Ninja Gaiden 4 Releases October 21, 2025

Agent_4Seven said:
So, just watched this.

Uh, I'll be honest, yeah, level design was never a strong suit of Team Ninja, but at least Ninja Gaiden 2 locations looked unique and cool, not to mention that they got a massive upgrade in the recently released UE5 NG2B. The level design in NG4 is even worse than in Nioh, cuz not only is it ugly af mish-mash of every modern action game with visual and design cliches like sci-fi and cyberpunk elements mixed together with anything but unique and straight up copied gameplay sections from GhostRunner, but there's also these comically large open boxes and parts of the levels which makes no sense whatsoever and it feels like they just did it for the sake of not dedicating any time to make camera work in more realistic levels.

I mean, c'mon, they didn't even bother blending different parts of the levels and visual design together like in this location with a lot of graffiti - they just slapped them on the walls randomly and called it a day. That'll do lol. So to summarize, visually, design and levels-wise the game is for sure straight up from the mid 2000s and it looks like it just with modern effects thrown in, but there's also low to high models pop-in lmao and performance is anything but 60 FPS on Fidelity. It's a MASSIVE downgrade in comparison to UE5 NG2B visually and level design-wise like it's not even funny. I guess it's their way to save cost of development and release the game faster, but cuz of all this and frankly bad and lazy decisions, the game simply doesn't have its own visual identity anymore and looks awful and generic as sin.

As for the story, well, heh, as if anyone was playing NG games for the story or for that matter watched movies with Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Lee etc. for this reason too. So yeah, the story was always just an excuse for everything else and doesn't need to be anything more. But I don't like the idea of letting us play as the new guy more than Ryu (challenge mode notwithstanding) and it looks like they went for MGS2 and DMC4 here by doing that. We'll see how it'll pay out but the idea of also getting new weapons for Ryu via paid DLC only can fuck right off immediately - they know that Ryu is the main star of the series and they want to capitalize on that and playing with your FOMO by taking away gameplay variety and make you pay for it, this if fuckin' unacceptable.

I'm not gonna lie, gameplay is the king, but to me and after NG3, it's just not a worthy trade of for the series to lose it's visual identity and more realistic level design completely. I guess everyone must decide for themselves whether it's a big deal for them or not, but to me it is cuz 99% of the time I'll be looking at this ugly, uninspired and generic mess.
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I'm hoping it's just that intro level that isn't great. In the previous video I posted on the last page, there's a brief section showing Yakumo in an outdoor area at night in the rain. Narrow ledge, rock walls. Looks similar to NG2 Black. We'll see.
 
Agent_4Seven said:
So, just watched this.

Uh, I'll be honest, yeah, level design was never a strong suit of Team Ninja, but at least Ninja Gaiden 2 locations looked unique and cool, not to mention that they got a massive upgrade in the recently released UE5 NG2B. The level design in NG4 is even worse than in Nioh, cuz not only is it ugly af mish-mash of every modern action game with visual and design cliches like sci-fi and cyberpunk elements mixed together with anything but unique and straight up copied gameplay sections from GhostRunner, but there's also these comically large open boxes and parts of the levels which makes no sense whatsoever and it feels like they just did it for the sake of not dedicating any time to make camera work in more realistic levels.

I mean, c'mon, they didn't even bother blending different parts of the levels and visual design together like in this location with a lot of graffiti - they just slapped them on the walls randomly and called it a day. That'll do lol. So to summarize, visually, design and levels-wise the game is for sure straight up from the mid 2000s and it looks like it just with modern effects thrown in, but there's also low to high models pop-in lmao and performance is anything but 60 FPS on Fidelity. It's a MASSIVE downgrade in comparison to UE5 NG2B visually and level design-wise like it's not even funny. I guess it's their way to save cost of development and release the game faster, but cuz of all this and frankly bad and lazy decisions, the game simply doesn't have its own visual identity anymore and looks awful and generic as sin.

As for the story, well, heh, as if anyone was playing NG games for the story or for that matter watched movies with Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Lee etc. for this reason too. So yeah, the story was always just an excuse for everything else and doesn't need to be anything more. But I don't like the idea of letting us play as the new guy more than Ryu (challenge mode notwithstanding) and it looks like they went for MGS2 and DMC4 here by doing that. We'll see how it'll pay out but the idea of also getting new weapons for Ryu via paid DLC only can fuck right off immediately - they know that Ryu is the main star of the series and they want to capitalize on that and playing with your FOMO by taking away gameplay variety and make you pay for it, this if fuckin' unacceptable.

I'm not gonna lie, gameplay is the king, but to me and after NG3, it's just not a worthy trade off for the series to lose it's visual identity and more realistic level design completely. I guess everyone must decide for themselves whether it's a big deal for them or not, but to me it is cuz 99% of the time I'll be looking at this ugly, uninspired and generic mess.
Click to expand...
Half the areas they're showing look like they accidentally made racing game tracks and thought ahhh fuck it. Also the art direction is absurdly garish. It somehow outdoes Doom Eternal.

I agree with you in general. The more I see of this one, the more weary I get. Purely a good combat system without a well-designed game around it, aka level and encounter design, gets boring for me very quickly.

PS: I hadn't paid close enough attention and didn't realize you can't just choose your character for the entire playthrough. Massive thumbs down after watching this video in full. Not sure how I missed that before.
 
