Jack of All Trades – Master of None

Rise of the Rōnin is Team Ninja’s follow up to their ARPG series Nioh and its also the ‘next big thing’ from Sony for the PlayStation 5. Rise of Rōnin is a stark departure from what I consider the heyday of Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden days, it’s an open-world action RPG set during the Bakumatsu period in 19th-century Japan, a time of political upheaval that led to the Meiji Restoration and the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Players will create their characters and their Blade Twin, both of whom are members of the ‘Veiled Edge’ a clan of anti-shogunate assassins. After a tutorial battle with Matthew Perry, (whom the internet seriously thought that developer Team Ninja was paying homage to the Chandler Bing actor who passed) who was sent by the USA to open diplomatic relations with Japan. Players will have to make a critical decision that will end in being separated from their Twin. The story then heads to Yokohama where players will search for their Twin and become entangled in the political storm which has made landfall on the island of Japan.

The narrative in Rise of the Ronin for me sadly was underwhelming, I am not as well versed in history and this story weaves a lot of real-world events and characters into its tale ala Ubisoft with the Assassin’s Creed series. As players progress, they will be able to run missions for both the pro and anti-Shogunate factions that are around the land. Bonds are a big part of Rise of the Ronin and as players traverse the land they will meet LOTS of NPCs. Some of these can go on missions with you and fight by your side (more on that later) while others can provide upgrades to equipment and abilities. Players will foster these relationships by giving these NPC’s various gifts that can be purchased or found throughout the journey. As players build the bond with these NPC characters they will unlock things like new fighting styles or equipment for their characters to use.

MSRP: $69.99
Platforms: PlayStation
Price I’d Pay: $49.99

Rise of the Rōnin manages to pull from quite a few popular franchises that have come out of the last few years. Ronin gives players a vast open world to explore and adventure in, upon first glance it instantly evokes thoughts of Ghost of Tsushima naturally. But while trailers convey this quite well once players are in game you may be disappointed to find that Rise of the Rōnin is not as vibrant as GoT. The world is full of blowing winds, and grass that moves with it, even some impressive looking thunderstorms which make for dope ass sword fighting weather. Rise of the Rōnin is not a horrible looking game by any means it just feels underwhelming when compared with some of the other releases we have seen lately. And the fact that it is itself a big open samurai game is going to draw comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima right away.

Since this is an open world game one of the big concerns I had initially was if this was going to be a typical “Ubisoft style checklist” of items to complete. The map is FULL of things to do, mileage will vary as most of the side missions and things I played all suffered from underwhelming writing and subpar combat or exploration events. Instead of unlocking towers to reveal the map players will instead need to raise their bond level with a given area to fully reveal it. This is done by defeating bandits usually but there will be certain quests that can be completed that will open areas as well. Players are rewarded with a fast-forward of time of a few days where people start to return to the area which will open up stores and vendors for players. Fast travel is unlocked by using what feels like a Souls-like campfire but is a banner which once activated will allow players to save and refill their healing and combat items from their personal stores with the caveat that this will respawn all the enemies in an area. But this only happens when players are on a mission and not in the open world, weirdly enough.

Missions are done to move the narrative forward and it is here that players can play Rise of the Rōnin in co-op. While I was unable to test this function, players are given the ability to replay any missions with up to two friends that were previously completed by accessing the campfire at the longhouse, which doubles as the players’ home. There doesn’t seem to be anyway to play in the open world with friends where you each will have a horse but as I said I wasn’t able to try the online features. When players begin each mission, they will choose which AI characters will help them or if they will play online, weapons and equipment before setting out. Mission areas have a boundary, and players can fail if they cross that marker for too long, it plays out a lot like GTA story missions.

