It's been a month since I beat Rise of the Ronin. I really wanted to like this game more but unfortunately after the first 10 hours of gameplay, it simply fell off. At first I was loving the combat, the open world aspects, Sakamoto Ryoma and the fact that it is set during the Bakumatsu but at some point I found myself running through the main story just to beat it.

I was very excited for the combat since you'd only fight Humanoid enemies, which are typically the best encounters in FromSoftware titles and Soulslikes in my opinion. There's a decent amount of variety with the weapons and each weapon-type has access to 3 slots of "stances" that you can customize, and will act as a rock-paper-scissor system against enemies. Meaning you get different playstyles and they'll either be effective or not effective depending on who you fight. Counterspark/Parrying is an alright mechanic but it isn't as clean as Sekiro, Stellar Blade or even Lies of P, it's kind of weird how it can also serve as an attack except it's just bad when it is used like that.

When you're only fighting Humanoid enemies and bosses, if you're not introducing new and interesting movesets/patterns that are hard to deal with but instead just throw in another enemy, it removes all the fun from actually struggling and learning how to read your opponent. There is maybe one fight that actually skill checks you and it is in early game, after that all the fights that are annoying are the gank fights. I only used the support characters to help me clear the levels but I removed them as soon as I got to the boss encounters. Anyhow this game made me learn to actually appreciate beast/monster-type enemies, you know the big ones that really mess with your camera LOL. The reason why is because when you finally get to those Humanoid bosses, it feels good to fight them since all you've been fighting prior are those big monsters where you have no vision because they take up the whole screen and half of the fight is versus your camera. This is not the case here, like I said earlier you just fight humans who doesn't necessarily get stronger, you just fight an extra person or two and that doesn't make it more fun. I wanted clean one versus one swordfight battles where I have to figure out how to parry their onslaught attacks and have them beat my ass over and over again until I finally pick up on it, and each encounter should've been unique. I don't really have a favorite fight because it all just felt the same.

At this point I don't recall much from the story but the setting is cool and there were a few characters I enjoyed like Sakamoto Ryoma, Kaishu Katsu and Kogoro Katsura. It would've been nice if the MC actually talked more because they do talk BUT most of the time, they're just silent so it makes you feel disconnected.

When I first stepped into Yokohama, I was really excited to explore everything because the map was huge and there was a lot to do. I actually thought that the entire game would take place here but then I learned that there were more maps just as big and that's when I gave up on exploring and only pushed the story. It makes sense that it isn't the only area because of Kyoto and Edo but still, I wasn't willing to go through the Ubisoft loop multiple times.

Rise of the Ronin is a decent experience, however I wouldn't recommend grabbing it for full price. For the most part it has unimpressive graphics especially for a PS5 exclusive title with the frame rate dropping constantly on Performance Mode however I heard there was a patch that helped but I can't confirm because I beat the game before that went live. It does somewhat scratch that Sekiro itch but it is definitely not up there, hell I don't even think this game is that much better than Team Ninja's previous game Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

Take a tried and true formula and force the standardized Ubisoftian Open World and Side quests, and you get a worse experience than playing through the previous Team Ninja games. The combat is lifted straight from Wo Long with the added movesets from Nioh and other Team Ninja games.

I entered a flow state in the beginning, clearing quest, doing all the side content like gambling and bounty hunting, raising my bonds and going on murder dates with the husbandos was cool. This was when the game was at its best, and I wish it dug more into these without them being and feeling like busywork.

Just like unironically a lot of Sony's open world games, by the time you finish the bajillion map markers for bonus rewards, you get another map full of the same shit to do once again. The relationship system gets tiresome when they all have these boring linear corridor missions. It's honestly overwhelming. You start getting introduced to 3-4 new characters at a time, each with their own sets of missions and affection towards other characters. Though tangible rewards are tied to each of these bonds like skill points and move set upgrades.

I was fatigued by the time I reached the second chapter, and just beelined the story after getting annoyed with the photography missions. This game makes me appreciate the linearity of Nioh missions over this lifeless open world.

My heart tells me to give this game a 2/5 instead, but in the honeymoon phase, I really enjoyed this game. If this is your dig, then you have A LOT to do, whereas I could give less of a shit about these characters and overall story due to its genericness (is that a word?)

Sadly this title has flown under the radar with so many big releases this Q1 and releasing the same day as Dragon's Dogma 2. It deserved more attention the combat is great and it's a fun game all around. It's loaded with content and has tons of weapon variety.

