Ninja Gaiden 4 was one in every of a number of video games that Xbox confirmed off in its video games showcase over the weekend. And throughout its Summer Game 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. But after a brief hands-on demo and an interview with the sport’s builders, I’m much less cautious and powerfully intrigued.
Despite the “4” within the title, Ninja Gaiden 4 represents a gentle reset for the franchise. You play as Yakumo, a ninja of the Raven Clan, who should save Tokyo from corruption. The sport seems like a hack-and-slash beat ‘em up with excessive emphasis on the hacking and slashing. Yakumo makes use of numerous weapons and talents 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, combating packs of cybernetic demons. In fight, you’ll be able to string collectively assaults, producing visually spectacular combos. One of the issues that I most appreciated in regards to the fight system was that it included one in every of my favourite strikes in any motion sport — an air restoration capacity. If you’re hit into the air, you’ll be able to rapidly faucet a button to proper your self and get again into the struggle reasonably than get knocked away. Whoever at Team Ninja / PlatinumGames is a Kingdom Hearts fan, I see you.
Also, alongside the best way, I encountered numerous 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 sport is bloody, cartoonishly so. Once I’ve whittled down my enemies’ well being, I can dismember them in numerous 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 questioned if the strain between the hardcore seriousness of Yakumo and his associates versus the goofy violence was intentional, however in response to the builders, the sport is working as meant.
“Ninja Gaiden has all the time been often called a really violent sport, however we didn’t need to simply make it grotesque,” says Yuji Nakao, sport producer and director at PlatinumGames, talking via a translator. “Because if we did that, you’d get bored with it.”
Team 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 components of that camp in Ninja Gaiden 4.
“When we had been working with PlatinumGames,” says Masakazu Hirayama, the producer and director at Team Ninja. “We wished to convey their distinctive fashion method to the motion style and inject that into the sequence.”
Unless you depend ports, remasters, or spinoffs, it’s been greater than 12 years for the reason that final unique title within the Ninja Gaiden sequence. In that point, a brand new crop of players, who’re in all probability extra conversant in Bayonetta, have come up. Meanwhile, there’s nonetheless an older era operating round with recollections of Ryu Hayabusa and Ninja Gaiden Black. The results of the partnership between PlatinumGames and Team Ninja is a sport that has components that’ll attraction to totally different generations of gamers.
“Ninja Gaiden is about having a really various software set that lets you really feel like that final tremendous ninja,” says Hirayama. “And I feel you’ll see that the brand new protagonist and his new software set opens up numerous new prospects.”
The new sport might not appear to be probably the most thrilling of titles should you’re not a long-time fan of the sequence. But my skepticism of the sport was slashed away within the face of an over-the-top gorefest that appears to take itself severely however is hiding a gentle, goofy middle that wound up being actually enjoyable to play. Ninja Gaiden 4 comes out on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on October twenty first.
