January 23’s Xbox Developer Direct 2025 brought a lot of news for a few games, but no franchise benefited more than Ninja Gaiden. An Unreal Engine 5 remake, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, was shadow-dropped, and Ninja Gaiden 4 was announced for Fall 2025 with Platinum Games as a co-developer. The announcements were exciting enough to reach outside the aging Ninja Gaiden community, which should consequently have ample new blood by the end of the year. Ninja Gaiden 4 has been a long time coming, and it’s great to see it finally move the series forward.
Dating back to the NES era, Ninja Gaiden has been Koei Tecmo’s star action franchise for much of its existence, with Team Ninja ensuring it had the smoothest transition to 3D possible in 2004. Things were going great until Team Ninja’s head director Tomonobu Itagaki left after Ninja Gaiden 2 in 2008, albeit necessarily due to legal troubles. 2012’s Ninja Gaiden 3 and 2014’s Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z’s failures ultimately relegated series protagonist Ryu Hayabusa to crossover duty until Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection suddenly dropped in 2021. Fortunately, the legendary ninja is finally back in peak form, but he will need to get used to sharing NG4 with a fresh face.
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How the Ninja Gaiden Franchise is Fighting a War on Two Fronts
It’s been over a decade since the last Ninja Gaiden game released, and now the franchise is getting ready to take the gaming world on two fronts.
Two Equal Player Characters Are New For Ninja Gaiden
Like how the 2025 spin-off Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound has players controlling Kenji Mozu to cover for Ryu while the Master Ninja is busy, Ninja Gaiden 4 seems primarily concerned with the newcomer Yakumo. Ryu Hayabusa is still playable and integral to the plot, with the story concerning the Dark Dragon that gave Ryu’s sword and the DS Ninja Gaiden spin-off their names, but a lot of emphasis has been put on Yakumo in early marketing. Ayame, Kasumi, Rachel, and Momiji have all been playable in 3D Ninja Gaiden before, but this is the first time a co-protagonist has had equal or greater importance to Ryu.
Gameplay Is Still Key To Ninja Gaiden 4’s Characterization
So far, Ninja Gaiden 4 looks like it’s making the right calls with Yakumo and Ryu, giving both separate movesets with key overlaps like Ninja Gaiden’s iconic Izuna Drop and Flying Swallow techniques. Ryu Hayabusa represents the series’ classic gameplay to the point of his level environments looking more like Ninja Gaiden Black and 2’s backgrounds than NG4’s usual cyberpunk cityscape, while Yakumo uses experimental new techniques like the crowd-clearing Nue Style and a grappling hook. Everything’s as clean-cut as Ninja Gaiden’s gory action allows, but issues with these two lead ninjas may have yet to reveal themselves.
Keeping Ninja Gaiden 4’s Leads Balanced Will Take Ninja-Like Precision
Having two protagonists is tricky at the best of times, and Ninja Gaiden 4 has the tough task of introducing Yakumo while paying tribute to the iconic NG hero Ryu Hayabusa. Ninja Gaiden already has a history with flimsy writing and typically allows gameplay mannerisms to convey Hayabusa’s character; needing to establish Yakumo while Ryu swings in and out of the plot is almost guaranteed to be an uphill battle. On the other hand, Yakumo also can’t steal the show from Ryu, whose return is a big part of Ninja Gaiden 4’s appeal.
How Yakumo and Ryu will be handled won’t be evident until the launch of the game, but they would be served well by emulating another stylish action franchise’s fourth entry. Devil May Cry 4 also had to manage newcomer Nero alongside returning protagonist Dante, and it demonstrated that giving two player characters comparable screentime, with more for the newcomer, can work. DMC5’s upped the count to three leads, but found a balance by featuring Dante in pivotal moments while Nero and V got more combined screentime. Ninja Gaiden 4 will have to find its own way through this issue, but it will need to confront it if it’s going to do both Yakumo and Ryu justice.
- Released
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2025
- Publisher(s)
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Xbox Game Studios
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ // Intense Violence, Blood and Gore
- File Size Xbox Series
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340.07 MB
- Number of Players
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1
