In 2012, the Ninja Gaiden series was shelved, and other developers inherited the action crown that Tecmo had once forged. Aside from the memorable 2014 spin-off called Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, fans were hungry and wondering what a modern Ninja Gaiden would look like. Soulslikes have been sweeping the industry, with fans speculating that when (and if) Ryu Hayabusa returns, he will resemble Sekiro and perhaps be saddled with a stamina or posture bar.
This year we finally found out.
In 2025, a number of ninja games have broken down the door with a barrage of shurikens, and Ninja Gaiden 4 is one of them. Developed by PlatinumGames, it definitely doesn't have stamina bars or other Souls features. Sure, it's fiendishly difficult, but otherwise it's a blisteringly fast experience, decked out in stylish neon trappings about as subtle as Izuna Drop.
Ninja Gaiden 4 largely succeeds in revitalizing its tired old bones, making my fingers ache when I grip the controller the same way they did when I played the original games. It's a gentle pain because it's one of those pains that only comes in the throes of addiction as I try again and again to defeat the seemingly endless horde of high-tech samurai PMC forces that have taken over Tokyo City. The movements at your disposal are fast and furious, and the dismemberment that occurs as you run from building to building, chopping off heads as you go, is satisfying as hell. This game requires skill, which is different from Soulslikes. Instead of placing an emphasis on positioning and stamina management, Ninja Gaiden 4 casts you as a lightning-fast, explosive assassin with a million moves to consider, and combining those moves to create a vast combination displayed in a beautiful UI is a fine art.
The worst thing that can be said about Ninja Gaiden 4 is that it's not really a Team Ninja game, but feels like it's been injected with the same DNA that Platinum has poured into its other projects. I don't know what Tomonobu Itagaki, the designer who revived the series in the 2000s and sadly passed away in October of this year, would have thought of Ninja Gaiden 4. It differs in many ways from his clear vision. For example, the new main character Yakumo is only a few degrees different from Raiden in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeboth in the way he moves and his brooding, cute boyish personality. It's a shame that regular protagonist Ryu Hayabusa is mostly a supporting character for the rest of the game. When you finally have the ability to control it, it's like coming home to an old friend.
But although it may sound like Metal Gear Solid 2, Devil May Cry 4or any other game where the old protagonist has been replaced by a new and less badass guy, at least the good folks at Platinum never hid that fact during the promotion of Ninja Gaiden 4. This katana bombing of cyberpunk Tokyo may belong more to Yakumo's game than Ryu's, but at least it connects with a series that's emerged from hibernation, pulsating with energy and ready to unleash plenty of decapitations. We hope we don't have to wait that long for Ninja Gaiden 5.
