not too sure on a rating yet (3 or 3.5) but damn the show is fun!

i've been playing the yearly NBA2K & madden games for like 8 years now, this is probably better than almost all of them LOL. idk if i can like it more than my favorite 2ks or maddens just because i don't like baseball nearly as much... but the show is so well made.

road to the show is literally leagues above the shit madden and 2k have too. you're telling me i can play as a woman and STILL MAKE THE MLB? that's sm fun. i love being able to actually play as myself in these gamemodes. the rating progression isn't bullshit paytowin like 2k either! i can actually play games and have fun! wow!
also love the actual simulation modes in any sports games. i loveee building teams and getting into 20+ year franchises. the show's pretty good for this... outside some of the UI......... the playoff ui is so ass

i'd say the only underwhelming part of this game is its graphics but i don't really care about that too much. it's a step down from other sports games in that area but it literally excels everywhere else sooooooooo slay

fun game. getting into baseball has been great. GO PADRES!

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!