You know what game was most surprising to see have some influence here? Diablo 4, yea that’s right in Rise of the Rōnin players will be showered with loot upon completing missions or defeating enemies in the overworld. To the point where you are not going to know what to do with all this loot. There is a crafting system so anything you don’t equip players are able to disassemble for crafting materials so they will find a use for it all. Also, just as in Diablo the loot goes from common to legendary with the legendary pieces having a trait that can be removed and placed on another piece of gear destroying the original gear. I don’t know why; the loot system just feels out of place here. This game has been full of things that I didn’t expect it was going to have based on seeing the trailers for it.

As I said players will be given a horse to help traverse the wide world in Ronin, well; I say given but what actually happens is players run up and a tool tip pops up that says you can ride this horse, you mount it and it’s yours. So, I kind of think I stole the horse, but it comes with a whistle that allows players to summon it much like the steed from Elden Ring. The whistle can even be mapped to the d-pad along with healing items and other tools same as in Elden Ring. Later in the game players will be given a glider, and I’m gonna stop you right there. Because I know you are thinking “ooohhh its gonna be like Breath of the Wild” well it isn’t. Players can deploy the glider by double jumping or using the grappling hook to launch themselves at certain points. I don’t know if it’s a glitch or what, but the glider only goes down, I was unable to gain any altitude with it. This made me have to change my approach to using it because it is really only useful for short range air assassinations.

That’s right because there is some Assassins Creed in this ninja story. While I love the fact that stealth is only here as an option, and I was never met with the dreaded ‘Mission Failed” screen for making too much noise. The stealth here just feels like ‘assassins’ creed we have at home’, players will find tall grass to stalk enemies from and instead of ‘eagle vision’ players will receive a period friendly device that rings a bell and emits waves that allows players to see enemies in an area. This has an EXTREMLY short range, and I really can only recommend doing the stealth stuff if you are trying to platinum the game as it’s not anywhere near as fun as the actual combat here.

Combat. The one thing that I just KNEW Team Ninja was gonna absolutely nail. Well, they didn’t. The combat is not awful, it just feels very plain, while not a souls game players move more akin to the Nioh characters. There are multiple melee weapons to use in-game ranging from of course katanas but also dual swords, spears and more. My issue is that combat is essentially mapped to one button, there is no light and heavy attacks or freedom to really mix it up as in past Team Ninja games. What would normally be the ‘heavy’ attack button in other games is the ‘counterspark’ here. Counterpsark is what it sounds like, it’s the counter system that players can use to counter attacks and the scary red (critical) attacks. This of course will require precise timing and if done correctly will drain the opponents ‘Ki’ which is these games answer to stamina. If there ki is drained it will open enemies up to a critical hit which usually will kill them unless it’s a boss in which case will cause massive damage. This is an RPG after all so players will level up and be able to spend those points to unlock new skills, crafting options and abilities. None of these new options felt especially fun or that they were adding anything extra to the experience.

I have to say though of all the emotions I expected to feel from playing a new Team Ninja game I got to say that boredom was not on my list, but that’s how I felt. The thing is though, I cannot say that Rise of the Rōnin does one thing inherently wrong. It’s not a horrible video game at all, my biggest issue that it’s just boring. The combat wasn’t fun and the new additions like the grappling hook just didn’t add enough to the repertoire. The story weaves real world historical characters into its quilt with ease but the stuff that they are talking about is all political and kind of boring. In fact, if there is one thing that I loved about the narrative it’s Blade Twin but I can’t go into detail without spoiling but I found those threads the most rewarding. But when the main story isn’t hitting usually, we can find solace in the side missions but as I said above the side content here is bland and not interesting. I wanted to love this game, anyone who knows me knows that I love samurai, ninjas, swords and the like, I was just bored by this game sadly. Rise of the the Rōnin doesn’t feel like a game that is worth $70 in my opinion, it is a hodgepodge mix of some of gaming’s biggest trends lately but never amounts to the sum of those parts. I really miss when Tomonobu Itagaki was at Team Ninja; and NOT for the oversexualized women in DoA or crazy volleyball games but for the awesome ninja action games.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.