Ninja Gaiden 4 Review

It’s been a long time between sakes for the Ninja Gaiden series, with the much maligned last numbered entry being released to western audiences in 2012. So with a marred legacy and a lot to prove, Ninja Gaiden 4 appears over a decade later to convince you it’s changed. An expert pairing of PlatinumGames with Team Ninja goes a long way to making sure Ninja Gaiden 4 feels like a properly modern character action game, although its insistence on retaining some of the series’ most widely criticised design features is a little puzzling. But it’s fun, it’s fast, it’s challenging (in mostly the right ways), and if you like buckets of blood then get prepared for an Olympic-sized swimming pool full of them.

Everybody dies. No exceptions

Ninja Gaiden 4 sees the blood-soaked debut of newcomer Yakumo, a member of the Raven clan who seems like a decent bloke but also has a dark streak (a classic shadow daddy trope for anyone who enjoys raunchy fantasy novels like Fourth Wing). While series’ stalwart Ryu Hayabusa’s Dragon clan is well known as a valiant defender of humanity and many-time vanquisher of the Dark Dragon, the Raven clan also has noble goals but tend to skulk about in the shadows brooding. Yakumo is convinced that in order to vanquish the Dark Dragon once and for all he has to enact a prophecy and murder a high priestess, but before he can cut her down she manages to convince him it’s a little more complex than that. What follows is a whole bunch of seal-breaking shenanigans to reawaken the Dark Dragon (shoutouts to Digi D’s little known masterpiece Summon the Bone Dragon) before finally treating him to the big sleep (for real this time).

It’s a very simplistic story when you break it down, but it’s a good enough reason to start killing things. It should be mentioned that Ryu also plays a pivotal role in the story, despite the fact he’s practically invisible for the vast bulk of it. It’s a weird thing to have him lurking off screen but never really do anything to stop our anti-hero, and the fact he is in cahoots with the Divine Dragon Order (a bunch of futuristic soldiers who presumably are helping him keep the Demon King sealed away) and you murder approximately 8594 of them before breakfast most days is a little strange. The bigger story beats come together towards the end, but smaller incongruent details are kind of ignored. Ayane also makes an oddly understated return, seemingly only entering the piece to assure you the breast jiggle physics are present and accounted for and then ninja smoke bomb returning from whence she came.

Stop. Hammertime

But who cares about that? There are hundreds of enemies with blood inside their bodies and it’s your job to make sure that it ends up outside their bodies. This is where the game truly shines, with PlatinumGames flexing every bit of its muscle to ensure you feel like a whirling dervish of death and destruction. At times the hack and slash action feels a little too familiar, especially with the starting weapon where a lot of the animations, combos (Izuna drop anyone?) and executions feel borrowed and merely dusted off, but there’s plenty of nuance to ensure Yakumo doesn’t feel like you’re merely driving an emo Ryu clone. The biggest shakeup comes in the form of Bloodbind attacks, fluidly activated at any point with the left trigger. These fundamentally change your weapon form into a bloody ethereal variant which can break enemy blocks and interrupt powerful boss attacks. Bloodbind attacks can also be used in wicked counters after perfectly dodging an enemy attack and in a few other key scenarios, and its use is only limited by a gauge which is pretty generously filled most of the time. You slowly acquire weapons as you break the seals and each is an utter delight to experiment with, mixing both the light and strong base attacks and Bloodbind forms as you carve out (somewhat literally) your fighting style.

Ninja Gaiden 4 continues the honoured tradition of providing enough on-screen chaos that a casual onlooker will not be able to discern what on Earth is happening as you violently mash buttons, but you yourself can more or less claim to know what you’re doing. A key mechanism from Ninja Gaiden II returns, whereby hacking off limbs will soften up the enemy for instant obliteration, with a wild number of extraordinarily violent finishing animations that are a pugilistic joy to behold and are impressively varied. The action and animations are beautifully swift and executed with a care and passion for showcasing bloodshed that you don’t often see. Also returning are the ludicrous ultimate combos executed by merely charging up your heavy attack and letting it rip. One of my favourite weapons (a bo staff that morphs into a big hammer in Bloodbind mode) has such a long ultimate combo that you could almost activate it and then go and make yourself a cup of coffee. I love it. Some may say that the hack and slash gameplay doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from Ninja Gaidens of yore, but this is definitely the most cohesive, responsive and satisfying it’s ever felt, and gets a massive tick from me.

Sigma grindset

Ninja Gaiden 4 continues the honoured tradition of providing enough on-screen chaos that a casual onlooker will not be able to discern what on Earth is happening as you violently mash buttons, but you yourself can more or less claim to know what you’re doing

What doesn’t get a tick is the level design, which falls into the same old traps as other titles. Visually the levels feel a little sparse and lifeless, being largely linear affairs with occasional branching paths and not much to do other than kill stuff. Attempts are made at breaking up the kill corridor gameplay with some platforming sections (including grind seshes à la Ratchet and Clank), which are serviceable but require such little meaningful input that it can’t truly cleanse the palate between the violent bits. Compounding this is the shameless recycling of both levels and bosses (of which there really aren’t that many) towards the end of the game, something the series has been criticised for previously and still doesn’t work (much like the goddamn ghost fish enemies). You can also run through large sections and ignore enemies if you don’t feel like fighting (bringing back painful memories of Tenchu Z’s critical design flaw), but it’s testament to the satisfying combat that I rarely took this option.

Performance-wise the game hums along nicely and the action is usually nicely framed with a camera that is actually moderately cooperative, although locking on to your preferred enemy can be as challenging as the combat itself. Regarding the camera though, presumably in order to not block your view at certain angles the environmental textures and enemies take on this weird transparent sheen that’s extremely distracting, and often makes it hard to discern enemies or hard surfaces that are directly in front of you (or even underfoot). I appreciate that effort has been made to rein in the rogue camera that plagues so many character action games, but the solution I think is imperfect and is deployed with unnecessary frequency.

Can’t save the world from the fire DJ set I’m about to drop

Challenge has been something the Ninja Gaiden series has never quite nailed since the amazing first entry (which kicked arse), and in a slight return to form, even on the default difficulty the game has a decent yet accessible degree of spice. You are encouraged to make use of your expanding arsenal and combos (which are both general and weapon-specific) to come out on top, and crowd control and awareness are key to not getting overwhelmed. Bosses feel a little undertuned on the default difficulty however, and it was my impression that the harder difficulties didn’t really affect the enemy AI but merely scaled their damage. Something a little more artisanal in terms of difficulty might have been advisable, but for the masochists out there are plenty of even more brutal options to dial up the pain once you roll credits.

Final Thoughts

Bringing in PlatinumGames to help make a Ninja Gaiden title makes an extreme amount of sense, and in the action department its pedigree shines brightly. The wild amount of combos to experiment with and the handful of beautifully crafted and diverse weapons are given an extra dimension with Bloodbind attacks, meaning you are unlikely to tire of letting the bodies hit the floor (or walls). It’s a pity that the sparse level design and recycled bosses (and ghost fish) have made the transition to the modern iteration of this hallowed series, and something a little more meaningful in between the splatterfest core of the gameplay wouldn’t go astray, but this is a solid character action game worthy of the Ninja Gaiden mantle.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X  // Review code supplied by publisher

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