If you're a gamer who also loves ninja-themed stuff, 2025 might've been the best year ever.

It seems everyone and their dog were releasing ninja and samurai games this year, as if they'd discussed it beforehand. 

Including a remaster and a new platform for an older game, we count eight ninja and samurai games released this year alone, and nine if you're willing to include a Ninja Turtles tactics game. 

Let's talk about the plethora of katana-centric games that hit PC and consoles this year.

Assassin's Creed Shadows

(Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox)

Assassin's Creed Shadows finally delivers on the request gamers have been shouting from the rooftops ever since the series launched in 2007—a ninja-themed game.

This is the most controversial game on the list, for a lot of reasons drummed up by ragebait YouTubers, along with a few valid ones. 

Shadows presents one of the most stunningly rendered depictions of Japan in the Warring States period, offering a landscape that features large cities, tall mountains, and a stretching coastline without feeling like a theme park. 

The game smartly separates AC's two mechanical paths into two characters—Naoe the Ninja and Yasuke the Samurai. With some exceptions during the story, you can play the vast majority of the game with whichever character you please, allowing you to tackle the game as a shadowy shinobi or a tank of a samurai.

It has the problems typical of an Assassin's Creed game: the map feels both too big and too crowded. It feels silly to knife a guy in the back of the neck only for him to live through it barely touched—though we recommend turning on one-hit assassinations for a true assassin experience. 

If you don't like Ubisoft games in general, Shadows won't change your mind, and you'll want to avoid this one. If you want to hop on horseback and tour one of the most beautiful games since Red Dead Redemption 2, while shedding plenty of blood, this is the game for you.

Ghost of Yotei

(Available on: PS5)

The follow-up to 2020's Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei, is set in an entirely different part of Japan and takes place 300 years later, at the end of the Warring States/Sengoku period. 

You'll play as Atsu, who is on a quest for revenge against a group of masked nobles who killed her family. It's weirdly similar to Assassin's Creed Shadows, but don't let that stop you from playing both of them.

It just so happens that getting revenge against "a bunch of guys" is a solid formula for an open-world game. Atsu isn't like Jin—she isn't tied by honor to a single way of approaching revenge, so much as she is a kenshi, or sword master. 

There are no "honorable ways" for her to abandon. You can go stealth, you can play dirty, whatever gets the job done. In place of stances, you'll have four different weapons at hand (such as a spear or kusarigama), with each meant to counter specific enemies.