Ninja Gaiden 4, the long-awaited fourth mainline entry in the iconic action franchise, graces the next cover of Game Informer, and we could not be more excited to feature both the new protagonist, Yakumo, and his counterpart, the series' longtime hero, Ryu Hayabusa, on the full spread of our cover art. The digital issue goes live today at GameInformer.com/NinjaGaiden4, with print subscriptions rolling out in a few weeks. If you haven't subscribed yet, there's still time to get the Ninja Gaiden 4 issue shipped to your mailbox. 

The Ninja Gaiden franchise has been dormant for more than a decade, but 2025 has been a big comeback year for the series. Koei Tecmo kicked off the year with an Unreal Engine 5 remaster of the beloved Ninja Gaiden 2, followed by Dotemu and The Game Kitchen's incredible retro-facing Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. However, the franchise's 2025 is far from over, as the first mainline entry in more than 13 years is set to hit this October. Just like Ninja Gaiden 4 delivers action starring two ninjas, it also unites two fabled game studios: series developer Team Ninja and the acclaimed action team at PlatinumGames. 

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We flew to Tokyo, Japan, to spend a day in PlatinumGames' headquarters, talking to various members of the team from both studios and playing through the first several chapters of the story. Our cover story explores how Team Ninja united with the studio behind such beloved titles as Nier: Automata, Astral Chain, and the Bayonetta series, plus a deep dive into what to expect when the game launches in October.

The Ninja Gaiden 4 cover story is the centerpiece, but our next issue is so much more than that article. If you're new to Ninja Gaiden, our editor-in-chief Matt Miller runs down the history and importance of the franchise. Wesley LeBlanc spent a week in Beijing and Shanghai, China, to go in-depth with the promising action title Phantom Blade Zero. Marcus Stewart caught up with the indie masters at Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games to dig into what makes Mina the Hollower such an exciting prospect. Charles Harte spoke with the team behind Dispatch about rising from the ruins of Telltale Games to create a humorous superhero game. We also have a conversation with prolific voice actor and Critical Role dungeon master extraordinaire Matt Mercer, as well as a piece from award-winning comedy writer Mike Drucker about the legacy of King's Quest and its creator Roberta Williams. 

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We've rounded out this issue with a diverse selection of previews and reviews. Within the pages of this issue, we have previews for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Skate, Ghost of Yōtei, Battlefield 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and more. You'll also find reviews for games like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, Madden NFL 26, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Donkey Kong Bananza, and more. 

If you're not subscribed yet, this is an excellent issue to sign up for, and if you do it today, you'll be just in time to get a physical copy of this issue in your mailbox. Print copies will ship out in the coming weeks, but all subscribers can log in to our website and access the content the same way you're accessing this article starting today.

The announcement of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release date has created a ripple effect in the indie game community. With the game launching on such short notice – next week, on September 4 – several indie titles that were slated to release on or near that date are collectively jumping out of its blast radius to avoid being overshadowed. Devolver Digital’s Baby Steps joins this list.

The upcoming physics-based walking adventure by the creators of Ape Out and Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy was set to launch on September. 8. Although it wouldn’t have arrived until one week after Silksong, publisher Devolver Digital isn’t taking chances and has delayed Baby Steps to September 23. The game, first announced in 2023, follows an "unemployed loser" named Nate who takes his literal first steps into a fantastical world. Players must master the physics-based walking to awkwardly/humorously traverse environments.

“Nate, the wary, onesie-donned failson at the heart of the eccentric adventure in literal walking simulator Baby Steps, has stumbled after attempting to ascend his greatest challenge yet: launching the week after Hollow Knight: Silksong's surprise release date,” reads Devolver’s press release.

A cute trailer announcing the new release date shows Nate awkwardly climbing atop a giant model of Hornet, the protagonist of Silksong. When Baby Steps launches, it will be available on PlayStation 5 and PC.

Baby Steps isn't alone. Yesterday, publisher Ysbryd Games delayed its tactical RPG Demonschool from September 3 to November 19. The Early Access cozy sim title Little Witch in the Woods, which pushed its long-awaited 1.0 launch from September 4 to September 15.

