There are definitely a lot of wolves in PS5 exclusive Rise of Ronin, which is great

Most of us were probably expecting Team Ninja to be the follow-up to the Nioh series, Rise of the Ronin, learned the most from the studio’s earlier action games. While that may prove to be true when we get our hands on it, what we’ve seen so far makes it look more and more like an expanded version of FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

More specifically, the gameplay footage we saw during Sony’s State of Play livestream last night had several absolutely standout moments.

Rise of the Ronin is Team Ninja’s largest game to date. It’s the developer’s first open-world game (like FromSoft’s Elden Ring), with multiple ways to travel and a narrative featuring NPCs that keep you watching for more than just cutscenes. Based on everything we’ve seen, this is a modern video game.

But it’s also a Team Ninja project, so everything looks to be built on a solid foundation of games, many of which evolve from the Nioh series you’re probably familiar with. I thought things would be settled there, but after watching recent gameplay videos, my impression has changed.

Frankly, there are a lot of wolves in Ronin, and that’s definitely a good thing.

Let’s start with the grab rope, which seems to work similarly to the one in Sekiro. Yes, you can use it to quickly reach rooftops and gain a vantage point, but it also allows you to get closer to your enemies.Later in the video, we see the protagonist even doing “very Sekiro things” by grappling with enemies to take advantage, and directly using ropes to pull sentinels Towards them (although this may only apply to weak units).

The same grab rope can also be used for stealth, another nod to Sekiro. What about the tall grass? Now, obviously Sekiro didn’t invent this mechanic, but something that emerges from the tall grass and grabs enemies/rooftops looks very Sekiro to me.

In fact, Team Ninja never really tried stealth, just like Sekiro was FromSoftware’s first implementation of a stealth system. I will say, however, that the radar showing enemies as red dots may be a bit much. Not exactly part of a rogue samurai fantasy, is it?

Nioh’s posture system has also returned, but this time it seems to be more in the direction of Sekiro, with perfect blocks that quickly consume the enemy’s posture. Enemy poses can also be restored, so you may need to break it multiple times to kill them outright.

At the 1:30 mark of the trailer, we see yet another direct homage to Sekiro; this time to one of its enemies. Remember the long-armed centipede and giraffe mini-boss? Well, the claws on Ronin look similar and attack at about the same speed – most likely also to teach you how to parry fast attacks. Speaking of parrying, the developers confirmed on the PlayStation Blog that you will be able to deflect rifle shots! I’m sure we’ve all wanted to do this since Edgeworth’s brilliant introduction in Soul Calibur 2’s awesome intro movie.

All of this is very welcome, especially since FromSoftware doesn’t seem to be doing anything with Sekiro. I’m sure there are a lot of nuances in Rise of Ronin that I’m missing, and I can’t wait to play it myself and see how much like Sekiro it plays (if at all).

“Rise of Ronin” is coming March 22 on PS5.