Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound review: Great side story that does the franchise justice

I'm excited about many of this year's releases, especially because it's basically a big celebration of Ninja Gaiden. The outstanding action game series achieved perfection in designing insanely demanding, skill-based stages and satisfying battles with extremely difficult opponents decades ago. Ryu Hayabusa's adventures have become legendary in the history of the gaming industry as the pinnacle achievements of the action game genre, offering a fast-paced gameplay experience, incredibly skillful fun with a ruthless level of difficulty, and often outright sadistic brutality, along with an incredibly deep combat system. This year's beautifully refreshed Ninja Gaiden 2 Black perfectly reminded us of that. In October, after many years of absence, the series will finally get a full-fledged continuation with the fourth installment of the cycle. Now, however, it's time for something no less interesting, a return to the roots with the slightly smaller Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, straight from the creators of Blasphemous.

Shortly after starting this new adventure, it's hard to imagine a better team for Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound than The Game Kitchen. The experienced developer knows their craft, and it's clear that they feel perfectly at home in the field of two-dimensional action games.

Make room for new Hayabusa village gen

While playing the campaign, I immediately liked that the devs were fully aware that it's hard to step into the shoes of such a legendary character as Ryu Hayabusa, but they had an interesting idea to simultaneously pay tribute to the ninja and cast new people in the role of playable protagonists. So Ryu essentially appears as an experienced mentor. We, on the other hand, will be playing as Kenji from the Hayabusa clan. He's a powerful and honorable warrior, but still a bit rough around the edges. A sinister kunoichi from the ruthless Black Spider Clan named Kumori will also cross his path, and the destinies of both characters will become tightly intertwined because of the looming threat of a demon invasion. Of course, this affects the gameplay, so as players, we need to use the special abilities of two characters. Most of the challenges in the game are designed around this, both the skill-based platforming and combat.

Here, the mentioned return to the roots is visible. The creators have prepared a set of 18 main missions and 8 special stages, with the option to unlock the hard level difficulty after beating the campaign. I admit, it's often really tough, and sometimes you just have to practice a lot to remember certain things automatically. I was dying often, frequently making stupid mistakes due to haste and lack of patience, but often there was no other way and decisions had to be made in a split second! Of course, compared to NES classics, the entry level is lower, and just completing the campaign, although it might be a bit frustrating, is not among the toughest challenges. The fun begins in the special missions, where you can already break a sweat and have to use every available mechanic.

Adrenaline addicted ninja

Kenji, as a ninja, is agile and makes quick, powerful strikes with his katana. He can also sacrifice some of his life to strengthen his next attack, taking down tougher enemies with a single blow. Kumori, on the other hand, throws kunai and gives us access to ranged attacks using KI energy and a powerful demonic attack.

Add to this the crazy speed of the game and the unyielding forward sprint while doing skillful jumps at the same time. Waves of opponents are attacking almost non-stop, not giving a moment to rest. Enemies are attacking from the top, they are advancing frontally, and you can literally feel the breath of many of them on your neck. I had to be constantly on the move, often dodging, jumping, and attacking before the opponent even had a chance to react after appearing in the arena. Here's another mechanic to keep in mind - some enemies have a red or blue aura, and killing them with the right attack will power up our next sword or kunai strike. This means that sometimes we have to kill targets in a strict order, while avoiding a wave of attacks, to buff the next attack and quickly kill the enemy blocking the path forward.

This translates into a high-octane action game, where you have to constantly keep your finger on the pulse, because adrenaline literally buzzes at every step. This dizzying pace is monstrously addictive and I really liked it. The game performance is great, and in case of failure, it allows you to instantly repeat the troublesome part, which you simply have to learn. I also want to praise the variety of the levels, each offering a different twist, and the campaign regularly throws new types of enemies at us with different behavior patterns, forcing us to adjust our play style and pace.

In general, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound has a modernized gameplay style similar to the original trilogy, with a retro visual vibe and beautifully animated pixel art. I really like the portraits from the cutscenes; they create a cool atmosphere and add something unique to the game.

Express course of ninja school

Beating Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound once isn't the longest, but the game naturally motivates you to squeeze out 100% of the content. Special missions are the most interesting in terms of challenge design. Each level has collectibles that simultaneously serve as currency and internal goals to achieve. So, before I knew it, I had already spent over 10 hours playing the game, and I still have a bunch of things to do - and most importantly, I want to keep doing them, repeating the stages I already know. Time flies incredibly fast during this production and there's no chance of feeling bored.

It's hard for me to point out a major flaw that would genuinely bother me while playing Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. I would only have some concerns about the difficulty balance, especially with the bosses. It's easy to "break" them and make the fights too easy by using charged attacks. I also wouldn't mind a few more attacks, perhaps with some variation of combos, in the style of the 3D series, but that's just my whim, because the strength of this game lies in the easy-to-master combat system, with stages that require constant focus from the player.

I still want more and more

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound can be very exciting and addictive with its fast-paced action and challenging gameplay. I really missed a fun action game with a cool retro pixel-art style like this. This is a really awesome side story from a great series, which really does the franchise justice. I also wouldn't mind if the developers from The Game Kitchen continued their collaboration with Koei Tecmo. As there's a lot of potential for a spin-off series, I'd love to see a refreshed version of the classic Ninja Gaiden trilogy in that format. Maybe someday, but now I'm going back to Ragebound, which was hard to tear myself away from to even write this review, which is probably the best recommendation I can give this game. Damn good title.