This game is fine. It goes down smooth.
Really Team Ninja's talent for action carries what feels like a breadboard for future open worlds.
It feels too long, which was weird to me after many months playing Y8 (great game) had left me hungry for something different. It's just mostly samey, and in all honesty the story completely lost me around the start of Act 3.
The faction system felt tacked on, as you're trust between factions against your will, often immediately after missions that would pretty clearly burn some bridges.
I completed a mission that turned a major ally of the shogun to my side, leaving him politically isolated and on the brink of ruin. Next mission: bring the shogun gambling. It just makes me feel stupid hanging out with cardboard cutouts of historical figures, treating me like their best friend despite having nearly murdered them during several missions.

The team's inexperience with open worlds shows: content is way too copy pasted (although still better than in recent AC titles), side-content is similarly samey, and upgrades and weapons are doled out inconstently. Expanding my collectible radar required me to complete 98% of all previous maps. Infuriatingly, after seemingly being stuck with no meaningful stat boosts or new weapons for what felt like half the game, it turns out those thing do exist, but are exclusive to the post game. With how dull the level design got, with most missions happening in nondescript forts and villages I truly do not feel the need to replay missions, but at least they're there?

Maybe I'd be more engaged if I knew more political figures from the time, but honestly characters are just very bland. The story revolves around the fall of the shogunate, and the game will occasionally throw absolutely crazy ideas at you, like an attempted assassination of Matthew Perry (the opening), or a fight against a rocket boot wearing British diplomat. These sparks of creativity are few and far between, and most of the time the game defaults to everyone being a generic samurai, at most using a gun. A real missed opportunity to craft its own take on the history.
The original story, featuring your prostethic arm-using twin, never actually picks up and is quickly resolved after the political drama that takes up most of the game has wrapped up, almost as if the developers had forgotten it existed.

If I had to describe the game in a word, it's unfocused. I'm done with it, it's fine, I'll quickly forget I played it probably.

Rise of the Ronin is a game I really only was referred to by a friend. I had really no high or low expectations, and after hearing him describe it, I did go in at a full price, which I rarely, rarely do on a new franchise I'm unfamiliar with.

Overall, I'm pleased with Rise of the Ronin. To keep it brief before I go into way more detail - if you've been infuriated with Ubisoft's lackluster combat, try giving Rise of the Ronin a try. It's the Ubisoft formula with a slightly better story and much better combat. You're much more likely to get through this game if gameplay is your main focus when it comes to enjoying a game.

To get to the reason Rise of the Ronin was a surprise hit to me, it mainly boils down to the combat. There's a bunch of fun intricacies I can summarize here.

First, weapons that actually vary in use and are fun to use for gameplay variety. In open world games, my issue has always been one of two things: either by mid-game, you're able to establish your arsenal to the point you won't be changing weapons anytime soon, or, the game lacks any difference in weapons to the point where every gun or weapon feels, does, and hurts enemies the same. Rise of the Ronin subverts this well - with 9 weapon classes that play different and effect your stamina differently, along with becoming stronger the more you use them, I think this game handles progression with your weapons very well. To get more in depth in the gameplay, it's very much the Team Ninja style of fast, intense combat with dramatic counters and intense enemy and boss encounters. Contrary to Ubisoft or other major open-world games, each enemy feels uniquely deadly, which leads to all the more reason to play smart and not romp through every area with the most powerful weapons possible. The side activities are sometimes lacking in variety, there are a lot of collectibles in the traditional sense of picking them up, and boom, you're done, but the game balances it out well with a great amount of side-quests related to the characters you bond with.

Most of this game is dealing with the various bonds and factions of the pro-Shogunate and anti-Shogunate factions. Early in the game, you meet Ryoma Sakamoto (hey Kiryu), as he becomes your main companion throughout the game. The bonds are great as you meet with numerous leaders of each side, and find yourself swayed to each side of the isle as both sides progressively get more extreme. The other great thing about the Bonds is that they are stocked full of rewards - so doing missions, side quests, and talking to them all are incentivized and supported. It encourages you to get to know the characters better, and doing their Bond missions only gives you more history and background on them.

However, this does bring me to one of my bigger grips with Rise of the Ronin. The absurdity of building bonds with almost all of these characters with extremely opposing ideals, and each story mission, not to mention the story itself, will have you fence-sitting each faction. In act 1, the game does have numerous opportunities where you can give the quest rewards to a Pro-Shogunate or Anti-Shogunate ally. But from the second and third acts of the game, you go where Ryoma goes, which ends up being all over the place. You'll be fighting for the Shogunate for days after promising the Anti-Shogunate group retribution for their losses and grievances against the corrupt officials. When you make your choices in Rise of the Ronin, even moreso than other open-world games, there are no consequences, which in a warring-faction game like this, is very off-putting. You can completely ignore a character's opinions, do the complete opposite thing of what they want, and it won't lower their bond at all, hell, they might even be happy to see you. For the various games I've played with this mechanic, never have I seen something where the characters couldn't give less of a care what you do or don't do, their opinion of you can only go up, even if you're clashing with their racist or imperialistic views.

