Despite being developed by PlatinumGames instead of series creator Team NINJA, Ninja Gaiden 4 stays true to the franchise’s root with a hardcore and challenging action game experience that’s unlike anything else on the market. The relatively high challenge level of normal difficulty can turn some newcomers off, but by mastering the basics and the intricacies of these 4 core skills, you can start dominating the battlefield, have tons of fun, and prepare yourself for even more challenges to be found in Hard and Master Ninja difficulties.

NOTE: The following strategies have been developed in Normal difficulty mode and were further refined in Hard Mode by the author, who completed two playthroughs at these difficulties and is working on a Master Ninja difficulty run, in the game’s 1.0.1.0 Steam release. Screenshots captured from the same version.

Mastering the Flying Swallow Technique

The Flying Swallow Combat Skill returns from previous entries in the series and is as useful as ever. While it is primarily used to attack enemies from the air, it has many very useful defensive applications that make it a must-learn right at the start of the game.

A. Offensive Basic: Fast and Relatively Safe Attack Skill

The Flying Swallow Combat Skill is one of Ninja Gaiden 4’s easiest and most satisfying skills to use. With a very low execution barrier, you can use this skill while locked onto an enemy to close the gap quickly, deal solid damage while being generally safe from the vast majority of short-range attacks. With the Flying Swallow Barrage skill, the technique can be repeated up to three times, making it even more useful against all sorts of enemies.

B. Defensive Basic: Repositioning and Disengagement

The Flying Swallow’s high movement range makes it the absolute best movement skill in Yakumo and Ryu’s arsenal in Ninja Gaiden 4. Its high speed and relatively low landing delay make it easy to use multiple times to cover a lot of ground extremely quickly.

The Flying Swallow’s utility as a movement skill can be easily tested in the game’s Training mode. Starting from one of the side walls, a single Flying Swallow covers almost half of the entire training room, requiring just two to cover the whole length of the room in roughly only 1.5 seconds. The same ground is covered by running in approximately 3.5 seconds. With over double the time and the vulnerability that comes from ground movement, Flying Swallow is the superior way for traversing stages and get away from danger quickly.

C. Advanced Defense: The Combo Break Escape

Besides being a great offensive skill that stays useful at all difficulty settings and an amazing movement tool, the Flying Swallow skills has multiple defensive applications that are just as useful as its offensive capabilities. One of these defensive applications is a “Combo Break Escape” that lets Yakumo and Ryu get away from combo attacks from enemies and reposition themselves for some much needed breathing room.

The execution of this technique is simple. If you get caught in a combo attack from enemies like the D.D.O. Naginata enemies, all you have to do is mash the jump button (Cross or A button on the standard control scheme) and then hold a direction while pressing the heavy button.

While mashing buttons is always a bad idea in a game like Ninja Gaiden 4, doing so while you are stuck in a combo allows Yakumo and Ryu to jump at the earliest opportunity, giving you the chance of using Flying Swallow to reposition yourself and escape a combo that could have been lethal.

Mastering Blocking, Dodging and Parrying

Blocking, Dodging, and Parrying are the basic defensive skills in Ninja Gaiden 4 available from the start of the game, which can be further enhanced by purchasing certain skills from Tyran, such as Fatal Flash to unlock a counter after parrying an attack, Mirage for countering after a perfect dodge and Reflect to counter after a perfect block

A. Defensive Basic: Holding Block to Stay Safe

While blocking is often ineffective in other character action games, in Ninja Gaiden 4 it is among your best defensive tools, if not the very best. Once you hold R2 / Right Trigger, Yakumo and Ryu can block several consecutive regular attacks and even a single Power Attacks (the stronger attacks indicated by the red exclamation point).

Comprehensive defense: What makes Blocking so good is the fact that it is an omnidirectional defensive maneuver. No matter where the attack is coming from, Yakumo and Ryu can block attacks. By learning the Art of Defense skills, they can block up to 9 consecutive attacks before their block is broken, turning an excellent defensive option into a godlike ability that will be invaluable at higher difficulty settings.

B. Intermediate Skill: Dodging for Positioning

Dodging attacks in Ninja Gaiden 4 carries risk. Raw dodging from a neutral position is not recommended until you get comfortable with enemy movesets, as the slight recovery delay at the end of the maneuver leaves you vulnerable.

Safe Repositioning is Key: To dodge safely, always perform it out of a Block. Hold the Block button and press any direction on the Left Stick to perform a quick side or back step. By continuing to hold block, Yakumo and Ryu will start blocking again at the earliest opportunity, making the maneuver much safer and making it easier to land Perfect Dodges.

Still, even from a neutral position, perfect dodging can be useful, especially with skills like Mirage, which can unleash counterattacks in base form and Bloodraven Form.

C. Advanced Skill: High-risk, High Reward Parry and Perfect Block

Parry and Perfect Block (unlocked with 9000 NinjaCoins) are the most advanced defensive options in Ninja Gaiden 4, and pulling them off requires perfect timing. The rewards, however, are well worth it, as any attacking regular enemy, and even bosses, will be briefly staggered, giving you the chance to counter with skills like Fatal Flash or Reflect.

Of the two, however, Parry is undoubtedly the better option in most situations. Given the aggressive enemies, you will often land Parries even when you weren’t fully committed to the attempt, offering precious time to counterattack or escape. Perfect Blocking, on the other hand, comes with a stricter activation window, making it a technique that only true masters can use consistently. It can, however, deflect Power Attacks, so the enhanced utility in the hands of expert players offsets its harder execution.

