars that Kenji can step into to that allowed me to take direct control of Kumori. When in control of Kumori, I was able to see hidden platforms and teleport by hitting a floating eye demon with my kunai. On top of this, I was timed while in control of Kumori and had to hit little glowing balls to refill my timer. This made these sections quite a bit more difficult than the rest of the demo and were a welcomed change of pace.
A Little Extra Challenge
In each level, there were optional challenges like chaining enemy kills together, completing the level without dying or being hit, gathering collectibles hidden throughout the level, and so on. These additional challenges went towards my score at the end of each level, leaving the door wide open to replay these levels, complete every challenge, and shoot for an S rank. There are also golden beetles to collect throughout levels. It’s not immediately clear from what I played, but it seems that you will be able to spend these beetles in a shop of some sorts, which is not accessible in the demo. This made me start thinking about what upgrades or weapons could be possibly purchased in the full game and what they could add with the shop.
Lastly, upon completing all the demo missions, I unlocked a hard mode version of the first level. In this mode there are more enemies, more hazards, and more difficult platforming to be had. I managed my way through the level, but I can only imagine how much more difficult things could be in later sections. It seems like just the right amount of difficulty without feeling unfair or imbalanced.
NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound is a Strong Return
I walked away from my time with NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound feeling like this could really be the start of me finally getting into the Ninja Gaiden series. The tight controls, challenging combat, and fun mechanics reeled me in and didn’t let me go during my couple hours with the game. If you have been curious about the Ninja Gaiden series, or a fan of the original games, I think you will be more than pleased with what Ragebound has to offer.
I cannot wait to see what else developer The Game Kitchen has in store for us when NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound releases this summer on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