My main complaint would be I found it to get a bit repetitive near the end. Mostly due to lack of enemy variety, you won't be fighting monsters or anything to shack it up a lot since the is routed in japanese history.

An assassin's creed style open world game with team ninja's combat. Do I think it's ground breaking no, but as a first attempt from team ninja this is solid and happy to have played it.

Rise of the Ronin was my first Team Ninja game, so going in, I didn’t know what to expect. As someone who isn’t the biggest Souls-like fan, it could’ve easily not been for me. It was the opposite. The story, being a sucker for 19th-century historical nonfiction (with some player choice thrown in there), is quite good. However, I felt as if there were too many allies, a little over 30, with most of them being pretty bland, with a few exceptions. I can’t do this review without mentioning the frame drop and how dated the PS5 already is. Frequent dips into the 30s for an action-heavy game can be off-putting, but it was helped by a patch after launch that stabilized it mostly.

Where the game really shines is the combat. Boss gauntlets, stealth, parrying, a variety of weapons and builds to play around with—the whole nine yards. Once you get the parrying down pat, it’s one of the more satisfying games I can remember playing. The stealth doesn’t feel forced, the gunplay is excellent, and the main antagonist is fun and difficult but has a good balance.

Overall, this was a good game. The beautiful setting of Japan during the Edo period, decent characters all around, and masterful combat. If that’s what you’re looking for in a game, I say go for it.

This marks the third Team Ninja game I've beaten (after Final Fantasy Origin and Wo Long) -- fourth one I've played a lot of (15-20 hours into Nioh 2 before I stopped playing it -- plan to try again).

The thing I've learned is that Team Ninja soulslikes are like the beginning of an RPG where you have a certain number of points to allot to different stats. Some stats will get 5 bonus points, others will get 0. Team Ninja has a certain number of points to work with; some elements will be the funnest stuff you've ever played, and other elements will feel rough.

-FF Origin had a sick, hilariously camp story and fun gameplay, but poor balancing and a really annoying endgame.

-Wo Long was an easier, awesome twist on Sekiro with a mystical three kingdoms setting and great boss encounters, but a poorly told story and a combat flow that can get somewhat one note once you get the handle on parrying.

Rise of the Ronin takes the Nioh concept of arcade-y soulslike gameplay and some Sekiro, mixes it all up, and sticks it in an...Assassin's Creed game? You're jumping up on buildings, stabbing dudes from behind, and meeting historical figures in a way where you feel like it's missing a 90s sitcom applause track.

The flow of things here, structurally, is very reminiscent of Ghosts of Tsushima or Assassin's Creed. Tons of icons are dotted on the map at various levels and you have to choose which village of enemies to rout or which side mission you want to do to get to know a character a little better.

I liked this structure overall. The side missions were pretty fun and fleshed out, and the writing is a huge step up from Wo Long and FF Origin. No masterpiece, but significantly less camp and you will feel like you're learning a bit about 19th century Japanese history.

The Ubisoft of it all was fun too. I'm not much of a side content guy, but the combat mishmash was so fun that I had a blast clearing out villages and the like. It had a bit of an Elden Ring/BOTW vibe to it too where I would go "ooo, what's that" and then chase some activity either in the distance or that I saw on the map.

Team Ninja soulslike combat is so interesting in that it tickles my brain in a way no other action gameplay does, yet on paper it is a Diablo game with loot grind, increasing numbers and a decent bit of repetition. Rise of the Ronin is no different, though this is a really solid version of it.

You have Nioh-esque stances, Sekiro-style risk/reward parrying + stagger bar, and backstabby stealth that feels really good. On top of that, because this is the 1860s, you get access to bayonets, rifles, and handguns. These have a great sense of power to them (read: they get super cheesy) and it's one of the only times I've really focused on subweapons in a soulslike.

So why only 4 stars? Well, it took me 35-37 hours to credits, and I was dragging a bit by the time I got there. Some really amazing boss encounters in the back third of the game, but you have to get through a good number of repetitive boss fights before it really locks in. The other two issues are (1) the story doesn't diverge through player choice nearly as much (or as consequentially) as the promo/leadup suggested -- if not promised -- and (2) the open world has you doing the same 2-3 types of activities over and over again without enough wonder/discovery.

