Ninja Gaiden returned to the gaming landscape earlier this year with the release of NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound, the first game in the franchise in over ten years. While Ragebound looked to revitalize the franchise and call back to its beginnings as a 2D sidescroller, Ninja Gaiden 4 is the return to the 3D character action style that caused the Ninja Gaiden franchise to propel itself into video game royalty before fading away in the early 2010s.
In order to give Ninja Gaiden the respect and care it deserves, Team Ninja has teamed up with PlatinumGames to bring Ryu into the modern era and return Ninja Gaiden to the top of the character action genre, and what a return it is.
A New Legacy
Ninja Gaiden 4 introduces a new protagonist into the series with Yakumo, a member of the Raven Clan. The Raven Clan has the blood of the Dark Dragon, a fallen dragon entity that was tainted with evil and turned on the world, running through their veins, which has made them ostracized from the other clans and seen as outcasts. The Dark Dragon was sealed years previously by the series protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa, so now an endless cursed rain falls on Tokyo. Together with his fellow Raven Clan allies, Umi and Misaki, Yakumo is on a mission to find and kill the Dark Dragon Priestess Seori in order to redeem their clan. Seori convinces Yakumo that killing her isn’t enough to stop the Dark Dragon. To truly kill the Dark Dragon, they need to break four seals across Japan and revive the Dark Dragon so she can perform a ritual to truly kill it. Standing in their way is the Divine Dragon Order (D.D.O.), led by their one-armed supreme commander Kagachi, who will stop at nothing to prevent the Raven Clan from reviving the Dark Dragon.
Throughout the game, you will play as both Yakumo and Ryu, giving you a look into both of their perspectives and why they are on their respective paths. This dual protagonist model is great and is a great way to change up gameplay and how you approach battles. You see, while Yakumo and Ryu share a few similar move sets and attacks, they play completely differently. As you release Dark Dragon seals with Yakumo, you unlock new weapons for him to use. He can then switch between weapons on the fly using the d-pad mid combo and unleash devastating attacks using his Bloodraven Form by holding the left trigger. While in Bloodraven Form, Yakumo can break enemies to interrupt their more powerful moves by manipulating his blood to strengthen whatever armament he has equipped.
Ryu, on the other hand, only has his iconic Dragon Sword in combat and instead can switch between different Ninpos with the d-pad. These Ninpos are extremely powerful and can clear out a wave of enemies at the cost of a large chunk of his Gleam gauge. Similar to Yakumo’s Bloodraven Form, Ryu’s Gleam is a way to unleash strong attacks with his Dragon Sword that can break enemies as they wind up powerful moves. I was a little upset that Ryu didn’t unlock any new weapons in his part of the game, but I can’t deny just how satisfying it was using his Dragon Blade and how much utility he has with his Ninpo. Both characters are balanced beautifully, and it’s a testament to the game design that I couldn’t tell you which one I preferred playing as more. They are both a blast to play as.
The interwoven story of these two ninjas is one of the biggest surprises for me with Ninja Gaiden 4. There are a lot of twists and turns throughout the game that I did not expect. I felt that each character’s actions and motivations all made sense, rather than the game having some arbitrary reason why Yakumo and Ryu are working against each other. The English voice cast also deserves a lot of praise for making these characters come to life. I especially want to give a call out to Seori’s English voice actor, who manages to capture the conflicted but playful nature of the character perfectly. Her performance is the emotional core of the game, and she knocked it out of the park. It’s a surprisingly emotional narrative that left me guessing to the end, and oh boy, what a spectacular ending I was given.
Ninja Gaiden 4 ends on the highest of high notes and knows how to go out with a bang that will leave even the most jaded gamer pumping their fist in satisfaction. And this is without even discussing the music. Whether it’s orchestral arrangements, driving EDM beats, or merciless metal, almost every piece of music in Ninja Gaiden 4 will have you bobbing your head and jamming out. Some of the boss tracks are so unbelievably exciting that I had to pause the game a couple of times just to take a breath during a fight and calm down. Masahiro Miyauchi, take a bow.