Indie Metroidvania Aeterna Lucas was also planned to release this month, and is now delayed all the way into next year. Retro RPG Faeland was set to launch out of Early Access on September 9, but this has been postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date. CloverPit, a roguelite slot machine game, had its launch moved to September 26 from its original September 3 date. All of these delay announcements specifically cite Hollow Knight: Silksong as the primary culprit. 

This phenomenon will likely continue, as there are still plenty of smaller titles launching well within Silksong's blast radius. Titles like Jetrunner, Atari's Adventure of Samsara, Deep Silver's Metal Eden, and Bandai Namco's Hirogami are just a few titles arriving right alongside Team Cherry's hotly anticipated sequel. It wouldn't surprise me if these developers are having difficult conversations about whether it's wise, or even financially feasible, to delay their titles or to weather the storm and hope for the best. 

During Gamescom 2025 last week in Cologne, Germany, I went hands-on with No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture's upcoming action game, Romeo Is A Dead Man, and came away with more questions than answers (but in the best way possible). Fortunately, I immediately transitioned from my hands-on preview to a couch, where I sat across from the game's director, Goichi Suda AKA Suda51, and his interpreter, and asked him the new questions I had. 

But first, let me set the scene of my demo: before gameplay began, I watched a quick intro you've likely seen in the game's reveal trailer that shows Romeo die, then be resurrected and turned into a space cop/FBI agent/expert mercenary/cyborg hybrid. From here, I was brought to a screen with three impeccably designed chocolates. I forgot the name of the first chocolate (and unfortunately didn't write it down), but it represented the game's easy mode; the orange chocolate I chose represented normal, and the ginger-infused chocolate was the game's hard mode. I was then thrust right into the action. 

I'm not quite sure where I was, but it was reminiscent of a junk yard; gray, foggy, and swarmed with zombies and other monstrous creatures Romeo needed to kill. Doing so was a blast, thanks to a combat system that feels fast, fluid, and visceral, with a large selection of weaponry to use. I used a machine gun, a pistol, a grasshopper-shaped rocket launcher, and a fusion rifle, of sorts, as well as a katana-like sword, a colossal two-handed sword, and more. All of them are easily accessible with a combo of buttons tied to the d-pad. I like that each gun has a different feel, and that each melee weapon features its own moveset, all in the name of dismembering and beheading hordes of zombies and everything else that stands in the way of Romeo. 

Romeo Is A Dead Man was, by far, the bloodiest demo I saw during Gamescom, and I previewed more than two dozen games, including Resident Evil Requiem. Despite the gallons and gallons of blood, though, it comes off comedically rather than horrifically, thanks to the game's visual flair. 

After I mowed down enough enemies in this junkyard-like area, I warped into cyberspace, another visually distinct part of the game with its own narrative ties. There was a boss at the end of this area, but I wasn't able to reach it as my time to interview Suda51 had arrived. Before diving into what I learned from my interview, I'll close out my preview thoughts here by saying I continue to grow increasingly intrigued by what the hell Romeo Is A Dead Man is doing each time I see and play it. It's hard to explain what this game is, but that's part of its charm, and I can't wait to find out how all its seemingly disparate pieces connect when it launches next year. 

Discussing Romeo Is A Dead Man And Grasshopper Manufacture With Suda51

Game Informer's Wesley LeBlanc: There is a lot going on in Romeo Is A Dead Man, but from a broad approach, what are the inspirations behind the game? 

Suda51: You may have noticed playing a bit of the game, but a few of the main influences and inspirations for the game are Back to the Future and Rick and Morty, which itself was inspired by Back to the Future. We wanted to do something with space time and time travel, and the whole thing started off with looking to those two properties. 

There are so many distinct art styles in Romeo Is A Dead Man. What are some of the inspirations behind that? 

As far as the art and visual style go, that aspect of the game didn't have much to do with the [Back to the Future and Rick and Morty] influences. Where that came from was basically, I wanted to make sure all the staff members working on the game were able to do their best and what they're best at.

