With the previews for Ninja Gaiden 4 finally out, we’ve gotten a much deeper look at the next adventure of our favorite murder ninja Ryu Hayabusa and fledgling ninja Yakumo. One question that still remained however was whether or not Ryu will retain any of his weapons from the past game aside from just the Dragon Sword. Speaking to Next-Play, Ninja Gaiden 4 director Masakazu Hirayama finally addressed this burning question and it’s…a bit of a letdown.
While newcomer Yakumo will have 4 weapons at launch, Ryu will only be able to use the Dragon Sword, with additional weapons for him planned to be DLC and that owners of Ninja Gaiden 4’s Deluxe Edition will have access to these upcoming DLC weapons. He also confirms that DLC for Ninja Gaiden 4 will feature more content than just new weapons.
“There’s going to be a fourth weapon, for Yakumo, that will be revealed in the future so please, look forward to that. With regards to Ryu’s weapons … We are planning to add additional weapons in, as DLC. The DLC is included as part of the Deluxe Edition … Additional weapons are included in that, with that said, that gameplay content isn’t just limited to additional weapons. There’s going to be more content. And we’ll be revealing more details about what you can expect from that content in the future.”
Unfortunately, this also means that Ninja Gaiden 4 will launch with the least number of weapons for Ryu in the entire series since the original release of Ninja Gaiden 3 (which launched with just a single weapon). Comparatively, Ninja Gaiden Black featured ten weapons while Ninja Gaiden 2 and Razor’s Edge’s had Ryu using six and five weapons respectively.
While the addition of Yakumo alleviates and his four weapons alleviates this a bit, it also has to be mentioned that Razor’s Edge had five weapons for Ryu as well as 3 separate playable characters. Fans on Twitter have also called out the decision as overly greedy and “disgusting”, calling back to the severe backlash Team Ninja faced after Ninja Gaiden 3 added additional weapons for Ryu as post-launch DLC.
That aside, it still looks like a fantastic return-to-form for a long dormant series. The series has recently launched itself into the limelight once again with a remake of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 as well as the phenomenal 2D spin-off Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, and if the previews for Ninja Gaiden 4 are anything to go by then we can expect another great entry in a fantastic series.
