Ninja Gaiden 4 lands later this month—and while I can’t claim the veteran reflexes of my colleague Wes Fenlon, I’m more than ready to throw myself into the carnage. The earlier Gaiden titles came out just before my gaming prime, but the older I get, the hungrier I am for a challenge. And few names in action gaming carry the same brutal mystique as Ninja Gaiden. Maybe I’m late to the party—but I plan to show up swinging.
What’s really hooked my interest is what directors Yuji Nakao and Masakazu Hirayama shared in an interview with Automaton. They repeatedly stress that fairness is at the heart of Ninja Gaiden’s difficulty—an approach that can mean the difference between a thrilling challenge and a rage-inducing nightmare.
Nakao explained that Team Ninja and PlatinumGames have “focused not only on making the action feel satisfying, but also on offering the cathartic release of overcoming disadvantageous odds—that was a core part of development.” As someone who lives for that moment of sweet victory after hours of frustration (not that kind of release—stop giggling), I can’t help but be onboard.
Hirayama expands on that philosophy: “Fairness between the player and enemy is crucial. Whether or not a death feels like it was your fault is a huge part of maintaining that sense of fairness. If the player gets killed unreasonably, it’s hard for them to reflect and think about what they could’ve done differently. But if they die because they made the wrong choice among several options, they’ll think, ‘Okay, let’s try this instead.’”
That sentiment speaks directly to my inner masochist—and my love of soulslikes. The deeper I get into the genre, the more I see difficult action games as elaborate puzzles. Figuring out the counter to some impossible-looking boss combo or crushing attack pattern is gaming bliss to me. Give me a meticulously designed wall and I’ll gladly bash my head against it until I find the crack.
As Hirayama puts it, “That kind of trial-and-error cycle requires a fair dynamic between offense and defense to work. That’s something we talk about a lot at Team Ninja, and it’s something we’ve always valued throughout the series.”
Nakao echoes that sentiment perfectly: “I envision it as a game where a certain level of challenge or hardship is scattered throughout. That sense of catharsis you feel when you overcome those challenges is something I truly value.”
With Ninja Gaiden 4 hitting on October 21, I’m finally ready to see what all the fuss—and all the pain—is about.