For the art, if we have one staff member good at Western-style comic book art, I'd say, "I want you to draw this scene, it'd look really great with your style." Somebody else is really good at a different style, and I would think of a scene for that person in particular to work on. It was about finding a proper rhythm for each scene, matching the content of the scene and what the characters are doing, and how it could be portrayed best. 

I try to match up all the members of the staff to a scene, let them do the best at what they do, and jamming it all together. 

That's a very different director approach from what I hear about studios in the West. What's your philosophy behind that directorial style and letting people do things in their own vision?

It's pretty simple, really. As far as my philosophy goes, I want it to be fun. We want to make fun games that people like playing, and we want everything about game development to be fun, too. In game development, there's a lot of heavy s*** to deal with, hard times to deal with, so I wanted not just playing the game to be fun, but the development and creation of it to be as fun as possible, too. 

I lay out my ideas in meetings, and we might have some planning, but I let people from any department talk, tweak versions of ideas, and create a collaborative process. Anyone can cross out ideas, combine something to make new ideas, or take separate ideas and turn them into different things. We try to make it as fun as possible, and I want everyone to have as much fun as they can creating the game. We want them to know their opinions are heard and respected. 

Romeo Is A Dead Man director Suda51 and editor Wesley LeBlanc at Gamescom 2025

How do you factor in game balance with that approach? 

A lot of game developers don't like thinking like this, because it might "ruin the balance of the game" if there are too many ideas. I don't care about that personally; I want the game to be fun and interesting. As far as balance goes, I'll take care of that in the end. If you have a good idea, let everybody know, and in the end, I'll make sure everything is as balanced as possible. 

I think the team we've put together, they trust me to take care of that balance, which is why they feel free to put out different ideas they have. They can trust in me. Balance is probably one of the things I'm best at as a game developer – taking all these ideas that might not seem related, and balancing them.

Can you talk to me about the process behind the game's combat design? 

As far as the combat goes, that was actually mainly up to one of our lead programmers, Toru Hironaka, who has been at Grasshopper for years. I kind of left the combat and general action up to him because I know he knows what he's doing. 

From the beginning, I knew there were going to be gun-type weapons and sword-type weapons, and I wanted to make both appealing. I knew we had to make them fun to use and as interesting as any other weapon, so I talked with Hironaka and said, 'These are the systems and action I want, do what you do best." I had other staff members give input, too. 

As far as the action stuff goes, it's mainly Hironaka leading, but as a whole, [Romeo Is A Dead Man] came together the way it did through the power of teamwork. It's never just one guy doing everything by himself. 

The time between your last release and Romeo Is A Dead Man [due out in 2026] is the longest in development history at Grasshopper Manufacture. Why? 

The main reason it took so long is timing, basically. For example, right around when we started on Romeo Is A Dead Man, it was right about the time we left GungHo Entertainment and joined NetEase, and we increased staff members, and it took them time to get used to how we do things and vice versa. Also, up through No More Heroes III, we worked on Unreal Engine 4, but Romeo Is A Dead Man is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, so our first year developing [Romeo Is A Dead Man], it was people learning Unreal Engine 5, learning how to work with each other, learning how the company works, and everyone getting used to each other and everything. 

That's the biggest reason it took so long. It's not necessarily that the game is huge, and it wasn't the worst possible timing; everything just happened at the point in time that would result in us taking the most time to get the game done. 

Romeo Is A Dead Man launches sometime next year on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

October 31st, 1963. The date of the most horrific night in Haddonfield, Illinois, history. The day Michael Myers escaped the asylum and became infamous with the holiday that is Halloween. I'll never forget the first time I watched John Carpenter's masterpiece 1978 horror film, Halloween, at far too young an age. The result? At 30 years old, Michael Myers is still the most terrifying silver-screen slasher to me – watching one of his countless appearances in media still invites nightmares of that white mask, Michael's uncanny ability to be anywhere and everywhere at once, and his endless desire to kill. 

