Ninja Gaiden is coming back in a major way with several different titles releasing this year, but only one spinoff is going to be a direct sequel to the original trilogy that came out around the 90s.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound takes place around the same time as the story of the original Ninja Gaiden games, and publisher Dotemu and developer The Game Kitchen are gearing up for its release this summer.
A Parallel Ninja Adventure
The story for Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound focuses on a protégé of the Hayabusa Clan, Kenji Mozu, who had trained under the protagonist of the original games, Ryu Hayabusa. Ragebound starts around the time that Ryu leaves to avenge his father, so you could say that it’s a sequel that kind of runs parallel to the original games.
Fans got a look at gameplay for Kenji a few months back with the official announcement, but he’s only one of two main characters. Here’s a look at Kumori—a member of the Black Spider Clan who fills Ninja Gaiden’s quota for a sexy ninja lady. Check this out:
What’s interesting about Kumori is that she’s kind of a demon, and using her allows players to traverse through the ‘demon realm’ where there are more secrets to uncover—not unlike the Upside Down from Stranger Things.
click to enlargeThe Evolution of the Ninja Gaiden Franchise
Though there are some incoming Ninja Gaiden games that follow the progression of its 3D format, Ragebound embraces the original 2D but ups the pixelated art to modern standards, much like the rest of Dotemu’s retro games like TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge.
With the original Ninja Gaiden games known for being notoriously hard though, fans of the series should expect Ragebound to feature all that complicated 2D-platforming that the Blasphemous series was known for.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is set to release this Summer 2025 for all major platforms including PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 4|5.
For more articles like this, take a look at our news and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound page.