Developers Team Ninja and PlatinumGames, and publisher Koei Tecmo have released a video showcasing official gameplay footage from the Ninja Gaiden 4 Gamescom 2025 demo that was available to play on the show floor. The video, coming in at a little over 13 minutes, gives us a look at the fast-paced combat, as well as the variety of enemies that players can expect to fight when the title comes out on October 21 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check it out below.
Along with letting us see how Yakumo is able to handle his katana in combat, the video also shows off his drill spear move set, as well as how he handles other weapons like a bo staff and a pair of shurikens. The level shown off in the video doesn’t quite give us much in the way of variety, however, with Yakumo fighting his way through what appears to be an industrial facility largely composed of grey hallways, massive doors, elevators, and massive rooms that have to be platformed across.
Capping things off, the video shows us a fight against massive, armoured enemies whose designs have been inspired by classic depictions of samurai armour. These enemies are able to make use of larger versions of traditional Japanese weaponry, including a huge naginata that has long reach and the potential to cause a lot of damage to Yakumo fairly quickly.
While Ninja Gaiden 4 will follow in the footsteps of its seminal predecessors like Ninja Gaiden Black in terms of gameplay difficulty, director Masakazu Hirayama has confirmed that it will also offer an easier Hero Mode that will allow even unskilled players to finish the game. Hero Mode, according to Hirayama, will have the player character automatically dodge and block attacks. He also noted that it was less of a way to make the title easier and more of a tool to allow players the chance to “level up and develop their skills”.
“So, once they feel like they’ve gotten a feel for the general flow of combat, they can actually go into the options, disable auto-guard, and then, once they feel like they leveled up, after that, they can switch the difficulty to normal and then to hard,” explained Hirayama. “Ninja Gaiden is a challenging game, and there are players who are worried that it might be too challenging. I want them to rest assured that there are tools present there for them to utilize to help them develop, as a player and really become a master ninja themselves.”
Back in August, Hirayama had also confirmed that Ninja Gaiden 4 is slated to have a run time of between 15 and 20 hours for the first playthrough. That isn’t where the game ends, however, since finishing it means players will unlock the Master Ninja difficulty. This, according to Hirayama, will go a long way in providing “a robust amount of content for players to sink their teeth into after they complete their first playthrough.”