It's for this reason that Halloween is my all-time favorite horror movie. It's also a franchise I've been waiting forever for Illfonic, developer of Friday the 13th, Predator: Hunting Grounds, and Killer Klowns From Outer Space, to tackle it in its typical asymmetrical multiplayer style. I was thrilled to learn that the time has come, with IllFonic revealing Halloween last week, and even more excited to interview the studio's chief creative officer, Jared Gerritzen, about the game. 

Everything We Learned About IllFonic's Halloween

Gerritzen first shows me the Halloween reveal trailer, which offers a nice cinematic appetizer of what's to come in the game when it launches sometime next year, before proclaiming Halloween is IllFonic's biggest game yet. That's not surprising, considering it features 1v4 asymmetrical multiplayer – typical for the developer – but also, a single-player campaign that puts you in the boots of Michael on the night of Halloween in 1963. That's a huge addition to this multiplayer title, and something I'm eager to ask Gerritzen at the top of my interview. 

Single-Player Campaign

He says IllFonic is aware that when it and other teams announce games based on popular horror IPs like Halloween, fans get bummed when they learn it's an asymmetrical multiplayer game, and wanted to include a single-player campaign for them. But that's not the only reason. Gerritzen tells me the single-player campaign is designed to be played first as it teaches you how to be the best Michael Myers in the game's multiplayer mode. 

You'll play through the events of the first Halloween film, and a little after to learn more never-before-seen story about that night, and acquire different abilities and perform different kills on the citizens of Haddonfield in this campaign. "It trains you to be an optimal Michael Myers for multiplayer," Gerritzen says. The team is working with Carpenter and longtime franchise producer Malek Akkad – he's been it's producer since 1985, taking over the reins from his father, who was the Halloween producer prior to that – to create this game, including the single-player campaign; so you can expect it to feel authentic to the original films. It will even emulate the 1970s movie vibe of the original film, with Gerritzen calling it a "period piece" game. 

This means the visual style, the dialogue, and even the technology available to you in-game will match the time period. This applies to single-player and multiplayer content in the game, with Gerritzen explaining to me IllFonic has taken great strides to "revolutionize" this genre this time around. "We're filling out the world with NPCs and AI, and heroes can save the town now instead of the standard do XYZ and escape alone, but you can play how you want," he says. "If you're saving town people, you're slowing Michael down from killing people. On the other hand, if you're playing as Michael, you have more things to do that might be easier than killing a hero, so the power balance is a lot more interesting and different than the same old, same old of the genre."

Halloween will utilize the canon of the franchise heavily, but IllFonic has been given the green light to add things it needs to make it fun. For example, in the movies, Michael has the uncanny ability to appear anywhere and is seemingly inhuman in the amount of damage he can take. His gameplay abilities will reflect that. 

He is not a man anymore after all, as Dr. Samuel Loomis declares in the reveal trailer; he is The Shape. Speaking of Loomis, IllFonic is working with the family of Loomis actor Donald Pleasence to use his likeness, as Loomis is the narrator of the game's campaign. Karma: The Dark World developer Pollard Studio is helping IllFonic develop the campaign, something Gerritzen says has "supercharged" the Unreal Engine 5-developed project. 

Gerritzen says Jason (of Friday the 13th fame) is a "bull in a China shop," that the Predator is a "big cat, powerful and noisy," and that Michael is a "coiled-up cobra that happens to be in any bush you walk by." That will be reflected in his gameplay prowess, though IllFonic isn't ready to dive into specifics yet. 

IllFonic is still supporting its older titles – it released new Predator: Hunting Grounds content in recent weeks – but Gerritzen says this is the first time the entire team will be focused on one project in Halloween. Partly, that's because Unreal Engine 5 allows the team to try new techniques it struggled with in the past,  such as dynamic lighting and other technological feats.

Why Now?

