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.

a frustrating game to grade. the open world stuf isnt bad, a bit checklisty. the combat is a nice iteration on the nioh formula but the parry never clicked (also can we put a moratorium on Sekiro-style parries for a bit? getting tired of everything having it).

the loot is still a deluge and even more worthless than before. in the last five missions i got *1* item that was an improvement.

the story is the usual team ninja stuff except this time there's more of it and it hasnt improved quality-wise and is still really dry and boring. but there's more.

the mission variety is pretty boring too. basically every mission is "kill these dudes". you have speech skills to upgrade but they just debuff enemies or give you a bonus to character relationships.

the cosmetic system is way better, possibly one of the best i've seen in game. being able to pick & choose ever layer is neat.

i didn't mind most of the 47 hours spent playing but i gotta say can we get a lootless team ninja game? I rocked hayabusa style for the katana for a lot of it and izuna dropping fools just reminded me of having "fun" playing ninja gaiden black and uh cmon id rather get back to that shit

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.

This game did not deserve the reviews it received. Yes, it's not the prettiest game going, and yes it relies on a pretty tired open-world formula but for Team Ninja's first effort at the "genre", this is pretty formidable.

Firstly, this is just about TN's most comprehensible story and it's fairly long. The game takes you from knocking about Yokohama with a few rebellious Ronins to helping lead the great anti-shogunate revolution which formed modern day Japan.

As the story goes on, barring ridiculous liberties such as one boss fight with an Englishman who has rocket boots, you can tell TN has a passion for the history and story behind this game. It's grounded and involves real people with genuine concern for the future of their country. What's most impressive is the roster of characters is built from real-life people who played instrumental roles during the period.

The complexity of the combat sits somewhere between Wo Long and Nioh and can be about as hard as you want to make it due to a difficulty slider. Once you get the timing for parries down, some of the duels/missions in this game are some of TN's best and the tension that builds throughout the mid-game leads to some fantastic showdowns in the third act.

Likeable characters, interesting locations, excellent customisation, the odd decent side-activity really makes this one of the most under-appreciated games of the year.

Was dubious about playing this after hearing so much negativity online - but I’m glad I did. I really enjoyed the experience. Is it as good as Ghost? No - but still great in its own right.

Hearing complaints online about the graphics - to me I didn’t notice any issues with them. The world seemed full and the maps were just big enough without feeling the need to spend ages travelling to a destination or mission.

The gameplay was great - variety of different weapons and armour to customise your character and play style - the added difficulty option meant you could also tailor your “rogue like” experience too, I’ll admit I’m not the greatest at rogue likes so this was a nice addition.

My only gripe with it was the story - it was hard to follow at times and the amount of characters did feel overwhelming. But I still enjoyed it.

Rise of the Ronin is the result of a long, long build-up by Team Ninja. Everything they learned since making Nioh have been all thrown together into this one big attempt to make a meaty open world action game. Standing on the shoulders of greats such as Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Ghost of Tsushima, Ronin is a massive game indeed. I don't usually do this, but I feel like I had to separate my review in a few parts just to make it a bit more digestible. Anyways, let's start. This will be a fun one.

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COMBAT (on Normal difficulty)

I enjoyed the two Nioh games, particularly because of the combat system. It tastefully fits Team Ninja's hack and slash origins into a Soulslike's deliberate, lock-on dependent tendencies. Both you and the enemies would just aggressively hammer on each other, constantly looking for chances to fully decimate the other first. I'm very happy to say this school of combat is at its absolute top form here. With 9 weapon types to choose (not including the ranged sub-weapons), each with their own selection of unlockable combat styles, you have a lot of freedom to structure your modes of attack. Then you have the various combo-enabling mechanics, such as abilities that can be done after canceling attacks, being able to restore Ki (stamina) after attacking, attacks that can only be done when you switch combat styles or weapons, and so on. When you find the weapon that suits you the most, and are able to fully take advantage of it, you can end even boss fights with just 2 or 3 openings, and it's an utterly exhilarating feeling to successfully nail a planned attack.

Also, shoutout to the team for making a childhood dream of mine come true; being able to use a bayonet rifle like the Gunblade that it was meant to be. It's hard to beat the Katana just because it's easily the most flexible weapon, but it's a very close 2nd best weapon type for me.

Since the enemies are also powered by the same aggresive mechanics, you would still need to properly execute defensive moves, and boy the parries are satisfying in this game. The flashy visual effect and the clashing sound creates a strong, exhilarating feel. There's also a system where some enemy types' attacks would be best parried by certain combat styles, which allows you stagger enemies much faster with the right style. On Normal it's not necessary to strictly follow this, but I'm sure on harder difficulties it would be a much more helpful tool.