Combine that with the inherent repetition of Team Ninja souls gameplay, and I'm kinda left holding up the "wrap it up" award speech light in the last act.

In other words, while I think Rise of the Ronin is a great game and furthers my love for Team Ninja as well as these quirky Dark Souls-inspired action games (I would rather play something like this than proper Dark Souls most days), this isn't quite Days Gone levels of "this is low-key one of the best games on the entire console."

Still, high hopes for Team Ninja, man. High, high hopes.

A respectable effort from Team Ninja to broach the open world genre with another period piece. The familiarly tight and engaging combat elements have demonstrated to become par the course for TN. Regrettably I think they should focus more on shorter, tighter games, as this one started to grate toward the end in a way the Niohs never did. The elements that usually make open-world games fully engrossing have never really been their strong suit (Worldbuilding, game-long character dialogue, deep exploration, etc). So their first foray into putting more thought into those elements didn't rob from the great combat, but also didn't really serve to enhance the experience enough to make the open world choice a knock-out. Still a worthwhile Slashfest through the end of the samurai era.

Amé este juego, es lo más parecido a Rurouni Kenshin que jugué en mi vida, jugas toda la época final del shogunato Tokugawa (el gaiden de Kenshin), hasta el cambio de régimen. Todos los personajes, organizaciones y clanes históricos aparecen con su personalidad y sus sidequest para hacer. Cumpli el sueño de niño de hacerme parte del Shinsengumi, entrené con Okita y con Saito, la parrie gatotsus( iguales a los que hace en Kenshin) a Saito, increíble, como un niño chico me sentí.
Respecto al sistema de pelea, es lo mejor que tiene, lo más pulido, es como jugar un Soul Calibur RPG por la variedad de armas, y las técnicas y estilos de cada arma, impresionante.
La música de combate es muy buena por momentos.
El mundo abierto está ok, las sidequest estan muy bien, y los enemigos también.
La customizacion del personaje es muy buena también y la cantidad de skins que tenés también.
El final es muy bueno, muy al estilo Rurouni Kenshin.
Lo único que le mejoraría es el modo online, para poder jugar en el mundo abierto con alguien más.

En fin juegazo y aguante Japón, lo mejor que vengo jugando en 2024.

Rise of the Ronin: Initial thoughts- 3-4 hours in

Rise of the Ronin starts off unsure of what it wants to be. It tries to dip its hands in multiple pots but won't commit to any of them. There are clear elements of soulslikes in this game throughout my playthrough of the admittedly short time I have spent in this game.


The Combat

The combat is very soulslike, in the worst way, I say this as someone who is not a fan of souls combat, its clunky movement and poor control layout simply cover up what it is at its core, boring combat. Souls like combat creates synthetic difficulty, it's not difficult because its a well thought out, complex combat system that forces you to adapt to each fight or a combat system that teaches as you go, so you are always learning something new, its a basic hit and block combat system that disguises itself as difficult through the covers of a poor control layout that employs outdated and unusual button mapping and combines this with enemies that take little damage but deal a lot and a character who deals little damage but takes a lot.

The worst part of the combat is by far the “parry”, although in this its referred to as a counterspark, it is a slow move, so the timing is a mess, this makes the “parry” practically useless outside of bossfights, and the game expects you to almost rely on it in bossfights, expecting you to rely on the most unreliable move you have, meaning you spend the majority of the combat simply moving around the fight area waiting for the enemy to do a red move^. And to make it all worse, this game employs the feature of a stamina bar/meter, now, that isn't a problem if that's all it is, a stamina bar, but this stamina bar is decreased by six things; running, dodging, combat rolls, parrying, attacking and blocking. Essentially there is nothing you can do in this game during combat that doesn’t use your stamina, which caused me to be in too many situations where I was unable to avoid or block attacks. The game does this for a reason, and I'm pretty sure i know that reason, because this issue is easily avoidable, if you spend the boss fights with a great distance between you and your enemy, only briefly going closer for attacks after parrying a red move then regaining that distance, which practically doubles the amount of time it takes to finish a bossfight. This is a problem for two reasons; A) it's a lazy attempt at lengthening the game, and B) it's mostly Katana like combat, which should be quick, turning that into slow drawn out combat damages the feel of combat that this game needs.

After more time spent in the game, you get used to the combat “system” more and it becomes easier, but is still held back by the clunkiness and poor control layout, so even after becoming more adept at the controls, it's still quite weak.


