NINJA GAIDEN 4 | Review

Jesse 'Doncabesa' Norris October 21, 2025Last Updated: October 21, 2025

0 8 minutes read

Yakumo is no Schmoe. The main protagonist of NINJA GAIDEN 4 is one of the best-controlling characters in action gaming history. Across nineteen increasingly batsh*t crazy levels, Yakumo and Ryu Hyabusa lead you through a deadly gauntlet. Platinum Games and Team Ninja take a series known for fast combat and somehow make it way faster. Even the story is slightly less nonsensical than previous entries. Despite all of the high-profile departures, Platinum proves it still has what it takes to make something damned fun.

The Raven Clan

You are, most of the time, Yakumo of the Raven Clan. Your initial task is to take out the Dragon Priestess Seori. She quickly gets our young lead on her side, who, instead of assassinating her, aids in an escape. The Raven Clan has a prophecy that the sacrifice of the Dragon Priestess is the only way to purify the Dark Dragon.

For those new to the series, this all sounds like nonsense, and I get it. NINJA GAIDEN stories have always been a bit out there. Normally, these games star Ryu Hyabusa, and don’t worry, he’s here in full, eventually. Ryu and a group of Dark Dragon defense samurai do their best to prevent Yakumo from helping Seori in their attempts at reviving and killing the Dark Dragon to end it once and for all.

Did I mention the Dark Dragon is dead? Ryu killed it, since then its husk has floated over Tokyo, pouring down a cursed rain. No spoilers, of course, but for the first time in a NINJA GAIDEN game, I felt the story not only made sense but was occasionally clever. Things weren’t obvious on how they’d go, the voice acting and writing were high quality, if you dig a little anime ‘uWu ayaya’ occasionally. Where the game shines is its deep, fast combat.

Yak Daddy

Yakumo’s journey will take him to three shrines, each housing a seal for the Dark Dragon. Over the course of the game, each seal will be a weapon you can use, with its own upgrade path. There are four weapons in total (as you start with his own twin blades), and each serves a distinct purpose. Your starting weapon is a set of dual blades. Yakumo is unbelievably fast. X is your main attack, Y is for heavier moves, and the left trigger activates his blood Ninpo. A jumps, right trigger blocks and dodges, and it feels tight.

By default, the game does not lock onto enemies. You can click in the right stick to lock on, an option I mainly used during boss fights. When not locked on a small red reticle is centered on whoever you are aiming at. NINJA GAIDEN 4’s combat is the fastest I can remember, especially as Yakumo. Whether chopping heads off with a Flying Swallow attack or comboing my way to an Izuna Drop, I always felt in control.

Enemies can be just as fast, though, clearing an entire arena in the blink of an eye. I played through the game on normal difficulty to start. Replaying levels on progressively harder difficulties as both Yakumo and Ryu, using the chapter select option that opens up after you clear the main campaign. NINJA GAIDEN 4 is as difficult a game as I can remember on hard, and tougher than anything I’ve played since pre-nerf Lies of P (I mean before it even launched). Standing still for a second, missing a perfect dodge, and not trying to parry led to instant deaths, even against the lowest fodder enemies.

This is a game of combos, with every weapon having a dozen or more to unlock. All control the same, which made things easier to remember. Down Up X, a full circle, and Y, or hold left trigger while pressing the right bumper and X, are all different moves on each weapon. Figuring out how Yakumo’s blood Ninpo and Ryu’s Gleam attacks could combo together kept the combat fresh. Speaking of Ryu, he is an absolute monster in this game. Fully powered up and ready to push your shit back in at a moment’s notice.

Grinding, Gliding, Surfing, and Sliding

The Raven Clan is known for its gadgets. Yakumo will get a grappling line, glider, surfboard, and more to traverse the environment. I won’t ruin Ryu’s versions of this. Just know that the Super Ninja, as they call him, isn’t one for toys. For every combat section, there is a traversal one to get you there.

Early on, it’s mostly using the grappling line to pull yourself forward across gaps or into wall runs. Eventually, things escalate with Yakumo’s ability to grind the rails like the world’s most talented hobo. You’ll need to dodge obstacles like big metal asterisks, planks of wood, and bullet trains as you Sunset Overdrive your way through the environment.

As you progress, level up Yakumo, including completing mission assignments, they’ll start to mix the traversal and combat mechanics together. To get those assignments, you’ll use the Raven Clan’s weird unfolding giant touch screen TV checkpoint system. Umi is there to sell you healing and buff items for NinjaCoins. While you can earn coins by killing enemies, one of the best ways to get them, usable items, and permanent health increase parts is to do missions.

It’s a weird system that only really works once you’ve beaten the game and can use Chapter Select to go back and take your time finding exactly what you need. I had about half of the side missions in the game done by the time I rolled credits. Load times are fairly quick, though, so going back to do more was easy enough. The coins can also be used with your Raven Clan trainer to buy new abilities.

The other currency is your weapon experience points. As you kill enemies, you get a number; it goes up, it feels good. Using that number, you can unlock new moves in your weapon that aren’t bought through the trainer. This is where a lot of your combos come into play, as you’ll be unlocking the similarly controlling moves for each of Yakumo’s four weapons. Ryu has his trusty Dragon Sword, and you can level it as well. There are chests in each level that have items for Yakumo, and a mix of items and new moves/abilities/hp upgrades for Ryu.

