I chose Ninja Gaiden 4 as my GOTY last year. While there were arguably better games that released in 2025, I didn’t play a lot of them, so compared to the limited games I did play, Ninja Gaiden 4 stood tallest. I wouldn’t call it one of the best games I’ve ever played, but it was certainly a great action-packed hack n’ slash that does justice to the older games in the series and makes me wish there were more games like it out there, as opposed to the oversaturation of Souls-likes and multiplayer shooters we’ve been getting in recent years. Now, Team Ninja and PlatinumGames have thrown a bit more content to us fans of NG4 with The Two Masters DLC. I’ll be blunt here: As far as DLC goes, The Two Masters is nothing exceptional. It’s brief (if you’re only counting the main campaign) and doesn’t add anything new to the proceedings except two new weapons and a handful of new enemies to fight. But does it also provide more of what fans of the series want, namely more fast-paced action and kickass gameplay? Yeah, it does.
Picking up some days after the events of the main Ninja Gaiden 4 game where (spoilers, I guess) the Dark Dragon has finally been slain for good, and Tokyo is free of its evil influence, The Two Masters begins with a new Greater Fiend summoning an endless army of fiends to Tokyo in an effort to take it over for herself. The only ones who can stop her are the famed Dragon Ninja, Ryu Hayabusa, and the young prodigy of the Raven Clan who slew the Dark Dragon, Yakumo. This time, their goals are the same, and while initially separate, they eventually meet and join forces (sort of) to stop this new threat.
Like the main game, the story for this DLC is as straightforward as it gets. In fact, while the main game had at least one or two little twists in the narrative, the story here is completely devoid of any kind of drama or big reveals. But fine, this is Ninja Gaiden, the story not being of the highest caliber is to be expected. As usual, the combat is what makes this DLC worth playing. Yakumo’s arsenal of weapons from the main game (and all skills and combos you acquired for them) are included in this DLC. His new weapon is a double-bladed sickle that allows him to attack enemies up close and is better against single targets, but using his always handy Bloodbind Ninjutsu turns the weapon into a large double-bladed scythe that allows Yakumo to attack enemies up close and at range by throwing it, and it works well against multiple enemies or single powerful enemies (like bosses).
Ryu, along with his Dragon Sword and different Ninpo abilities, also has a new weapon in the form of these bladed gauntlets that let him unleash his inner Scorpion and launch extendable chain blades into distant enemies to either pull them to him (“Get over here!”) or launch himself to the enemies and dismember them with some impressively fast-paced stabbings and slashings. Many of the daemon and fiend enemies from the first game return here in large groups to try to overwhelm our two ninja heroes, and a couple new-ish enemies from the older games make their return, along with a final boss fight that proved even more challenging than any other boss in the main game.
Still…this DLC is short. Very short. Only three chapters compared to the main game’s nineteen chapters. The traversal challenges in the main game (the rail-grinding, gliding, and surfing bits) are nowhere to be seen in this DLC, except for a few areas where we make use of the grappling hook to get around. And there are basically no extra side paths to take that lead to rewards and items. Even with the final boss giving me a bit of a beating, I got through the campaign in about three hours. There is the Abyssal Road challenge that unlocks after beating the main campaign where you fight up to 100 rounds of increasingly difficult waves of enemies, but…yeah, I’m not ready for that level of punishment, though I’m certain that other portion of the Ninja Gaiden fan base, specifically those masochist “Master Ninja” players, will no doubt have a lot of fun with that game mode.
I personally would have preferred if The Two Masters DLC had a slightly more meaty campaign, like six chapters, which would have given us more opportunity to play as both Yakumo and Ryu (Ryu is only playable in the second mission). Again, other players will certainly be fine just replaying missions as whichever ninja they want after beating the campaign, but those who do single playthroughs and don’t immediately revisit games will find this DLC to be a little too short. But they should still get some fun out of this one. Just don’t expect anything game-changing.
Developer: Team Ninja, PlatinumGames
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Release Date: 4th March 2026
