Ninja Gaiden 4

Combat is fast, aggressive and built on precision. You carve through cybernetic ninja soldiers and otherworldly creatures with combos that reward reading enemy attacks and committing at the right moment, not button mashing. Every fight is a test of spacing and timing, and the best players keep moving, cancelling and punishing without ever slowing down.

The new centrepiece is Bloodbind Ninjutsu. It lets Yakumo transform his weapons mid-fight and unleash devastation, giving encounters a rhythm of building pressure and then cashing it in. Classic moves are still here too: the Izuna Drop and Flying Swallow return for longtime fans who have muscle memory for them.

Ryu Hayabusa is also on the roster with a revamped but familiar kit, so the game offers two distinct ways to approach the same punishing encounters. Mastery in Ninja Gaiden has always meant getting through fights without taking hits, and that standard holds here. At the same time, a customisable player experience lets you dial the challenge down so the story and spectacle are within reach. It is a single-player game with full controller support, and a gamepad is recommended. Steam Cloud saves and 53 achievements round out the package.

Tokyo has fallen under a curse. When an ancient enemy is resurrected, an endless rain of miasma settles over the near-future city and brings it to its knees, filling the streets with cybernetic ninja soldiers and creatures from somewhere else entirely.

The fate of the city falls to Yakumo, a gifted young ninja with a lot to prove. As he cuts his way toward the source of the curse, he has to come to terms with a destiny he shares with the legendary Ryu Hayabusa, the series' longtime hero. Koei Tecmo pitches it as a heart-pounding adventure full of twists, with the old legend and the new prodigy bound together by the same fate.

Ninja Gaiden 4 is out now on Windows PC through Steam at US$69.99. Local prices are RM299 in Malaysia, S$89.90 in Singapore, ₱3,490 in the Philippines, ฿2,299 in Thailand and Rp 899,999 in Indonesia. It offers 12 languages, including Japanese, Korean and both Chinese scripts, but none from Southeast Asia. Minimum spec is a GTX 1060 6 GB or RX 590 with 16 GB of RAM and an i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 3400G, aiming at 1080p and 30 fps, plus 100 GB on a required SSD. It plays offline, with full controller support and colour accessibility options.