After the release of Friday the 13th in 2017, IllFonic made a massive list of the IP it wanted to play around in, because "you can't just grab an IP and say, 'Okay, we're starting on it,'" Gerritzen tells me. As you might expect, copyright and other rights issues make developing in an IP like Predator or Halloween tough. Gerritzen says IllFonic developed Friday the 13th, then Predator: Hunting Grounds, then had "a couple of projects canceled," and while working on Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, the Killer Klowns from Outer Space IP landed in its lap. During that game's development, Halloween arrived at its doors, and "that's when we started going, 'Let's work on the next project and focus the entire company on it.'" Despite this studio-wide focus on Halloween's development, Gerritzen says it's important that IllFonic not abandon its prior projects, which he says it hasn't. 

"We fully believe in making a game, supporting the game, and, even when going to another game, still keeping past ones going and fostered," he adds. 

As for developing a game around Michael Myers, Gerritzen says there hasn't been much representation for him in games. I joke about owning the Michael skin in Call of Duty. "Yeah, and that's exactly what you want for Michael, right?" Gerritzen jokes back. "No, Michael is this unknown monster, The Shape, that thing in the corner of your eye, the thing you're afraid to look out and see at night, and everyone has a different experience with him. He is the boogeyman, and that's why we're really all in on this game." 

Design

"Fun" sits at the top of IllFonic's multiplayer priorities in Halloween, but a close second is "breaking the stigma," Gerritzen says. "We have to use this world to make it bigger. What would happen if you zoomed the camera all the way out and saw Haddonfield beyond how it was needed for a scene in the movie." IllFonic is focused on thoughtfully adding to Haddonfield; it's doing the same for Michael's set of moves.

Since this game is based on the events of the first film, it places you in the same mindset as Haddonfield citizens (and movie watchers) in that a lot about Michael Myers is obscured in mystery. "We're kind of expanding on that," Gerritzen adds. "Is he looking for [Laurie Strode] or just coming back home to write a wrong or get revenge or something else? You don't know what it is; all you know is he is Michael Myers and he killed his sister. Loomis has gone crazy in the film because he's so obsessed with this thing he cannot understand, and in our game, you will be playing the thing he and you cannot understand. I think that's definitely an interesting angle." 

For creating Michael's moveset, Gerritzen says the team watched Halloween over and over again, "paid attention to the things he does in film, just kind of took that and determined what it means and what if you can XYZ. We essentially connected these things and presented it to the IP team, and said, 'Hey, this is what we feel like we can do.'" Though he's cagey about what exactly, Gerritzen says the team "cracked a mechanic I've never seen in any other game," and that players will have to experience this "holy s***" moment for themselves when Halloween launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC next year. 

Are you excited for IllFonic's Halloween? Let us know in the comments below!

After years of anticipation, Team Cherry announced last week that Hollow Knight: Silksong will finally be released on September 4. This took many fans and, evidently, other studios by surprise, namely Ysbryd Games. In response to Team Cherry's announcement, the indie publisher has delayed the upcoming tactical RPG Demonschool, which was planned to launch one day before Silksong.

In a press release, Ysbryd announces it has pushed Demonschool’s planned September 3 launch to a new release date of November 19. With Silksong arriving next week on the 4th, Ysbyrd read the tea leaves, realizing that releasing a game so close to the most anticipated indie game in recent memory is a bad idea.

“We have to remind ourselves that gaining visibility for Demonschool is our main goal," says Ysbryd's Brian Kwek in a statement. "Thus, the Ysbryd team strongly believes we would not be doing our game any favors by wading into waters we can clearly see are blood red. If the September period is going to be Silksong's moment, then we need to be elsewhere on the calendar to give Demonschool its own moment to be seen and talked about meaningfully.”

Ysbyrd states that developer Necrosoft Games will spend the extra two months enhancing and polishing Demonschool. One positive of the delay, according to Ysbyrd, is that the added time allows Necrosoft time to add additional endings and minigames that were originally going to be included in a post-launch patch.

Similar to Silksong, Demonschool has been in development for some time as well, suffering several delays before this one. It centers on teenage students battling demons in turn-based tactical combat similar to titles such as Into the Breach. We were impressed with the demo we played at Summer Game Fest,  and are optimistic about the full release. 

Demonschool launches on November 19 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC for $24.99.