Team Ninja’s indirect follow-up to the studio’s esteemed ARPGs Nioh (2017) and Nioh 2 (2020), Rise of the Ronin, is just around the corner, with its release date on March 22. Fortunately, our early accesses were able to experience the best Samurai open-world challenger since Ghost of Tsushima and have given their verdict in today’s Rise of the Ronin review.
While we can only touch upon the game’s early stages, this Rise of the Ronin review will cover the general storyline set in the Bakumatsu period, the final years of the Edo era, during which an undercurrent of political discord between East and West sets the scene, characters, customisations, gameplay and many more.
Related: Fans Speculate That Rise of the Ronin Will Be Team Ninja’s Most Violent Game Yet
Rise of the Ronin Review Score
Rise of the Ronin Review: Storyline and Characters (8/10)
As mentioned above, the game’s narrative unfolds in Japan in 1863, where the West breached home shores to reestablish previous trade routes, causing the country to fall into turmoil. Once you load into the game, you will see two siblings fleeing a burning village with murderous samurais on their tail, and an old lady suddenly appears amidst the chaos and rescues them.
Then, the old lady decided to take the pair under her wing into the Veiled Edge, changing their unfortunate destiny and training them to become Blade Twins, the game’s main storyline. As with every gaming protagonist, the siblings are highly skilled with the sword, and they train and grow together as they master their skills. After getting past the intro, you may have thought you need to select one of the two siblings as your character in the game, but Rise of the Ronin has gone against the norm and allowed you to use both characters.
Rise of the Ronin Review: Characters Switching (9/10)
Did you hear that Genshin Impact? Rise of the Ronin also allows switching on siblings in-game as they will have a tutorial teaching us the basis when confronting the game’s tutorial boss, an American diplomat named Commodore Perry. However, like every first interlude, the game’s first section consists entirely of teaching you the combat basics while setting up the game’s story premise, which still confuses us on why the main characters are considered Ronins.
Nevertheless, the story will continue to unfold with the twins working as a pair of assassins setting foot in backwater burghs, sprawling cityscapes, pastoral landscapes and bustling metropolitan districts from the then Yokohama. As for other characters to look forward towards, Ryoma Sakamoto, a master of the Hokushin-Itto-ryu school of swordplay, will guide you as your acquaintance – while Gonzo, an enemy you face later, will have his fate decided by you once you bested him in a duel.
Rise of the Ronin Review: Customisation (9/10)
The character customisation in the game has significantly boosted our Rise of the Ronin’s review score, as it is pretty detailed and quite fun. Moreover, you can customise both siblings with the transmogrification system that lets you customise your appearance.
In addition, the game’s character customisation suite extends to fighting styles, weapons, armor, and abilities, allowing you to tailor your playstyle to suit your preferences and tactics. We recommend a samurai or ninja type, as you can either use a grappling hook and creep around on rooftops as a ninja or use gadgets to distract or silently take down guards.
Share your personal creations on https://twitter.com/playerdotme, as we will rank our favourites in the comments section.
Rise of the Ronin Review: Gameplay (9/10)
To sum up the gameplay and combat system in Rise of the Ronin, it’s all about timing, timing, timing. Crucial things need to be mentioned thrice, as every parry, every sidestep, every dodge and every quick-witted advance or retreat requires precise timing to execute. For example, a counter requires precise timing execution and control of your Ki gauge, which is basically a stamina meter. However, it is not easy to hit that perfect timing as getting hit while blocking will deplete your Ki and hitting your enemies will deplete their Ki.
In short, the gameplay resembles Nioh, where certain stances are better than others as you prioritise decreasing your enemy’s Ki to allow an opportunity to perform an instant killing blow or at least stagger an enemy so you can use one of your special martial skills that take a long wind-up.
As for inspiration from other games, Rise of the Ronin has its own version of bandit camps called Public Orders, where you will unlock a banner flag when you kill all the enemies in the area. Moreover, you will earn Valor the more enemies you kill, giving you skill points to allocate in the Skill Tree. Besides, the game took a page from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where you can glide or ride horses as you traverse the massive open world.
Rise of the Ronin Review: Graphics (8/10)
Lastly, in terms of graphics, while it naturally does not compare to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima and bearing the name of a PS5 exclusive, it’s satisfactory enough that you won’t find characters unnaturally pixelated or angled wrongly as we saw from Naruto. Instead, the game prioritises its intriguing storyline and immersive gameplay to keep you hooked.
On the topic of Naruto, here’s a look at Masashi Kishimoto’s touching tribute to Akira Toriyama.
Overall Rise of the Ronin Review: 8.5/10
With everything considered, Rise of the Ronin deviates from Team Ninja’s previous games as it seems to draw upon everything the studio has learned in its nearly four decades of existence to implement its most ambitious project yet.
Despite some faults and graphic limitations, our Rise of the Ronin review recognises the game for its storyline and gameplay as sufficient enough to entice Samurai and open-world enjoyers as the risk of implementing so many ideas from different genres, such as Soulslike and ARPG, could only increase the game’s expectations when it officially launches in two weeks time. Maybe our Rise of the Ronin review score will change positively by then.