Rise of the Ronin Review

Rise of the Ronin: A Hidden Gem of 2024 

Back when Rise of the Ronin came out initially, I was very excited to play a new Sony exclusive samurai game set in the era of a declining shogunate. I watched as the reviews came out calling the game dated as some of its textures were poor, population densities of cities were reminiscent of ghost towns, and the draw distances of the game left much to be desired; the consensus I was seeing about the game was that it was a bit of a letdown if you were expecting the polish of a Ghost of Tsushima level samurai epic. This criticism that made me wait to play the game was not entirely wrong, but did forget to mention just how incredible and challenging the combat of this game could be. 

As someone who hasn’t played a lot of Team Ninja games, I’d say the combat feels like a blend of the one Team Ninja game I have played, Nioh, and FromSofware’s Sekiro. The stances and martial skills felt like a more refined version of what I remember from Nioh, but I found myself relying upon the block mechanic much less as the counterspark counter system felt much more reliable for depleting enemy stamina and getting those oh so satisfying critical hits. The game’s stealth, grapple hook, jumping off enemies, and relying on deflecting attacks all reminded me of Sekiro with a key difference being that your deflections worked more as attacks because they are tied to the triangle button rather than the block button (L1). They would also deal a small amount of damage when hitting an enemy not currently attacking you. This made standing in and deflecting attacks a much more risky endeavor as mistiming your inputs meant taking damage and having stamina eaten up by your action and their hits landing. Getting the timing right means a lot of practice at the in-game dojos, which allow you to hone your skills against allies and engage in  replays of old enemy fights. It takes time but training really makes fighting feel good once you get a hang of it.

The open world does have some of that Assassin’s Creed/ Ghost of Tsushima checklist grind to it, but as the obsessive-completionist type of gamer that enjoys seeing checklists get finished, I found it to be not to the games detriment. In fact, I found it to be a fairly simple list that usually included unlockable fast travel points, landmarks, lawless areas full of enemies, chests with new gear, dangerous fugitives to track down, shrines to gain skill points, an occasional training area (firearms, horseback archery, or gliding), and cats to collect and pet (can’t forget about the obligatory collectable trope).

It's just a big enough list to make my brain happy but not so big that the regions felt overwhelming to traverse. Fast travel, horseback, and glider rides, made the three big main maps a joy to explore. Although this is where those criticisms I saw from early reviewers start coming into play. Building textures wouldn’t load properly when I would go into certain areas, populated areas like the big cities felt like they didn’t have enough people, and the draw distance of the game sometimes had enemies pop in out of nowhere as I glided into an area I hadn’t previously seen anybody. It felt just a tad bit dated when compared with other modern first party Sony exclusives like Spider- Man. However, I feel that oftentimes these concerns ended up just becoming background noise as the gameplay and story became the real stars of the show.

The combat helped bring to life what I found to be a pretty enjoyable story with a fairly deep cast of historical characters. The story largely revolves around the two “Blade Twins” - who you create when starting the game -  being separated in the opening mission; the one you choose to control spends much of the game aiding others in an effort to reconnect with their missing twin while the other works behind the scenes to further their own goals. This all unfolds in the setting of 1860s Japan when the west was trying to get a foothold of trade established, making for a really interesting story. While the game does allow you to pick between pro-shogunate and anti-shogunate sides, I personally had a hard time choosing during most sequences because it largely came down to either picking the shogunate who burned down your village at the beginning of the game who is opening the doors to potential abuses from the western world or picking the anti-shogunate faction that were fully expulsionists and were quite frankly xenophobic. I ultimately chose to role play a character who mainly followed their own self-interest while supporting their (my) friends who had dreams of a new and brighter future for the country. The political intrigue and drama kept me invested in the story while the wonderful cast of characters kept me entertained between the larger story beats.

All things considered, I was a little disappointed in myself for letting negative reviews of the technical aspects keep me from playing this game until the end of the year. I am, however, incredibly glad that I did get around to playing it because it was a very enjoyable experience (in my personal opinion). I find it to be one of the more overlooked hidden gems of 2024 and I would recommend this game to anyone who likes a challenging but fair combat experience. My final score for Rise of the Ronin is 8/10.