Team NINJA and Koei Tecmo have brought a massive RPG with Rise of the Ronin, offering a lot of choices, customizability, and a carefully constructed story. The producer, Yosuke Hayashi, and development producer and game director, Fumihiko Yasuda, discussed how their collaborative efforts are what began this project at Koei Tecmo Games and Team NINJA. They noted that this project was already in the works before even Nioh was published.
Although it took a while to finally get to this stage, players can expect similar combat systems from Team NINJA—along with the “history-inspired method” that Koei Tecmo has been known for. All under the banner of Sony Interactive Entertainment, this is Rise of the Ronin.
Rise of the Ronin was the perfect samurai/ronin/shinobi fix I needed, especially after playing countless hours of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. While games like Sekiro have predetermined protagonists, Rise of the Ronin allows the player to be the type of Ronin they want to be. The dismemberment and haptic feedback was so satisfying with each kill. No, I am not a psychopath, but it provided the same satisfaction as hitting blood-bathed headshots or chainsaw kills in Gears of War.
“Rise of the Ronin was the perfect samurai/ronin/shinobi fix I needed, especially after playing countless hours of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.”
The premise of the game is intricate enough to give its players the sense of branching choices. The story takes place during Japan’s Bakumatsu period, 300 years of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s tyrannical rule. The shogunate struggles to maintain relationships with its own Japanese factions, and a cholera outbreak plaguing the land—along with political pressures from the U.S. and British influences. If you have been watching the FX series Shōgun, you can get an idea of what was happening during the Shogunate and post-Shogunate timelines.
Players take on two children who grow into figures known as Blade Twins—twin spirits eternally bonded to be masterful swordsmen working together. This means you get to create and take on two characters in the storyline. It reminded me of how Genshin Impact begins. Both of these characters are masterless samurai (ronin), and many of the choices the player is faced with shape the ending. Not unheard of in RPGs like the Mass Effector Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games.
The game has three difficulties: Dusk, Dawn and Twilight (Easy to Hard). I played Dusk, the more story-focused mode, to really experience the game without getting bogged down by the fights. However, I still had some difficulty because I always struggled to parry in fighting games. But even for me, it was a balanced enough system to not make me want to rage quit—looking at you, Elden Ring.
Like many who play RPGs, I spent about an hour or two designing my characters. It is tough alone to create one character, but creating two is even more hard work. One of the surprising things I enjoyed in the character creation was the diversity of hairstyles. I know there has been a lot of rhetoric claiming that Black hairstyles have been so limited to about three generic hairstyles in the video game culture and other animated mediums for so long. Rise of the Ronin pushes those choices a little further, which I wholeheartedly appreciate.
“I spent about an hour or two designing my characters.”
Another great feature is that players can join up to two other players to experience the game’s main story missions in online co-op. The game allows players to have a combination of AI allies and players as well—a very similar structure to Elden Ring or most of their Souls games. For this review, I played with AI allies but I cannot wait to do story missions with friends. The game highlighted these moments where co-op is available, and I thought they were pivotal moments in the story where fighting with the squad would be enjoyable. It is a little similar to the aforementioned games or other MMORPGs like Warframe or Star Wars: The Old Republic.
An important element of a good RPG is the combat system. For those used to the developers’ iconic Nioh game series will find something familiar here. It is also pretty much the same as the Souls and Assassin’s Creed games.
I was shocked by the vast repertoire of weapons to use: odachis, katanas, bayonets, pistols/revolvers, rifles, flamethrowers, spears, greatswords and many more. Strangely, there were no axes to use despite some enemies using them. Regardless, the weapon assortment was expansive, using an equipment level and damage level system. The same could be said with armour and accessories, which all have buffs the more you play. A lot of aspects here looked similar to WB Games’ Hogwarts Legacy as well.
“The cutscenes were really well done, from start to finish.”
In the same sense, players could use the same aesthetic changes to their character in this game as you could in Hogwarts Legacy—sometimes you just need the armour benefits but like the style of a different hat or t-shirt. I really appreciate RPGs that have implemented this customizability to their games; rocking out good aesthetics without sacrificing style is a must!
The cutscenes were really well done, from start to finish. While the English voice-acting was a little over-the-top at times, and the NPC shops had some generic lines, it was enough to keep me interested. Something about historical Japan has always been fascinating to me, and this game has allowed me to live it out to the fullest.
For $89.99, Rise of the Ronin could be slightly overwhelming with its features and mission types—in a great way. Like the Assassin’s Creed games, there are missions where areas can be liberated of public disorder. Then, similarly to games like Dead Rising, there are missions that involve taking pictures. Some missions even took me to a gambling den, making me happily reminiscent of Gwent in The Witcher games or playing Sabacc in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
The way this game built on other RPGs was just too much fun. It had a glider like the one Aang uses in Avatar: The Last Airbender; it has fast travel like in Skyrim or Fallout; there are even purposeful reasons to pet cute dogs and cats; it has mounts like in almost most modern RPGs; and it even has a hook mechanic to leap up to specified spots.
With so much to experience in this RPG, loading screens were not painstakingly long. The only dreadful part that ate up most of my exploration time was figuring out what I could jump or leap over. I know there is a major debate about how yellow ledges/markers have become the clear indicator for things that could be climbed (as seen in adventure games like the Tomb Raider and Horizon games). It has some ledges with white scratch marks, but everything else was ambiguous.
I agree it would be a bit too hand-holding for the player, but it does make the gameplay smoother for those invested in the cinematic story. Or, there could be a default setting to have certain ledges and ropes that can be leapt on or climbed—the players can turn it off afterwards.
“Rise of the Ronin had a clear goal: It made a high-quality open-world RPG set in Japan during an era that blended the way of the samurai along with American and European influences.”
The worst of it was in the water; it was very tricky figuring out where I could ascend from. Eventually, I would just teleport to the nearest banner save points (similar to how bonfires or graces work in FromSoftware’s games). Even the animations of activating a new banner were cool.
Rise of the Ronin had a clear goal. It made a high-quality open-world RPG set in Japan during an era that blended the way of the samurai along with American and European influences. It opened up the possibilities of innovations they could incorporate into the game to make it fun for all kinds of players. I hope to see them add an extended timeline as DLC in the potential future.
As a triple-A game, Rise of the Ronin rose to the occasion and might be the most fun I have had in a while for a samurai/ronin-heavy game. From the main story to the side quests, there was always something fun to do, and it was easy to get sidetracked by pop-up events. The graphics were solid, the music/soundtrack was hype, the gore effects were strangely pleasing, and the story was cinematic as hell.
There are at least 40+ hours of gameplay provided here. The replayability factor is heavy, too, with the ability to revisit key moments where the player decided one way over the other. This is a must-play game for those wanting to live out their samurai/ronin fantasies like me! It might be preemptive to say: this might be my game of the year already.
