Revealed to great fanfare a year and a half ago, Rise of the Ronin promises to be the “most ambitious project yet” from Team Ninja, the studio that gave us Nioh and Wo Long Fallen Dynasty. For the first time, the team’s challenging action RPG leaves its narrow corridors and offers an open world in a Japan at a crossroads… We played at the beginning of the adventure, here’s what we think!
Even though action-adventure games in Japan often rhyme with “feudal,” “Rise of the Ronin” immerses us in a specific era. We are in the 1850s, the “Bakumatsu” period. It was the end of the Shogunate and after years of isolation, the country finally opened up to trade and began to industrialize and modernize. It is therefore a time of progress but also of great unrest in which two ideologies collapse: one ready for change; another strives to maintain the established order. In the middle of it all, the player embodies a lone warrior who can be personalized from A to Z (class system, super-complete character editor). His goal is simple: to find someone he cares about… To achieve this, an open world reaches out to him.
Rise of the Ronin (video preview)
The great outdoors
Because yes, unlike Nioh or Wo Long Fallen Dynasty, Team Ninja is trying the open world bet here… After a frankly captivating introduction, the studio releases us to the countries of Japan – with the city of Yokohama as the headline. First observation (and unfortunately this is a habit in the team): The technology still leaves a lot to be desired. We’re below the PS5 version of Ghost of Tsushima – with 3D models and textures that lack detail. The presentation is a bit dated, but despite everything we let ourselves be carried away by the atmosphere, especially thanks to a nice soundtrack and pleasant lighting effects. We just hope this pitfall doesn’t affect the enjoyment too much in the long run. Because contemplation is an important factor for an open world.
A little technical note:
Rise of the Ronin benefits from three graphics modes: one runs at 60 frames per second, another emphasizes the visual and a final one is dedicated to “ray tracing”… For our part, we opted for 60 fps. Team Ninja’s super-precise gameplay comes into its own much more this way.
In short: if the pleasure for the eyes is rather mixed, what about the construction of the open world? In Rise of the Ronin, you can ride around on a horse (even in a glider) and hope to find something interesting, but the game quickly asks you to rescue the widow | the orphan to unlock additional activities. There are so-called “public order missions” here, which are occupied villages that need to be liberated. Once you’ve completed your task, you’ll expand your knowledge of the area and discover nearby attractions. Why not, but we have to admit that the side activities don’t really excite us at the moment. For this intro, the title uses its action phases with all its might and we are afraid of ever coming close to indigestion.
For example, as we wandered around the open world, we encountered other enemies to fight, a boss, or even a side quest that asked us to search for flowers in the middle of a base full of enemies. We hope that more varied sights await us as the adventure continues, and that Rise of the Ronin’s open world serves more than just connecting many battle arenas. Even Yokohama – the first city – appears at the moment as a sort of “big hub” with a few side quests | merchants. At this point, we also have two or three reservations about the software’s writing, which seems to prioritize its characters over historical context. We also note the presence of full French dubbing (which is rather a pleasant surprise), multiple choice dialogues and even answers hidden behind certain skills such as Intimidation. It’s also about supporting characters with whom we have to build relationships. In short, the narrative occupies an important place… Let’s just hope it lives up to its promise.
Focus on the fights
However, if there’s one thing the Japanese studio deserves our trust in, it’s the fights! As far as we could see, The action phases of Rise of the Ronin are super promising and announce themselves as a kind of “synthesis” between the clashes of Nioh and Wo Long Fallen Dynasty… As in any good, demanding action RPG, here Ki (stamina, if you will) is already the core of the war. It’s the blue meter in the middle of the screen, and it decreases when you dodge, attack, or take a hit while on guard. Most importantly, the bar depletes a little every time you take damage, and when it drops to “zero” there’s a good chance you’ll be defenseless and unable to move for a few moments. In this case, the end is almost certain.
On the one hand, Rise of the Ronin asks you to pay close attention to your stamina – and on the other hand, the best defense is attack. Because just like you, enemies have a Ki bar, and when that bar is depleted, you can give them a super powerful finishing move. This move is often enough to defeat the smallest enemies, but is also crucial for taking down big baddies, including bosses. In this last case Your goal will therefore be to destroy your opponent’s stamina, and the most effective strategy to achieve this is to successfully parry and chain combat skills, namely special moves unique to each weapon type… Among these weapon types we find the katana, the spear, the odachi and even the double Sword. We remind you that the game is also based on a whole range of firearms, but at the moment we have not had the opportunity to enjoy their full effect. We only had access to a rifle with gameplay reminiscent of the Wo Long bow. Useful for headshots that sometimes kill instantly.
Generally, The fights in “Rise of the Ronin” are gripping, tactical and put you in a good mood. As usual with Team Ninja, the impacts are very impactful, with members flying in all directions after a final blow, and we notice a movement flexibility reminiscent of Wo Long Fallen Dynasty. As with the latter, here you can climb the facades thanks to a jump, jump on the enemies to do a lot of damage – and slowly advance for the backstabs. Additionally, the introduction of a grappling hook makes it easier to reach certain ledges and even pull an opponent to their feet (or even charge towards them). This new tool also lets you throw a decorative item at someone. In short, the gameplay of Rise of the Ronin has some good surprises in store and we remember in particular the possibility of igniting your weapon by deflecting an arrow or a rifle bullet, or drawing the blood from your blade during a confrontation. wash” to achieve this, regain ki.
Despite everything, the copy doesn’t look perfect at this point… Even after a few hours, we’re still confused about the weapon swap in the heat of battle | choosing the right stance that will deal the most damage to the right opponent (we’ll come back to this). Team Ninja’s gameplay also doesn’t lend itself particularly well to multi-target battles.
A clever further development
This isn’t the only thing Team Ninja has found to balance needs and accessibility. For example, the experience system works in two stages… On the one hand, there is the “general” level of your character, which increases through confrontations and missions and earns you classic skill points. On the other hand, there is Karma, which is gained exclusively in battle and gives you rare skill points! This second type of XP is used to unlock more powerful abilities – but it can be complicated to obtain! As a matter of fact, In case of failure, it is the enemy who killed you who retains your precious karma, and to get it back you have to either defeat it or give it a finishing move. It’s a good compromise between a classic progression | the famous stress of a FromSoftware game when you get your souls back.
But we obviously haven’t gone into the intricacies of Rise of the Ronin. For example, it is possible to obtain “rare” skill points by strengthening your bond with the characters you meet during the adventure and who can assist you during a mission. This is also how you unlock new “fighting styles” – a sort of evolution of Nioh’s posture, but offering more…Essentially, instead of setting a high, medium, and low stance for your weapon, this allows you to change your fighting style on the fly. Each weapon can carry a maximum of three, and some enemies are more sensitive to a certain style! You can use it to vary the fights and it also looks like a promising system. By the way, Team Ninja makes Team Ninja a well-filled skill tree with lots of loot.
No impressions
In conclusion, we’re really excited about this Rise of the Ronin preview. Despite a weak technique, all the qualities of Team Ninja seem to be there, with engaging, rich combat and a whole range of parameters to personalize and improve your character… At the moment we only have a few reservations about the construction of the open world World that relies a little too much on the action stages and writing at this point. We hope the studio honors this very special time in Japan. Go to the test.
Editorial opinion
Promising