That rant aside, the last thing I'd cover is the story. That gripe aside, the story is just, okay. I think the game's story is told well and judging from other reviews and general comments online, accurately, though occasionally embellishing Japan's history. Along with the bonds, though, there are a lot of characters, and a lot of them have their own about face moments. It's hard to tell who each character's really aligned with, as after you kick their ass, sometimes they completely 180 on how they feel. Early in the game, a character I went on a side mission with tore through a British base with me, and was very staunchly against Americans at all being in Japan. During the mission, you realize the British base was where Japanese people were being treated for tuberculosis/cholera, and the British people were helping the Japanese afflicted with Western medicine. This character continued to remain on the side which was very anti-Imperialistic and allied himself with people who wanted to kill any foreign people they see as a scourge to Japan. Each side has characters who vary heavily on extremes, yet the infighting is only present on an occasional side-mission.

Rise of the Ronin is a great game for those sick of the traditional Ubisoft model. If you like Team Ninja games, this is an interesting experiment into fusing their games into a more Ubisoft-like formula. However, this game is a pretty long way away from blowing my mind, it's just a much cleaner, prettier, and better version of the mediocrity that has plagued the open-world genre for years now.

It's a very good game with some strange problems. Especially because it is a ''Playstation Studio'' product. It's not a first party, but has some help from sony. And even with help from sony the game has huuuge graphics and performance problems. There are a huge amount of slowdowns and drop frames.

But even with these problems, the game has a very good combat system. Its reminds me of Sekiro. It's very parry focused and with some very good movements.

In the end of the day looks like a game with a ''feeling'' of PS3-era, with some good story but heavly focus on the combat.

Plats in about 40 hours

Assassin's Creed done right. An interactive Japanese history lesson supported by a top tier action game. It captures the messy politics of the era making the choices between Shogunate and Anti-Shogunate complicated to the point I found myself switching sides multiple times. It has some standout characterizations of historical figures with memorable, moving storylines which I wasn't expecting from Team Ninja since I find story to be the weakest parts of their games. They clearly love Japanese history, and it is infectious.

disappointing considering how excited i was for the game, it was great tho, the story could’ve been a bit simpler and the characters easier to remember, but those are my main gripes with the game, oh yeah and also THERE WERE TOO MANY FUCKING BONDS IT WAS ALMOST ONE AFTER EVERY CHARACTER I INTERACTED WITH LIKE DAMN. the gameplay was great tho, combat was challenging but rewarding (except when the bosses spam the same attack so i can’t do fucking anything) and also there were too many fucking boss fights like it at one point was like 3 every level

A massive game. Over 100 hours for a platinum trophy and that still isn't with technically 100% completion since that would require replaying the entire game on Midnight Difficulty. But I did get the platinum trophy after 106 hours. The combat is amazing, the sheer variety in weapons and weapon styles is hard to comprehend honestly. If you love swordfights, I mean c'mon, just play this game. Similarily there are an insane amount of quests and characters, there are 32 companions in total, complete with unique quests, dialogue, and combat styles. While the game's world is interesting, the time-period even more interesting, and the story setup amazing. It does end up stumbling over itself after the first third of the game. With a strange story trying to Forrest Gump you everwhere, betraying and becoming friends with everyone dozens of times over. Listen. If you wanna be a samurai in an open world with great swordplay, interesting characters, and a pretty world... Get it! But if you want an engaging story beyond the already interesting history, maybe look elsewhere. I still loved it, and loved the many characters, but the story is done in such a jarring way. If you're interested to watch my review, here's the link! https://youtu.be/wraqQD-Px8k?si=Nift8c3Zl6X9dDFu

Pretty much every second I spent playing this had me thinking of other games doing the same things significantly better. The most obvious points of comparison are the two vastly superior Ghost of Tsushima and Like a Dragon: Ishin, but even the much maligned open world Ubisoft games of recent years typically have more to offer than this.

It seems the developers looked at what their competitors were doing with similar tiles and simply decided to put everything they saw into their game. The result is an overwhelming mess of systems that sees every mission end with over a minute of successive pop-ups informing the player of improved character bonds, area bonds, combat styles, skill points and countless pieces of trash loot to clutter up your inventory.

The gameplay itself is consistently janky both in and out of combat and what little fun there is to be had in the intense boss fights is largely drowned out by the endless amounts of boring fights against grunts which fill Ronin's uninspired levels. Exploration is tedious due to the strange decision to have a practically useless compass instead of a minimap. This requires the player to open the map menu in order to find anything other than the currently traded mission, which only reinforces the checklist-y feeling of open world activities.