A massive thing that I have to appreciate is how many enemy movesets there are, especially the bosses. There is a LOT of characters in this game, and everybody wants to spar with you, friend or foe. Even rematch bosses would have new attacks and patterns that make it feel like you have never fought them before. And there's a dojo where you can fight against the characters you have met so far, I gotta say it's quite addicting to just start one of these fights and keep grinding until you get a better score.

When all is said and done, what you get is basically an fast-paced "anime" action game with a grounded historical theme in realistic clothing. Just sit on that for a second, imagine all those embellished folktales of swordsmen of yore, with such skill that allows them to strike faster than light, deliver multiple stabs within a second, and so on. Ronin is bringing that to life.

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STORY ELEMENTS

The way Team Ninja approaches the story continues the maximalist approach that they have been happily leaning on. The game wants to have as many story arcs and scenes as possible, and it becomes this dramatized history action show that definitely feels cramped and too fast paced in some places, because it doesn't necessarily show these story arcs in detail. You'll often feel like relationships are progressing a bit too quickly. This isn't such a huge flaw to me because ultimately the game still delivers solid emotional moments, but it's definitely something to keep a note of.

What I like the most about the story is the romantic portrayal of its historical characters. Even when people from opposing sides meet, if they each have the chance to show their strength, then no matter how it ends, they will usually gain respect for one another. It's a oddly wholesome thing to have in the midst of this bloody struggle for Japan's future. It's not to say that pure animosity and degeneracy doesn't exist, but through this romantic lens, you get this strong feeling that all the characters want a better future in their own ways, and because of that, everyone's stories are worth paying attention to. There's also a handful of lighthearted story moments, and the game never feels like it takes itself too seriously. I can't speak at all to how it compares to actual historical facts, but I do want to read up on some history right after this, and surely it means that the game is doing something right.

Like I said before, there's a lot of characters to meet, even when you're in the final hours of the game already. It is definitely too many characters to fully keep track of, but I'll say that the game does a good job with the characters that takes the most prominent roles. A lot of them have more elaborate personal side missions (called bond missions) that makes them stand out as well, and they're usually quite worthwhile from the story standpoint. You can also get closer to some characters and initiate romances if you gift them enough nice stuff or do enough missions for them. I got locked in with three lovely people; they didn't seem to mind the polygamy, and the intimate scenes are pretty sweet and wholesome, so no complaints from me.

I think the most disappointing thing about the story is the endings being basically the same, despite having to make some choices that feels like they would matter more. It would be way more fun if they have more actual endings, mostly because the story really allows for a lot of potentially satisfying places for it all to end up on.

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OPEN WORLD

The open world areas are pretty standard for the most part, structure-wise. It's very Ubisoft-inspired, you can see the entire map of the region you're currently in from the start, you just have to unlock fast travel points by lighting bonfires. Other than the main/side missions, there's some stand out activities like collecting cute cats, and the shooting gallery & gliding challenges, which I wish they had more of.

In exploration, you have a glider that you can use anytime and anywhere provided enough height, and I have to admit that it was kinda underwhelming until I got the upgrade that allows you to glide faster. You can also drop firebombs from above later on, which is quite situational but still fun. Then you have a grappling hook that you can use to grapple onto certain spots of the environment. There's not a lot of grapple spots, which is disappointing. You can use it to hook onto enemies, which is the most fun usage of the hook, since you can use it either aggressive or defensively in an active combat scenario. Overall, I think they could have done more to make these traversal mechanics more useful. The open world design doesn't lean on these mechanics enough, IMO. I'm not necessarily expecting something like Insomniac's Spider-Man where you would just swing and zip and glide all over the place like a madman, but I wish the exploration has the same level of flashy pizzazz that the combat has.

I do love the quality of life stuff that they figured out, like being able to find out locations of collectibles by doing enough activities in a local sub-area. Basically you can earn XP to progress a "Bond level" for a sub-area, and when you level up 2-3 times, the collectibles locations are revealed. It makes the side activities more rewarding because you're essentially being led straight into more rewards right after.

I also love the overall setting of the open world, this specific era of Japan is just so interesting to me. It's so cool to see how the previously closed world of Japan is being interwoven with effects from the outside world, it's like a place stuck between two different periods of time. I don't think this era of Japan is well-explored in pop culture, so Team Ninja really did well to strike gold.

A particular quality that I noticed about the overall open world design is that it feels like they made a handful of Nioh-style linear, smaller levels, and made in-between areas to connect them. Or maybe it's the other way around? Anyways, it's an approach that I have noticed more lately. Horizon Forbidden West had a similar feel, where I would stumble upon certain areas of the map that feels more deliberate and detailed in its design, and then I find out that a specific quest would take place in said area. It's probably a good way for a open world newbie like Team Ninja to start with, it's not like they did a bad job overall here. Finding a little nook in the map that feels intimately designed, taking a guess whether or not a quest will used that place as its backdrop, and finding out that you're right is a neat little meta-game.

