Let’s talk about the birds and the bees. Provided the birds and the bees are The Witcher 3 and Assassin’s Creed. When a studio loves two games very much, they spend time alone in the studio to conceive something entirely new. That’s essentially what Team Ninja has done with Rise of the Ronin — and we love it. At least, we love what we’ve seen so far.
Don’t set your heart on Rise of the Ronin being a carbon copy of The Witcher 3 or Assassin’s Creed, though. It’s an amalgamation of plenty of games — Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro, and Nioh prominent among them — all smushed together to create something special and most importantly: unique. Oh, and lest we forget the intricate Dark Souls-like difficulty this game features.
Our preview is limited to the game’s first couple of hours (though we took around three and a bit to get to where Team Ninjas wanted us to be). That’s plenty, honestly. Rise of the Ronin doesn’t mess around. We got a great sense of the scale Team Ninja is going for, an introduction to the somewhat intriguing story and an urge to keep playing and exploring the world conjured up by the makers of Nioh (history helped, we guess).
Blurred around the Veiled Edges
Rise of the Ronin kicks off in 1853 Japan. Players don the kegetsu of two young samurai regularly referred to as Blade Twins. These ‘Twins’ are believed to have suffered a traumatic past — your childhood village burning to the ground will do that to you — before being inducted into the ‘Veiled Edge’ and trained as hardcore, katana-wielding killing machines.
Blade Twins are exactly that — proficient with a blade. At least, until we got our hands on them. They’re described as two peas in a pod, two halves of one whole, yin and yang, unable to go on without each other. You’ll be tested in this regard a little sooner than you might expect.
It’s here, after the game’s first “mission”, that the story starts to carve a path for itself. It’s a path we’re eager to see the tail-end of down the road. It’s an experience somewhat dampened by our expressionless main character — an issue with most loosey-goosey open-world RPGs. It’s not all for naught — the subtle worldbuilding Team Ninja’se infinitely more energetic NPCs and semi-rich open world provide make for an experience we wanted more of.
Rise of the Ronin is an RPG at heart. You’re not just role-playing a samurai as they cut down countless soldiers in their way (at least not all the time). Occasionally, you’ll make a decision or two. Major ones. We, for instance, chose to fell one of the game’s earlier bosses rather than spare their life, only to discover that the character could have returned as an ally down the road, massively simplifying future encounters.
We respected the gravity of our decisions a little more after that one.
Patience is a virtue
It doesn’t take Rise of the Ronin long before it starts handing you deadly weapons. You’ll whip up a character in the thorough character creator, choosing your character’s ‘Blade Sharpening Origin’ which essentially determines the style you’ll be playing, weapons, and stats, before jumping into the thick of things before you can blink.
If you’re at all concerned about committing to a set of stats and their recommended weapons, don’t be. Rise of the Ronin gives you plenty of testing time before it’ll be locked in. Our ‘Killer’ origin recommends a loadout consisting of katanas and ōdachis. We’re here to be samurai, dammit.
Anyone who’s bosom friends with Nioh will be instantly familiar with Rise of the Ronin’s impeccably smooth combat. The dense array of weapons each features specific stances and movesets, requiring effective use of Ki (basically a stamina gauge) to unlock their full potential. Altercations regularly consist of players whittling down their enemy’s Ki to throw them off balance and deliver an often final crushing blow.
Like any Souls-like worth its salt, rolling, parrying, and stamina management are key to making Rise of the Ronin work. Pull it off though, and you’ll be front-row to some of the flashiest and at times, vexatious, combat encounters we’ve seen. After you’ve had your ass handed to you ten, twenty, or fifty times, pulling off a perfect counter-spark (parry) and proceeding to return the favour delivers a high we rode for several hours.
Rise of the Ronin: Tears for the Open World
Like a Mormon who isn’t married yet, Rise of the Ronin does a lot of hand-holding once you enter the open world. It won’t be particularly long before that happens — but you’ll soon miss the tighter sequences found in the game’s intro. Don’t get us wrong — Rise of the Ronin’s open world is fine. But in a universe where Red Dead 2 and The Legend of Zelda exist, fine counts for less and less these days.
It’s not that there isn’t anything to do. Rise of the Ronin’s open world is flooded with content, but nothing is left to the imagination. You’ll come across small towns, villages, and even larger cities — eventually tiring of the seemingly infinite fetch quests and the like littered around the place. There is the occasional sidequest to break the monotony, but they’re few and far between. Cherish them.
If it wasn’t obvious, Rise of the Ronin is a blast. Apart from a slightly too unvaried open world and graphics that could have looked better (we prioritize FPS above anything else), everything the samurai RPG does perfectly shines through. Weighty, meaningful combat, solid RPG mechanics, and a story that has us invested to keep going. Not too shabby.
Rise of the Ronin releases 22 March 2024 on the PlayStation 5. Stay tuned for Stuff’s full review about that time.