Team Ninja has come a long way. After years of success with Ninja Gaiden, the Japanese studio has finally found success with Nioh, a game based on the same design philosophy as FromSoftware’s work.
It’s a lot like Souls in many ways, but it steps into the ring with a bold set of mechanics and a unique design philosophy. Nioh’s identity wasn’t solidified until its sequel, when its makers finally felt confident enough to drop elements that didn’t make sense and build on what distinguished Nioh from other Souls-like games.
Say what you will about the staying power of Wolong: The Lost Dynasty, but it’s a solid follow-up to Nioh that isn’t afraid to try new ideas – ultimately making the subgenre more accessible. It also found new ways to create a world worth exploring, even if it wasn’t an open world.
For anyone who enjoys action games or fresh games like Souls, this track record is enough to get them excited for Team Ninja’s next project: Rise of the Ronin.
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Rise of the Ronin comes from the studio’s “A-Team” responsible for the awesome Nioh/Nioh 2. The team has been quietly working on reinventing the formula established by the first Nioh, which led to Rise of the Ronin. Ronin has a special appeal; Souls fans and Team Ninja die-hards are equally excited about it.
However, there is very little information about Rise of Ronin, which is especially strange considering it was recently confirmed to be released in March. The news also comes a year after the initial reveal, following a period of complete radio silence.
Typically, we get our hands on a Team Ninja game during its pre-release cycle At least once. The developer is known for running multiple pre-release tests, including alpha, beta, and even demos, leading up to release. Somewhat oddly, the studio doesn’t seem to be following the same strategy with Rise of Ronin.
This could be a sign that we shouldn’t expect Rise of Ronin to be similar to Nioh. Instead, this is something entirely new, drawing on lessons learned from the action series; perhaps re-architecting existing mechanics/systems in interesting new ways.
The latest Game Awards trailer and accompanying PS blog post suggest that exploration will be taken even more seriously. Rise of the Ronin has Team Ninja’s largest play space yet, so it makes sense for the game to offer new ways to travel and discover.
For example, you’ll have a horse to travel on the ground and a glider to move quickly over long distances in the air. You can also use a grapple rope while walking, and the blog post specifically states it’s a stealth tool – perhaps taking a cue from Sekiro?
This is one of the most exciting reveals about the new direction. Elden Ring’s open world played a key role in establishing discovery and exploration as its two pillars. Team Ninja’s games have traditionally borrowed certain elements from Souls’ level design, but its limited scope (by comparison) means that these often boil down to shortcuts and a slight hint of verticality.
Rise of Ronin seems to expand on both of these aspects, and it will be interesting to see if its level design also fosters this sense of discovery.
The post doesn’t discuss much about the game’s combat. As we’ve seen in the trailers so far, there’s a wide variety of melee weapons and throwables, as well as guns and other primitive (but for the time, revolutionary) tools.
Although Nioh game did Features firearms whose use is limited to long-range combat. However, new Rise of Ronin footage makes it look like they may be taking a more active role in the real-time action this time around. The post also revealed another interesting mechanic that seems to be reminiscent of Nioh’s fighting stance.
Rise of Ronin has different fighting styles.In fact, pre-ordering the game will unlock it Four They appear early on, which suggests we’ll unlock them as the game progresses. Again, it’s unclear exactly what defines a fighting style, but the idea that there are multiple fighting styles (more than Nioh stances) certainly hints that what we’re seeing here is something entirely new and not just Nioh stances Excellent, but also challenging.
From all the information we’ve gathered from videos/news, it’s clear that Rise of Ronin represents a major step forward for Team Ninja. My only concern is that the combat difficulty will be toned down to appeal to a wider audience. Team Ninja describes Rise of Ronin as a “combat-focused open-world action RPG” and, most importantly, its combat will be “accessible” while offering “layers of complexity.” No matter what surprises it ultimately brings, I have no doubt that Team Ninja will make a compelling game. So, I can’t wait to learn more about Rise of Ronin and get my hands on it when it arrives next March.
