Ninja Gaiden 4 was one in all a number of video games that Xbox confirmed off in its video games showcase over the weekend. And through its Summer time Recreation Fest-adjacent in-person preview occasion, I received the possibility to play it for myself. I’ve by no means performed Ninja Gaiden earlier than and was skeptical that the sport’s generic darkish aesthetic, which feels straight out of 2012, may seize my curiosity. However after a brief hands-on demo and an interview with the sport’s builders, I’m much less cautious and powerfully intrigued.
Regardless of the “4” within the title, Ninja Gaiden 4 represents a mushy reset for the franchise. You play as Yakumo, a ninja of the Raven Clan, who should save Tokyo from corruption. The sport looks like a hack-and-slash beat ‘em up with excessive emphasis on the hacking and slashing. Yakumo makes use of plenty of weapons and skills at his disposal, together with swords, throwing knives, and a capability that briefly transforms him right into a demonic raven for an additional burst of energy.
My time with the demo was brief, consisting of Yakumo ninja-flipping via ruined metropolis streets, preventing packs of cybernetic demons. In fight, you possibly can string collectively assaults, producing visually spectacular combos. One of many issues that I most appreciated concerning the fight system was that it included one in all my favourite strikes in any motion recreation — an air restoration means. Should you’re hit into the air, you possibly can rapidly faucet a button to proper your self and get again into the combat relatively than get knocked away. Whoever at Staff Ninja / PlatinumGames is a Kingdom Hearts fan, I see you.
Additionally, alongside the way in which, I encountered plenty of Yakumo’s allies (together with one voiced by Brandon “Garrus Vakarian” Keener, whose voice I’d know wherever) who launched me to the world, giving me power-ups and fight recommendation.
This recreation is bloody, cartoonishly so. As soon as I’ve whittled down my enemies’ well being, I can dismember them in plenty of more and more brutal methods. It was so excessive that it veered into absurd territory, and I discovered myself laughing out loud in an in any other case quiet demo room. I puzzled if the strain between the hardcore seriousness of Yakumo and his buddies versus the goofy violence was intentional, however in accordance with the builders, the sport is working as meant.
“Ninja Gaiden has all the time been referred to as a really violent recreation, however we didn’t wish to simply make it grotesque,” says Yuji Nakao, recreation producer and director at PlatinumGames, talking via a translator. “As a result of if we did that, you’d get bored with it.”
Staff Ninja partnered with PlatinumGames to develop the title, and the inclusion of the studio that made Bayonetta informs a little bit of that tonal dissonance. Bayonetta is campy and enjoyable, and I can see parts of that camp in Ninja Gaiden 4.
“Once we have been working with PlatinumGames,” says Masakazu Hirayama, the producer and director at Staff Ninja. “We needed to deliver their distinctive type method to the motion style and inject that into the collection.”
Except you rely ports, remasters, or spinoffs, it’s been greater than 12 years because the final unique title within the Ninja Gaiden collection. In that point, a brand new crop of avid gamers, who’re in all probability extra aware of Bayonettahave come up. In the meantime, there’s nonetheless an older era working round with recollections of Ryu Hayabusa and Ninja Gaiden Black. The results of the partnership between PlatinumGames and Staff Ninja is a recreation that has parts that’ll enchantment to totally different generations of gamers.
“Ninja Gaiden is about having a really various instrument set that permits you to really feel like that final tremendous ninja,” says Hirayama. “And I believe you’ll see that the brand new protagonist and his new instrument set opens up loads of new prospects.”
The brand new recreation might not appear to be essentially the most thrilling of titles should you’re not a long-time fan of the collection. However my skepticism of the sport was slashed away within the face of an over-the-top gorefest that appears to take itself critically however is hiding a mushy, goofy middle that wound up being actually enjoyable to play. Ninja Gaiden 4 comes out on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on October twenty first.
