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Rise of the Ronin is out now on PC from Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo, its release coming shortly before Assassins Creed Shadows, and trailing behind both Ghost of Tsushima and Like a Dragon: Ishin!
The same game was originally a PS5 exclusive, with the PC version coming with various enhancements, given the hardware.
Set mid-19th century, when Japan was re-opened to the West, you and your Blade Twin are tasked with stealing a secret document from Commodore Matthew Perry of the East India Squadron. Nearing the end of the battle, a Blue Demon arrives, and here you select which of the two Blade Twins you wish to play as, and the other stays back whilst you escape with the message. You learn that the other sibling is still alive and wishes to leave the Veiled Edge, but the Shogunate attack the village, causing you to fight alongside your teacher. Unfortunately, you end up in a duel with her who – after falling – grants your leave.
From here, you head out into the large open world looking for your Twin, meeting various folk who will help you out on your journey and have the opportunity to take sides with the various factions.
I will mention now that comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima (GoT from now on), whilst relevant with regards to certain aspects is a VERY different game to Rise of the Ronin. They both share a similar historical setting, both have a grappling hook for traversal, horseback is used to get around the sizeable maps as well as combat encounters, and you have various shrines to worship, but as pet cats, rather than follow foxes. You do, however, get a cool glider, which is handy for covering distance from a high point, making it unique and quite novel.
The combat and RPG elements, however, are completely different and more of what you would see from western releases with full map markers, including a compass for navigation, zones and encounters that have recommended levels. A full HUD and fast travel are available between the veiled edge banners which you can activate all over the map.
The combat system is fast and twitchy, like other Team Ninja games. However, it’s not as fast and flashy as, say, their Ninja Gaiden games. I would say partway between Nioh and Wo Long. Like Nioh, you have a counterspark where a perfectly timed parry/deflection restores a chunk of your Ki (Ki – Stamina basically), allowing you to keep attacking instead of having to back off to recover. Personally though, I have have difficulty timing this manoeuvre because of the combat speed, so tend to roll out the way and block as incorrect-timed parries will see you getting hit.
As well as a multitude of weapons going from Katana, Dual swords, Odachi and Polearms, to name a few, you also have different weapon stances which can be switched easily on-the-fly to maximise combat damage and effectiveness, against different enemy types. The game also has a decent stealth element, in which you can sneak around in long grass, thinning out numbers with back stabs, or sniping at enemies with your bow and arrow, or rifle (not good for stealth!).
For The RPG side of things, you have four different skill tress to invest in, covering Strength, Dexterity and Speechcraft etc. Finding shrines and completing side activities gain you skill points, and you’ll gain Karma from taking out enemies, which will be converted to skill points when you activate or rest at a banner. Once you start unlocking a few skills, life does become easier with higher damage output, multiple assassinations, speech abilities to lie and intimidate, as well as being able to craft items.
There is also plenty of loot, so you will be changing weapons and armours quite often, as loads of items drop. Spare items can be disassembled or sold off, and you can upgrade existing kit if you have found something you like the bonuses on. Once you have access to the Longhouse (base of operation), you can customise the way you look with any item that you have already found (head gear can also be fully hidden if you wish).
Across your adventures, you will meet various folk which will help you out, and you can create bonds with them. You’ll find gifts that are specific to increase your bond with them, which helps level them up. Additionally, where there are co-op missions, if you don’t want to invite physical players, you can select the characters that you have a bond with to go along with you.
There are so many different elements involved with this game. You can easily get distracted, heading out to do the photos or the photo missions. You even have a Longhouse dog that looks a bit like Hachiko (look that one up if you don’t know as it is beautiful). Your trusty canine will go on pilgrimages to shrines, and bring stuff back to you, and the more you do it, you’ll start seeing other players’ dogs out in the world.
Now then let me briefly mention accessibility: yes, you can turn off motion blur and other stuff that causes nausea. Additionally, you have 3 skill levels to choose from, and can set options to have health items which give a higher top-up and less Ki damage in combat. So, if like me, you are struggling with the parries, these options and a lower skill level is ideal. Great stuff making Rise of the Ronin playable and enjoyable for everyone!
Overall, I absolutely love Rise of the Ronin. I also love GoT & Ishin!
I have had no performance problems at all really on my setup, and even without DLSS, the game runs fine when you lock it at 60fps. Locking to 120fps – even with DLSS – finds quality and frame-generation give a touch of weird slowdown in the large cities. This isn’t really game-breaking, though, as it makes a sprint more like a run for clarity, but isn’t choppy at all. However I have noticed with DLSS Quality and frame-generation, if you lock the framerate to 60fps, you still get a higher framerate without the issue above. At QHD, with all the settings maxed-out and Ray Tracing off, I am easily getting on average 100fps, so it is buttery smooth on my BenQ 1440p 165Hz curved screen. Yes, some folk are having issues, but having a tinker with the settings sorts a lot of them if you use the tools that are there.
My only gripe is that the English voice acting is laughably bad, in fact as bad as some of the dubbing on Asian movies from the ’70s to early 2000s, and quite cringe worthy (I do recommend selecting Japanese language with subtitles). I have also found that wearing the sandals when running – even on dry land – sounds like they are slapping water, which I personally find quite irksome, but no real issue as such!
I have put money down on Rise of the Ronin previously for the PS5, and will admit I actually prefer the PC version with the wealth of graphics options. A cross platform-save feature would be good, but what can you do?! The game, itself, is much like other games that feature this era in Japan, and just draws you in and captivates. I highly recommend checking this out if you like GoT and other similar titles.
For Team Ninja’s first foray into an open-world action RPG, they have done a stirling job.
Thanks to our friends at Koei Tecmo for the review code.
Rise of the Ronin is out now on PS5 and PC / Steam.
Important info:
- Developer: Team Ninja
- Publisher: Koei Tecmo
- Players: Single-player and Co-Op Missions
Rise of the Ronin Official Launch Trailer – Koei Tecmo
FINAL SCORES:
GRAPHICS
SOUND
GAMEPLAY
ENJOYMENT8
7
8
8OVERALL 8
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!