Ninja Gaiden 4 Game Review – A Redemption Story for the Franchise

If you played 1988’s Ninja Gaiden for the NES, you’ll remember how punishing and unforgiving the hack-and-slash game was. At times, it brought you to tears, while you screamed at the screen and wondered why Ryu Hayabusa’s quest couldn’t be easier and filled with green pipes, cute-looking turtles, and mustached plumbers. If you mastered the game, however, it delivered a satisfaction quite like anything else from its era.

That was something that the Ninja Gaiden games in the 2000s and early 2010s lacked. They were fine games in their own right, but there was a missing piece to take them from good to great. The same can’t be said about Ninja Gaiden 4, because this is the definitive experience that fans have demanded for a long time. 

Ninja Gaiden 4 makes a bold move by focusing on a new protagonist, Yakumo. While Ryu is still playable and features in the story, this is predominantly about Yakumo, who’s from the Raven Clan – the Hayabusa Clan’s rival. Yakumo drops into a ravaged futuristic Tokyo – which catches the eye with its detailed cyberpunk aesthetic – where he needs to face off against an ancient evil, kicking the snot out of cybernetic ninjas and freaky demons. Along the way, he forms a begrudging alliance with the priestess Seori, whose true intentions remain suspect. Yakumo isn’t alone, though, as he has Umi and Misaki on comms, while the martial arts expert Tyran helps Yakumo to level up his technique at crucial points in the game.

The question is, what’s Yakumo like as a protagonist? Honestly, pretty great. He possesses a Bloodraven Form that lets him manipulate his blood and that of his enemies to go into a full-on rage mode that’s beautifully orchestrated to the sound of heavy metal and pools of blood splashing everywhere. Yeah, he’s like the ninja version of Marie Moreau from Gen V. Much like previous Ninja Gaiden games, the further along you get into the game, the more experience points and Ninja Coins you gain, enabling Yakumo to level up with new techniques and upgrades. And yes, there are different weapons to switch and use.

Ninja Gaiden 4‘s combat is fast, slick, and responsive, encouraging combos and a wide range of diverse attacks. No fight feels the same, as the evolving enemies require different strategies to succeed. Be warned, though: The game spends a lot of time reinforcing the basics and urging the player to practice the upgraded techniques whenever Tyran and his trusty raven appear on screen. While it seems like overkill in the early stages of the game where the enemies are less challenging, by the time you reach the third mission and face the demon boss, you’ll backtrack on this opinion. Perfect the Flying Swallow and the Perfect Fatal Flash by all means, but the dodge and block techniques might end up being the most important things you’ll learn from Tyran. Ah, classic impossibly hard Ninja Gaiden!

There are times in which Ninja Gaiden 4 feels like it’s related to Devil May Cry 5 in the sense that the artistic ambitions free themselves to do anything and everything, never restricting itself to genre expectations nor what anyone else is doing in 2025. Team Ninja and PlatinumGames figured out the way to blend all the best elements of the series – everything that fans will want to see, feel, and hear – but they also injected a creativity and freedom into it that’s reminiscent of days gone by in gaming when the suits weren’t providing notes and developers had the ability to create unique games. Resultantly, Ninja Gaiden 4 establishes itself as an imaginative title that puts escapism at the heart of its action-packed adventure. 

Ninjas have been running rampant in gaming over the past few years, but make no mistake about it, Ninja Gaiden 4 holds a cutting-edge over its competitors. Game of the year contender? Absolutely.

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