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Ryu Hayabusa and Friends From Ninja Gaiden Coming to Warriors Abyss

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On June 25, 2025

When Warriors: Abyss came out back in February it was a fun, robust take on the horde/survivors-style genre featuring characters from the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games, except more of a brawler than auto-battler. Fighting through the mob, learning the combos for whichever one of the dozens of characters you’re using for the current run, getting as far as possible before spending the hard-earned currency on new heroes or upgrades, and then diving into hell to do it again but bigger and flashier this time made for the kind of gameplay loop where one quick run could easily turn into a good half-dozen. Warriors Abyss is the kind of game that looks simple on the surface until you dive into its systems, and while the goal is “big flashy combos!” the number of ways to build up to one gives it a huge amount of replayability.

Everyone Is (Almost) Here

Since release the game has kept on growing, with multiple free updates adding new characters not just from the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games but also from less obvious Koei-Tecmo series like Sophie, Ryza, and Yumia from their respective Atelier titles. With three major updates so far it’s hard to call it a pattern, but seeing as updates one and three were characters from the mainline Warriors series and update two was Atelier, today’s announcement of Update Four bringing in Ninja Gaiden characters seems like it’s setting a trend, at least.

Review: Warriors: Abyss

Each level ups the stakes until the fight is an explosion of attacks, effects, purple danger zones, support heroes and carefully-managed chaos.

The new characters are Ryu Hayabusa, Ayane, and Momiji, all of which have been in Ninja Gaiden at one time or another even if they may have originated elsewhere. In addition to the new characters being added as an update for anyone with the base game, two new cosmetic DLC packages will be made available with different costume styles for each. The standard versions of the characters come in their modern Ninja Gaiden outfits, while the DLC has both a Legacy costume set that dresses them up more in line with the style of the rest of the Warriors Abyss cast, and the Formal costume set makes them look a little less like they stepped out of a game designer’s fetish closet. The big draw for Formal is Ryu’s NES-style blue outfit, and the announcement trailer’s musical tone-change at 0:58 gives some hope that, with a little luck, the tune will be available in-game as well.

The latest Warriors Abyss update releases on July 4, and like the rest of the major updates will most likely bring other changes with it as well. The last update added a new game mode and difficulty level, and while there’s no word on what outside of the new characters the July update brings, being able to slice through hell with the Ninja Gaiden crew seems like plenty of reason to return to the game. It also opens up speculation as to what other Koei-Tecmo characters might show up, turning Warriors Abyss into a Smash Bros-style crossover-fest. Rygar seems like a no-brainer, but personally I’ve got my fingers crossed for Gitaroo Man and Kira tearing through the place while Flyin’ To Your Heart or The Legendary Theme blasts in the background.