Ninja Gaiden 4 was considered one of a number of video games that Xbox confirmed off in its video games showcase over the weekend. And through its Summer time Sport 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, might 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 smooth 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 a lot of 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 quick, consisting of Yakumo ninja-flipping by way of ruined metropolis streets, combating packs of cybernetic demons. In fight, you may string collectively assaults, producing visually spectacular combos. One of many issues that I most appreciated concerning the fight system was that it included considered one of my favourite strikes in any motion recreation — an air restoration capacity. In the event you’re hit into the air, you may shortly faucet a button to proper your self and get again into the combat fairly than get knocked away. Whoever at Crew Ninja / PlatinumGames is a Kingdom Hearts fan, I see you.
Additionally, alongside the best way, I encountered a lot 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 a lot 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 questioned if the stress 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 at all times been often called a really violent recreation, however we didn’t need to simply make it grotesque,” says Yuji Nakao, recreation producer and director at PlatinumGames, talking by way of a translator. “As a result of if we did that, you’d get uninterested in it.”
Crew 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.
“Once we had been working with PlatinumGames,” says Masakazu Hirayama, the producer and director at Crew Ninja. “We wished to deliver their distinctive model strategy to the motion style and inject that into the collection.”
Except you rely ports, remasters, or spinoffs, it’s been greater than 12 years for the reason that final authentic title within the Ninja Gaiden collection. In that point, a brand new crop of avid gamers, who’re in all probability extra accustomed to Bayonetta, have come up. In the meantime, there’s nonetheless an older technology working round with reminiscences of Ryu Hayabusa and Ninja Gaiden Black. The results of the partnership between PlatinumGames and Crew Ninja is a recreation that has components that’ll enchantment to totally different generations of gamers.
“Ninja Gaiden is about having a really numerous 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 a number of new potentialities.”
The brand new recreation might not appear to be essentially the most thrilling of titles when 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 significantly however is hiding a smooth, goofy heart that wound up being actually enjoyable to play. Ninja Gaiden 4 comes out on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on October twenty first.
