Xbox Game Studio, Koei Tecmo, Team Ninja and PlatinumGames, have released a new video revealing that they teamed up with master swordsmith Yuya Nakanishi and the Masahiro Tantoujou Sword Forge to re-create Ryu Hayabusa’s Dragon Sword and Yakumo’s Takeminakata in real life. The video, which you can check out below, features Nakanishi talking about his decision to pursue the art of swordsmithing, and the history of the katana as well.
“What we call katanas first appeared about 900 years ago, in the later Heian period,” explained Nakanishi. “Among the people who used katanas were, of course, samurai. And also ninjas too. The samurai, well, they placed their life and pride on their katana. The aesthetics were important. But ninjas, I must say what they value most is something more practical, and not a symbol.”
According to Nakanishi, making a katana in real-life takes between 5 and 7 days. He also goes on to describe the base process of forging a katana, from forging to carving blocks and folding the metal. After this, he goes into detail about tempering the blade, sharpening it, and how it shinning brightly means that it has turned out well.
“When making katanas, including these swords for Ninja Gaiden 4, the hardest part is the tempering at the end, especially the decorating etchings,” he explained. “Ryu’s red katana, the bigger one. This one has a majestic feeling because it’s long, thick and broad, and the etchings are jagged and wild. For this, I turned up the heat and used higher temperatures.”
“The blue Yakumo sword was more delicate. The decorations on it are like a raven, spreading its wings, and if I tempered it at high temperatures, that delicate feeling would be lost.”
“Through the katanas, my intention was for people to understand the personalities of the characters,” he continued. “’Oh, this character is like this, they have these tendencies,’ if people can think that way, I’d be glad.”
Going further into the details about how the characters of Ninja Gaiden 4 will be depicted, art director of the game Tomoko Nishii had written about how concept art was created for it, and how the process typically helps with the visual design and language of a game in development. In a dev blog, she wrote about the three kinds of concept art: imaging art, design sketching, and overpainting.
“While the artwork created here often doesn’t remain in its final form, it serves as a crucial reference point for the entire team during the production process, making it a role with significant responsibility,” she explained while talking about imaging art.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is set for release on October 21. A playable demo for the game was available during Gamescom 2025, which Koei Tecmo had then uploaded a full playthrough video of. The demo provided a variety of weapons to play with, from Yakumo’s katana, to the drill spear and even a pair of shurikens. Along with this, we also got to see some enemy variety as well.
