For instance, the studio’s penchant for linear stages is very apparent in Rise of the Ronin, despite the game opting for an open-world structure. At the same time, it takes many of the studio’s best elements, from combat mechanics to environmental design, and combines them into a sort of “Greatest Hits” album. It proudly wears its influences on its sleeves. In fact, anyone who enjoys Team Ninja’s previous games will likely fall in love with what Rise of the Ronin is attempting to achieve. It’s a little bit Assassin’s Creed, a little bit Dark Souls, a little bit Far Cry, and a little bit Ghost of Tsushima all wrapped up into one package. While the two games are artistically and thematically alike, Team Ninja’s latest is more of an amalgam of several other games. It’s easy to look at Rise of the Ronin and immediately compare it to the other PlayStation 5 samurai ‘em up, Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima. And it’s bolstered by a captivating world that, while filled with the typical open-world busywork, has plenty of stunning vistas and emergent gameplay encounters that make use of its many varied RPG systems. The drama, the gossip, the occasional comedy, the love, the death, the pain-it’s a little bit of everything in a pot that simmers into a delicious, narratively rich campaign.

I kept wanting to know what would happen next. These kinds of mismatches break the immersion during some of the game’s biggest moments, particularly since the narrative’s events are so dark and gritty. Immediately after an assassination attempt on a pro-Shogunate official, my ally was panting like a dog while still standing up straight, as if we were waiting for coffee. The animation was completely at odds with what was happening. It doesn’t even matter what’s happening, either.ĭuring one cutscene, after I cooked an anti-Shogunate samurai in a sparring match, he faced me with his back straight, arms crossed, and eyes unblinking while coughing up a lung. Serious shit is going on, but yet, folks loiter during dialogue sequences as if a war wasn’t brewing. Despite a cast of captivating characters who have remarkable rapport thanks to the game’s excellent writing, Rise of the Ronin’s narrative is still primarily doled out through people standing around like action figures. The bummer, then, is that the story’s delivery is sometimes boring at best and incongruous at worst.

This believable and rich characterization breathes life into historical figures, such as the modernization advocate Ryoma Sakamoto and the reformist intellectual Shoin Yoshida, who could come off as dusty relics in less capable hands. Hell, they’ll even let loose on each other, frequently poking fun at their besties and enemies alike. They’ll question your motives if they discover you might’ve been working with the opposing faction. They’ll remember your previous actions, often hesitating to cooperate with you if you’ve engaged in criminal activity such as cutting down regular townsfolk. While occasionally heavy-handed with its exposition, both named and nameless characters have impressive depth to them. Rise of the Ronin handles both of these exceptionally. The driving force behind any story is its characters and writing. See Rise of the Ronin at Best Buy A familiar yet interesting history lesson Anyone familiar with the country’s history can probably surmise how the events of Rise of the Ronin play out, but Team Ninja’s interpretation of this pivotal period in 19th-century Japan is compelling all the same. There’s plenty of political intrigue here, as the warring camps jockey for power to establish a new Japan during a period of turmoil and upheaval. Your character, a nameless ronin whom you customize with some extensive options, finds themself separated from their “Blade Twin” (an unofficial sibling of sorts) and in the middle of a hate triangle between the anti-Shogunate faction, foreign settlers, and the pro-Shogunate forces. Rise of the Ronin takes place during the Bakumatsu period, a time in Japan’s history that marked the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the beginning of the country’s opening to international trade. It takes everything the studio does best and melds it with ideas from other games to create something that’s intriguing, albeit unoriginal. Despite these shortcomings, Rise of the Ronin is still a commendable release for Team Ninja. Developer Team Ninja has called it their “ most ambitious” title to date, but that ambition is overshadowed by lackluster graphics, outdated design concepts, and performance issues that put the game more in line with the PS4 or even the PS3 libraries.

Rise of the Ronin feels like a game that’s already one or two generations old.

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