{"id":52943,"date":"2025-10-15T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=52943"},"modified":"2025-10-14T23:36:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:36:01","slug":"ninja-gaiden-4s-easy-mode-isnt-about-effortlessly-sweeping-through-the-game-but-learning-directors-on-flexible-difficulty-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ninja-gaiden-4s-easy-mode-isnt-about-effortlessly-sweeping-through-the-game-but-learning-directors-on-flexible-difficulty-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninja Gaiden 4&#8217;s easy mode isn&#8217;t about effortlessly sweeping through the game, but learning. Directors on &#8220;flexible&#8221; difficulty design philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Ninja Gaiden 4,<\/strong> a collaborative effort between Team Ninja and PlatinumGames to revive the famous hack-and-slash series with a new mainline entry, finally releases on October 21. The Ninja Gaiden series is known for its \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pure-action-games-never-get-old-and-ninja-gaiden-4-will-be-the-game-to-prove-that-we-ask-team-ninja-and-platinumgames-about-what-players-should-expect-from-the-new-title\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pure, primitive action<\/a>\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/ninja-gaiden-4-creators-say-fairness-in-dying-is-what-sets-apart-a-challenging-action-game-from-an-unreasonable-one\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">high difficulty level<\/a>, but as Ninja Gaiden 4 marks the series\u2019 return after a 13-year-long hiatus, the developers also had to consider how the title will resonate with complete newcomers to the series. AUTOMATON recently talked to game directors Masakazu Hirayama and Yuji Nakao about how they handled difficulty settings for the new game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NINJA GAIDEN 4 - Difficulty Design | Tokyo Game Show 2025\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v6lZy_lQQH0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSince this will be the first title in our action game series in over 10 years, we want everyone \u2013 people who are new to the series, people who are new to action games, but also experienced action game players \u2013 to pick it up. That\u2019s why we introduced more flexible difficulty design to the game,\u201d Hirayama comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of these difficulty settings is the \u201cHero Mode,\u201d which, rather than simply lowering the difficulty of the game, gives you an \u201cassisted\u201d gameplay experience, with toggleable options like auto-guard and auto-dodge. As Hirayama explains, the mode was implemented as a way to allow players to gradually hone their skills. This means that, for example, if you want to practice your guarding, you can turn auto-dodge off but leave all the other assistance settings on, taking a step-by-step approach until you master specific mechanics. \u201cBut ultimately, we would be most happy if players experienced the signature feel of the Ninja Gaiden series through advancing their own skills and partaking in battles that are challenging but match the rhythm of their improvement,\u201d Hirayama remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251014-529430001.jpg\" alt=\"Ninja Gaiden 4 Ryu vs Yakumo\" class=\"wp-image-52944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251014-529430001.jpg 960w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251014-529430001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251014-529430001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The game also offers \u201cEasy,\u201d \u201cNormal\u201d and \u201cHard\u201d difficulties that the player can freely choose among, and you don\u2019t have to stick out to just one of them throughout your playthrough. Ninja Gaiden 4 lets you switch the difficulty before each of the chapters, so if you felt like you\u2019ve improved, you could nudge up the difficulty for the following chapter, or tone it down in case you felt like the previous chapter was too hard. As always, after clearing the game, you can play NG+ in the infamous \u201cMaster Ninja\u201d mode. However, as it marks your second lap through the game and assumes that you\u2019ve already gained enough experience to give it a go, this mode is the most challenging, and won\u2019t allow you to customize the difficulty in any way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Nakao comments, \u201cIt\u2019s not like there\u2019s just an easy mode which lets you effortlessly sweep through the game \u2013 we tuned it so that everyone gets to experience the signature raw combat of Ninja Gaiden.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ninja Gaiden 4 launches on October 21 for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2627260\/NINJA_GAIDEN_4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We ask Ninja Gaiden 4 devs Masakazu Hirayama and Yuji Nakao about how they handled the different difficulty settings in the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-52943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ninja Gaiden 4&#039;s easy mode isn&#039;t about effortlessly sweeping through the game, but learning. 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