Good day gamers! Last week Ninja Gaiden 4 launched and I was finally able to get my hands on the game during the weekend. So far I’ve only been able to put 4 hours into the game but I’m not quite sure how to feel about the overall experience so far.

I’ve been looking forward to this cyber looking Ninja Gaiden for months now, and honestly I’m feeling a little concerned because this isn’t the ninja experience I was expecting. What I got instead was a game that feels like it’s still figuring out what it wants to be. Here are my early first impressions.

The New Graphics

Okay before anything I must preface this with the following information about the game. The camera in NG4 is bananas – meaning its default setting is all over the place (hyper sensitive). Any input, and the camera feels like its flying around everywhere so actually being able to look at the world and enjoy the details is not really a thing.

The game sort of forces you to keep moving quickly even during non combat areas and it feels like there is ZERO pacing between movement (in or out of combat) or its setting.

With all that being said – Ninja Gaiden 4 still has some interesting visuals but its actually difficult to say whether or not the game really looks “next gen”. Because the game has a very distant and wonky camera angle, the visuals can go from looking sharp in one moment and warping into a weird blur in the next. (All these settings for camera sensitivity and distance can be updated by the way, however, changing them did not help the overall experience by much).

While the main character model looks pretty awesome and detailed, I found the rest of the visuals to be both fantastic and bland at the same time. While textures are generally detailed throughout, the level design still feels hollow or massively empty, and this makes the game look less cohesive and sometimes incomplete.

For some reason there are areas that just don’t make sense – in some parts you are on street level and then somehow moments later (while in the same area or platform) you are suddenly high up above the city with giant gaps that fall into oblivion. It all feels confusing, like the level designed was rushed, even though what is there looks really well done. A confusing vibe to experience for sure.

Besides some of the awkward level design elements in the beginning of the game, the rest of the visuals pulse with Ninja Gaiden style. While it continues to keep that signature Ninja Gaiden flare, sadly, it tends to get lost in the chaos of the finicky gameplay which muddies the beauty.

Movement and Combat

Movement in NG4 is just off the rails – Yakumo of the Raven Clan is simply all over the dang place and once fighting gets going, it’s nearly impossible to rein him in. This has been such a weird thing for me. While combat is incredibly brutal and satisfying, the mechanics are somehow not responsive enough to handle the speed of the gameplay.

The combat features this “lock on” targeting system (much like past NG games) which would normally be helpful because you can focus in on a particular enemy and not get side tracked by other targets on screen. In NG4 that lock on system feels like a waste of time as Yakumo’s hyper speed makes locking on feel pointless. Yakumo can and will most often just dash past enemy targets especially when trying to use an air slash move to get closer to your enemy.

As well, the mechanic for blocking and parrying is not as responsive as it should be, and it also needs to be held down in combination with a face button (because it’s the right trigger) to perform a “dash” or “escape”. On paper I could see how this would seem like a perfect fit for the button layout to work this way, however, the end result is just clunky because his response to the fighting or parrying usually ends up leaving him exposed since you could be trying to dash away and instead he will remain in place and hold a hard block – which can still get him stunned by a heavy attack.

For a game that requires this level of precision and split second timing to nail down parries and counter attacks – the blocking and dodging mechanics feel lack luster. I am also aware that these are the opening hours of the game and there could be potential upgrades that could allow for smoother and better performing counter moves later on – but as of right now it just feels like I’ve been trying to play catch up with Yakumo. He’s just on another planet with speed and wonky camera so I’m just in the background try my hardest to not have him dash past my enemies for the 100th time.

Early Verdict and Closing Thoughts

With Ninja Gaiden 4, Koei Tecmo and Platinum games have combined forces to develop this latest entry and my goodness – I could not be more excited about this developer team up. Platinum Games is known for making some of the best hack and slash action video games which feature titles like: Nier Automata, Bayonetta, Astral Chains, and Vanquish, so I had super high hopes going into this one.

Unfortunately, I’m not ready to fall in love with Ninja Gaiden 4 yet – but I really want to. It’s ambitious, loud, satisfying, fast paced and wonky, much like its camera. If it could just slow down long enough to find its pacing in this neon cyber-Tokyo playground, I think I’d be calling it one of the coolest games out this year. I’m still not done with the game, not by a long shot, but I’m hoping there is lot more to come as the story unfolds because what is here now is just not at the level of polish that it should be, especially considering the pedigree of the developers behind it.

As always gamers, if you made it all the way to the end here, thank you so very much for reading this post and my insights with this latest Ninja Gaiden. This year has been filled with Ninja Gaiden games and its awesome to see the franchise return with style, I’m just hoping this one gets some balancing because there is so much potential for this game to be one of the best of 2025.

Thank you again for your support and reading my posts, I hope you have a wonderful week ahead gamers!