The Movement

The movement, for lack of a better word, is rough. It's clunky and like the combat this causes it to feel slower than it should be, again, this is reminiscent of soulslikes. The already clunky and harsh movement is worsened by its control layout, again. The key example of this, is, to dodge you press circle, to combat roll you double press circle, and to run you press circle for slightly longer than to dodge, so a lot of the time when you are trying to run your character dodges, or when you're trying to dodge, instead they run. But despite all this, the character’s movement on foot is perfection compared to the horse movement. I am not exaggerating when I say that this game has some of the worst horse mechanics that I have ever used.


The World

The world is ok, it's not bad in design but the graphics do hold its visuals back (I will explain later). I had multiple occasions where items in the world, whether they were walls, rocks, fences etc, had no collisions whatsoever, so there were times where I would fall off of the edge of a cliff (a low cliff so I did not die) due to there being nothing to collide with, and times where I was able to pass through what should be solid surfaces. However, there were other times where the items had very clear collision, for two reasons; sometimes the hitboxes were higher than the item so I could stand, floating above the surface, and other times the hitboxes were made clear by the fact that instead of my character walking over a slight slope or a low rock, he would clip on top of the surface, changing the movement of my character from clunky to powerpoint slide. The world seems to be mostly made up of enemy bases and small collectables, very reminiscent of the stereotypical problems people have with another game developer, who I think yoU will Be understandIng aS tO why this review won’t aFfirm The name of said developer.


Visuals

Not too much to say about the game visually, it seems to borrow a lot of visual style from soulslikes, but from a visual quality side, it’s honestly pretty weak. The game offers 3 presets for visuals, and then allows you to change settings individually, the 3 presets are; Prioritise FPS, Prioritise Graphics and Ray Tracing.
Irrelevant of which you pick the graphics do not really change that much, there is the slightest difference between using ray tracing and not, but other than that nothing else that noticeable, however the fps is really noticeable, going from prioritise FPS to Graphics is very jarring, seeing the framerate drop significantly, to the point where i recommend everyone play it on prioritise FPS as the other presets, to me, were unbearable.


Overall

Rise of the Ronin doesn't know what it is. Throughout my time playing, I noticed elements of games like; Ghost Of Tsushima, Star Wars The Force Unleashed, The Assassin’s Creed Series, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice and Devil May Cry. But none of these styles were fully developed so it just resulted in a game that feels like a poor, improvised mashup of all of them rather than its own entity.

There were positives I found, although not many; as simple as it sounds, the fact that this game has dismemberment was a positive to me, I respect that. The character customisation, it's more than I expected and it's pretty well done. The theme and setting, Japan in 1863 is a cool setting, and an era of Japan we haven't really seen much of in media. The HUD, I'm a fan of the HUD and most of the overall UI. It's not too busy, shows you just what you need to know and fits the style very well, this includes the map, which is pretty nicely detailed and easy to use. Unfortunately, that is where the positives I found end






^Red move: a move that can only be parried, unable to simply block it and typically cannot dodge it.

Final Review

Initial thoughts

-YES DIFFICULTY OPTIONS (I love games with difficulty options so I can replay on harder difficulties)
-Didn't expect such a detailed character customisation, not usually a fan of custom characters but these look cool
-Weak start
-Parry isn't great
-Clunky movement
-Game is having an identity crisis
-Trying to do too many things and not developing them
-Story is hard to care about
-Ton of graphical bugs


5 hours in

-Story is still boring to me
-Combat has improved
-Got some better gear
-Combat and traversal feel more varied
-Horse movement is awful, some of the worst I have ever used
-Still riddled with graphical bugs
-Should have picked the Odachi straight away

10 hours in

-Wow the combat is cool
-So many ways to customise your combat approach
-Outfits are cool
-Horse is still awful
-I'm liking the glider
-Skill trees are cool
-The parry still isn't great, but getting used to it
-My god the graphical bugs
-Some pieces of terrain have broken hitboxes/collisions
-Some textures just dont even load in
-Still dont care about the story