There's also the neat detail of having other players' characters in the game. Every once in a while you'll stumble upon an NPC with an user name above them, and these are other people's MCs. You can see them just walking around the map, being held hostage in spots overrun by thugs, or even serving the antagonist's side as a hired ronin. It's a fun little touch that makes the game feel grander than it is.

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There's a lot more that I can talk about, but I want to end on how fashionable this game is. There's a lot of cool looking outfits/armors and weapons to collect. I probably spent maybe 5-6 hours total just trying to mix and match all the clothes and weapons I have. And it's all because you can just transmog your equipment so easily, so you don't have to worry about the stats. A lot of the coolest outfits/weapons are in the late game bond missions too, so you're getting rewarded for caring about the story of the characters. This whole fashion aspect of the game easily compensates for the horribly bloated loot system that Team Ninja carries from the Nioh games.

Now, that'll be enough. I had a lot of fun with Ronin. Although the open world aspects are far from perfect, it's clear to me that this is the way forward for Team Ninja. The claustrophobic and limited feel of their previous games always felt like the main obstacles for me to fully enjoy them. The open world approach fits Team Ninja because it always feels like they just want to do a lot of things at once, and in Ronin we finally get to see that desire unshackled. It's definitely my favorite Team Ninja game so far (although I'm not too familiar with their games before Nioh). They has successfully expanded their expertise, and that's good news for all of us.

While Rise of the Ronin is a fun game it has a bit of identity crisis. It takes inspiration from both the Assassins Creed RPGS and blends it with its Nioh siblings. What we end up getting is a okay story about an interesting time in Japan mixed with some fun combat even though it can be inconsistent in quality. The game also clutters your inventory frequently and the skill tree is filled with arbitrary numbers. If you want a Samurai RPG then pick Rise of the Ronin up when it hits sale prices (Rec $30 or less). 6.5/10.

Overall fun game. Lost steam at the end when trying to complete everything. Had the makings of a good story, but as usual Team Ninja didn't tell the story very well. Too many characters (who are you?) and picking sides didn't matter (always helped both sides in the end). Combat was very good when everything was flowing, but battling multiple opponents was frustrating. Especially when there are ranged enemies. Duals were where combat shined. Memorizing combos was a necessity to parry. Open world looked good, not great. Nice seeing the cites and castles in the distance. Not enough to do in the world.
Unfortunately did not surpass Nioh 2.

Ein Spiel, dass sich komplett über das Kampfsystem definiert.
Gleichzeitig ist es auch das einzige Element, was wirklich Spaß macht.
ich sehe keinen Grund warum Rise of the Ronin ein Open World Spiel sein sollte. Es gibt kaum Abwechslung in den Locations, in den Quests oder in den Zufallsbegegnungen. Nichts davon ist wirklich innovativ, was nicht wirklich schlimm ist wenn man trotzdem etwas zu erzählen oder zu zeigen hat.
Beides ist nicht der Fall. Die Grafik ist für PS5 Verhältnisse schlecht und nur wenige Momente lassen ein kurz inne halten und bewundern, wie weit man mit Spielen gekommen ist.
Die Geschichte hat mich ab 20 Stunden verloren, zwar ist es ganz interessant historische Figuren zu sehen, aber leider sind die Geschichten drum herum so eintönig und konfus erzählt, dass hier auch keine richtige Spannung aufkommen vermag. Außerdem gibt es zu viele NPCs die sich in verschiedenen Haupt- und Nebenmissionen immer wieder gegen den Protagonisten stellen und bekämpft werden wollen, nur um sich in der folgenden Cutscenen wieder zu beruhigen und ganz normal weiterzusprechen.
Das sind zwar sehr viele negative Punkte, trotzdem macht es Spaß mit dem Gleiter oder zu Pferde durch Japan zu reisen und das eben angesprochene Kampfsystem trägt über die meißten Schwächen hinweg. Leider ist man von diesem Studio einiges besseres gewohnt. Nioh 1 + 2 sind um Längen besser und sind durch das missionsbasierte System auch interessanter und direkter in ihrer Herangehensweise.
Die Platintrophäe ist einfach, aber verbunden mit ner Menge Collectibles. Muss man mögen

A really fun game with interesting combat, but the open world activities are a bit too repetitive especially when there are multiple maps, giving you the illusion that you've finished everything only to see another map of unfinished objectives. The story is a bit too chaotic and all over the place as well, with the two faction system doing more to make the story seem disjointed than it does to give it a both sides of the argument feel. These two aspects ultimately combined to have me feeling burned out pretty hard.