Platinum Engine

NINJA GAIDEN 4 is a good-looking game on Xbox Series X and a great one on PC. I split my time half and half, playing on Series X in performance mode and at maxed out 4K, everything at a locked 120 on PC. There is a 120fps mode on Series X that loses a lot of graphical luster but feels amazing to play.

Platinum is one of the handful of studios that have avoided Unreal Engine as their default. The Platinum Engine gets some nice upgrades here. It maintains a high level of quality in character models, steady framerates, and occasionally great-looking environments without forcing me to use heavy reconstruction techniques. Even during major boss fights, of which there are many, I never had my Xbox or PC struggle to keep the frames coming steadily. Those boss fights are fairly well-balanced, outside of a few gauntlets. If you die repeatedly on a boss, your trainer will slowly fill up all of your health items, which keeps things feeling fair.

I was able to easily brute force the game at max settings on a 7900 XTX and 5800X combo. When I look at the footage differences between Xbox and PC, I don’t know that many would even notice at 60fps. The biggest bonus for me on stronger hardware is how fluid it feels at a higher framerate. The Series X holds up well for a five-year-old machine. Series S-wise, I had limited time, but what I played looked fuzzier but was still damned pretty, playing well.

Seori My Name

NINJA GAIDEN is known for having bad stories, but being really cool, so no one cares. This fourth installment in the series’ story is… good? Nothing in it is groundbreaking. The plot is fairly standard in a lot of ways, though it has some surprises to be found. Sure, a lot of things happen simply because of in-world magic making it so, but it didn’t bother me. The presentation is mature, and the voice acting is routinely fantastic.

Yakumo is super emo, with a voice I shouldn’t like. He’s so short in his phrasing that it’s never pushed. There’s no whining, only duty as a Raven Clan ninja. A character I thought I was sure to dislike, I ended up being one I enjoyed playing as much as Ryu himself. The supporting cast can be hit or miss, with the nerdy tech-guy getting on my nerves a few times. He doesn’t talk a ton, though, thankfully.

Seori was the biggest surprise. Despite initial appearances, she turned out to be a nuanced, deep character with an excellent job done by her English VO. Ryu kinda sounds like a dude from California, but that isn’t new. The music, a staple for Platinum Games, doesn’t disappoint. There are epic rock ballads interspersed with sweeping orchestral tracks that get the blood pumping during the game’s incredibly gory combat. Chopping apart humans, fiends, and demons as a guitar is wailing will never get old. Boss fights even have voice tracks, which avoid being obnoxious despite how cheesy they should be.

As stated previously. I jumped between Xbox and PC constantly while playing. The Play Anywhere system worked flawlessly as my saves were always ready to go. One time I even tried quick resuming, and it said “nah ah ah, we needa restart to get your PC save”. It was lovely. If I have one complaint, and it may be because of how non-stop I played it, the title can still feel a little repetitive if you do not work to mix up the combat. My time in missions said 6 and ½ hours, though my save file said 11h 30m after the final boss died.

Our own Jon Clarke has played the game on the ROG Xbox Ally X. Here is what he has to say.

Ninja Gaiden 4 runs incredibly well on the new ROG Xbox Ally X, resulting in a seriously compelling gameplay experience for the new handheld and honestly, a perfectly great way to indulge in some dismembering on the go. Bear in mind, you’re looking at direct capture from the ROG Xbox Ally X here, running at 1080P High settings, with FSR on and set to prioritise performance.

At the time of Jesse’s review, I’ve played the majority of my time with Ninja Gaiden 4 on the Ally, and I can’t say I’m anything other than impressed. On the 13W ‘Silent’ Mode, the game anywhere between 30-40 FPS most of time., and never really dips below that – so far. I’m pretty sure you could get this to improve by lowering the games visuals to medium or low should you wish.

On the 17W Performance Mode, the game sits at around 40-50 FPS, and thanks to the VRR screen on the ROG Xbox Ally X, is probably my preferred setting between battery life and performance. It feels super responsive, and I never really felt like the game was struggling or unpleasant to play at all.

Bumping things up to the 25W ‘Turbo’ mode results in a range of around 45-58 FPS, and again just feels absolutely great to play. I don’t feel there’s a huge enough improvement between this and performance, but that’s really up to you.

If it’s 60FPS or nothing for you with Ninja Gaiden 4, this is absolutely possible. Drop the graphics settings to medium, and even on the 17W ‘Performance’ Mode, you’ll see yourself hitting 60FPS most of the time.

Playing on the ROG Xbox Ally X is a great way to enjoy Ninja Gaiden 4. The only downside is some of the design choices of the developer, with iconography and some UI appearing very small, and thanks to all being in red, hard to distinguish on the 7″ screen – and that’s with the HUD being set to “extra large”.

Wrapping Things Up

NINJA GAIDEN 4 revives the decade-plus dormant franchise with a new developer leading it into an insanely fast, new direction. It’s a fun, occasionally beautiful title with an actually not terrible story, perhaps a first for the series. It is, of course, available Day One in Xbox Game Pass and well worth checking out if you’re looking to chop a few thousand bad guys in half.