Rise of the Ronin seems like a sport that’s already one or two generations previous. Developer Group Ninja has referred to as it their “most bold” title to this point, however that ambition is overshadowed by lackluster graphics, outdated design ideas, and efficiency points that put the sport extra according to the PS4 and even the PS3 libraries. Regardless of these shortcomings, Rise of the Ronin continues to be a commendable launch for Group Ninja. It takes every part the studio does finest and melds it with concepts from different video games to create one thing that’s intriguing, albeit unoriginal.
Rise of the Ronin takes place in the course of the Bakumatsu interval, a time in Japan’s historical past that marked the tip of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the start of the nation’s opening to worldwide commerce. Your character, a anonymous ronin whom you customise with some intensive choices, finds themself separated from their “Blade Twin” (an unofficial sibling of kinds) and in the midst of a hate triangle between the anti-Shogunate faction, international settlers, and the pro-Shogunate forces. There’s loads of political intrigue right here, because the warring camps jockey for energy to ascertain a brand new Japan throughout a interval of turmoil and upheaval. Anybody conversant in the nation’s historical past can in all probability surmise how the occasions of Rise of the Ronin play out, however Group Ninja’s interpretation of this pivotal interval in Nineteenth-century Japan is compelling all the identical.
A well-recognized but fascinating historical past lesson
The driving power behind any story is its characters and writing. Rise of the Ronin handles each of those exceptionally. Whereas sometimes heavy-handed with its exposition, each named and anonymous characters have spectacular depth to them. They’ll keep in mind your earlier actions, usually hesitating to cooperate with you when you’ve engaged in felony exercise corresponding to chopping down common townsfolk. They’ll query your motives in the event that they uncover you would possibly’ve been working with the opposing faction. Hell, they’ll even let free on one another, often poking enjoyable at their besties and enemies alike. This plausible and wealthy characterization breathes life into historic figures, such because the modernization advocate Ryoma Sakamoto and the reformist mental Shoin Yoshida, who may come off as dusty relics in much less succesful fingers.
The bummer, then, is that the story’s supply is usually boring at finest and incongruous at worst. Regardless of a solid of charming characters who’ve exceptional rapport because of the sport’s glorious writing, Rise of the Ronin’s narrative continues to be primarily doled out by way of individuals standing round like motion figures. Severe shit is happening, however but, people loiter throughout dialogue sequences as if a struggle wasn’t brewing. It doesn’t even matter what’s occurring, both.
![A Rise of the Ronin character aims the pistol in his left hand at someone off-screen.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/ac486dcd07ca799e8f6d39767a35a45e.jpg)
Throughout one cutscene, after I cooked an anti-Shogunate samurai in a sparring match, he confronted me along with his again straight, arms crossed, and eyes unblinking whereas coughing up a lung. The animation was fully at odds with what was occurring. The identical factor occurred a bit later. Instantly after an assassination try on a pro-Shogunate official, my ally was panting like a canine whereas nonetheless standing up straight, as if we have been ready for espresso. These sorts of mismatches break the immersion throughout among the sport’s largest moments, notably because the narrative’s occasions are so darkish and gritty.
Nonetheless, Rise of the Ronin had me hooked. I saved desirous to know what would occur subsequent. The drama, the gossip, the occasional comedy, the love, the dying, the ache—it’s a bit little bit of every part in a pot that simmers right into a scrumptious, narratively wealthy marketing campaign. And it’s bolstered by a charming world that, whereas full of the everyday open-world busywork, has loads of beautiful vistas and emergent gameplay encounters that make use of its many various RPG methods.
