My gamer friends know that I’m one who normally shies away from games bearing descriptors like ‘roguelike,’ ‘roguelite’ and ‘Soulslike.’ I respect those games and the people who like them, but I’m just not a fan of super difficult games; especially when they’re made with a high difficulty front of mind. I prefer more traditional RPGs.
When I first looked up Rise of the Ronin, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Whether it would be my type of game. It did look interesting, but I worried that potential Soulslike elements would keep me from enjoying it as much as I’d hoped to. This left me on the fence about whether I’d play it, but I reserved a copy at a local library for when they got it in. In the end, though, I was provided a surprise review code, and decided I’d give it a shot after watching more videos regarding what one should know before going into this sword-filled adventure.
After a number of hours with this game, I’ve come away with the opinion that it’s a half-decent effort, but not something that’s exactly for me. It has things that I like, but its elements and facets don’t combine to create something that is something I normally enjoy. I gave this one a fair shot, though, and, as always, will be giving it a fair review. One that comes from someone who’s new to this sub-genre, and who hasn’t really played any Soulslikes apart from Hellblade, which thankfully had difficulty options. I appreciate that this game does, too, but they weren’t varied enough for me.
More about that later.
It also kind of goes without saying that I didn’t play Nioh, or any other recent Team Ninja game.
Rise of the Ronin begins as two ‘Blade Twins’ survive a massacre that annihilated their village and stole their parents’ lives. Then, it skips ahead to them in young adulthood, which is where players are given the opportunity to use a pretty in-depth character creator to design both siblings. Both male and female genders are available, along with their basic body types, hairstyles and all sorts of modifiers. You don’t have to make one male and one female, and can instead opt to make both male, for instance.
Following the character creation, training is in order, before your clan is attacked by sword-wielding samurai. Then, you’re sent out on your first mission, which involves sneaking onto a large ship and stealing something that lays inside of it. This leads to an eventual boss battle against a guy named Matthew Perry (I kid you not), and another unwinnable one against a samurai wearing a blue mask. This is the game’s big bad, whose identity is unknown. He has something to do with the Americans, though, and is perhaps a bodyguard of theirs.
After one of your twins perishes in battle, you’re left to pick up the pieces and continue on alone…
Rise of the Ronin, then, is set in the late 19th century, in a Japan where political issues are causing a divide. Some like the way the Shogunite has been running things, while others believe that the country needs to become more tolerant and open itself up. American ships and bigwigs reside out on the ocean, and in the American consulate, and they’re trying to open things up from the inside. As such, there are missions and choices that allow you to pick which side you’re on, and continue on that path. You’ll also form bonds with other characters through this, and by doing missions with them, and can curry even more favourable opinions by giving gifts at your homestead or choosing the right dialogue options.
There’s more than one region to explore, including an Edo dealing with Cholera, and each region is separated into sub-areas. Each of these offers flags to restore and villages or towns to save from enemy encampments. The areas do not scale to the player’s level either.
Being that Rise of the Ronin is similar to a Soulslike, you’ll find that visiting and raising flags allows you to do things like resupply, receive more health items, retire from missions or change other aspects. They also act as checkpoints/save points throughout the campaign. You can change your weapons and equipment on the go, though, so when you pick up something better than what you’ve got equipped you won’t have to fast travel to a flag or anything like that.
The combat, itself, is challenging. This game offers three different difficulty modes, starting at dawn and going to dusk, but its ‘easy’ option leaves something to be desired. While it says that it’s for people who want to “enjoy the story,” that couldn’t be further from the truth. While it’s certainly not as difficult as the others, its battles provide a good challenge, and I couldn’t imagine playing on anything else. I almost gave up after repeatedly failing a boss battle. Easy, my ass.
Those who wish to play through this thing will need to be reliant on blocking using the left shoulder button. The idea is that you can block any enemy’s regular attack (unless it’s a massive boar, it seems), but must perfectly parry or roll away from any attack that begins with a red mark. Those cannot be blocked.
People who get really good at this combat system will master when to parry, and use the triangle based spark parries to stun enemies. They’ll go to attack, then find the player attacking them instead. It’s also helpful to use long range guns, or your grappling hook, to get an advantage in battle. Same goes for throwing stars. Whatever you can do to lower your foes’ Ki and leave them vulnerable. Be mindful of your own Ki and stamina, though!
You’ll fight lots of grunts and basic samurai, then do battle against occasionally massive bosses. Some have great reach. Clearing areas, and completing missions, will also often require you to defeat more difficult enemies, as they often have the keys you need.
Thankfully, Rise of the Ronin has a lot of health items, and you can carry up to ten of the basic one. It’s also possible to go into the options and improve both your Ki and the amount of healing these items do. Even still, I found this game pretty difficult and got frustrated by it at times. I didn’t fully complete it as of yet, because of this and due to the fact that it became so tedious I needed a break. I think it may be too hard for me though.
The map can be cluttered, but at least there is one. It doesn’t do a good job of explaining what’s what, but you kind of figure that out as you go. Fast travel is available, as mentioned before, but only to flag poles you’ve previously visited or touched. It also features a horse, which I got embarrassingly late, after running everywhere for far too long.
Easily the best part of this traversal system, though, is the glider. You get access to it pretty early, and can use it to soar over-top of Japan. It’s helpful for when you want to glide in and surprise enemies, who can be assassinated as well. There’s even an aerial assassination that’s quite cool.
Presentation-wise, this one is underwhelming. I couldn’t help but think of it as an upscaled PS2 game while I was playing it, but that’s an obvious over-exaggeration. It’s just that, in comparison to the other PlayStation 5 games I’ve played, this one is really underwhelming visually. Its animations are stiff, its textures are dated and there are rare graphical glitches. The sound fares better, but there’s nothing too special about it, including some hit and miss voice acting.
At the end of the day, Rise of the Ronin is a half-decent, but underwhelming game. It’s not really for me, but I respect what it tried to do. There are some pretty good building blocks here, but tedious gameplay, a surprisingly basic combat system and some kind of ugly visuals hold it back.
This review is based on a copy of Rise of the Ronin for PlayStation 5. Read our reviews policy here.