Those responsible for Ninja Gaiden and Nioh invite us to immerse ourselves in 19th century Japan. Will it be the end of the Tokugawa shogunate?
Talking about Team Ninja is talking about an expert studio in action video games. After all, the Japanese team is responsible for prestigious franchises such as Ninja Daiden, Dead or Alive and Nioh , among others. Its latest release, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty took place a year ago and now, exclusively for PS5, its authors invite us to travel to 19th century Japan in Rise of the Ronin .
A few days ago we shared with you our impressions after testing it for a couple of hours, in which if there was one thing clear to us, it was that its combat system was really promising. Back then we hardly spent any time discovering everything its open world offers and now, after more than 40 hours of play, we can tell you everything about this new action RPG .
The samurai without a master
Rise of the Ronin is the most ambitious game in Team Ninja’s history in narrative terms . The story has a lot of weight, the characters are well written and the staging is truly spectacular. Due to the intensity with which it begins and the script twists that occur as the hours go by, it is advisable to know that this is a game that is very sensitive to spoilers, so you can rest assured that you will not find any in the following lines.
The only thing you need to know is that the story is set in 1863, the year in which the Black Ships from the West arrive in Japan, a country ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate . The political crisis takes its toll on the streets and the people are out of control. The war has begun and we, fortunately or unfortunately, put ourselves in the shoes of a ronin; a masterless samurai who, for reasons that we will not reveal, must follow the trail of a mysterious man known as ‘The Blue Demon’ .
An elegant sword dance
Since we tried it, we assumed that the combat would be one of the great attractions of Rise of the Ronin , although we didn’t have to do any engineering to know it, since it is no surprise that a Tean Ninja game puts fights on the table. forceful, precise and addictive. If we had to define the combat system with a single word, ‘rock’ would be the one.
Because on a mechanical level it is just that, a real rock, whose base presents elements of Nioh and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty . We said swords, but we also have dual daggers, odachis, glaives and spears, among other weapons. What we liked most about the combats is that it is enough to spend a few minutes to perfectly understand how everything works. And sometimes the most difficult thing is to make things easy, and the studio has hit the nail on the head by proposing a simple, but demanding system .
We fix the camera on our rival, we move around him and wait for the moment to attack. And if he is the one who attacks us first, we measure the times and try to deflect his blows. If you know these fundamentals you are prepared to face even the most fearsome of samurai. The most important thing is, of course, to remain attentive to the opponent’s movements and think more about him getting tired than about attacking .
That is the key to everything: looking for the enemy to get tired and exposed to a very powerful blow that, sometimes, can even be lethal. Of course, it is not as easy as it seems. First, because we must also monitor the resistance meter and second, because each rival behaves in a different way and trying to deflect a simple blow from a low enemy is not the same as a combo of five powerful attacks from a boss. In short, Rise of the Ronin’s combat is very satisfying . In addition, the title adapts to any player profile, since there are three levels of difficulty equivalent to the usual easy, normal and difficult modes. For tastes…
Traditional open world, for better and worse
There were questions about whether Rise of the Ronin is a title similar to Nioh. There were also those who wondered if we were facing a soulslike. Well, neither one thing nor the other, because the title with which it has the most similarities is none other than Ghost of Tsushima . It is a traditional open-world action RPG, with a huge world that is divided into different regions in which there is a generous list of activities in which we can participate.
In this sense, we have to say that some open world mechanics have seemed outdated to us , such as that feeling of predictability when entering a new region and verifying that the activities are identical to those of the previous one. Search for cats – yes, you can pet them -, pray in sanctuaries, take photographs, visit monuments, defeat fugitives (stronger enemies than usual)… These are not particularly inspired activities and excessive repetition gives rise to monotony. .
Of course, no one forces us to participate in all these secondary activities, although it is advisable not to leave them aside, since they allow us to obtain all kinds of rewards: weapons, accessories, armor and, of course, money. In this sense, the game is reminiscent of Nioh, since the loot system is terribly addictive and allows us to obtain dozens of objects in each session. Without going any further, the inventory can hold up to 2,000 pieces of equipment… If you are one of those who enjoy comparing a handful of weapons according to rarity, statistics and abilities, Rise of the Ronin is for you.
Luckily, traveling both on horseback and in the air thanks to gadgets like the glider and grappling hook, as well as the ability to travel quickly between banners, makes for a fluid experience, so we can at least say it ‘s a snappy game. and very satisfactory at the controls . Because while it is true that the number of icons on the map is enormous and you have to be very receptive to not get overwhelmed, it is also true that everything happens very quickly and at no time does it feel like a heavy game.
On the other hand, what we really liked is the importance of the allied characters , whom we practically ended up calling friends after chatting with them and sharing stories on more than one occasion. We can give them gifts, spend time with them and, when it comes to bonding, participate in their personal missions. It is well worth spending time on these characters, since the stories of their missions are really good.
We also liked the cities, full of interesting details , characters to talk to and the occasional minigame in which to relax for a while to rest from so much combat. For example, in Yokohama we have at our disposal a blacksmith shop, several shops, a dojo in which to perfect our techniques and some other surprises that we are not going to reveal. Furthermore, art direction and historical recreation go hand in hand to provide a very pleasant experience for the senses.
CONCLUSION
PS5 nourishes its catalog with an interesting open-world action RPG that, if it can boast of anything, is putting on the table a solid, forceful and truly satisfying combat system. Rise of the Ronin does not invent the wheel and its open world presents the same lights and shadows that we usually find in other titles of the genre. A remarkable video game in which the fights, the setting and the interestingness of the characters that star in the story are more than enough arguments to determine that we are facing a remarkable video game. However, some pacing problems, the simplicity of the secondary activities and some technical ups and downs lead us to think that it could have been better.