Parry vs. Perfect Block Data

After two playthroughs and achieving several SSS ranks for chapters, I conducted a test to gauge how consistently a moderately-experienced player can pull off parries and perfect blocks against the D.D.O. Soldier: Sword enemy (chosen for its easily readable attacks):

• Parry: Success 6 out of 10 times. (Three missed attempts still resulted in the enemy being interrupted due to the early parry attempt.)
• Perfect Block: Success 4 out of 10 times. (Missed attempts did not result in damage, but the enemy was not interrupted)

Mastering the Combo System

Combo strings in Ninja Gaiden 4 are as straightforward as they can get. By combining light attacks (Square,X) with heavy attacks (Triangle/Y), Yakumo and Ryu will perform a variety of attacks whose properties change between different weapons. If an enemy can be dismembered, the heavy attack will turn into an Obliteration attack that will instantly kill the enemy.

By holding the L2/Left Trigger button, Yakumo will enter Bloodbind mode, giving him access to more powerful weapons but slower weapons as long as the Bloodbind Gauge isn’t empty. Ryu’s Gleam Mode functions similarly, giving him access to powerful quick attacks that can’t be generally interrupted, an unblockable heavy attack launcher, and the ability to use his four Ninpo Spells.

Safety is Key: No matter how devastating a long combo can be, it means nothing if it gets interrupted. Enemies in Ninja Gaiden 4 are aggressive, even at normal difficulty, and any long combo is bound to get interrupted. As such, you will want to:

• Keep your combos short: Two light attacks and a heavy finisher deals great, safe damage to weaker enemies and decent damage to stronger enemies.

• Take your fight to the air: All weapons in the game have easy access to a launching attack that lifts light and medium-sized enemies into the air. Air combos not only are shorter and generally safer, as only a few enemies can attack Yakumo and Ryu out of the air, but they can also be ended with the iconic Izuna Drop (600 NinjaCoins), which also damages and pushes back any enemy located below your characters.

Extend your air combos: As the risk of getting interrupted is way lower, you can safely extend your combos in the air for extra damage. Doing so is extremely simple with Yakumo. Do a three-light attacks combo, switch to a different weapon, and repeat until you have cycled through every available weapon. You can also add your Bloodraven Form weapons into the mix, which is a little overkill for most enemies, but you still want to get used to doing it, as stronger enemies can block your attacks while in the air and break your air combos.

If you don’t want to end an air combo with an Izuna Drop, consider using the charged heavy attack with the Takeminakata Bloodraven Form sword, as it has a really wide range that can easily take down multiple enemies at the same time while in Berserk mode (activated by pressing L3+R3 when the dedicated gauge is full)

Sustained Air Combo Potential

Once you have unlocked a few additional weapons for Yakumo, you can stay in the air for quite a long time by switching between them on the fly. In a test conducted in the Training Mode, I was able to make Yakumo stay in the air for seconds by alternating between 4 light attack combo strings with the Takeminakata Twin Blades, Yatousen Rapier, Magatsuhi Staff, Kage-Hiruko Assassin’s Tool and Dark Dragon Blade, and the Bloodbind Form of each weapon to restore as much gauge as possible to continue the combo and ending with a full light attack combo string of the Dark Dragon Blade Shadow-gleam Mode a total of roughly 16 seconds.

NOTE: Any enemy in the game is long dead way before completing such a long barrage of attacks, so this is an extreme case scenario that is not going to occur in regular gameplay. But still, it shows the potential of the game’s combat and weapon switching mechanics.

Mastering Ultimate Attacks

Ultimate Attacks have always been very strong in the series, and it is no different in Ninja Gaiden 4. Not only do they deal massive amounts of damage, even at Level 1 charge (indicated by the blue aura surrounding Yakumo and Ryu), but they also grant full invincibility for their whole duration, making them a great defensive tool.

A. Offensive Basic: Enhance Ultimate Attacks

At the beginning of the game, Ultimate Attacks are not ease to use, nor very effective. You can only charge up to Level 1 and must stay stationary for 1.5 seconds to fully charge the attack, which is a lot in an action game with very aggressive enemies. As such, you must purchase the additional skills detailed in the table above to enhance Ultimate Attacks to make them truly Ultimate. Ultimate Technique: Final Charge is required to unlock the Level 2 charge, while Ultimate Guidance and Landing Ultimate Guidance make charging much faster under certain conditions

B. Advanced Skill: The Ultimate Attacks Chains (Blood Essence Loop)

After learning the Ultimate Technique, Ultimate Guidance, and Landing Ultimate Technique skills, you can now chain multiple Ultimate Attacks together to defeat many enemies quickly and safely.

The combat loop is also relatively easy to put into action.

1. Launch an enemy in the air and try to defeat them with an Izuna drop. This ensures that any enemy standing below you is pushed back, that the defeated enemy drops Blood Essence, and that you take advantage of Landing Ultimate Guidance to speed up Ultimate Attack charging.

2. Once you absorb the Blood Essence left behind by the enemy, with the correct activation of Landing Ultimate Guidance, you will quickly charge your Ultimate Attack to Level 2, ensuring you can defeat two more enemies and make them drop more Blood Essences.

3. Depending on the situation, you can restart the loop from the first step, or start charging another Ultimate Attack.

NOTE: Getting this loop down takes some time, and may not always be effective depending on the current situation, but in the vast majority of scenarios, this will allow you to dispose of multiple enemies rather quickly, while healing with the Blood Essences you are absorbing to fasten the charge. And in case you need additional healing, you can also use any item while executing the move without interrupting it, maxing out Ultimate Attacks utility.

While many of the strategies outlined above sound easy on paper, it takes some time to put some of their advanced concepts in action. By putting in effort, however, you will be able to rank up from being a novice ninja in Ninja Gaiden 4 to the master ninja the game wants you to be, all the while having more fun in a game that can feel a little overwhelming, at times.

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