The best Open-World games to play as a ninja

Important takeaways

• Open world gameplay offers character exploration beyond world exploration. Stealth playstyles are popular.
• Fire Ring
  emphasizes speed and aggressiveness and offers various ninja-like weapons.
• Kenshi
  provides a post-apocalyptic world with an Eastern influence, allowing for stealth and swordplay.

Open world games are at an incredibly complex point in the gaming industry. On the one hand, continued technical innovations and enduring classics in this genre that Red Dead Redemption 2 or Skyrim has proven that the open-world genre is ripe for maximizing the medium of video games and delivering stunning, expansive titles. Conversely, many sparse, empty or aimless open-world titles have left players tired of the genre.

Open-world games are not only a great genre for world exploration, but character exploration as well. Among the many playstyles players can adopt, a quick, stealthy approach is often popular. These open-world games allow players to live out the ninja playstyle in either historical or fantastical landscapes, and while they may not all explicitly have titular ninja classes, they all share the same affinity for stealth, speed, and East Asian influence.

5 Fire Ring

Lots of awesome ninja weapons to build around

Fire Ring is a game known for its versatility and the options it gives players to build any type of character they want. While stealth isn't as prominent a factor in this game as it is in other open-world titles, Fire Ring keeps with the trend of the newer FromSoftware games to prioritize speed and more aggressive gameplay. In addition to this, there are many faithfully designed katanas as options in this game, along with bows and throwing weapons to maintain the same focus on lethality that one would expect from both a ninja and Fire Rings more overwhelmed builds.

Although there is nothing as obvious as Armor of Shadows in this game, Fire Ring features a wealth of dark, cloaked armor pieces as well as East Asian-inspired gear to help players live out the ninja archetype of their dreams.

Weapon variety and stealth make for a great combination

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind stands today as an icon of both RPGs and open-world games, combining an engaging, engrossing plot with a stunningly unique setting and some fantastic, esoteric lore for the more determined fans to delve into. Beyond these narrative aspects, the game has a lot going for it. offer mechanically, although the major change in style compared to more modern sections i Elder scrolls series may scare off players less experienced with classic RPGs (note that there are some mods that help modernize this game).

Within Morrowind, there is an entire weapon category dedicated to katanas, from the simple but effective steel katana to its Daedric variant to the legendary Daedric artifact Goldbrand. There are also a plethora of throwing weapons in this game that can further enhance the player's lethality, and stealth (alongside illusionary magic like Invisibility or Chameleon) can help players sneak into the shadows with their array of deadly weapons.

3 Kenshi

A gritty post-apocalyptic RPG

Kenshi is a difficult but immensely rewarding game set in a vast, terrifying open world after nuclear fire has reduced civilization to rubble. The game has an Eastern influence that is prevalent in the clothing styles and equipment used by most NPCs and the player. In addition to this, its RPG nature allows players to build their character however they want, with the only real roadblock being survival in a world filled with blood swamps and lifeless deserts. Oh, and it's literally raining fire from above all the time thanks to some pre-war satellites who are willfully ignorant of the end of the war.

The ninja-like combination of stealth and swordplay, especially with tantos or katanas, is more than just optional in kenshi, but is an incredibly useful way to play. Relying on stealth to survive the horrors of the continent, but being able to disarm or dismember with a knife on sight, are two great feats to have in this grim and gruesome post-apocalyptic RPG.

2 Cyberpunk 2077

Night city? Ninja City

Cyberpunk 2077 has resurrected itself from a notoriously slow start into a monolithic video game in the RPG scene, setting a gold standard for urban open-world games and for any game that wants to focus on exploration. It's an often stark world that protagonist V lives in, even with the neon glow that seems to constantly permeate the city in light, and violence is usually both the question and the answer when it comes to many of the missions in this game.

After a couple of updates to fix an initially lackluster skill tree, anyone looking to experience a Night City ninja experience, wielding katanas and throwing knives with a pair of praying mantis blades embedded in their arms, will be more than satisfied. , but also find many times that have a similar idea. Stealth in this game only adds more to the archetypal ninja experience in Cyberpunk 2077, but a more aggressive ninja build is just as viable here.

1 Ghost of Tsushima

A groundbreaking Open World game in the Mongol invasion

Rounding out this list is a game that represents the open world ninja experience. IN Ghost of Tsushimathe archetypal notions of stealth and high-lethal combat combine perfectly to tell a tale of honor and betrayal.

This game is rooted in a rich historical time period, but naturally takes some dramatic liberties, and is overall a great title for anyone looking to experience more Japanese historical fiction or more archetypal ninja gameplay in their video games. Although Jin is a samurai at heart, his embrace of ninja methodology is both a major focus of the story and a gameplay decision players can make at any time.