Going into this, I was most looking forward to the story and setting as I had enjoyed Ishin's plot and was hoping this game would feature a more expansive story exploring the conflicts of a changing Japan. The game world can be fun to explore for a bit, especially the cities of Yokohama and Edo which capture the encroaching influence of the west. Unfortunately the story itself lacks any proper sense of direction and sees the protagonist constantly switching sides regardless of the player's dialogue choices. The (almost) mute main character is not really an active participant in the story, rather things just keep happening around them. This lack of coherency is also reflected in the gigantic roster of characters, with practically every mission ending in a new bond. I kept playing in the hope that the story might pick up after a bit, but having now made it well past the 50% mark, this does not seem to be the case.

All of this combined with the poor visuals and bad performance result in a game far below the standard of quality usually set by Sony's first party offerings.

Rise of the Ronin is Team Ninja's first open world title and while it turns out to be a very fun game, you can REALLY tell it's their first.

Being set in Japan's Bakumatsu period, Ronin puts you at the center of many conflicts, wars, and political turmoil that defined the era. The game attempts to take full advantage of its setting through the introduction of a large cast of historical figures and a system that allows you to form bonds with quite a few of them. I was fond of Ronin's Bond system particularly due to the character-specific bond missions which provide more characterization to important characters and in some cases lead to their own little storylines. The rate at which new characters are introduced does make it a little hard to remember a lot of the cast and their role within the story (the in-game encyclopedia is a lifesaver). Even then, this is still probably one of the most comprehensible narratives Team Ninja has ever told.

Ronin's biggest strong point is without a doubt its gameplay. There are a lot of weapon types to choose from each comprised of their own styles, stances, and skills that allow you a great deal of variety when it comes to choosing your playstyle. The combat was fast and challenging enough to the point where I never really got bored by it. Pulling off consecutive parries until the enemy gets stunned long enough to pull off an execution just feels really satisfying. I had concerns regarding the enemy variety since 99.9% of them are humans, unlike in Team Ninja's previous game, Wo Long which had you fighting monsters on top of them. The enemy variety comes mainly from the styles they use, with more unorthodox weapons coming into play occasionally during boss fights. I didn't feel like my brain was actively turning into mush every time I fought the same group of enemies, unlike in Wo Long, so clearly it did something right.

Now, let's talk about the open world. It's split into three separate maps that are packed to the brim with icons indicating activities, collectibles, and missions. These activities include clearing bandit outposts, taking pictures, petting cats, glider training, etc. I completed almost everything on the first map, but when the second map arrived and filled the map with even more of these activities, I hit the "honk mimimi" and put most of my focus on completing the actual story missions. A lot of the open-world activities just felt mind-numbing and I didn't see much incentive in doing them. While the open world is capable of looking beautiful visually, its graphics still feel outdated and that becomes even more apparent the moment you enter one of the main cities. All of this comes together to make it the weakest part of the game, but like I said before, this is Team Ninja's first open world and I do hold the belief that they will do significantly better if they ever decide to tackle this format again.

Since this game is currently a PS5 exclusive, I do want to point out how surprisingly well it uses the dualsense. The haptic feedback allows you to feel everything from swords clashing to the steps your horse makes while you're riding it, which was especially useful as it made traversing the open world slightly less boring.

Overall, I really did enjoy Rise of the Ronin, but I just cannot recommend buying it for its asking price of $70. Catch this on a sale if you can.