15+ hours in

-THERE'S OTHER REGIONS?
-Oh they're basically all just grass and some rocks
-Maybe could have picked some more varied areas of Japan
-World design isn't bad
-Not much to do in the world other than enemy bases
-Combat is still cool
-The cool combat and stealth is held back by the open world and bad graphics
-Should have been a linear game or just put more stuff in the world
-Can only go in like 10% of the buildings so the villages/towns feel empty and boring even though they are full of buildings
-Gliding is so cool
-A lot of stuff should have been explained better
-Story still struggles, the custom character makes character development and telling a strong story very difficult
-Still infested with graphical bugs
-Some gameplay bugs, nothing gamebreaking, but definitely annoying



Overall, a solid game held very far back by a weak start, weak story and bad graphics/visuals. Would have been better if it didn't try to have a serious, historical story and instead had a ridiculous, over the top story like the devil may cry series or the yakuza series. Should have been pushed as a good way to get into souls games, as its difficulty options do make it more approachable and accessible to more players (ironic as its accessibility is limited because it is a playstation exclusive)

It’s been a long time since I have played a game where story: NOTHING. Open world: NOTHING. But the gameplay is so juicy I really wanted to see it through.

It was a mistake to make the character a custom character. It made me really feel nothing for any of the story beats. It was also kinda lame how most of the main story missions were fight through the same waves of enemies and then fight one of the 3 boss types they made. With all this though, the gameplay is so solid. Counterpsark is so fun. Hitting a chain counterspark and fully staggering an enemy hit my neurons HARD.

Overall, I think it’s a good first try. If they ever do a second one I can see them fleshing out a lot of the cool ideas they had here.

WOWOWOW this game was so much fun

I'm so pleasantly surprised. Rise of the Ronin was insanely enjoyable, so much better than I ever imagined. I kinda assumed it would just be a fun 15-20 hour long samurai game with sorta decent map and a very basic story.... so happy to say that I was wrong.
Rise of the Ronin features one of the BEST character creators I've seen. I was actually happy with multiple different designs instead of being very unsure and going back and forth on options like other games. I'll be honest, there's a chance I enjoy this game a lot less if I'm just playing as some basic ass ronin LOL. Oh, and once you get into the game there's even more customization to do! I loved being able to mix and mix all sorts of different clothing I collected throughout the game, there's a lot of nice stuff to choose from. Character design in general was just so good.
The gameplay is 100% the star of the show here. I had an absolute blast the entire 51 hours I spent playing-- and I only used two different weapon types. There's the katana, two sword style, greatsword, odachi, bayonet, sabre, spear, polearm, oxtail.... and a gun LOL. I was pretty basic and just used the katana & paired swords for the entire game, but that was more than enough variety because of all the different combat styles you can choose from. Without thinking about it too hard, I wanna say Rise of the Ronin has top 3 combat in games? idk I really liked it! I guess the one bad thing about the gameplay is... the actual gameplay loop is sorta samey? But I didn't really care tbh. Most missions followed the same premise but I still found it all very fun.
What really shocked me was the story. Now it isn't anything too crazy, this is no God of War Ragnarok, Red Dead II, or Persona.. but omg was it great entertainment. It's pretty engaging, atleast to me it was, and there's so many characters you can talk to and form bonds with (similar to persona confidants i guess 😭). There's 3 acts to the story and each one was more exciting. I was also surprised to find myself really liking one of the characters! Ryoma is just chill as hell.
I guess the only area that let me down was the graphics... but at the same time I don't really care about that and they still looked pretty good-- just not THE PLAYSTATION 5 EXPERIENCE good. I just set the game to prioritize fps and enjoyed my time.
Edit: okay my one real complaint is that my headband and cool swords don't appear in cinematic cutscenes. the swords are replaced with basic black ones and my character has simply no headband at all-- but this hardly bothered me lol

So yeah, big fan of Rise of the Ronin tbh. I would say it's my Game of The Year but Persona 3 Reload came out.... but that's technically a remake so...... my NEW Game of the Year goes to Rise of the Ronin! Defos a new all time favorite.... I cannot express enough just how much fun it was.

9/10- could see it being slightly lowered if I actually get into other samurai games (Ghost of Tsushima)

GOT THE PLATINUM AT 62 HOURS PLAYED!! 11 more after beating the main game!

Yeah…idk about this one, chief.

Team Ninja combat is a drug to me. I loved Wo Long and like Nioh, even though I’ll never beat it (that game is hard af). On that end, Rise of the Ronin does scratch that combat itch for me. At a basic level, the game is alright enough to play because of that. However, I do think that going for an open-world game was a mistake and doesn’t play to Team Ninja’s strengths as developers and its clear that they just weren’t able to execute on the task.

