Ninja Gaiden 4 is quite the anticipated title for me. This wasn’t made any easier thanks to the stellar opening hours of the game I recently got to experience at PlatinumGames’ offices. Following that, I had a lot of burning questions to ask about what to expect from the ninja action game upon full release in October. Thankfully, I got to sit down with the core creative team for the project: Art Director Tomoko Nishii, Lead Composer Masahiro Miyauchi, and Level Design & Environment Lead Yudai Abe. What came out of that talk was the picking of some of the most creative minds in the industry, leaving me only more excited to see the return of the fantastic ninja series.
What we know so far about Ninja Gaiden 4 is that the adventure is set in a rainy and dilapidated cyberpunk Tokyo. This is expected from the game, given it’s following up after the events of Ninja Gaiden 3. Playing as newcomer Yakumo, this setting feels incredibly realised; there’s a gorgeous apocalyptic metro landscape where a dragon made of machine and cords and coils lingers, and electronic billboards are on the fritz. Since co-developer PlatinumGames has several offices across Japan, including in Tokyo itself, I was curious to pick the team’s brain about what it’s like to re-invent and develop a landscape based on locations they often see in their everyday lives.
One of the big frames of reference for the game is Sky City Tokyo, the opening mission of Ninja Gaiden II. Abe-san elaborates on this: “Even though Tokyo is the stage for the game, we’re not basing it on a real Tokyo. We’re not looking to make it a realistic location. We’re basing it on Sky City Tokyo and going for an exaggerated sense of the stages as well. We really wanted to make something that people will take a look at and be very surprised by it, find exciting and exceed their expectations.”
Team Ninja and PlatinumGames have achieved this goal thus far. The world of Ninja Gaiden 4 feels both grounded and gloriously alien. You’re exploring environments with familiar iconography (be it tori gates or shrines), but in the next breath, you’re fighting cybernetic trolls and watching the world crumble around you due to a digital virus that has affected the cyberspace you’re navigating. It leaves you with this wonderful and curious sense of place that invites curiosity as you’re wallrunning, jumping, and hacking and slashing through an onslaught of ninja and samurai.
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