The upcoming Ninja Gaiden 4 will not only bring back one of the deepest and most satisfying combat systems in the history of Videogames, but it’ll also lend itself effectively to newcomers of the genre who’ve never played a hack-n-slash title before. In a recent gameplay video unveiled at TGS, Team Ninja explains how Ninja Gaiden 4 will not only retain it’s unforgiving nature that’s a core part of the experience in all the previous entries but will also tone itself down to provide a more accessible and encouraging gameplay experience specifically tailored towards newcomers.
Ninja Gaiden 4 will feature a beginner friendly ‘Hero’ mode which will have Auto Guard, Auto Dodge and more assists that’ll help players familiarize themselves with the combat system as they start and they can also turn those off whenever they feel they are ready to handle the action. Also, even if you start in ‘Hero’ mode, you can change the difficulty to ‘Normal’ or ‘Hard’ at any point in the game, which highlights the highly modular nature of Ninja Gaiden 4, making the game appeal to a wide range of gamers from veteran Ninja Gaiden players to complete newcomers at the same time.
The upcoming character action title will also include a series-first, standalone training mode where players will be able to practice and hone their skills to perfection which is extremely helpful for a game with combat system as rich as Ninja Gaiden 4. Think of this mode as similar to The Void in Devil May Cry 5 which allowed you to master all the moves individually through practice, at your own pace so you can execute them flawlessly. If you want to really get better at the combat, prepare to spend a long time in this mode which is simply essential for a game like Ninja Gaiden 4.
The video also showcases several minutes of Master Ninja Gameplay in Ninja Gaiden 4, which is the highest difficulty setting in the game and reserved for those who want to truly master the art of the combat system to it’s fullest. The Master Ninja difficulty can’t be switched during mid-game like other difficulty modes which is understandable and fitting for the pedigree of this mode. And just like you can expect from the earlier titles in the series, Master Ninja in Ninja Gaiden 4 is crushing and relentless, demanding the player to constantly be at the top of their game where a single mistake could be the end of their playthrough.
The gameplay in Master Ninja looks far more kinetic and visceral than anything we’ve seen from the game yet and it also seems that you’ll have splash damage in Ninja Gaiden 4, making for an even more merciless experience. To explain this, in games like Devil May Cry 5 where you have a lot of enemies coming at you, if you move the camera to only focus on a few of them at a time, the rest who are off-screen won’t attack you and you can really use this tactic to your advantage during many times in the game.
But it seems in Ninja Gaiden 4, splash damage is on especially in the Master Ninja difficulty setting where even off-screen foes will attack you just as well. This means the highest difficulty mode will be even more brutal than you may expect, even by the standards of other hack-n-slash games.
The fourth entry in the legendary hack-n-slash series, Ninja Gaiden 4 is scheduled to arrive on October 21 for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PC, and Game Pass.