a Team Ninja leva-nos ao japão para o período de 1863 onde grandes tensões tomam forma entre forças expulsionistas, que querem os estados estrangeiros que exercem influencia sobre o emperador e o xogun, e forças do xogunato.
Vestes a pele de um órfão que cresce numa espécie de culto de ninjas, ao lado da sua melhor amiga, a lâmina gémea. Começas a ação numa missão de assassinato de um comandante britânico, com a tua lâmina gémea ao lado. As coisas correm mal, tu és derrotado e a tua melhor amiga, com quem tu cresceste é raptada e desaparece. Após isso, partes numa aventura para descobrir o paradeiro dela. Pelo caminho conheces diferentes personagens que te prometem ajudar em troca da tua ajuda com os problemas deles. Neste momento apresentam-se duas fações no japão, os anti-xogunato e os pro-xogunato, que têm agendas diferentes e lutam entre si. Tens liberdade para escolher quais dos dois ajudar, ou ajudar ambos, mas a dada altura és obrigado a decidir de qual lado vais lutar pelo futuro do japão, fazendo-te sentir neste momento que as tuas decisões irão influenciar o destino do jogo. Só que não… perto de meio da estória descobres que, independentemente do lado que escolheres, o destino será o mesmo e tudo culminará em tu ajudares apenas uma daquelas duas fações. O sentido de que as tuas decisões importam perdem o efeito neste momento, e devo ser sincero que desmotivou um pouco, deixando-me meio apagado da estória. Porque não só a estória fica linear como fica linear demasiado rápido para o ritmo que a estória estava a tomar. De um momento para o outro estás a lutar contra personagens que em minutos atrás eram as tuas melhores amigas, e a lógica de mudança de rumo na vida do teu personagem está mal construída. Imagina-te a ver um filme em que de um momento para o outro devido a um acontecimento o vilão passa a ser herói e o herói passa a vilão, poderia acontecer, mas para haver essa mudança a estória tem de ser bem fundamentada e contada. O que não acontece em Rise of the Ronin. Senti que, no que toca à estória, estás numa montanha-russa em que apenas tem uma subida lenta e depois uma descida super rápida e acabou a trama… passa de uma potencial estória envolvente e complexa para uma simplicidade ridícula que fez lembrar a ultima temporada de game of thrones. Numa de toca a despachar e deixa os detalhes pelo caminho.
Quanto ao gameplay, a Team Ninja preparou uma imensidão de conteúdo para tu disfrutares, tens acesso a side quests, zonas que terás de libertar para impor ordem no japão matando todos os inimigos nesse local (ao estilo de Ghost of Tsushima), pontos de interesse que te premiam com pontos de habilidade, gatos para capturar, zonas para fotografares e ganhares recompensas. Tens um sistema de melhoramento de relação tanto com os personagens (através da casa comunal) como na região (libertando as várias zonas que estão dominadas por inimigos). A relação com os personagens pode ser melhorada através de opções de diálogo nas conversas com eles, quests e através de oferendas de prendas. No entanto, a estória por ter ficado tão simples, não me permitiu ficar apegado a nenhuma personagem.
Rise of the Ronin é um RPG em mundo aberto, com uma variedade de armas suficiente com variados estilos de combate associado ao tipo de arma para te fazer desfrutar do combate, e experimentar vários tipos de estratégias. O sistema de combate é interessante, porém com alguns pontos fracos, cada tipo de inimigo tem associado a si um tipo de arma com estilos de combate que farão com que dês mais dano ou menos dano, portanto terás de alternar a tua arma e estilo consoante o inimigo que defrontas. Ao estilo de Nioh. Os combates têm um ritmo de ação bastante rápido e sangrento, o que torna tudo mais divertido. No entanto, poderia ser melhor no que toca ao sistema de defesa. Podes defender os golpes do inimigo sacrificando a tua estamina e correndo o risco de perderes a postura e ficar vulnerável à sequência de ataques do oponente ou poderás tentar a tua sorte e acertar no ritmo exato para defletir o golpe do adversário, fazendo com que dês dano à postura dele (do género de sekhiro), é neste ponto que Rise of the Ronin não te favorece, caso falhes a defleção do golpe muito dificilmente consegues corrigir o timing e defletir porque o oponente já te aplicou a sequência de golpes. Senti imensa dificuldade em acertar nos timings e a corrigilos, mas caso acertes à primeira, facilmente defletes os restantes golpes. No entanto, nunca consegues interromper uma sequência do inimigo mesmo com golpes e sequências tuas, o que para os videojogos de hoje não deveria de ser assim. Basicamente podes estar a bater nele enquanto ele te bate ao mesmo tempo, deixando o combate pouco realístico.
Sendo um mundo aberto, o que ficas à espera é que todos os acontecimentos no mundo sejam fluidos, com o mínimo de interrupções ou loading screens. A Team Ninja, na minha opinião, comete um erro neste aspeto. Ao iniciares uma quest, és transportado para um menu de missão onde podes escolher o teu equipamento e os teus companheiros, que te ajudarão na missão passando para um videojogo estilo Nioh, onde és transportado para um mapa de missão e caso te afastes do local és avisado com um timer de que tens de voltar para a zona, caso contrário, abandonas a missão. Isto estraga toda a imersão que estarias a ter até ao momento, o que para um open world não é o ideal, tu queres estar a viver no mundo, um loading screen e um menu missão teleportando-te para o local do acontecimento não ajudam nesse sentido.
No entanto, todas as missões foram desafiantes, e difíceis devido ao sistema de combate que a Team Ninja preparou para nós. O facto de poderes escolher os companheiros que te irão ajudar, contribui para definires uma equipa que complemente as tuas capacidades de luta, porque cada personagem tem o seu estilo próprio de luta e os seus bónus que te aumentaram as habilidades ou stats. Permitindo assim teres a tua equipa maravilha e enfrentares os inimigos com o máximo de facilidade possível.

Rise of the Ronin, foi uma boa tentativa da Team Ninja de incorporar o estilo de Nioh num cenário open world. Mas ficou aquém das expectativas. Tens imenso conteúdo para passares imensas horas neste mundo, tanto a libertar regiões, como a equipares o teu personagem ou a farmar items para fabricares potentes utensílios para a batalha, no entanto torna-se repetitivo e por vezes faz sentir que é demasiado conteúdo. Havia coisas que podiam ter ficado de fora focando-se mais em outras. A estória é apressada, simples, mas tem os seus momentos altos, deixando um gosto a pouco e de que tanto potencial havia para fazer melhor. Rise of the Ronin prometia muito, e tem potencial para ser melhor.

