Rise of the Ronin Review: An Unremarkable Samurai Adventure
Team Ninja's first foray into an open world leaves a lot to be desired.
There is simply nothing special about Rise of the Ronin. Team Ninja's new open-world samurai game wears its inspirations on its sleeve and has a lot of similar DNA found in games like Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin's Creed, and Dark Souls, just to name a few. Despite borrowing ideas from so many acclaimed and successful franchises, though, Rise of the Ronin fails to do anything on its own that is wholly unique and instead leaves it feeling like nothing more than a budgeted imitation.
Set in the mid-1800s, Rise of the Ronin sees players controlling a titular ronin that can be created all their own. Upon establishing the basis of this revenge tale up front, players are then let loose to run, glide, and grapple hook their way across Japan and liberate the nation during a tumultuous period of war. It's a pretty simple premise that doesn't do a whole lot to grab your attention out of the gate.
Outside of its slow opening, the throughline narrative of Rise of the Ronin is one that I never found myself engaged with. Much of this is because of the main character simply being a conduit for the player. Some games that use player-created characters still do a fantastic job of incorporating that character into their world and story, but the same can't be said for Rise of the Ronin. Instead, the main protagonist feels completely devoid of any personality or distinguished characteristics, which only further hampered my interest in their arc over the span of multiple decades.
I also cannot stress enough how poor the voice acting is in Rise of the Ronin. This game features some of the worst voice performances I have seen in a AAA title in a long, long time. Any time I found myself interested in some of the twists and turns that were made in the story, I quickly had my focus diverted by some of the bewildering voice lines that were being uttered. I'm genuinely fascinated by how rough some of the voicework is in this game as it's something I feel like I have not seen since the early 2000s.
Combat is the one aspect of Rise of the Ronin that I came to appreciate the longer that I played. The game's greatest strength on this front is that it allows for a lot of experimentation between a variety of weapon types. While featuring similar controls, combat styles all vary depending on the weapon that you might have equipped. For example, a katana might have a more balanced manner of dealing out damage with a steady cadence of strikes, while a greatsword is going to be much slower but is better used to take down groups of foes with major blows. One of my own personal favorite weapons ended up being the Oxtail Blade, as it featured a heavy emphasis on air combos and was unlike anything else.
What makes this combat system even better is that there is a mastery system with all of the weapons in Rise of the Ronin which allows you to further unlock new abilities and combat stances the more you use a certain type of sword. With that aforementioned Oxtail Blade, I was able to feel like the weapon had more for me to learn and get out of it upon repeated use rather than feeling the need to switch to another weapon type. Whether you decide to stick to one specific blade or instead cycle between a variety, either playstyle is rewarded as you're constantly going to grow your overall mastery with whatever you might utilize.
When you're not using a sword or sword-adjacent weapon, there are some other unique options in your repertoire that can prove to provide some fun. Guns are present in Rise of the Ronin and can generally be used to snipe foes from afar or can be mixed in with larger combos tied to your primary weapon. Then there are some truly offbeat inclusions such as a flamethrower, which essentially sets everything in your vicinity ablaze. A grappling hook can also be used to not only pull in enemies, but can grab various objects in the environment and hurl them at opponents. If you see an explosive red barrel in the corner of an area, chances are you can whip it around your head thanks to your grappling hook to launch into a group of foes.
Despite these positives, there are still some drawbacks to the combat in Rise of the Ronin. The parry mechanic, in particular, is one that I found quite difficult to execute during my entire time playing as it didn't seem consistent whatsoever. I also didn't find there to be enough animation variants when it comes to combat, which led to every encounter feeling far too similar. The game's basic decapitation animation is one that I feel like I've already seen hundreds upon hundreds of times.
Systemically, Team Ninja has also thrown in a couple of novel ideas with Rise of the Ronin. The most prominent of these is a Bond system, which relates not only to other characters but different regions of the world. The act of deepening your relationships with others in the world isn't all that interesting, as it's largely just done by the act of having conversations, giving gifts, of completing certain quests. Still, doing so can give you more combat styles and skill points which can then be used to upgrade your character. It's a system that isn't all that novel, but still leads to you having to do things outside of just combat in order to grow your own ronin's prowess.
As an open-world game, there's not a whole lot about Rise of the Ronin that makes it interesting. The title's sprawling world is designed well and at times is pretty to look at, but it also feels incredibly empty. Outside of key points of interest that are highlighted on your map, Rise of the Ronin doesn't do anything else to make use of its open environments other than give the player a bit of tactical freedom when it comes to approaching combat situations. Otherwise, this is simply a game that will have you wandering about its world to check off a list of tasks purely for the sake of unlocking items or other rewards.
Traversal is one element of Rise of the Ronin that I feel like Team Ninja got absolutely right. Not only can you ride a horse and grapple up the sides of buildings, but a glider also allows you to soar through the skies Breath of the Wild style. This glider isn't only great as a means of getting around, though, as its best use is to get the drop on unsuspecting baddies. Being able to swoop in on an enemy encampment from a nearby cliffside and assassinate foes by dropping out of the sky was always a joy and helped encourage creativity when approaching combat.
The thing that I found most annoying with Rise of the Ronin is that it is constantly giving you loot. Between its many weapons, gear items, crafting materials, and other accessories, it makes the process of going through your inventory monotonous, to say the least. Even if you happen to go to a local merchant and offload the items you don't want, you'll soon find your inventory filled up with more useless junk before you know it. Not to mention, it's hard to decipher the differences between many of the weapons and armor pieces you can equip as they'll come with very minor stat bonuses that almost feel like they do nothing. Some armor and weapon sets can provide stacking bonuses if they're of the same set, but the passive bonuses are often a chore to try to compare with one another.
Rise of the Ronin isn't necessarily an awful game, it's just one that's quite unremarkable. When this project was first unveiled back in 2022, I was ecstatic to see Team Ninja tackle the open-world genre and was curious to see how the studio would bring its own unique ideas to this format. Instead, virtually nothing that Team Ninja has done with Rise of the Ronin is enough to set itself apart from a growing deluge of games in the genre. With so many other titles to choose from in this space, there are far better options that warrant your time and attention.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Rise of the Ronin is set to launch at the end of this week on March 22, 2024, and will be available exclusively on PlayStation 5. A review copy of the game was provided by PlayStation for the purpose of this review.
