After Ninjala's continued success as a PvP title since its launch in 2020, developer GungHo Online Entertainment has decided it’s time for a major change. Thanks to huge demand for co-op play from the community, the game's director Motoki Kaneda led the team behind Ninjala 2: The Uncharted Planet, an upcoming open-world action RPG.

I recently went hands-on with Ninjala 2 before speaking with Kaneda and game designer Kazuki Morishita about the challenges of switching genres and their live-service philosophy for the upcoming title.

A New PvE Perspective

As a relative newcomer, I didn't know what to expect from Ninjala 2 or its signature Ninja-Gum action combat. So, when the tutorial finished teaching me the basics of movement, I thought I had a handle on all possibilities. But as I jumped into the open world, I quickly realized I had a long way to go. As I stumbled across the vast terrain chaining dashes and jumps together, Kazuki Morishita opened my eyes to the grind rails scattered around the environment, serving as accelerants to your adventuring.

Continuing up these grind rails also opens up a dimension of verticality to exploration, which led perfectly into Morishita's next reveal: the existence of a glider. This combines smoothly with the grappling hook points, which further ramp up the pace of your movement. While the switch from PvP to PvE was bound to be stark, GungHo didn't want to lose the fast-paced nature of the first game. So how did the team strike a balance between the ethos of the original while diving head-first into Ninjala 2's new take on things? By listening to the community.

"We thought that PVE would be the best way to dig deeper and go further [with] this IP. In addition to that, we have many players from the original title who love the PVP aspects, and we absolutely respect that and love that," Kaneda tells me. "And that being said, there also are a lot of fans who have said they want to play a co-op with friends, or they really enjoy the story mode and want more of that solo play time. So we really wanted to respect those requests as well."

Thus, Ninjala 2's unique brew of ingredients brings us the excitement of a large world with the pacing of an intense PvP shooter. While it took me a minute to adjust to the game's pace and control scheme, this should feel like a homecoming if you're familiar with the first entry.

But even if you've never heard of Ninjala until now, it was easy to jump into thanks to the lighthearted soundtrack. I couldn't help but bounce along to the beat, and that's really a large part of the appeal of Ninjala 2 – it's just a good time. "There's this fun worldview; the whole vibe of the game is quite fun. So we really wanted to expand upon all those aspects and go deeper," Kaneda explains.

Naturally, you might be wondering how they plan on expanding things from here, when the switch from PvP to PvE already represents such a fundamental shift. And so far, GungHo is prioritizing the philosophy that brought us Ninjala 2: listening and reacting to player feedback.

Expanding An Already Wide World

Ninjala benefits from plenty of source material aside from the original game, including an extensive manga run and anime series. However, despite the wealth of different mediums to pull from, Ninjala 2 isn’t relying on the success of the past, as the team is focused on building a successful future for the IP.

GungHo seems intent on learning from the trend of prioritizing player feedback in development. "We want to listen to this feedback we get from everybody and continue to make the game better and better by incorporating all these different voices and feedback," Morishita tells me.

However, that doesn't mean that the players are necessarily driving the ship, as the team is approaching updates diligently, with faith placed in both the developers and players. "Of course, the current game, I think, is quite great in its own right and its own state," Morishita says. "But that being said, we just want to keep incorporating more feedback and just make it better and better for many years to come."

And so far, the results are impressive, as the game's cute characters and art style have a cozy vibe that makes it easy to get lost in the world. The only weak link thus far was the story, though it wasn't a major part of the demo build, so it's hard to say how important it will be just yet.

Whether you're a fan of the original game or you're a complete newcomer like me, Ninjala 2: The Uncharted Planet has some of the best style for you to enjoy. The combat system and world both get better the longer you play, which is always a positive sign. I can't wait to get a full experience with the game when it releases exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 in Spring 2027.