Just as I emerge from the onslaught of reviewing Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, I’m ambushed by Rise of the Ronin, yet another open world mammoth. Whoever said that 2024 would be a quiet year for games clearly wasn’t paying attention. (That was me, I said that. I was so wrong.)
Thanks to Sony, I got a chance to play Rise of the Ronin early, and give some brief impressions on the anticipated title before its release later this month. I’ll have a full review out later, as well, but it’s still very much under progress.
These impressions are based on the first few hours of the story, from a build that’s still anticipated to receive at least a day-one patch.
New world, old tricks
Rise of the Ronin comes from Team Ninja, who are no strangers to hack’n’slash or action adventure gaming. Their seminal works include classics such as Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, and the underrated Hyrule Warriors. In short, if you’re looking for frenetic combat and wobbly controls that still, somehow, make for a satisfying big picture, you’ve got the right developer.
Set in Japan during the Boshin war, as western influences encroach upon the shores of the country, Rise of the Ronin blends RPG-elements with third-person action gameplay to a mostly successful degree. While the player can create a custom character, much of their personality and story is largely set in place well before you even set foot on your adventure.
The story centers around samurai known as Blade Twins. Warriors who fight together so fluidly, they are like part of the same mind and body. As foreign powers threaten the sovereignty of Japan, your clan comes under attack from renegade shogun, forcing the player into the forefront of historic events.
It’s a lot of pseudo-history in the style of Assassin’s Creed, complete with cameos from known historic figures. For fans of the era, the wealth of details and wacky archetypes are a treat. You won’t learn anything here, but it’s entertaining, nonetheless.
The first few hours open only a small portion of the world map, but even that is plenty to give a taste of what Rise of the Ronin has to offer. While nothing is particularly new or novel, exploring the shores of Yokohama and its surrounding countryside is fun. Though that might depend entirely on how fascinated you are with Japan and its history.
Each area comes with smaller side quests, errands, and bases to clear out. I found these to be very familiar to another underrated and largely forgotten title, Viking: Battle for Asgard. To make a name as a wandering swordsman, you have to get the people to trust you first. For that, you’ll have to clear out roaming bandits, known criminals, and upstart warlords, all looking to carve a piece of Japan for themselves. As you clear out enemy camps, life slowly returns to these areas, revealing merchants, quests, and cats.
Yes, cats. The furry lords of the universe serve as a fun side-activity from all the bloodshed. After all, what kind of adventurer wouldn’t make it a point of honor to pet as many kittens as they can?
Exploration is at its peak when utilizing the glider, a Zelda-esque addition that lets you fly over enemy fortifications, and attack from above in some delightfully loopy ways.
Apart from that, you’re limited to the basics of open world exploration. In many ways, Rise of the Ronin surprises by just how old-fashioned it is in this regard. Unlike Tears of the Kingdom or Assassin’s Creed, you can’t climb everything, and most of the areas are stunningly linear. Even the grappling hook comes with a bunch of caveats. Only certain locations allow for its use, and, outside of combat, you’re only using it exactly when the game lets you.
There’s also a frustrating sense that not all of this was designed with an open world in mind. Missions will randomly tell you that you’re going too far from the mission area. Even if you’re just exploring for another way to infiltrate a fortress. Other times you’re just stuck going around walls that you really should be able to scale. You are, after all, a ninja.
But, as said, this is very early in the game, and there’s no clear indication yet that this will last. Hopefully, as the world opens up, Rise of the Ronin allows for more freedom in its adventuring.
Combat mechanics and loot are so very familiar
Rise of the Ronin is varied, but I wouldn’t call it deep. At least not at this point.
There’s a wealth of options to choose from when it comes to weaponry. Everything from barehanded combat to large scale blades, rifles, and pistols are on the table. The aforementioned grappling hook provides some cartoonish antics as you level up your skills. Including the ability to hurl enemies around like they’re rag dolls. There’s something extremely satisfying about changing your loadout in the middle of a frenetic fight, and suddenly unloading onto the enemy with a flurry of swords and guns like you escaped from a Takashi Miike film.
Sadly, the combat itself ranges from occasionally satisfying to pointlessly hectic. Any fight with multiple opponents quickly descends into aggravating stun locks and camera troubles. Blocking and Ki-attacks require extreme precision, and the varying frame rate makes this a far more difficult proposition than it needs to be.
As with their previous game, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Team Ninja struggles to deliver a coherent experience. It’s ambitious and full of big ideas, but the technology can’t keep up. Luckily, Rise of the Ronin comes with three difficulty levels without punishing the player for changing them during gameplay. On the lowest setting, the blocking window is slightly longer, and enemies take more damage. Which, in turn, leads to a far more rewarding experience as a powerful samurai warrior.
Similarly, loot is another case of “wide as an ocean, shallow as a puddle”. There’s a metric ton of stuff to find, yet most of it feels like a case of seeing which one has higher numeric scores. Yes, some apply minor stat buffs if you wear the whole set, but it runs the risk of playing the game looking ridiculous for a minor boost. There is a mechanic in the safe house that allows you to transmogrify the clothes to look like whatever you want, which in turn makes the original looting mechanic even more superfluous.
Stats and RPG elements are light as well. You have the basic strength, intelligence, dexterity, and charisma to choose from, yet all lead to similar results. Some speech checks allow for marginally different paths, at least early on, but don’t go in expecting a deep RPG experience.
Companions have light social mechanics, such as gift giving and bonding experiences. These haven’t come to play that much in the early few hours of the game, but they are there.
Alternative combat styles are a breath of fresh air, and bring to mind the best elements of Bushido Blade, from over two decades ago. You can switch between two different styles during combat, and set any combination from the menu between fights. Every weapon comes with their own move set, and there is a genuine difference to how they behave in any given scenario.
I’m still optimistic
If it sounds like I’m being harsh on Rise of the Ronin, I’m really trying not to. I’ve had a lot of fun with my first few hours, and there are parts of the gameplay loop that really have me hooked.
But it’s a game of familiar elements, and not all of them are particularly better than the games that inspired it. It reminds me of the PS2-era cult classic, Way of the Samurai, where you play a wandering swordsman whose actions in a small village drive the plot in unexpected directions.
Yet those games were limited in scope, allowing for deeper mechanics and replayability. In choosing an open world RPG as its template, Rise of the Ronin competes in a field that’s filled to the brim with modern classics. Every time it stumbles, it draws comparison to the others. Multiple times in the past week, I’ve questioned why it wasn’t a linear, or more limited experience in the first place.
Then again, this is a big, sprawling adventure, and I’m only at the beginning. Maybe it’s a case of a slow start. Perhaps the vast variety of mechanics come together in a way that’s rewarding and challenging the further I get.
And yet, it’s still a samurai game. We don’t get many of those. So there’s still a lot to love, even if it’s with caveats.
Toisto 