No Holding Back
Combat in Ninja Gaiden 4 is an absolute triumph. This should come as no surprise to those familiar with Team Ninja and PlatinumGames’ other titles. Both teams are consistently delivering action like no other, and Ninja Gaiden 4 might just have the best combat from either studio. Using light and heavy attacks, you can string out lightning-fast combos that feel just as great to pull off as they look. The controls are extremely tight, intuitive, and responsive, allowing you to pull off flashy moves and combos to decimate your foes. That’s not to say there isn’t weight to every attack, though. Button mashers will find themselves stuck, caught in animations, and punished by incoming enemies. You will need to find the flow and rhythm of each move and combo to figure out when you can cancel out of them to avoid taking a hit. If you manage to pull off a perfect dodge or block while doing this, you can unleash a follow-up attack, doing big damage.
Now, I’m no stranger to character action games, but I don’t know if I’ve played one that is as balls-to-the-wall as Ninja Gaiden 4. The game wastes no time throwing you into the action, and within the first ten minutes, I was being bombarded with enemies that were out for Yakumo’s blood. Unlike other games, however, Ninja Gaiden 4 doesn’t dumb down its enemy AI to give the player time to breathe in combat. Very rarely will you find a mob just standing around while you wail on its buddy, waiting for its turn. If they see an opening, they will take advantage of it, and you’d better be ready to counter, dodge, or parry the incoming attack. The combat demands your full attention, and if you aren’t up to the challenge, it will put you on the ground without a second thought and spit on the grave for good measure.
You will receive side missions throughout each chapter for Yakumo or Ryu to complete to gain extra currency to purchase new moves or items from the shop or amulets that can be equipped for various benefits. These items range from healing items to buffs that raise the defense or offense of each character temporarily. Additionally, as you fight and kill enemies, you will gain weapon skill points you can invest to learn new moves and combos for your loadouts. It’s a great progression system and progressively opens up the combat more and more as you continue through the game.
In between enemy encounters, you will have to use your ninja tech and abilities to navigate through the environment. This includes wall running and jumping, grapple hooks, air gliding on wind currents, and rail grinding. Moving through these sections has just as much of a breakneck pace as any enemy encounter, and if you aren’t ready to react, you will send Yakumo careening down a cliff or splattered by an oncoming train. I don’t exaggerate when I say that there is not a minute of downtime in Ninja Gaiden 4, and it only works in the game’s favor.
Replay, Replay, Replay
After completing the main story of Ninja Gaiden 4, you unlock a treasure trove of trials and modes to play through. Not only can you go back and replay every chapter, you can choose which character you play as, choose any difficulty, and you are given the option to play the mission without any upgrades purchased throughout the game. Additionally, you are graded for each chapter, and your score is posted to a leaderboard where you can see how well you played compared to other players. If that wasn’t enough, you also unlock trials that allow you to fight any boss you want as any character or any hidden enemy gates you can find throughout each chapter, with all the same variations previously mentioned. Want to see how the final boss would play out on the hardest difficulty and with no upgrades? Feel free! Want to fight a boss that only Ryu could fight before as Yakumo? You got it!
And if that isn’t enough, if you re-enter the campaign, you unlock new side missions that you can purchase from the shop to give even more challenges to overcome in the main campaign. The game also marks any chests or collectibles you have already collected with a little check mark on them in the game world to let you know if you have found it before or if you have stumbled across a new chest. It is a wonderful quality of life feature, and it made me appreciate how much the game respected my time while I was replaying levels to find all the chests I may have missed. There is so much content in Ninja Gaiden 4 that it is honestly shocking. Even though the campaign took me only eight hours to complete, I easily sank another fifteen to twenty hours playing through these trials and replaying boss fights for a better score.
Give Me More!
Earlier this year, I reviewed NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound, and it made me fall in love with the series and return to play through the previous games that I had missed. After playing through Ninja Gaiden 4, I can safely say that Ninja Gaiden has shot up my list of favorite franchises, and I can’t wait to see what comes next. I’m fully invested in the story of Ryu Hayabusa, and Yakumo has earned his place right there beside him and deserves to become a staple of the franchise. Team Ninja and PlatinumGames have found the perfect sweet spot in this franchise by bringing it up to modern standards while maintaining what made the previous 3D entries memorable and loved.
Whether you are a long-time fan of the series or a complete newcomer looking for your next character action game obsession, there is no reason that you should miss Ninja Gaiden 4. This is one of the best games of 2025 without a doubt. It is an uncompromising and relentless descent into the Underworld and back, and I loved every glorious minute of it.
Disclaimer: Xbox provided a PC (Xbox) copy of Ninja Gaiden 4 for review purposes.
