I’m sure many other reviewers are going to compare this game to Axe: Shadows Die Twice y Ghost of Tsushima, but I’m not going to do that. Not only because I think we sometimes rely too much on comparisons when talking about video games, but because I haven’t played those titles. In this review I am going to criticize Rise of the Ronintranslated in Latin America as The rise of the Ronin, on its own merits regardless of what other developers have done before.
This is an exclusive title for PS5. It was developed by Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo, responsible for the games of Nioh, and published by PlayStation Studios. It is an open world title developed during Japan’s Bakumatsu era in which our protagonist will play a very important role in real historical events.
Just a paragraph ago I said that I was going to avoid comparisons and I am already making efforts not to equate his approach to historical events and figures with what he does Assassin’s Creed. Far Eastern history buffs will delight in the presence of such important names as Shoin Yoshida, Naosuke Li, Ryoma Sakamoto, Taka Murayama, Commodore Matthew Perry and American Consul Townsend Harris, among many others. The interesting thing is that the fate of some of them in the game will not necessarily be the same as in reality.
Changing the destiny of Japan
Although the different routes of its story may seem striking, I found them somewhat disappointing. They may lead to different conclusions, but the gameplay does not change much and we have to carry out the same missions in the same scenarios. The differences are in the dialogues and video scenes. We may spare the life of a certain character, but immediately see him being killed by another character in a video sequence. The story doesn’t change much because of that.
The changes depend mainly on the faction we decide to support: the anti-shogunate expulsionistswho want to get foreigners out of Japan, or the proshogunate movement, who is doing business with the United States and England. Although it seems that the game wants to show the dark side of both sides of the conflict, revealing the massacres committed by some and the repression of the others, It is clear that he shows a preference for the anti-shogunate ideology.
It’s great that video games explore complex and difficult historical themes. Sadly, I think Rise of the Ronin (The Ascension of the Ronin) didn’t know how to do it right. It presents an incomplete picture of this transitional period between the Tokugawa era and the Meiji Restoration. That can leave players with incorrect ideas about what actually happened.
According to the words of its director and producer when we interview them, this game “is not intended to be anything more than entertainment.” Even if we consider that this is the case, it is a missed opportunity to talk about the polarization of that time, which reflects the political division that exists today.
As if that were not enough, the main character lacks any personality. No matter what we look like or how we dress him, he is supremely boring.
Violent times
Despite its historical inaccuracies and confusing thematic intentions, Rise of the Ronin (The Ascension of the Ronin) shows a beautiful recreation of 19th century Japan. The characters’ outfits, architectural styles, landscapes and details of Japanese culture are created with love and it is something that is very noticeable.
Later we will talk about the technical details and graphic quality of th is game. For now I want to praise its visual direction. Calling a horse and setting off to explore the meadows, mountains and towns of this title can be quite relaxing.
What is definitely not relaxing is its combat system. The matches have a strong focus on combos and ‘parries’, called ‘Contradestellos’. The objective is to attack, block and counter attacks to destroy the opponent’s ‘ki’ and leave them open to a damaging attack. It’s possible to simply wait for them to let their guard down to directly attack their hit points, but that makes fights drag on too long. Rise of the Ronin He wants us to be aggressive.
We have a good variety of weapons and each one offers multiple fighting styles that we learn throughout the game. Certain weapons and styles are strong or weak against certain enemies, but we can only equip two weapons with three styles each at the same time. Don’t think this means we have to prepare for every fight because at any time we can pause and change our build. The results of the confrontations are brutal. The arms and heads of the enemies fly away accompanied by a shower of blood.
Counter flashes require great precision and if we miss by just a few frames of animation, we lose almost all of our ki or our entire health bar. Despite having several levels of difficulty, it is an unforgiving game that asks us for perfect reflexes or to learn the rhythm of the combos of each combat style to be able to counter them without errors. It is a difficult and even cruel combat system, but it can also be very satisfying. That is at least until we are cornered and no matter how much we move the camera it is impossible to know what the enemy is doing and how to react.
Everything a samurai needs
The open world of Rise of the Ronin (The Ascension of the Ronin) is not particularly large. On the game’s first map—covering Yokohama and its surroundings—we discover that There is nothing special or different from what other titles of the same genre do. There are materials to collect to forge tools, optional missions that ask us to deliver objects, collect them or eliminate enemies, and collectibles that are not very hidden because the map itself indicates their location. At first it’s exciting to explore and discover the fugitives – optional bosses of higher difficulty – on our own and learn new fighting styles or receive weapons and equipment by defeating them, but that loses its novelty very quickly.
There are dozens of fugitives on the map, dozens of sites to liberate, and literally hundreds of equipment to collect. There are hats or shoes that give us +1% damage or +0.5% poison resistance or +2% defense if it is night. They are numbers that mean nothing until many hours later, when we can finally think about specific ‘builds’. In fact, they are a nuisance because We have to continually stop to decide which objects to sell or disassemble so that the inventory does not become unmanageable..
But the Yokohama map is only half of the game. We eventually unlock the Edo map and, despite the visual changes, the activities remain largely the same. The new systems that arrive only make The Ascension of the Ronin feels more saturated, not more varied.
Friends from the east and the west
The heart of this game is the link system. This is basically a “meter” for the relationships we have with other characters, areas of Yokohama, Edo and with the two factions. We can raise these levels by completing optional missions, choosing the correct options in conversations and giving them the appropriate gifts. This will reward us with some cosmetic items – emotes and titles – and raising the level of these characters so that they are more useful when they accompany us on missions.
But we’re not limited to the characters we have ties to. We can also cooperate with other players online and complete story missions together. There are also other online elements that do not involve playing directly with others. For example, we can send our dog to other people’s games to come back with rewards, find his avatar by walking around the map, or assist us in freeing areas from criminals.
It’s a good system that lends itself to fun situations, but it’s not special or new either.
How beautiful Japan is!
Although I stand by my opinion that Rise of the Ronin (The Ascension of the Ronin) is a game with good art direction, it is not the game with the best graphics on PS5. In fact it has many visual and performance problems.
When playing in performance mode, it fails to maintain a stable 60 fps (animation frames per second). There are also some slowdowns especially when traversing open maps. That’s not a big problem, but it’s not that it has enormous quality that justifies it. Visually it looks like it could run without problems on a standard PS4. The combat animations are amazing, but everything else looks boring and generic.
Rise of the Ronin o The Ascension of the Ronin It’s not a bad game. It has some very good ideas, I loved the representation of Japan at the end of the Tokugawa era and the combat can be intense and entertaining. However, all its elements are derivative and lack originality. It drags on longer than it needs to, and not all of its mechanics fit well with its world and themes. If you are fans of Japanese history and the most difficult “style” combats souls” they can get a lot of use out of it. Everyone else will probably get bored of the game long before the end credits roll.
Although I had very good moments with The Ascension of the Ronin —especially in some combats and when I was appreciating the beauty of its settings—I eventually began to lose interest. It was the fault of its repetitive missions, an indecisive plot about the history of Japan, the abusive number of game systems and the exaggerated difficulty peaks. Lovers of Japanese history and culture, like me, will surely stay until the end of the adventure, but there are many other games that execute these same ideas better.
Review made with a digital copy of The Rise of Ronin for PS5 provided by PlayStation Latin America.
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