Ninja Gaiden 4: How Two Rival Action Studios Brought Back Gaming's Hardest Ninja
Team Ninja and PlatinumGames teamed up, Xbox paid for it, and a new hero called Yakumo took the lead from Ryu Hayabusa. A year after launch, with its Two Masters expansion out, here is what Ninja Gaiden 4 got right.
In 2004, a Tecmo team led by the famously combative Tomonobu Itagaki released Ninja Gaiden on the original Xbox, and players discovered what "hard" really meant. The game's punishing bosses and lightning-fast combat made it a legend, and its sequels became the benchmark for skill-based action. Then the series went quiet. After Ninja Gaiden 3 in 2012, there was no new mainline game for thirteen years.
That silence ended on October 21, 2025, when Ninja Gaiden 4 launched on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC. It was co-developed by Team Ninja, the series' home at Koei Tecmo, and PlatinumGames, the studio behind Bayonetta, and published by Xbox Game Studios. A year on, with its first expansion released, it stands as one of the most interesting collaborations in recent action games.
Two studios, one ninja
Team Ninja and PlatinumGames are, in a sense, rivals. Both are Japanese studios built around fast, technical action, and both have fans who argue about which does it better. Ninja Gaiden 4 put them together: Team Ninja's expertise in the series' brutal combat, PlatinumGames' flair for spectacle and style.
The game is directed by Yuji Nakao and Masakazu Hirayama, with Fumihiko Yasuda as producer. Microsoft's backing gave it the budget and platform of a modern AAA release, while launching it on PlayStation as well.
Meet Yakumo
The biggest change is the hero. Instead of Ryu Hayabusa, you mainly play Yakumo, a young ninja of the rival Raven Clan, added to make the game more approachable for newcomers. His signature is the Bloodraven Form, which shapes his blood into weapons for brutal combos.
Ryu has not disappeared. He is playable at points in the story, challenges Yakumo as a test of his growth, and shares some of his classic moves, such as the Izuna Drop and Flying Swallow. Fans who feared the series' icon would be sidelined found him very much present.
The setting is a near-future Tokyo under a cursed rain, quarantined by the Divine Dragon Order, a neon-soaked, cyberpunk take on the series' mix of ninja myth and technology.
How it scored
Critics were positive. Ninja Gaiden 4 scored 82 on Metacritic for PC and Xbox Series X|S and 79 on PS5, with 83% of critics recommending it on OpenCritic. Japan's Famitsu gave it 36 out of 40. Reviews praised the speed and depth of the combat and the boss fights, while some found the story thin and the camera struggling in hectic fights, familiar complaints for the genre.
Sales figures have not been published.
The Two Masters
On March 4, 2026, the game received its first expansion, The Two Masters. It adds three new story chapters, a challenge mode called the Abyssal Road, and new weapons, stages and enemies. For players who finished the main game on higher difficulties, the Abyssal Road is the real draw: a gauntlet designed to test everything the combat system offers.
Why it matters
Ninja Gaiden 4 is a reminder that big publishers can still fund demanding, niche-feeling games and that rival studios can make something better together. It also shows Xbox's strategy in action: a Microsoft-published game, made by Japanese partners, launched day one on PlayStation and PC.
If you love precise action, it is an easy recommendation, especially now that The Two Masters adds more of what the series does best. If you have never played the series, Yakumo's gentler start and modern difficulty options make this the friendliest entry point Ninja Gaiden has ever had.
For another Japanese action RPG that got a big expansion in 2026, see our Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen story.