Darkish Ghost of the Far Ronin Creed
It’s simple to take a look at Rise of the Ronin and instantly evaluate it to the opposite PlayStation 5 samurai ‘em up, Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima. Whereas the 2 video games are artistically and thematically alike, Group Ninja’s newest is extra of an amalgam of a number of different video games. It’s a bit bit Murderer’s Creed, a bit bit Darkish Souls, a bit bit Far Cry, and a bit bit Ghost of Tsushima all wrapped up into one bundle. It’s not a nasty factor. In truth, anybody who enjoys Group Ninja’s earlier video games will probably fall in love with what Rise of the Ronin is trying to attain. It proudly wears its influences on its sleeves. On the identical time, it takes most of the studio’s finest parts, from fight mechanics to environmental design, and combines them right into a type of “Biggest Hits” album. As an example, the studio’s penchant for linear levels could be very obvious in Rise of the Ronin, regardless of the sport choosing an open-world construction. Throughout sure missions, you’ll be funneled from fight space to fight space á la Ninja Gaiden, the Nioh video games, or Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty. There’s some interlocking bits right here and there, with paths twisting and folding into one another, however they do lack the intricacy of Group Ninja’s earlier video games.
However outdoors of those linear levels, the open world is memorable and huge. The journey spans three enormous cities—Edo (modern-day Tokyo), Kyoto, and Yokohama—every of them peppered with lovely pagodas, mountainous terrain, and small villages. Some, just like the port metropolis of Yokohama, have extra superior expertise than others as a result of its seaside entry allowed foreigners to dock and commerce items. Every metropolis has its personal distinct identification, which is nice as a result of most of what you’ll do in them is fairly repetitive, most frequently a riff on going to some place and murdering some particular person.
Rise of the Ronin
BACK OF THE BOX QUOTE
“It is all the most effective issues Group Ninja’s ever accomplished.”
TYPE OF GAME
Open-world action-adventure RPG with Soulslite parts.
LIKED
The fight, the characters, the setting, and the writing.
DISLIKED
All of the forgettable open-world busywork.
DEVELOPER
Group Ninja
PLATFORMS
PlayStation 5
RELEASE DATE
March 22, 2024
PLAYED
55 hours and nonetheless on the third (and ultimate) story chapter.
I’m not joking. Virtually each motion in Rise of the Ronin leads to dying. Requested to patch issues up between former comrades? You gotta kill some bandits harassing one in every of them first. Dropping by one of many Pleasure District halls to flirt with a geisha? You gotta kill some ruffians blocking the doorways to the pagoda first. Making an attempt to go to the coaching dojo to sharpen your expertise? You gotta kill some ronin who’ve arrange camp there first. Even main story bits, which initially appear to permit for a non-violent answer, inevitably finish in violence.
This design selection feels at odds with Rise of the Ronin’s dialogue choices, a lot of which is able to influence your relationships with the individuals you’ll meet. Nonetheless, there are a handful of selections which have that may change how some conditions play out. (Spare this particular person and so they might be a part of you in a struggle in a while. Kill that particular person and you could very properly have doomed the entire of Japan.) However these situations of significant decision-making are few and much between, and apart from possibly three or 4 moments, the result’s at all times the identical: somebody’s lifeless. I’m not averse to dying. I like killing individuals (in Rise of the Ronin). I simply want the sport lived as much as its lofty objectives relating to participant company and freedom.
A contemporary sport caught up to now
Fortunately, the fight is the most effective it’s ever been in a Group Ninja title. When you have been intimidated by the methods in the Nioh franchise or Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty, then Rise of the Ronin is extra approachable than these mechanically advanced video games. There isn’t an enormous swath of assaults or customizable movelists. Stance altering, which appeared within the Nioh sequence, returns right here, but it surely performs out in a extra rock-paper-scissors form of manner, much like Ghost of Tsushima. It’s an easy-to-understand system that additionally offers depth, as every weapon kind has a mess of obtainable stances so that you can unlock and grasp. The swordplay is satisfyingly crunchy—the clang of metallic clashing collectively, the swipe of a pointy blade slicing by way of supple flesh, the crack of bones as you chop them on the joint (sure, there’s dismemberment, and it guidelines) all feels hella good.
