Summary
- Ninja Gaiden 4 was announced during Xbox’s Developer Direct, the first mainline title for over a decade.
- Renowned as a series that is quite difficult, Ninja Gaiden 4’s difficulty was one of the big questions we had when the game was revealed.
- Thankfully, it seems as though that reputation for difficulty will remain in tact, as director Yuji Nakao claims it will be “influenced” by Ninja Gaiden 2.
Ninja Gaiden fans have been eating well ever since December last year. Not only are we getting Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a 2D side-scroller made by the developers of Blasphemous, but Xbox just blew the minds of every fan across the planet by announcing both a Ninja Gaiden 2 remake, and the long-awaited Ninja Gaiden 4.
While the announcement trailer for Ninja Gaiden 4 was rather fancy, and gave us details such as the addition of a new protagonist and that the game is being co-developed by Platinum Games, we didn’t see much of the game itself. Thankfully, producer and director Yuji Nakao answered some of the more burning questions fans may have had in an interview with Xbox Wire.
Ninja Gaiden 4 Difficulty Is Influenced By Ninja Gaiden 2
One of those little tidbits of info shared by Nakao was about the game’s difficulty. We know that the Ninja Gaiden series has a reputation for being as tough as nails, with some of the earlier titles regarded as some of the most difficult games out there, and one of my main questions after the reveal, was whether Ninja Gaiden 4’s difficulty could potentially be scaled back a touch for newcomers.
If you had similar worries, then you’ll be pleased to find out that it sounds as though Ninja Gaiden 4 won’t be a walk in the park. In the interview, Nakao states that Ninja Gaiden 4 will be “influenced” by the difficulty of Ninja Gaiden 2, which is one of Team Ninja’s harder titles.
“We’ve brought together the best aspects of the series and elevated them for the current generation. Personally, I believe [the difficulty level of] NINJA GAIDEN 2 had a lot of standout qualities, and I think fans will feel its influence strongly throughout NINJA GAIDEN 4.”
That’ll be music to ears of most Ninja Gaiden fans, as there was a chance the difficulty of Ninja Gaiden could potentially wane, given that it’s been over a decade since the last mainline entry in the series. It’s nice to know that Ninja Gaiden 4 will still be the cause of broken controllers and torn out hair when it launches later this year.
