Ninja Gaiden. I am a fan of the series. I may not be considered a “true fan” by the standards of the more hardcore fanbase who have played the original NES titles and all the newer 3D titles on “yeah, beat my ass, daddy” difficulty, but I still enjoy the games. It’s been 13 years since we had a Ninja Gaiden game with the release of Ninja Gaiden 3 (12 years since the release of the superior Razor’s Edge edition), and since then…nothing. And I’m not counting 2014’s Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, which was a rather mid spin-off and not a true Ninja Gaiden game. But now in 2025, we got not one, not two, but THREE releases for the Ninja Gaiden series. First was Ninja Gaiden II Black, a remastered/definitive version of the original Ninja Gaiden II, followed by the 2D sidescroller Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. And lastly, we have the focus of this review: Ninja Gaiden 4. This title had me quite excited since Team Ninja had joined forces with PlatinumGames to bring us this newest entry in the series, and with those two legendary teams working together on a fast-paced hack ‘n slash, I figured it was a surefire hit.
Following in the footsteps of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Devil May Cry 4, Ninja Gaiden 4 does not have series veteran Ryu Hayabusa as its main star (though he is playable at some point, don’t worry), instead putting a new guy in the spotlight, namely Yakumo, a ninja of the mysterious Raven Clan whose main goal is to destroy the evil Dark Dragon. To do this, Yakumo prepares to assassinate the Dark Dragon priestess Seori, but she then convinces him to free her from her prison instead so she can help him release the Dark Dragon from the seals holding it at bay for the purpose of purifying it, which is seemingly the only way to end its evil once and for all. However, freeing Seori earned the ire of her jailers, the Divine Dragon Order (D.D.O.), a high-tech taskforce charged by Ryu Hayabusa himself with keeping Seori under lock and key, so Yakumo will have to contend with them and a number of daemons and fiends to accomplish his goal. The setup is good, but honestly (and as expected), the story for Ninja Gaiden 4 isn’t all that engaging. Neither Team Ninja nor PlatinumGames are known for having well written narratives or deep characters in their games, normally relying on the most straightforward of plot devices and character motivations to take the player from battle to battle until the credits role. Ninja Gaiden 4 is no different…and that’s just fine by me because it does everything else expected from a Ninja Gaiden title.
Aesthetically, this game just screams “PlatinumGames”. Much of your time will be spent running around in a large city through its dingy rooftops, sewers, and neon-drenched clubs (as well as a quick journey through a bio-luminescent demon realm and a mountain shrine), but the majority of the game will have you running through environments that look like they were pulled straight out of Platinum’s previous titles, specifically Vanquish and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The futuristic and shiny high-tech environments of those games make their return here, and even the D.D.O. enemies share that theme with their high-tech armor. But the rest of the enemies fit more into the Ninja Gaiden mold. Whatever the atmosphere, this game looks great, easily the best looking title in the series. The music, particularly for some of the boss battles, is also classic PlatinumGames fare with electronic rock and metal, which succeeds in pumping you up for the intense fights in which you’ll be taking part.
As for the gameplay, the PlatinumGames and Team Ninja elements will be clear as day to gamers who have played any of their previous games. Almost as soon as the game starts, you can start Izuna Dropping and Guillotine Throwing enemies to your heart’s content, not to mention tear them apart with Obliteration and Ultimate Techniques (and yes, some enemies will literally be torn to pieces depending on which weapon Yakumo is using; the gore is arguably the most intense of the series to date). Yakumo acquires four main weapons (and one final special weapon) that can be changed into alternate forms on the fly through use of his unique ninja skill: Bloodbind Ninjutsu. His first weapon, a pair of dual swords, are swift and allow for a lot of “hit and run” types of combos, and the alternate form is a long tachi that can extend and strike multiple enemies with a single swing. His next weapon, an unusual looking rapier, is good for concentrating damage on a single target, while its alternate form of a “drill lance” is also better at single-target damage but greatly increases the possibility of damage potential by have you hold down the attack button at the right time to deal continuous strikes. The third weapon, a staff that excels at damaging multiple enemies at once, has the alternate form of a large hammer capable of unleashing charged AoE attacks. The final weapon is the most unique and, in my opinion, the most fun to use. It’s basically a kit of ninja weapons (large shuriken, machetes, flails, bombs, etc.) that can be used to damage enemies both up close and at range, with the alternate form having Yakumo equip a pair of mechanical arms that can unleash those same ninja weapons with greater force and effect.
One aspect of the weapons in this game that is different from the previous ones in the series is the fact they’re not upgradeable. The damage they deal in the beginning of the game will be the same by the end. Instead, you use XP to purchase new combos and techniques for each weapon (an especially large number of them that can be a tad difficult to remember in the heat of battle). Some of the combos can be real game-changers, though some are also irritating to pull off since you’re required to press three different buttons all at once, like R1+triangle+x, which sometimes leads to you pulling off a completely different combo that you didn’t intend to use. The ability called Berserk State, which is attached to a separate meter that fills up as you deal damage with Bloodbind Ninjutsu and receive damage from enemies, allows Yakumo to instantly execute enemies and deal high damage to stronger enemies and bosses upon using the more powerful Bloodbind Ninjutsu techniques, which can also be very useful when pulled off at the right time.
Using all these techniques and abilities against the challenging enemies this game throws at you leads to an overall very enjoyable gameplay loop. I will say, though, it took me a little bit to get used to effectively fighting multiple enemies at once until I found a way to make the camera and lock-on function work more in my favor. But once I got the right setup going, my enjoyment of this game greatly increased. When not fighting enemies, you will mainly be traversing the different environments through jumping, wall running, using a grappling hook, riding gusts of wind on a glider, using a surfboard-type of gadget to skim along bodies of water, and grinding on rails while also avoiding all manner of obstacles. In some of the later missions, all these elements will be combined into these fast-paced wild rides that can be a real blast, except for those rare times I fell because the game didn’t register me pressing the button to activate the next grappling hook shot or deploying the glider, even though I definitely did.
For me, the game’s biggest and almost only flaw is the save system. It works, but it’s finnicky as hell. When approaching one of the save shrines located throughout each chapter, the game auto-saves immediately. The thing is, if you do other things at the shrine like buy health items, take on and submit side missions to gain more rewards and XP, and purchase combat techniques, none of what you did will be saved/recorded. That means that if you then happen to die afterwards to enemies, bosses, or one of the Purgatory Gate combat challenges scattered throughout each chapter, then everything you did after the auto-save will be undone. When you reload the checkpoint, you’ll then see that whatever techniques you purchased or items you bought will suddenly not be there because you acquired them before the auto-save. In fact, in one specific situation I experienced after saving at a shrine and before fighting a late-game boss, I equipped an item that could increase my defense. Upon dying to this boss, I eventually beat him after several more tries, only to then discover that the defense item had been unequipped after my first death, meaning all my subsequent attempts were done with me at a disadvantage (which explained why they also felt more difficult than my first attempt). Hopefully, this flawed saving system can be patched, if it hasn’t been already.
At the end of the day, Ninja Gaiden 4 lives up to its predecessors in every way that matters. Some new elements may take some getting used to, but overall, the game is a blast. Even after beating the main story, you can play through different chapters in whatever order you wish or even play challenge trials to just fight more enemies and even bosses to your heart’s content without having to replay entire chapters. Ninja Gaiden fans and even fans of PlatinumGames’ type of hack n’ slash titles should have plenty of fun with this one.
Developers: Team Ninja, PlatinumGames
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Release Date: 21st October 2025