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Punished Miku said:
I'm hoping it's just that intro level that isn't great. In the previous video I posted on the last page, there's a brief section showing Yakumo in an outdoor area at night in the rain. Narrow ledge, rock walls. Looks similar to NG2 Black. We'll see.
Click to expand...
Well, that gives me hope. They better have some variety, better designed lvls and not only generic giant open spaces all the time.

TerribleAtThisGame said:
Half the areas they're showing look like they accidentally made racing game tracks and thought ahhh fuck it.

I agree with you in general. The more I see of this one, the more weary I get. Purely a good combat system without a well-designed game around it, aka level and encounter design, gets boring for me very quickly.
Click to expand...
Like, MGR had great and memorable locations and well-designed lvls? No, absolutely not, but despite all that it worked for that game probably cuz MGS games never looked great and lvl design was even more basic, so no one expected anything spectacular on that front, but when you have something to compare it to in the same series and if it was way better, well, then I'm sorry, but we have a problem. And then there's Bayonnetta... and Vanquish... Man, they should've let Platinum do the whole thing, not just help with the combat.
 
TerribleAtThisGame said:
Purely a good combat system without a well-designed game around it, aka level and encounter design, gets boring for me very quickly.
Click to expand...

That was my big issue with DMC5.
Great combat but everything else about the game was super bland. Boring and often ugly levels with basically non existent level design as you just walk from one combat encounter to the next. Half the game takes place inside that demon tower thing which basically looks like you are walking inside an intestine.

Hopefully this one delivers. The level from the video doesn't look that bad, and I've seen some other videos with more variety in the environments so I'll remain cautiously optimistic.
 
Fbh said:
That was my big issue with DMC5.
Great combat but everything else about the game was super bland. Boring and often ugly levels with basically non existent level design as you just walk from one combat encounter to the next. Half the game takes place inside that demon tower thing which basically looks like you are walking inside an intestine.

Hopefully this one delivers. The level from the video doesn't look that bad, and I've seen some other videos with more variety in the environments so I'll remain cautiously optimistic.
Click to expand...
I finished DMC5 once just because I bought it Day 1 and forced myself to. Game is shitshow outside of the actual combat on every level in my opinion. There's a reason DMC3 is the best, it's not just an empty arena for styling on enemies.

Edit: Not to say at all I'm not still excited and hopeful for NG4. We'll see how it shakes out.
 
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John Bilbo said:
It's the best they can do.
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It's pathetic.
None of these people learn, all these games lacking mechanics established since the super Nintendo, and then the people that just repeat the exact same mistakes as 10 years prior.
But yeah if everyone keeps buying blindly there's so no hope. So keep preordering everyone! They'll fix it 2 years later with a dlc containing basic mechanics. And a weapon from the base game.
 
Hashassin said:
It's pathetic.
None of these people learn, all these games lacking mechanics established since the super Nintendo, and then the people that just repeat the exact same mistakes as 10 years prior.
But yeah if everyone keeps buying blindly there's so no hope. So keep preordering everyone! They'll fix it 2 years later with a dlc containing basic mechanics. And a weapon from the base game.
Click to expand...
What are you talking about?

Whats the issue here?
 
Fbh said:
Great combat but everything else about the game was super bland. Boring and often ugly levels with basically non existent level design as you just walk from one combat encounter to the next. Half the game takes place inside that demon tower thing which basically looks like you are walking inside an intestine.
Click to expand...
I got so bored during the last 35% of the game in that tower that I wanted to stop playing and not finish the game. The fights were SO GODDAMN LONG, nothing you did combat-wise felt like you did something cool or make it last less, it more felt like they made is so that the fights were time gated to prolong the game instead of letting you control how they'll playout and how fast based on your skill. By the time I was done with the tower my fingers hurt like shit after going through all those monotonous and boring fights dozens of times with the same exact enemies over and over again.

Like, say what you will about DMC4 and I absolutely hate what they did with boss rushes 2 times in a row and then for Dante as well, but other than that it felt like I was in control how long the fights would be based on my skill, not Capcom with their behind the scenes timer and a switch to stop all this nonsense when they felt like it. I honestly don't know how else to describe my experience with DMCV. Like, at first it was great, but the longer I played it, the less fun it got combat-wise.
 
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Guys, my favorite games of all time are Ninja Gaiden Black and the Metal Gear Solid Series.

In October I'm going to buy a PS5 and splurge a couple weeks on Death Stranding 2, MGS Delta, and of course Ninja Gaiden 4.

I haven't been this excited to play video games in literal years.
 
Hashassin said:
It's pathetic.
None of these people learn, all these games lacking mechanics established since the super Nintendo, and then the people that just repeat the exact same mistakes as 10 years prior.
But yeah if everyone keeps buying blindly there's so no hope. So keep preordering everyone! They'll fix it 2 years later with a dlc containing basic mechanics. And a weapon from the base game.
Click to expand...
It must be difficult to develop a game someone else designed the principles in previous entries.

The best thing could be for the original creators to do all the sequels or for the new team to do their own thing in their own new series.
 


Fuck yeah. This guy's also good. Enemies are a bit more aggressive here. Looks like maybe hard mode. Ghost fish are back. Missile spam is back. Feels like coming home.
 
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Since this is a Platinum Games joint, hoping they throw in their customary "Easy automatic" difficulty option in there.


I Hope Please GIF
 
Actual level design paths, traversing, and enemy encounters looks pretty good in the Ryu video. A lot more interesting than NG3 and DMC5 levels.



 
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