An unfortunate misstep from Team Ninja. The best thing it does is evoke games that did what Ronin is trying to do, but did it better. For the price of Ronin new you can probably find both Nioh games and Wo Long. I advise you go that route.

Side rant: Video games need to abandon narratives built around "political intrigue." I do not give a shit. Witcher 3 did it right. The political stuff is there but it's ultimately incidental. The focus of the story is on the characters. If see one more game filled with medium-shot conversations about factions and strategies and blah blah blah I'm going to rip my eyeballs out.

Rise of the Ronin es un juego difícil de evaluar porque hace muchas cosas bien y, a la vez, tiene muchas cosas mejorables.

Es demasiado largo y no tiene tanta variedad para justificar lo largo que es. La historia es demasiado enrevesada, da muchas vueltas rarísimas y tiene TANTOS personajes que llega un punto en el que es difícil saber quién era quién.

PERO es increíblemente agradable de jugar. Los combates son súper satisfactorios y vistosos, la progresión es fantástica y simplemente explorar esta era de Japón (¡muy poco explorada, en general!) es muy interesante.

Tiene algún problemilla técnico y quizá le falta un pelín más de pulido en algunas cosillas, pero es un juego completísimo y me lo he pasado bien con él.

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Rise of the Ronin is tough to evaluate because it does plenty of things right and, at the same time, could do so many things better.

It's way too long and it doesn't have enough variety to justify how long it is. The story is too convoluted, it seemingly goes nowhere at times, and it has SO many characters it ends up being hard remembering who is who.

BUT it feels incredibly good to play. Combat is super satisfying and flashy, the progression is great, and simply exploring this era of Japan (pretty uncommon, in general) is very interesting.

It has some technical issues and perhaps it'd need a bit more polish in some areas, but it's the complete package and I've had a good time with it.

Au début j'ai pas accroché, ensuite j'ai bien aimé, et je me suis lassé du jeu en arrivant à la dernière map. J'ai bien aimé le système de combat (le seul point fort du jeu), mais la faible variété d'ennemis tout au long du jeu n'a pas suffi à me faire tenir jusqu'au bout. Y'a aussi trop de personnages secondaires introduits avec les quêtes je trouve ce qui rend le tout assez complexe pour rien. Et en terme de monde ouvert rien de bien innovant malheureusement.
Mais bon le jeu a réussi à me faire tenir un peu plus d'une vingtaine d'heures donc je suppose qu'il a quand même ses qualités.

On a gameplay perspective this is one of Team Ninja's most tightly knit one. Even more than Wo Long. Every encounter was designed to be done with anything you could imagine. There is not a single weapon that feels useless and what it lacks for magic stuff the other games had it makes up for in the skills each weapon has. My only nitpick with the combat is how some of it is tied to characters you most likely won't interact with. On a story basis, it's the best they've done. The background of the Meiji Restoration gives this unifying theme of change as each character has to deal with a fate that has been told already. Everyone grapples with the current system and the system that's to come, which they don't know and have a sense of foreboding fir what the future holds.
While the world can feel empty at times, it is used to show the contrast between the more backwater areas to the city areas. The openess is also mitigated from feeling empty as it gives you the chance to mess around with stuff and find what you like. It still has that Team Ninja loot system which I don't mind but I have to make note of it was it's the usual "fuck ton of shit you don't need." The more traditional levels are still that same Team Ninja levels. Some of which felt reminiscient of Nioh 1. Props to the 'Battle of Toba-Fushimi' level which was the first real big battle level Team Ninja has done and props to them as it was the best part of the game. A goal that was very obvious to get through yet this big space to do what you wanted to to progress to it.

Overall a perfect blend of a lot of little things that while not on their own in depth(except for the combat which again is the best shit in gaming), makes for a unique and thrilling game. With the Team Ninja coat of paint.

After creating two protagonists who were left orphans as children and trained to be deadly warriors, the two are separated, leading to you searching for your twin.

The game is set during the time of change in Japan, the end of the Edo period. It uses lots of real events and people as its basis. Your twin ends up being an antagonist, and your main purpose is to stop them. But along the way you. basically get roped into the political system and fight to change Japan.

Thing is this isn't a great retelling of events,
the characters aren't very interesting and the story really drags. The twin is barely in the game till the very end, and the conclusion. doesn't feel earned.

The game is an open world hybrid of a few different things really, and if there's one thing
they nailed, it was combat. There's many different weapons, all with multiple combat styles and sub weapons. Combat is extremely fast paced, and rewarding to get right, especially in boss fights.

The rest of the game... well you’re doing basic open world stuff, but 90% of the activities end in combat. Other than the occasional mini game or platforming using your glider, you spend 40 hours fighting enemies that don't have much in variety.

