Carving through groups of cybernetic soldiers and demons as Ryu Hayabusa feels fantastic, I'm happy to say.
I recently visited PlatinumGames in Tokyo, Japan, to play a few chapters of Ninja Gaiden 4, the upcoming title that's a three-way collaboration between PlatinumGames, Team Ninja, and Koei Tecmo, and Xbox Game Studios.
I also had the chance to speak with Masakazu Hirayama and Yuji Nakao, directors at Koei Tecmo and PlatinumGames, respectively, as well as talk with other members of the PlatinumGames development team.
After playing over five hours of what this preview had to offer, I'm left wanting even more, and I appreciate the balance the teams have put together in crafting a game that feels extremely difficult but still has plenty of options for aiding players who want less of a challenge.
Going hands-on with ninjas, new and old
Ninja Gaiden 4 opens with a new protagonist, Yakumo, who is on a mission to assassinate a priestess named Seori. Without sharing too many plot details, things might not be as they seem, and Yakumo finds himself reluctantly aiding Seori in order to permanently remove the threat of the Dark Dragon corpse that is constantly sending decaying rain falling over a futuristic Tokyo.
It's an interesting choice, one that wasn't made lightly as it (initially) puts the series' mainstay Ryu Hayabusa in the background.
"If I were to say that we didn’t have any anxiety over introducing a new protagonist, I’d be lying. We really made sure that Yakumo, even though he feels different than Ryu Hayabusa, that he still feels and plays like a Ninja Gaiden character," Hirayama tells me.
Eschewing Yakumo's Bloodraven Form, Ryu has access to the Gleam Form, which allows him to essentially teleport around the screen, unleashing extremely powerful attacks at rapid speed.
I already had the chance to play Ninja Gaiden 4 back during Summer Game Fest, where I tried out the new protagonist Yakumo in the game's first main level. With this preview, I not only had access to more of the story as Yakumo (as well as another weapon, the Lance) but also the Challenge Mode.
In Challenge Mode, players can replay a level and try to rack up a high score as Yakumo or Ryu Hayabusa. As a result, I made an effort to go back and forth, playing a chapter then replaying it as Ryu to see the differences.
Immediately, it's clear that Ryu shares a lot of the same overall moves, but with some different tricks up his sleeve that are important to adjust to. Eschewing Yakumo's Bloodraven Form, Ryu has access to the Gleam Form, which allows him to essentially teleport around the screen, unleashing extremely powerful attacks at rapid speed.
It feels absolutely awesome to use, especially on a level where a particular boss or enemy gave me some trouble beforehand. That also made it viable for me to take on the optional "Purgatory" challenge, a sort of mini-dungeon off the beaten path.
Purgatory offers decent rewards, with the rewards stacking up massively if you're willing to wager your health. Completing a difficult room filled with enemies is tense, but the results are worth it when you watch the NinjaCoin (used for buying upgrades and items) rack up.
I'll note that Yakumo isn't being left behind, however, with the aforementioned Lance giving him additional options in gameplay. In Bloodraven Form, his Lance gains a drill bit, obliterating enemies with ease.
Hirayama explains to me that Hero mode isn't intended to just be an easy way through, but has been designed as a teaching tool, letting players focus on understanding the combos and timing before manually dodging.
In total, Yakumo has four weapons, with a hammer and an unseen fourth piece of equipment that the team isn't showing just yet. The teams note that more weapons will be coming in DLC post-launch, and are included in the game's Deluxe Edition.
While I was able to clear multiple chapters on Hard difficulty, the final boss of this preview, a courtesan-themed demon, hit me like a freight train. It's here that the game's difficulty ramped up even further, and try as I might, I wasn't quite able to take her down at that difficulty level.
Players don't have to suffer as I did. Ninja Gaiden 4 includes multiple difficulty levels: Hero Mode, Normal, and Hard, with Master Ninja being unlocked after playing through the game once.
Hirayama explains to me that Hero mode isn't intended to just be an easy way through, but has been designed as a teaching tool, letting players focus on understanding the combos and timing before manually dodging.
Getting everything right
Getting everything balanced right could've been tricky, and speaking with the team at PlatinumGames, the word that comes up over and over and over is "collaboration."
“With the sound and the music, we’ll come up with the music for [the level]. By listening to that, we think of ways to upgrade the stage in such a way that it really matches the sound as well. From that, maybe the effects team will catch on and want to add on something to make it better," explains Yudai Abe, level design and environment lead at PlatinumGames.
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That process carries over to everyone and everything, with each aspect of the game coming about as a result of talking and going back and forth, trying new ideas while keeping what has made the past games so iconic.
“In terms of being a Japanese company, being able to have an in-house composer such as myself, one of the strengths of that is that I’m involved in the game from the early stages,” Miyauchi “From being involved in the development early on, I think I was able to provide music that really blend well into everything else that everyone was working on.”
Art director Tomoko Nishii adds that, for the way the game looks, they didn’t want to change the art direction so much as make it feel like an “upgrade” of everything that’s come before.
I also spoke with the directors further, who told me that this game is only possible because of the collaboration between Team Ninja and PlatinumGames.
A small handful of questions remain
At this point, I only have a small handful of questions left. What does the level variety look like inside and outside of Tokyo? At what point do we get our hands on Ryu Hayabusa in the game's story? Just what other kinds of wild bosses are in store? Will I be able to beat the courtesan demon on Hard?
Right now, I don't know, but I'm looking forward to finding out all the answers when I jump back into bloodsoaked Tokyo in a couple of months.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is slated to launch on Oct. 21, 2025, across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam and Xbox PC), and PlayStation 5. Like all Xbox first-party games, the standard edition is available day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
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