With all the news from today’s Xbox Developer Direct, from South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and DOOM: The Dark Ages, none came more of a surprise than Ninja Gaiden. After confirming the long-awaited Ninja Gaiden 4, a last-minute reveal of a remaster of the second title, called Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, was announced. Furthermore, it shadow-dropped today, letting everyone get a chance to play it. Unfortunately, there is one major downside that is causing some commotion for those wanting to step back into Ryu Hayabusa’s quick-stepping shoes.
Videos by ComicBook.com
We at ComicBook can confirm that the size for Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, at least on Xbox Series X|S, is a whopping 85.99GBs. This is in comparison to the original title‘s 7GB download size, despite it’s launch back in 2008 for Xbox 360. The size is noticably large for a game like Ninja Gaiden, which usually goes for around 4GBs. Even the Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection, released in 2021 and had three series entries (Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge), only came out to 14GBs.
RELATED: Xbox Developer Direct: Every Trailer and New Game Reveal
In terms of the commotion, many are baffled by the rather-huge size of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Some had some very choice words to say about it, with one user on X (formerly Twitter) saying “Ninja Gaiden II on the X360 is only 7 gigabytes, I don’t know how bad you need to f**k up to make a 17 year old game that high in size but they manage to do it. FYI, Nioh 2 is only 79 gigabytes”. Nioh 2, which is another Team Ninja title, came out in 2020, more than a decade after Ninja Gaiden 2 hit shelves.
Meanwhile, another user on X was quite frustrated with it, stating “WHY THE F**K IS IT 81GBS LMAO THE ORIGINAL GAME IS 4.” Of course, for some, the download may be faster due to better Wi-Fi and speeds, but it’s still pretty big for the title. Compared to other titles like it, it does feel a touch like an outlier, as games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Devil May Cry V, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengance being around 12GB, 35GB, and 8GB, respectively.
It’s important to note that it could be due to the new graphical update with Unreal Engine 5, as well as upgraded textures and such, it’s more GBs than anticipated. Regardless, if Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is that hefty of a download size, we may see an over 100GB file for Ninja Gaiden 4, as it looks to also be in Unreal Engine 5 and be a brand new title. The protagonist of the Ninja Gaiden series, Rya Hayabusa, as well as newcomer Yakumo, are set to lead the next installment of the franchise, which hasn’t had a new entry in 13 years. The Year of the Ninja, as said by the developer, may be starting off to a slow start, depending on your download speed, but it does make way for more to see the bloody splendor of Ninja Gaiden before 4‘s Fall 2025 release.
