After a couple underwhelming releases put the series on a hiatus, Ninja Gaiden 4 is a welcome return to form for one of the most influential action game franchises out there. While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it takes what made the first two games so good while adding new elements to the formula. It’s story and characters may miss some beats but that’s not the reason people play this kind of game and it delivers with stylish action, fast paced and varied gameplay and the series’ tough but fair difficulty intact, all while approaching accessibility in a well done manner as well.

Story

The game introduces Yakumo, a young but powerful ninja from the Raven Clan. The Raven Clan is tasked with protecting the world but, in a more behind the scenes role while the Hayabusa clan operates out in the open. With the return of the Dark Dragon imminent, Yakumo is tasked with killing a priestess named Seori in order to prevent this but, after finding her the two form an alliance to put down the Dark Dragon for good. This action puts Yakumo in conflict with both the DDO corporation, an army of technology advanced ninjas, as well as series protagonist Ryu Hayabusa.

Pros

So first and foremost, although this game is partially developed by Platinum games, it still overall feels like a Ninja Gaiden game with a few elements from Platinum’s titles like Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising. While Ryu is playable for a few stages, Yakumo is who the game was built for and he’s a very fun character to control. His arsenal isn’t as big as Ryu’s was in past games, having only 4 weapons compared to the 8-10 Ryu had. His 4 weapons include twin katanas, a staff, a rapier and an arsenal of assassin’s tools for long range combat. He can use his own blood to augment his weapons for different attacks with the Bloodraven system which is one of the new highlights of the combat. Bloodraven attacks transform Yakumo’s weapons into different forms such as making his swords grow about 10 feet long, turning his rapier into a drill or, turning his staff into a giant mallet.

Keeping inline with the series tradition of having to pay attention to how enemies fight, Bloodraven attacks are used to smash through enemy defenses as well as countering their more powerful attacks but the windows aren’t always big and Bloodraven attacks draw from a finite pool you can’t abuse the attacks in every fight and Bloodraven attacks also won’t automatically counter or interrupt everything, especially when fighting boss enemies. Adding to the Bloodraven system is also a berserker mode that functions differently with each weapon as well such as the rapier’s drill being able to be held down. When in berserker mode, Bloodraven attacks will one shot virtually any enemy and Yakumo can clear an entire squad out in one shot with the strongest attack available in the form.

Each of Yakumo’s weapons also have their own strengths and weaknesses, including with the Blood raven system. For example his staff is great for attacking multiple enemies at once in its standard form but it’s Bloodraven attacks are also the slowest overall. The Bloodraven system isn’t the only aspect of combat however. many of the series older traditions also return such dismemberment, which is even more brutal and satisfying than it was in past games. Just like in the old games, you’d better take out dismembered enemies quickly or they can hit you with a powerful last ditch suicide attack.

The game’s dodge mechanics may remind some a bit of Bayonetta as when you execute a perfect dodge, time will slow down for a brief second and allow you to follow up with a powerful counter move and there’s a parry system where if you attack or block at the right time when an enemy attacks you to receive a similar result. Each tactic has their own set of follow ups encouraging you to experiment with both as some attacks may be easier to dodge while some attacks are better to block.

Ninja Gaiden 4 at its best tries to create an action game that has constantly flowing and stylishly brutal action and the games pretty extensive upgrade system helps achieve that. Yakumo has upgrades for every weapon as well as general skills to unlock that add to old techniques such as the ability to begin charging your ultimate technique as soon as you land from on the ground. This means you can do things like pull off the trademark Izuna Drop and get an instant charge on your ultimate technique as soon as you land.

On top of the combat being stellar, the game does also feature some solid platforming sections due to a number of different traversal options that are unlocked throughout the game such as a grappling hook and a glider. They break up the action well with a good amount of fun set pieces to go through and it also gives a good reason to replay through levels as each level has multiple secrets to find which also adds to the game’s replay value. There are collectable items to find as well as challenge missions and optional bosses to fight and many will net you a good amount of money to upgrade or accessories to give you buffs, which adds to another highlight for Ninja Gaiden 4, it’s difficulty.

The Ninja Gaiden games are famous for they’re extreme difficulty that somehow still manages to be fair. Ninja Gaiden 4 is a game that can be just as punishing as those games but it also has a strong number of accessibility options, such as the ability to turn on an auto block on top of the different difficulty levels. The normal difficulty provides a solid challenge; as while the enemies aren’t extremely aggressive on normal, they aren’t dumb either and won’t go down quickly for the most part nor will they let you just whale on them either. They’ll still block and defend attacks and will coordinate with ranged enemies and ones that get up close and personal with you. Experienced action gamers will still get through normal without too much trouble however.

The hard difficulty, and especially the ninja master difficulty will create an experience that fans are used to from the franchise. Outside of Ninja Master, difficulty can be changed at anytime as well. You can even make the game harder by combining Ninja Master with death wish mode, a mode that will strip any defensive upgrades as well as keeps you from using any kind of accessory. In short, Ninja Gaiden 4 is a game that can be as hard as you want it to be.

The games visual style is one is very dark as pretty much none of the levels feature alot of bright light but it matches the game’s themes of constant adversity as well as stepping out of someone’s shadow. Although Yakumo is quite powerful, Ryu Hayabusa is still seen as the greatest hero on earth and the Hayabusa clan in general gets to revel in the light.

Cons

So normally I don’t really try to judge stories in these kind of games too much but unfortunately Ninja Gaiden 4 tries to tell a somewhat emotional story but just misses too many marks, primarily in terms of its character development. While Yakumo is very fun to play as, as a character he kinda stays as a typical edgelord type protagonist throughout the game. Although there are moments where he steps out of this, they don’t happen enough. Yakumo’s relationship with Seori as well as Ryu also didn’t get shown enough. Outside of when they first meet, they don’t interact that much to show how they’re suddenly best friends later on in the game, especially since Yakumo’s mission was to kill her in the first place and she just convinces him to not do that fairly easily. Yakumo has potential as a protagonist and if another game happens and he’s brought back, hopefully it’s fleshed out a little better.

Ryu is also playable in the game and while he’s not boring to play as, mostly because he’s sort of overpowered as expected, he does only have one weapon in the game which is unfortunate. While I understand not bringing back every weapon he had, they could’ve at least added a couple of the memorable ones like the Vigoorian Flail or Tiger Claws. Ryu also does suffer from the same thing Dante did in Devil May Cry 4, in that his levels are pretty much just retreads of what Yakumo did, even down to fighting the same bosses. While Ryu’s role in the story also isn’t insignificant by any means, it also does feel like he was absent for a bit too much of it.

A smaller complaint is the game can feel a bit grindy. You have a large number of moves and techniques to unlock from both general skills as well as skills for each weapon but the weapon skills are typically considerably more expensive. Even with going through to complete as much of the side quests as possible I couldn’t even get half the skills for certain weapons by the time my 1st playthrough ended.

Final Thoughts

The story may not be the greatest but that’s not the primary reasons people play character action games. Ninja Gaiden 4 delivers with fun and fluid gameplay. After Ninja Gaiden 3 as well as the spinoff Yaiba left a lot to be desired, it’s a very welcome return to form and along with Ragebound being a great game, the future of Ninja Gaiden looks to be great.

Reviewed on Xbox Series S. Thank you to Xbox for providing a code.

Ninja Gaiden 4 releases on 21 October 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Looking for some tips to get you started? Check out our Ninja Gaiden 4 – Key Abilities To Learn article to get some pointers to becoming a master ninja!