Rise of the Ronin’s fight does have Souls-y parts to it—insofar as enemies don’t fuck round and dying prices you a precious improve useful resource referred to as Karma—but it surely’s by no means low-cost or unforgiving. Combos are simple to execute as they’re relegated to 2 buttons. Parries can deflect incoming harm and go away your enemy open to a one-hit finisher, however they’re not at all times essential to win. Stealth is a viable, and infrequently stronger, method to fight conditions. There’s even a preventing type based mostly on Ninja Gaiden sizzling boy Ryu Hayabusa. It’s clear Group Ninja took the teachings it’s realized over the 12 months and utilized them right here.
![A Rise of the Ronin character blows the smoke from the pistol in his right hand.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/1a60a1858b6f330c135f3be74afdb175.jpg)
Sadly, Rise of the Ronin’s open-world design feels as previous as grime. This can be a sport that’s all about chasing map markers. You’ll begin in, say, Yokohama, with only a handful of icons in your map: a cat to seek out, a treasure chest to open, just a few predominant and aspect quests to complete, a bandit camp or two to wipe out. Your reward for finishing these actions is unlocking extra map markers to chase after. The formulation repeats within the sport’s different cities, and the open world slowly begins to blur collectively as you dash from one finish of the map to the opposite, checking off bins in your to-do record. It actually doesn’t assist that many of those actions are copy-pasted from zone to zone. One time, some dude beckoned for assist as a result of “a fellow is operating amok over there.” I adopted him, but it surely was a entice, so I killed him and his homies, looted their our bodies, and saved it transferring. Perhaps 10 or 20 minutes later, I obtained flagged down by a similar-looking dude with a similar-sounding request. Shock! It was an ambush, however a barely totally different one. As an alternative of him and his cronies, it was really “a fellow operating amok over there.” Me and this random dude tag-teamed the troublemaker. He thanked me, gave me some silver for my troubles, and I saved it transferring. This exercise occurred many times for about an hour straight throughout my playthrough. This isn’t the form of fascinating aspect content material that retains you wanting to have interaction with it, and it’s an enormous purpose why Rise of the Ronin feels one or two generations previous. The tasteless, banal aspect content material hollows out the intriguing narrative it so desperately desires to inform. It’s bloat for bloat’s sake.
The visuals contribute to this dated feeling. Regardless of there being a Efficiency Mode that targets a extra steady body fee, Rise of the Ronin commonly chugged, particularly whereas exploring densely populated areas. I’ve had about three onerous crashes again to the PS5 dashboard whereas taking part in, two of which occurred as I scrolled the in-game menus. I’ve gotten caught in partitions, misplaced all audio, and even had my DualSense’s haptic suggestions killed (I actually had to purchase a alternative controller). Closing and reopening the sport fastened most of those points, and there’s a day-one patch that ought to iron out the efficiency, however Rise of the Ronin isn’t as polished of an expertise accurately. It has its completely gorge moments, don’t get me fallacious, like when the solar breaks the highest of a mountain or when the yellow-and-green reeds sway within the wind. However graphically, Rise of the Ronin has extra according to Sport Republic’s 2006 action-adventure sport Genji: Days of the Blade or Ninja Concept’s 2007 action-adventure sport Heavenly Sword than Ghost of Tsushima.
And you already know what? I don’t care. I don’t care that a lot of the open-world glut is flavorless and unsatisfying. I don’t care that the story is essentially delivered by way of dolls whose our bodies ignore the writing behind them. I don’t care that my selections don’t at all times matter. I’m right here for every part Rise of the Ronin is serving as a result of I’m nonetheless having a good time with Group Ninja’s newest sport. I’m having fun with the fight, which is approachable, deep, and various. I’m having fun with the setting, which is impressed by IRL occasions I’ve studied for years. I’m having fun with the characters, all of whom are three-dimensional and memorable. (I’ve teared up just a few occasions when a few of my fave characters died.) Hell, I’m even having fun with the uninspired aspect content material just because I get to swing my sword. For higher and worse, Rise of the Ronin is Group Ninja’s “Biggest Hits” RPG. There may be a dud or two within the tracklist, however on the entire, this file—I imply, sport—bangs.