This year, Sony is taking a break from releasing games in its most high-profile series, so no new Ucharted or God of War. But the Japanese are not leaving us without games either. At the beginning of the year, they released a console exclusive, Helldivers 2, which became a real «sleeper hit», even for developers. The next step is probably the most high-profile release of this year for PS5, for which the platform holder had high expectations. What is the new game by Nioh developers like? Let’s find out in our Rise of the Ronin review.
Rise of the Ronin takes us to the middle of the nineteenth century at the end of the Edo period. That is, the last years of the shogunate’s rule. After years of isolation, the shogun opens the doors of Japan to the Western world. First of all, for the Americans, who contributed to these changes not without threats of force.
Not all active citizens like such changes. Especially the fact that «barbarians» interfere in the political affairs of the country. «barbarians» the Japanese call all foreigners barbarians. The protagonist, or heroine, becomes a direct participant in these events, but has her own goal, but this is spoiler territory.
The main field of our decisions is the support of the shogunate, or those who speak for it. By choosing a quest to support the shogun, we become unable to complete the tasks of his opponents. At the same time, our reputation among minor characters is the main influence.
However, the choice system also exists in less global quests. For example, one of the first quests leads us to a robber. In the final battle with him, you can either pardon him or kill him. If you choose the first option, he will become our partner in the quests. Interestingly, a little later, the same robber will be linked to another quest. And we will again be faced with the choice of killing him or teaming up with him.
The story is really interesting to watch, the characters are colorful, and some plot twists, although they are almost immediately readable, still arouse interest.
The developers do not even hide one of the initial plot twists, placing it in the game’s introductory video and trailers.
If you are interested in this period of Japan’s existence, you will see many familiar names, places, and events in the game. For your convenience, the developers have even added a chronology with a brief description of important decisions that took place in a given year. At some point, they will even allow you to replay the turning points of the past that will change the current history.
Nioh was one of the first Souls-like games to have its face, not just copy the mechanics and setting of the genre’s fathers. Rise of the Ronin continues the traditions of its predecessor and goes its own way. And this path is quite loyal to the player on many levels.
It feels like the game was balanced for Medium difficulty. There is enough challenge to keep the game from becoming a cakewalk, especially on bosses.
Another step towards convenience is checkpoints. If we die trying to liberate a village, we will be respawned not near the nearest fire, but right in front of the entrance to the settlement. Even powerful enemies that we killed will not respawn, which speeds up the completion of such tasks. There is also a fire in front of each boss, from which you can even leave the mission, and a black market trader who has supplies and can upgrade weapons or armor.
The talent system is designed in an interesting way. We have four main characteristics and a separate talent tree is assigned to each. Unlocking talents increases the corresponding characteristic. As in the studio’s previous games, each weapon receives a large bonus to damage from one characteristic and a slightly smaller one from the others. For example, if you choose two katanas, it is highly desirable to pump the talent tree that corresponds to Agility.
At the same time, you shouldn’t ignore the Charisma or Strength talent tree either. The former opens up options for answering in dialogues and allows you to deceive people. The second allows you to fight your opponents more effectively. The fourth characteristic, Intelligence, for example, allows you to create various potions and weapon lubricants.
There are two types of experience points: universal and special. Performing specific actions earns special points, such as Dexterity. Some talents can be purchased exclusively with special experience points, while most are purchased with universal experience points.
The experience system in the game is standard and similar to Nioh. After death, we lose all the experience we have gained, which is called Karma. To get back the accumulation, you need to defeat the enemy who killed us, or inflict critical damage on him. Otherwise, we will lose everything.
However, there are also differences from other similar games. The accumulated experience is not a currency. Once you have accumulated the required amount of Karma, it is automatically converted into experience points at the lights. Accordingly, it is the unconverted karma that is lost after death. Therefore, it is advisable to approach the lights as often as possible and discover new ones. They also serve as fast travel points.
If you’ve played Nioh, then Rise of the Ronin’s combat won’t be a big surprise. It is based on stances, which are called fighting styles. There can be half a dozen styles for each weapon, but only three can be active.
Styles are unlocked gradually through the story, or by completing additional quests, or killing enemies with the desired style. For each weapon, styles must be unlocked separately. In addition to the fact that styles have different battle dynamics and special attacks. Each of them is better or worse suited for specific enemies, which is indicated by a special icon near the enemy’s health.
In this way, the developers are pushing us to dynamically change stances, which is even what some talents are aiming for. And if no one stance has an advantage over a strong opponent, the game allows you to switch to a partner at any time.
There are ten types of melee weapons in the game, not including ranged weapons. The more you use one type of weapon, the higher its level becomes, which gives bonuses to different types of damage.
Partners is another innovation that makes the game more interesting and a little easier. Before almost every story task, we can choose up to two NPI partners. Like the player, the partners have their fighting styles and weapons, which, however, cannot be changed. But at any time during the mission, you can switch between the three characters rapidly.
