Hi all, on behalf of The Game Kitchen, we’re thrilled to finally disclose the task we’ve worked on for the past two years, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. A partnership with Dotemu, Koei Tecmo Games, and Team Ninja, into which we’re pouring our hearts and souls.
When Dotemu first approached the theater about the possibility of creating a new chapter in this famous story, the media was met with a lot of excitement. It was a once-in-a-lifetime option that couldn’t be missed.
When developing the idea, we approached the company with a deep gratitude for its importance as a monument in the actions genre during two different eras: the late 1980s and the early 2000s. Both the traditional 2D and current 3D iterations stood out for their excellent quality, offering small game, striking visuals, wonderful music, and captivating storytelling.
Our team, a diverse group of people who grew up with Ninja Gaiden, is one of the series ‘ lasting effects on people and continues to inspire engineers. We want to create two Ragebound team members in this assessment post and discuss how Ninja Gaiden’s tradition has shaped their job from various perspectives.
The Penitent One’s vision came to life in Blasphemous I and II thanks to Ral Vivar, the project’s lead filmmaker. Ral, a child of the 1980s, was raised in the West hero trend and has since become a devoted fan. His first meeting with Ninja Gaiden was in one of the neighborhood galleries, where he was captivated by the intricate design and the extensive range of movements Ryu may execute, giving him a real hero warrior vibe. When our task was announced, Raúl was but moved that he shed tears of joy.
When it came to defining the craft design, Raúl explains that high-quality image skill was the obvious alternative, given the line ‘ roots and The Game Kitchen’s prior knowledge. However, capturing the perfect mood required thoughtful effort. Transitioning from the somber, baroque dark fantasy of Blasphemous to the vibrant, action-packed world of Ninja Gaiden called for a brighter aesthetic. This meant incorporating more vibrant colors and cleaner shapes, which were inspired by the 90s anime’s dynamic feel. The key to the design process involved reimagining the game’s sprites in higher resolution, unrestricted by palette limitations, to achieve the desired look.
Rael had to capture the fluidity and speed of a ninja with a level of detail, smoothness, and pixel art quality unmatched in the series ‘ 2D entries, making the animation of the playable character a challenging task.
Oriol Tartarin, one of the game designers on the project, has been collaborating closely with Raúl to define the player’s actions and bring the characters to life. Ninja Gaiden and Oriol first met on the PS3 after watching his older cousin play. He was enthralled by the feats of skill that his cousin could carry out with the controller, which gave him a strong motivation to get back into the game. The gameplay in this new iteration was based on the unbroken action and fluid combat that forces players to advance with a rhythm that feels like dancing through the stage.
Building on this inspiration, Oriol focused on designing a player experience that captures the classic Ninja Gaiden games ‘ fast-paced, hack-and-slash platforming action, while incorporating modern, sophisticated combat mechanics. The goal was to create a seamless flow where players could chain offensive moves and evasions without interruption, resulting in a dynamic, ninja-like spectacle. Moving effortlessly across the stage, whether on the ground, walls, or in the air was crucial to the design.
This freedom of movement combined with input predictability and immediate response made it possible for the team to create combat scenarios that kept the players moving at all times. The end result is a dynamic design that rewards precision and momentum, creating a constant flow of action.
Both Raul and Oriol both concur that animating the player while maintaining these design pillars has been one of the biggest challenges in development. The challenge was in producing pixel art animations that, on the one hand, accurately depicts the signature moves of a Hayabusa ninja while, on the other hand, reacts immediately to the player’s intentions in every frame.
This required taking into account all potential move cancellations, making sure there were no mistakes made, and making sure there were no mistakes made in every move. Achieving the right game feel has involved a lot of back-and-forth, adjusting animations, timings, and mechanics to strike the perfect balance between satisfying responsiveness and breathtaking spectacle.
It is a beautiful and difficult task to create a new 2D installment in such a renowned saga. However, this journey has been incredibly rewarding because it has such a solid foundation on which to build and a well-established team that has a deep love for the series. We hope that this new chapter’s fans will be as enthralled as we are by seeing Ninja Gaiden’s legacy continue.
In the summer of 2025, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound will be available for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.