There are times when I see a trailer for a game and I instantly think "I am going to suck so bad at this". I am a games journalist after all. There are other times, I'd like to suggest far more often, when I see a trailer for a game and I instantly think "This game is going to rule". It takes a special game to elicit both reactions. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ninja Gaiden 4 is that special game.
With its blistering reveal at the Xbox Developer Direct (better yet, aiming to launch this year), 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ninja Gaiden 4 was the star of the show. In part, this was because it (along with the shadow drop of 2's remake) was the big surprise of the night, with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Doom: The Dark Ages, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Clair Obscur, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:South of Midnight having already been confirmed. But it was also because it didn't just have a title card tease or a cutscene, but♋ came with an action-packed spectacle of gameplay to leave us with no doubts as to what was to come.
Ninja Gaiden Can Never Be Easy
Ninja Gaiden is a difficult series by design. While I think the debate over video game difficulty 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:can become wea𓆏risome a💖nd encourage gatekeeping, there are some games for which the difficulty is part of the experience. Gaiden offers a difficulty mode, which the likes of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring do not, but there is still some understanding that the challenge is an indelible part of the game. Without it, it ceases to be Ninja Gaiden at its core. 1🙈68澳洲幸运5开奖网:4 already promises to 🦋follow in these footsteps.
I expect, therefore, to be quite bad at it. Ordinarily, this knowledge would put me off - there are so many ga﷽mes to play and so little time in the day, week, life. You gotta know when to fold 'em. But it has not with Ninja Gaiden. The prospect of failing over and over again, which rarely holds much appeal to me, finally feels like a selling point.
Perhaps it is because the presence of difficulty modes shows some level of balance, consideration, and player control. Maybe it's because Gaiden's story is ൲less deliberately cryptic and arcane than Elden Ring's. In Souls games I have found myself no longer compelled to go on not only because I lack the skill and the strength to do so, but because I know not what I fight for. It feels like this form of environme▨ntal, almost archaeological form of narrative would work better in a game that didn't ask you to pause for several hours multiple times to learn the attack patterns of a god who will bark out three disconnected phrases that eventually fit into a puzzle.
But also, Elden Ring is one of the most popular💃 games of all time, so I guess not.
Ninja Gaiden Is Bringing Action Back
Though fights will still be an agonising, drawn-out experience much of the time, where attack patterns must be learned as they repeatedly pulverise you at every turn, the lightning base of Ninja Gaiden 4 and electric cinematic art style are enough to hook me in. Whizzing through platforming gauntlets, leaping high to strike enemies down, and grinding on rails (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:always an instant sell for me), Ninja Gaiden is so frenetic that you get to make up for any boss battle stoppages by movi𒆙ng at lightning pace the rest of the time.
It's also, despite having obvious Soulsborne tendencies with the aforementioned boss attack patterns, much more of a traditional action game. It would make sense that the series is not built on these foundations - the first Ninja Gaiden predates 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Demon's Souls by four years. That extra pace, emphasis on level variety, and surplus of weaker enemies to be slashed down with ease also feeds much easier into the power fantasಞy. Yes, occasionally you will get your own posterior handed to you on a plate, but there are plenty of opportunities to get your own back. Souls games have smaller enemies too, but it often feels like once the hits start coming, they don't stop coming. It doesn't make you feel like an all-star.
Though tougher, it's more in the vein of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bayonetta (PlatinumGames is even developing Ninja Gaiden 4), 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Devil May Cry, or more recently, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Stellar Blade. It feels like more of the 'very hard combo combat' genre is being pulled in a Soulsy direction (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:even🐎 Stellar Blade suffers🌳 from this magnetism), sꦐo it's great to see an old skool hard game return to offer a diffe🔯rent bloodstained path. I have no idea how long it will take me to finish Ninja Gaiden 4, or if I will even be able to, but I can't wait to try. That feels like a very good sign.







168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Ninja Gaiden 4
- Released
- October 21, 2025
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Intense Violence, Blood and Go🐽✃re
- Developer(s)
- Koei Tecmo Games Co., Ltd., 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Team Ninja, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Platinum Games
- Publisher(s)
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Game Studios
- Franchise
- 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ninja Gaiden
- Number of Players
- 1
- PC Release Date
- October 21, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- October 21, 2025
- Platform(s)
- Xbox Series X|S, PC, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation 5