Rise of the Ronin was developed by Team Ninja and is an open-world action role-playing game. You take on the role of a Ronin who is on a journey to find his or her other half while ushering in the dawn of a new Japan. There is a lot to love in this game. Especially if you are into deep melee combat or are itching for a game that takes place in a historically accurate Japan.
Developer & Publisher // Developed by Team Ninja Published by SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Platforms // PlayStation 5
MSRP & Release Date // $69.99, March 22 2024
Reviewed On // PlayStation 5
The Story in Rise of the Ronin
Players assume the role of one of a pair of twins who lost their home. You are saved by a member of the Kuroso clan and they shape you into being the Blade Twins. This is where the game begins. You are told to assassinate a historical figure to stop Japan’s borders from opening up, which would lead to Japan being influenced by Western society. The story is based on historical events and battles and the events of the game all lead up to the Boshin war.
Since you are playing as a Ronin, you are not confined by your actions. You can choose to align pro-shogunate or anti-shogunate throughout the story but the main tasks are simple. You need to find your other half while trying to save Japan. The story takes us through a nearly 20-year period in 19th-century Japan known as the Bakumatsu period. Since the story is grounded in a historically accurate Japan, it maintained my attention during my playthrough.
The story is engaging and a historically accurate narrative while providing choices and consequences to players. Most of the choices boil down to either siding with the shogunate or against them. It is not groundbreaking but it serves the game well. Moreover, there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. An early example of choice and consequence is choosing to spare or kill an individual. If you choose to spare him, he can be used as a teammate in the main “Ronin missions”.
Diverging Blade Twins
Since we play as one-half of the Blade Twins the other twin acts as our foil. The one we do not choose serves as one of the throughlines for the narrative and is the main driving force for the protagonist. The Blade Twin storyline is what kept me engaged throughout.
We are trying to save Japan but both you and your Blade Twin have chosen to go about that in opposite ways. They take a more destructive path. I took a more diplomatic route in an attempt to please both sides. While this becomes a trope, you face your Blade Twin multiple times throughout the story but with each battle. Of course, they become stronger and more fierce just as you do. With each fight, the player is given more context of why they’ve chosen the path they’re on.
Too Many Side Characters, Not Enough Substance
If this hook was not present I would have been let down and confused because of the breadth of side characters that are thrown at us. Every named side character acts as a bond with the protagonist and each has a set of “bond missions” to complete.
These “bond missions” are technically side missions but they play like main missions. They offer some of the more unique scenarios in Rise of the Ronin. Some bonds are fleshed out and have multiple missions tied to them while others are just given one or two. You may even get attached to a character and then be disappointed with how little they are utilized or worse, just get killed off. In my playthrough though, only 3 out of the approximately 30 bonds got killed off.
That is my main gripe with the story. Some characters just show up and we are supposed to remember them and their motives. Each character isn’t given enough screen time for us to truly connect with them. I would have preferred the closed-knit solution Sucker Punch implemented in Ghost of Tsushima instead of the shotgun approach Team Ninja took here.
Before the final mission of the game, you can have a chat with the bonds you have made up to this point. It’s optional but each bond does have something to add about the journey thus far. The final battle is epic and you are left with one last decision.
Deep and Satisfying Combat in Rise of the Ronin
In the 59 hours I spent with Rise of the Ronin, I never truly mastered combat. I only got proficient with it. That shows how high of a skill ceiling there is in this game. It does take some time to truly find a groove with all the mechanics and systems, but once you do it truly shines.
The combat is clearly inspired by Sekiro. Each enemy has a meter to dwindle down, parries to time, and critical hits to perform once said meter is depleted. There are light stealth mechanics like hiding in bushes and crouching around on rooftops to stealthily take down the weaker enemies. It even has a grappling hook that works just as it did in Sekiro. the grappling hook can used both in the open world and during combat.
This is where the Sekiro comparisons end, however. The game offers a ton of different weapons to choose from and each weapon truly does feel different from the last. Each weapon also has multiple different stances to master. I experimented with every weapon in the beginning because there was a trophy tied to getting a kill with each one. It was fun seeing how each weapon worked in combat and how the different weapons have different counterspark (parry) windows. The weapons I gravitated towards were the paired sword and the oxtail blade while occasionally taking on enemies the old-fashioned way with fists.
Martial Skills
To be proficient and to succeed in Rise of the Ronin you will have to get used to pulling off combs with your own martial skills. This includes switching stances to keep the combos going all while parrying and dodging the enemies’ attacks. Stances incorporate a rock-paper-scissor mechanic (called Jion, Chi, or Ten) that can deal additional damage or resistance. It truly is a song and dance. It even has shades of being like a fighting game.
In the beginning, each weapon only has one or two martial skills but more are unlocked gradually by using said weapon. Some weapons can unlock a third stance depending on how much you use the weapon.
Tight Combat, Wonky Camera
It doesn’t take long to understand the flow of combat and it’s entertaining figuring out each boss’ string of combos. The game offers a variety of ranged weapons as well. For ranged weapons, I stuck with Kunai’s and long guns but we also have access to bows and handguns. I enjoyed the combat quite a lot. It balances being accessible and easy to grasp while also having a steep learning curve.
The combat here is tight and responsive. The player’s attack speed is dependent on which weapon is used. For example, If you use the paired swords your attacks are a quick flurry. In contrast, using a greatsword is slower and requires you to hold and release the attack buttons to execute. There’s a lot of room for experimentation here to find which weapon suits your play style. I only became proficient with combat because I never truly mastered switching stances and changing weapons mid-combo. I usually just stuck to one weapon in a fight.