It does work, again the open world is completely passable, and the beautiful environments are fun to explore, but this game does get repetitive, despite the excellent gameplay - 7/10

Rise of the Ronin foi altamente criticado e massacrado por muitos da mídia "especializada" e pelos paladinos do Twitter. Uma das críticas mais comuns que ouvi foi que "parecia um jogo de PS3". Isso me intrigou, especialmente porque o jogo chamou minha atenção desde a primeira vez que foi apresentado. Então, resolvi apostar minhas fichas e literalmente paguei para ver como era o tal "jogo de PS3".

Nos momentos iniciais, algo que me chamou a atenção foram as belas cenas de introdução e as cutscenes de interação. Posteriormente, à medida que fui avançando, fui apresentado à gameplay, da qual gostei logo de cara. Eu sabia que nesse ponto a Team Ninja não iria errar, afinal, eles são especialistas em jogos focados em gameplay. Porém, Rise of The Ronin não era apenas isso; ele abrange uma narrativa bem mais construída que os jogos anteriores da empresa. Ao invés de focar apenas na gameplay, eles foram além e tentaram entregar algo muito mais complexo.

Assim que tive acesso ao mundo aberto, me impressionei com a direção de arte. Embora os gráficos não fossem impressionantes, é um exagero dizer que "parece um jogo de PS3". Talvez, por ser um jogo de PS5, as pessoas esperassem mais. No entanto, considero curioso que outras empresas, que também possuem uma direção de arte competente não sofram tanto hate. Os gráficos estavam longe de serem ruins; no geral, eles me agradaram bastante, principalmente por causa da direção de arte, que, sim, eu sei, é diferente de gráficos incríveis.

A gameplay possui uma quantidade imensa de opções: existem diversas posturas de combate, armas, armaduras e armas secundárias. Isso, por si só, é excelente. Porém, o mais interessante é o quão divertidas e satisfatórias são as lutas ao longo do tempo. O jogo bebe da fonte de Nioh, isso é perceptível, mas de uma forma mais suave, graças a isso creio que todos conseguirão jogar e se adaptar ao estilo que é apresentado. Vale ressaltar que assim como em qualquer jogo, quanto mais se avança, mais opções de melhorias são liberadas.

O jogo é constituído por três capítulos, sendo que cada um deles se passa em uma localidade do Japão. Existem três áreas de mundo aberto com diversos objetivos a serem realizados, além das missões principais. Ressalto que alguns desses objetivos secundários são bem interessantes e incrementam a trama principal, enquanto outros são extremamente monótonos e repetitivos, seguindo o estilo de diversos jogos de mundo aberto que temos no mercado. Tudo vai depender da forma como a pessoa gosta de jogar, mas, resumidamente, não é um mundo aberto incrível nunca antes visto; porém, também não é ruim, tem seus altos e baixos.

Um dos pontos mais interessantes, além da gameplay, é a abordagem histórica do final da era dos samurais e o começo da abertura do Japão para o Ocidente. Eu gostei demais da abordagem proposta e das escolhas que me foram apresentadas. O jogo nos coloca em um cenário de conflito interno entre a população do país: de um lado os que eram favoráveis ao xogunato; do outro, os que eram contra. Cabe a você decidir qual o melhor caminho a seguir. Por vezes, isso me fazia pensar nos rumos que a história tomou anos depois na vida real. No geral, a trama principal me agradou bastante.

Esse jogo me lembra bastante aqueles games obscuros de samurai lançados para PS2, que com o passar do tempo, volta e meia surge alguém destacando o quão bons eram. Talvez muitos não enxerguem isso hoje, mas, no futuro, isso possa acontecer com ele. Só o tempo dirá. De toda forma, a tentativa da Team Ninja de sair da zona de conforto e arriscar foi muito válida. Eu me diverti muito enquanto jogava e tive uma boa experiência. Definitivamente, não é um jogo de PS3. Recomendo que joguem em algum momento, caso gostem dessa temática.

Tried to go for platinum, but had to kinda rush to finish before I had to return it to the library. Still technically a few days left, but would be kinda a slog to cram, would have to do not much else every day, and I wanna break for awhile before Shadow of the Erdtree drops. Been playing this too much, crammin too many hours into a brief time.

