Short answer: Ninja Gaiden 4 does not state Ryu Hayabusa’s age on screen. Based on the franchise’s established checkpoints, he lands in the late‑20s range — broadly, the high 20s rather than mid 20s. That tracks with how the character has been framed across the modern Ninja Gaiden trilogy and the Dead or Alive games leading up to NG4’s October 2025 release.

Ryu Hayabusa age by game (timeline)

The series gives a handful of explicit ages and tight ranges across earlier entries. Taken together, they bracket where NG4 sits.

Game Stated/consistent age Notes
Ninja Gaiden (2004) / Black / Sigma 21 Establishes Ryu’s adult starting point in the modern continuity.
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword 22 Handheld side story aligned with NG2 era.
Ninja Gaiden II / Sigma 2 22 Continues immediately after the first game’s timeline.
Dead or Alive 1–4 23 Depicts Ryu a short time after the NG1/NG2 window.
Ninja Gaiden 3 / Razor’s Edge ~25 Presented as mid‑20s; “around 25” is the common framing.
Dead or Alive 5–6 25 Maintains the post‑NG3 age across appearances.
Ninja Gaiden 4 (2025) Not specified Best fit is late 20s based on prior anchors.

With NG3/Razor’s Edge placing him at roughly 25 and Dead or Alive maintaining 25 through DOA6, NG4 falls after those events but not far enough to push him into his 30s in‑universe. A practical reading puts him in the late‑20s bracket.

Why the late‑20s estimate makes sense

  • The modern Ninja Gaiden arc advances in relatively tight time jumps. NG1 (21) to NG2 (22) is near‑immediate, with NG3 framed just a few years later.
  • Dead or Alive crossovers keep him at 23 through DOA4 and 25 from DOA5 onward, signaling a stable age window leading into NG4.
  • NG4 introduces a more seasoned, composed Ryu without recontextualizing him as significantly older, which aligns with a late‑20s portrayal rather than a 30‑plus reset.
Note: Ryu’s birth date is provided without a canonical birth year, so the series treats his age as relative to each entry’s chronology rather than mapping to real‑world time.

Visual portrayal and “he never seems to age”

Ryu is consistently depicted as a mid‑to‑late‑20s adult: athletic build, 179 cm (5'10"), about 78 kg (172 lbs.). He reads the same across most appearances, even as the years stack up across releases. Small presentation details can color that perception — for instance, his eye color shifts across platforms in the 2000s era (a deeper green on Xbox builds versus a brighter, gold‑tinted hue on PlayStation 3 entries), which can subtly change how mature he looks in a given game.

In‑universe, his Dragon Lineage heritage and fiend‑tainted blood underline why he remains in peak condition from game to game, reinforcing the idea that time doesn’t wear him down the way it would a normal human.

What Ninja Gaiden 4 adds (and what it doesn’t)

NG4 arrives years after the last mainline outing but doesn’t assign Ryu a new number. It refreshes the portrayal — including a new English voice performance credited to Mike Stoudt — without resetting the character’s timeline. That leaves age where the previous games already put it: anchored in the late 20s.

If you need a number for your headcanon or a wiki sidebar, late 20s is the defensible call for Ninja Gaiden 4, with 27–29 covering the most plausible span. It fits the franchise’s own checkpoints and the way Hayabusa is drawn, animated, and written in his latest outing.