One big negative I have with the combat is the camera. When the enemies push you to a corner of a room or if you are stuck against a wall, you will be fighting with the camera. It can be heartbreaking when you can’t telegraph the enemies’ martial skill and get hit with a devastating blow all because you could not make out the attack. The only thing that solved this for me was to spam dodge whenever I got into those situations.
Mission Design
Some missions have really dope scenarios and make use of the open world in fun ways. For example, a bond mission titled “OId Friends” has us finding and defeating an informant. However, the mission takes place at night and you are gliding between boats and small islands. It was fun gliding to each small island, stealthily taking out enemies in the darkness. Then gliding across the water to ultimately reach the mission’s objective.
This leads me to another gripe I had and that was with the mission design. Other than gating us with traversal the missions can be exploited. I do not know if this was Team Ninja’s intention, but the regular grunt enemies can be skipped in many missions. One of the trophies was to finish a mission with all 32 allies. Only two can be present in any given mission. While going for this trophy I realized that you can just skip everyone and run straight to the boss to quickly beat missions.
World/ Traversal/ Side Activities
Rise of the Ronin does not have an interconnected open world. The game offers 3 separate open-world areas to traverse through on foot, horseback, swinging around with the grappling hook, or via gliding. Each area is split up into regions and each region has a checklist of things to do. Luckily not everything needs to be completed or collected for the platinum.
I thought the world was going to be a boring slog but I was surprised with how fast each region was opening up. After completing a few regions I found a groove with the open world as well. The protagonist has a bond with each region and the bond can be leveled up. Leveling up the bond with the land makes it so the activities and collectibles are actually marked on the map. You can place up to 5 markers on the map. There is no mini-map so these markers are quite useful. It became fun because our hands were not being held while exploring.
Side Activities
Side activities range from collecting cats, killing fugitives, raising banners (fast travel points), finding landmarks, ranged weapon challenges, gliding challenges, and more. At the very least they are simple and unobtrusive. The challenges can be quite challenging to master but they don’t take more than a few minutes to do. I enjoyed the simplicity of the side content offered here. It is all a means to funnel the player into combat or traversal. The ranged and gliding challenges were the most fun to do. The earlier ones make use of your long gun, while the later challenges make use of the Gatling guns. The gliding challenges start simple. But the later ones require the use of gliding and a grappling hook.
Some of the side activities did get tiring after a while. Especially when trying to collect all 100 cats as those are mandatory for a trophy. The challenges offer up rewards such as new weapons and armor if you get a high enough score. In other words, these activities are worth it. Especially since completing all the side content also increases your bond with the land.
Quality-of-Life Features in Rise of the Ronin
There are quality-of-life features present in Rise of the Ronin. If you go over to a point in the map and press L2 you are given options to auto run to destinations. Saving you from traveling the world manually via horseback. Another quality of life feature is something called “testament of the soul”. This lets you go back and complete any mission, change the outcomes of your decisions, and forge bonds you might’ve missed.
You can also go back to the other areas of the game through this as well. As mentioned earlier you can place up to 5 markers on the map. This helps you avoid frequently pausing the game. It’s little additions that made this game a joy to platinum.
Graphics and Performance
Rise of the Ronin isn’t the most beautiful game around. It can look “last gen” at times. But as you progress through to the second and third areas of the game it can start to look quite nice. In particular, the third area of the game stood out the most because it was essentially one large city making it the most NPC-dense location.
There’s a lot of verticality in the third area as well. The third area is home to a city lined by a long winding road up a mountain that leads to a temple. There’s even a trophy attached to gliding off this area. The image can look soft when viewed up close. However, when sitting at a normal distance from a TV/monitor, Rise of the Ronin can look impressive at times. Ultimately, this helped with immersion.
Three Graphical Options Available in Rise of the Ronin
There are three different graphical options in the game: Performance, Fidelity, and Raytracing. The Fidelity and Raytracing modes do offer an unlocked frame rate toggle. This game is combat and gameplay-focused, it begs for 60 FPS. You get that most of the time if you choose the performance option.
It can stutter when traveling quickly through the world but aside from that it is stable in combat. Frame drops were more noticeable in the second and third areas of the game. But overall it was more than playable. No major bugs, glitches, or crashes were reported either.
Audio Design
I played this game with the English dub and the voice acting is serviceable. The characters you come across all have accents based on where they are from. So the voice acting is at least varied. I do wish the player-controlled character had more spoken dialogue as they do act as somewhat of a blank slate.
The world has a great sense of ambiance while exploring. You’ll hear cats meowing, dogs howling, and the wind wrestling through the grass and trees. There’s subtle NPC and enemy chatter while traversing through the cities and enemy camps. You’ll even hear that cricket chirping sound effect synonymous with anime. The music kicks in when initiating battle and subtly goes away when battles are over. Blades have very distinct clashing sound effects and the game gives great audio feedback when landing countersparks (parries) and critical hits. Everything down from activating banners, finding new landmarks, to switching stances all give audio feedback. Overall the audio design is solid.
Final Thoughts on Rise of the Ronin
There is a lot to love in Rise of the Ronin and it is a valiant first crack at an open world for Team Ninja. The gameplay and combat shine the brightest here. It does a good job of keeping you in the flow of combat. The side content is a checklist of things to do, but it serves its purpose to supplement the combat, which is a frenetic and brutal dance.