It's ok. A little too Ubisoft in its open world design. Good for listening to music. My samurai girls were very cute. PS5 says I clocked 45 hours, in just under 3 weeks. (Like I said: rushin')

a Team Ninja leva-nos ao japão para o período de 1863 onde grandes tensões tomam forma entre forças expulsionistas, que querem os estados estrangeiros que exercem influencia sobre o emperador e o xogun, e forças do xogunato.
Vestes a pele de um órfão que cresce numa espécie de culto de ninjas, ao lado da sua melhor amiga, a lâmina gémea. Começas a ação numa missão de assassinato de um comandante britânico, com a tua lâmina gémea ao lado. As coisas correm mal, tu és derrotado e a tua melhor amiga, com quem tu cresceste é raptada e desaparece. Após isso, partes numa aventura para descobrir o paradeiro dela. Pelo caminho conheces diferentes personagens que te prometem ajudar em troca da tua ajuda com os problemas deles. Neste momento apresentam-se duas fações no japão, os anti-xogunato e os pro-xogunato, que têm agendas diferentes e lutam entre si. Tens liberdade para escolher quais dos dois ajudar, ou ajudar ambos, mas a dada altura és obrigado a decidir de qual lado vais lutar pelo futuro do japão, fazendo-te sentir neste momento que as tuas decisões irão influenciar o destino do jogo. Só que não… perto de meio da estória descobres que, independentemente do lado que escolheres, o destino será o mesmo e tudo culminará em tu ajudares apenas uma daquelas duas fações. O sentido de que as tuas decisões importam perdem o efeito neste momento, e devo ser sincero que desmotivou um pouco, deixando-me meio apagado da estória. Porque não só a estória fica linear como fica linear demasiado rápido para o ritmo que a estória estava a tomar. De um momento para o outro estás a lutar contra personagens que em minutos atrás eram as tuas melhores amigas, e a lógica de mudança de rumo na vida do teu personagem está mal construída. Imagina-te a ver um filme em que de um momento para o outro devido a um acontecimento o vilão passa a ser herói e o herói passa a vilão, poderia acontecer, mas para haver essa mudança a estória tem de ser bem fundamentada e contada. O que não acontece em Rise of the Ronin. Senti que, no que toca à estória, estás numa montanha-russa em que apenas tem uma subida lenta e depois uma descida super rápida e acabou a trama… passa de uma potencial estória envolvente e complexa para uma simplicidade ridícula que fez lembrar a ultima temporada de game of thrones. Numa de toca a despachar e deixa os detalhes pelo caminho.
Quanto ao gameplay, a Team Ninja preparou uma imensidão de conteúdo para tu disfrutares, tens acesso a side quests, zonas que terás de libertar para impor ordem no japão matando todos os inimigos nesse local (ao estilo de Ghost of Tsushima), pontos de interesse que te premiam com pontos de habilidade, gatos para capturar, zonas para fotografares e ganhares recompensas. Tens um sistema de melhoramento de relação tanto com os personagens (através da casa comunal) como na região (libertando as várias zonas que estão dominadas por inimigos). A relação com os personagens pode ser melhorada através de opções de diálogo nas conversas com eles, quests e através de oferendas de prendas. No entanto, a estória por ter ficado tão simples, não me permitiu ficar apegado a nenhuma personagem.
Rise of the Ronin é um RPG em mundo aberto, com uma variedade de armas suficiente com variados estilos de combate associado ao tipo de arma para te fazer desfrutar do combate, e experimentar vários tipos de estratégias. O sistema de combate é interessante, porém com alguns pontos fracos, cada tipo de inimigo tem associado a si um tipo de arma com estilos de combate que farão com que dês mais dano ou menos dano, portanto terás de alternar a tua arma e estilo consoante o inimigo que defrontas. Ao estilo de Nioh. Os combates têm um ritmo de ação bastante rápido e sangrento, o que torna tudo mais divertido. No entanto, poderia ser melhor no que toca ao sistema de defesa. Podes defender os golpes do inimigo sacrificando a tua estamina e correndo o risco de perderes a postura e ficar vulnerável à sequência de ataques do oponente ou poderás tentar a tua sorte e acertar no ritmo exato para defletir o golpe do adversário, fazendo com que dês dano à postura dele (do género de sekhiro), é neste ponto que Rise of the Ronin não te favorece, caso falhes a defleção do golpe muito dificilmente consegues corrigir o timing e defletir porque o oponente já te aplicou a sequência de golpes. Senti imensa dificuldade em acertar nos timings e a corrigilos, mas caso acertes à primeira, facilmente defletes os restantes golpes. No entanto, nunca consegues interromper uma sequência do inimigo mesmo com golpes e sequências tuas, o que para os videojogos de hoje não deveria de ser assim. Basicamente podes estar a bater nele enquanto ele te bate ao mesmo tempo, deixando o combate pouco realístico.
Sendo um mundo aberto, o que ficas à espera é que todos os acontecimentos no mundo sejam fluidos, com o mínimo de interrupções ou loading screens. A Team Ninja, na minha opinião, comete um erro neste aspeto. Ao iniciares uma quest, és transportado para um menu de missão onde podes escolher o teu equipamento e os teus companheiros, que te ajudarão na missão passando para um videojogo estilo Nioh, onde és transportado para um mapa de missão e caso te afastes do local és avisado com um timer de que tens de voltar para a zona, caso contrário, abandonas a missão. Isto estraga toda a imersão que estarias a ter até ao momento, o que para um open world não é o ideal, tu queres estar a viver no mundo, um loading screen e um menu missão teleportando-te para o local do acontecimento não ajudam nesse sentido.
No entanto, todas as missões foram desafiantes, e difíceis devido ao sistema de combate que a Team Ninja preparou para nós. O facto de poderes escolher os companheiros que te irão ajudar, contribui para definires uma equipa que complemente as tuas capacidades de luta, porque cada personagem tem o seu estilo próprio de luta e os seus bónus que te aumentaram as habilidades ou stats. Permitindo assim teres a tua equipa maravilha e enfrentares os inimigos com o máximo de facilidade possível.