Some of the common Team Ninja issues are amplified when put into this kinda open-world game. Their dialogue is typically….rough. That doesn’t help for a nonlinear game where the world and characters are supposed to carry me through the amount of travel and investment an open-world game demands. My favorite moments in the game were the linear missions, not the open-world bloat. The game screams a tired open-world design philosophy that is slowly being phased out by the industry.

Wo Long and Nioh 2 aren’t necessarily on the cutting edge of graphical fidelity, but they look fine enough, run well, and the linear design helps keep the core parts of the game looking good. That is NOT the case for Rise of the Ronin. Sorry, but the game is just ugly. This isn’t some $20 indie game (Even tho those look great too, I mean No Rest for The Wicked just dropped). They are PlayStation first-party devs. The horse, character models outside of cutscenes, environment, weather effects, and textures are just all really bad. I’m not a weirdo graphics snob, but if you’re expecting me to explore the world and get invested in the towns and rolling hills I’m exploring, maybe don’t have significant pop-in and janky effects. There's not a single other big first-party game that looks this bad.

The often-hated loot spaghetti in Team Ninja games is slightly lessened compared to Wo Long or Nioh 2, but it’s still there. Yet again, in an open world game this just feels worse because going out of my way to explore to get a samey looking sword with just higher numbers isn’t very exciting.

The story concept is really cool. I love both your character’s personal story and the overarching political intrigue that is directly pulled from real historic events. This is an aspect where the game shines. It actually prompted me to read about the time period and it’s a unique setting we don’t really see much in games. Sure, we get plenty of games in a vaguely “feudal japan” but not many that explore the societal tensions spawned by Western expansion into Asia.

Idk. This game isn’t that good. I love Team Ninja and I'm glad this sold well but this felt like a miss. I respect them trying something new, but maybe go back to linear experiences.

i am so fucking tired of every game being sekiro. please god can one acton game come out where you do something besides read animations and deflect on the right key frames. can one historical game about the tokugawa shogunate have some personality to it and not be more boring than reading a book about the actual events. can one open world game come out and have shit to do in it thats fun and beneficial for more than just clearing icons and getting bigger numbers. anyway, Like a Dragon: Ishin! is available now on digital storefronts everywhere

I played on the Twilight difficulty (hard) and it was a challenging game for me, but rarely did I feel frustrated at a situation or fight. I died a lot, but most of them were due to careless error. Checkpoints were generous so even deaths didn't lead to much loss of progress which would be my biggest issue with these type of games.

All boss fights are against other humans and many of their fights can get pretty intense. Some feel unfair at first, but it feels great to learn their attack patterns after a while and successfully parry stuff. In regards to the parry mechanic in general, it's not really needed against the mob enemies. Their health aren't very high in general so simple combos can quickly dispatch them. Boss fights on the other hand really emphasize the need to parry. Their attack chains are very long and deal heavy ki damage (stamina) even if you block them. Even a successful parry however doesn't necessary turn the situation around since they recover fast and can quickly continue another attack chain. Oftentimes, it takes multiple parries to deplete their ki and leave them exposed to a critical attack as opposed to the grunts which just need 1-2 parries.

My main issues with the combat is that too much of the actions are tied into ki. Blocking damage and dodging can quickly deplete the ki gauge which makes parrying more important than I'd liked. Fortunately, less of an issue for mobs. Camera can also be a pain to deal with. Being pinned against a wall or object will make the opponent invisible so you can't even see the attacks to properly respond.

I did enjoyed the open world stuff, but it has those types of maps where you’re not really exploring for hidden secrets. Nearly everything of importance are shown on the map. Even then, I just enjoy going through the scenery and seeing some parts of Japan’s locations recreated in the game. Kyoto in particular has a lot of pretty sights. Gliding around is fun as well. The maps aren’t too big and the collectibles never feel overwhelming either. This segment reminds me a lot of Ghost of Tsushima which had open world elements that I found relaxing to complete.

There's a ton of loot scattered throughout the game just like in Nioh. It was annoying at first, but I learned to just ignore them for the most part. I only upgraded my main weapons if I get a new legendary one. I only bothered checking the armor if I find myself dying multiple times to the same boss. Having an auto-sell function and being able to filter out specific rarities to sell is a nice QoL though.