Rise of the Ronin, foi uma boa tentativa da Team Ninja de incorporar o estilo de Nioh num cenário open world. Mas ficou aquém das expectativas. Tens imenso conteúdo para passares imensas horas neste mundo, tanto a libertar regiões, como a equipares o teu personagem ou a farmar items para fabricares potentes utensílios para a batalha, no entanto torna-se repetitivo e por vezes faz sentir que é demasiado conteúdo. Havia coisas que podiam ter ficado de fora focando-se mais em outras. A estória é apressada, simples, mas tem os seus momentos altos, deixando um gosto a pouco e de que tanto potencial havia para fazer melhor. Rise of the Ronin prometia muito, e tem potencial para ser melhor.

Take a modern Assassins Creed game, give it actually good combat ripped straight from Nioh and Wo Long, and cheese grate the fuck out of the graphics and you have Rise of the Ronin, a surprisingly engaging open world action game.

Team Ninja has kind of perfected their trade with the two Nioh games, and decided to take their first step into being a generic open world game developer by taking that excellent gameplay and dumping it in a copy pasted series of mid sized maps with like 3 different activities. Bandit camps, archery/gliding challenges and collectibles. All of the missions are closed in Nioh style, so it screams "trend chasing" to me.

The open world really doesn't add anything to the game, but it doesnt really detract from it, giving you more shit to engage with in the post-game. The only things that truly take away from the experience are the relatively scattershot plotline with WAY too many characters, many lacking a defined personality, and the atrocious dubbing. I guess it's my fault for not playing in Japanese, but I mean, wow, it's PS2 era terrible, and this is a AAA, 70 dollar Sony published game.

I still do recommend the game though. The central gameplay loop is great, and there's enough complexity and depth to satiate most hardcore players. Is it as good as Sekiro? Or on the Japanese open world front, Ghost of Tsushima? Hell no. But its a solid 7 with more soul than the Ubisoft slop that inspired it. Just maybe wait for a half off sale this holiday.

CONS
Main story dragged on a bit.
Decent but repetitive side activities.
Too many characters to keep track of.
Outdated graphics.
PROS
Decent combat with varying styles and weapons.
Decent story.
Quite a few likable characters.
Good variety of boss fights.

At this point in time the ubislop school of open-world design is simply inexcusable, and is by far the biggest factor in play at making the game feel as bloated as it is.

Still, while it certainly overextends its welcome, Rise of the Ronin is pretty god damn fun to play thanks to its strong spoof in Sekiro's combat system that adds enough of its own identity to keep things interesting. The game however at times feels like a Frankenstein's monster of mechanics tacked on from Team Ninja's previous games: The gear stat system is completely pointless, 90% of the inventory might as well not be there, etc. Still, none of its mechanical messiness affects the core gameplay loop in any noticeable way, so while it is certainly pointless at the very least it is not disruptive at all.

Story also ended up being unexpectedly interesting; the Bakumatsu period has been heavily romanticized in popular fiction thanks to its myriad of larger-than-life personages, but I liked the way this game kept contrasting that starry-eyed idealism of its characters with the incredible amounts of bloodshed all their political action demanded, and the inherent tragedy of it all. The story does end up feeling rather messy towards the end due to its incredibly large cast (they really REALLY wanted all these historical figures to have their spotlight), but at the same time the actual period was a complete mess in real life too so I feel like the game ends up being reflective of that. I also find amusing how its most direct comparison, the American-made Ghost of Tsushima, ends up feeling much more nationalistic than the Japanese-made Rise of the Ronin lol.

Speaking of characters, I very much enjoyed how the game was not content with focusing only on the Big Warrior-slash-Politician People and also included plenty of real-life figures outside that big political circle. From courtesans and photographers to interpreters and firefighters, I appreciated how Rise of the Ronin acknowledged that the "little" people are as important to the tides of History as the more celebrated lawmakers and warriors are.

Anyway, while not an all-timer by any means, Rise of the Ronin is a pretty solid game that makes for a fun playthrough, and a very interesting take on the Bakumatsu period. I do hope Team Ninja's perpetual lack of proper identity doesn't make them forgo the open-world formula forever; if they manage to learn from Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring's much more interesting design choices and marry that to their already excellent combat design we could end up with something truly great in our hands in the future.