What did surprise me though was that I found the story to be very intriguing. Taking place during the Bakumatsu period, the game did a good job reflecting a lot of the political issues and developments during this time. You can make key decisions at various points to change the timeline and create some what-if scenarios compared to actual history so that’s also interesting. You get perspectives on both sides of the two major factions and both have likable characters so it's not a clear cut answer of who is in the right.

Character missions are entertaining in general. I liked the story behind them and many of them could fit very well into the main story due to the content. While most of them are of the serious nature, there a few amusing ones as well.

One issue with the story though is that there’s a strange disconnect with what goes on in the main story and the side stories. Due to the game’s structure, you can shift alliance frequently and do missions on behalf of the “other” side which puts allies as enemies. They might say something about it afterward, but the characters still continue to act as allies of sorts. It's best to think that the player character is a Ronin that plays both sides and while characters might be frustrated with that, they'd understand.

Overall, had a really fun time. Finished the game at about 70ish hours and not going to bother with the post game Midnight difficulty stuff. I only did one mission for the trophy and while it wasn't incredibly difficult compared to Twilight, the boss had become a damage sponge annoyingly. More parries are required to deplete the ki gauge as well.

Another amazing Team Ninja game. While it's not Nioh, it's definitely a game that stands out in high regards with its gameplay.

What surprised me that it takes the Ubisoft open-world formula with most of its strengths while the elements of Sekiro's traversal mechanics as well with a gliding traversal. It definitely made the game more engaging in that regard.

When it comes for its narrative, obviously for a Team Ninja game it has awful incohesive story. Despite it being an adaption of the Boshin War, it falls flat when it came demonstrating the events that transpired. The historical characters felt flat and was mostly just eye candy.

Gameplay will always be Team Ninja's greatest feat. Using the Ninja Gaiden's core system as their blueprints paints the game to be completely engaging and extremely fun. The parrying mechanic is perhaps the most satisfying system from all the games I have played thus far. I only wished the game wasn't too literal with its historical setting so we could have have more beasts and non-sapient creature to go against with this system.

The game had an easy but fun Platinum overall. It's very much worth playing this game if you value high skilled games like Nioh or Ninja Gaiden.

This was fun. The gameplay was great and story was good. It does get repetitive fighting the same hit spongey enemies over and over again, though. I was a bit disappointed with the co-op. I thought it would be free roam, so me and a couple friends were quite disappointed when we figured out it was missions only. Now to be fair, we should have looked into it more before hand. Luckily the co-op was still fun. The game is severly overhated from what ive seen. For me its almost an 8/10. Unfortunately it isn't beating Sekiro or Ghost of Tsushima, but still worth atleast trying out.

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I will start things off by saying this is Team Ninja's best story game, which is not saying much with the track record but they do let some characters really shine with their writing and backstories, there are also some who are forgettable.

In regards to gameplay this feels Team Ninja to the core and if you are familiar with their previous work, you will settle in pretty nice and easily with this one. This game features "allies" who you take along with your missions but as someone who likes to do things solo, the forced emphasis on the duo boss fights becomes a bit tedious after a while and becomes slightly discouraging when wanting to go about the game on your own.

The open world is exactly as I expected, the normal ubisoft formula but luckily it has its own twist with allowing your open world to become more open with the ties to the world you strengthen but it is still bogged down by repetitive activities which do kind of sully the experience.

Overall I enjoyed this outing but I do think I prefer the approach of the more linear Team Ninja games but I will applaud them for trying something out of their comfort zone even if they did not nail it.

With Rise of the Ronin, Team Ninja is cautiously trying its luck in the open-world arena, without setting any new standards for its future projects in this genre. Despite a world design that may seem conventional, the game stands out for its rich history and complexity. The game's setting transports us into a remarkable historical immersion, where we meet nuanced characters evolving in an equally complex geopolitical landscape, an uncommon aspect in the studio's productions and in the video game genre in general.

Team Ninja's strengths are in evidence, with an extremely rewarding combat system, an impressive variety of weapons to master, and memorable opponents, despite their lack of diversity. Whether you're a fan of the studio's creations, a fan of traditional open worlds, or a fan of Japanese history, Rise of the Ronin has something to satisfy you. I can see myself in all these categories, and I can only warmly recommend that you immerse yourself in this adventure. Rise of the Ronin is an experience not to be missed for those looking to combine a love of video games, an appreciation of well-choreographed combat and an interest in history with a capital H.