Partners do a lot of damage to enemies, so it’s best not to ignore them. There are also NPCs who simply accompany us on missions, you can’t switch to them, and according to observation, they often just run circles around enemies rather than bring any benefit.
If the hero or one of his teammates is killed in battle, the cost of one first aid kit can be used to raise the fallen. Which is not always the right decision because it is not the worst option to keep the first aid kit for yourself in an attempt to finish off the enemies yourself. After the battle, «’s partners will revive» without our help.
What’s cool is that in many missions, a live player can be your partner. But, unfortunately, the game does not have a full-fledged cooperative playthrough.
It is desirable to develop relationships with partners and some IPs by increasing their level of trust. With each level, they will unlock new skills, and NPCs will provide new services. For example, the inventor will provide a flamethrower and improvements to the hang glider.
From the first gameplay trailer, Rise of the Ronin had a touch of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which turned out to be true. First of all, the protagonist has a cat hook that helps in moving around the map, as well as attracting enemies or throwing various objects.
Second, the battle is focused on reposts. That is, blocking enemy attacks at the moment of their infliction with a subsequent counterattack. The main goal is to knock down «stability» the enemy as quickly as possible to inflict maximum damage. A successful repost reduces the opponent’s stability the most, especially if you skillfully block the opponent’s super attack. But it is not as easy as it seems. Even ordinary mobs can have insidious super attacks that are difficult to read at first.
I have almost no complaints about the combat system of Rise of the Ronin. It is dynamic and variable. You can run around with a big sword, waiting for a moment to deliver a powerful blow, or take a sword in each hand and deliver quick strikes by bouncing off the enemy’s attacks.
The only thing that can cause problems is reposts, which are the basis of the combat. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to catch the wave of this game mechanic, so almost every boss battle was painful. However, to developers’ credit, they didn’t get hung up on them, and you can defeat any enemy with skillful maneuvering and proper endurance management. Another important component of any «souls».
On top of that, there was blood on the blade, which needs to be regularly wiped off to inflict maximum damage on opponents.
The open world and its content are far from perfect. At first, while the game is just opening up different types of activities, it is interesting to complete secondary tasks. Most of them have some kind of small story, often even a good one with variability. Random events are also not annoying at first and even appeal to an inner sense of justice and decency. For example, dealing with robbers who have blocked the road, which makes travelers afraid to walk this way. Or a robber has stolen a lady’s purse and is rushing to get away on a horse.
And of course, forts, which are essential for any open-world game. Most often, they are small villages. After liberating the settlement from the invaders, residents and traders will return to it, and we will be able to open fire, which is the most important reason to take on these tasks.
There are even passive activities. For example, you can rent out cats and get valuable, but often not very valuable, items for it. It is also possible to send an Akita searching for resources. At the same time, if you are connected to the network, dogs of other players will appear in our world. If you play with them, you will receive a small reward. You can also equip your house. Each piece of furniture gives a small bonus. For example, if you put paired swords in plain sight, you will increase the chance of dropping paired swords from your opponents.
Rise of the Ronin’s loot system is straight out of Nioh. Items are poured generously, most of which immediately go to the merchant or are disassembled into resources. Some equipment is part of a set. By collecting two or more items of the same set, we will receive bonuses to damage, armor and one of the main characteristics.
The instability of a horse makes it difficult to travel the world. Wandering into a rocky area somewhere, a horse begins to behave very unpredictably. And the issue is not that he is an animal and is afraid of something, no. It just becomes uncomfortable to control, it is thrown from side to side, and at such moments it is easier to hurry up and get out of the uneven surface on your own two feet.
The horse in Rise of the Ronin has a built-in GPS. Literally. We specify a point on the map, press a button, and the horse takes us to our destination. However, the animal chooses a paved path, and often the shortest way is straight ahead. For some, the feature may be useful, but I used it once when it was first introduced.
The hang glider has no complaints. It is easy to operate, deploy quickly, and allows you to get to hard-to-reach places.
The graphics make you use teleportation more often. It’s straight out of PS4, and not at the peak of the last generation. Rise of the Ronin has several graphics modes, even with support for reflection tracing, but I think it’s reasonable in a game like this to sacrifice 60fps for a slightly more beautiful or clearer image. The same Ghost of Tsushima looks more beautiful and also runs at 60fps on the current generation of Sony consoles.
Rise of the Ronin could be a great Souls game for those who don’t like Souls games. It has a good story with charismatic characters and a choice system that really has an impact on the story and characters. The combat system allows you to flexibly choose the battle dynamics and does not focus on the central element of this game — reposts. In addition, the game has difficulty levels and a large number of elements that make the gaming experience convenient and understandable.
But by creating an open world, we were able to fill it with content that was interesting enough for the first ten hours of play. Also, the rejection of the fantasy world eventually shows itself. All the enemies in Rise of the Ronin are people. Big, small, or wide, but people. And if you remove some unique bosses, the rest of the enemies are visually very similar. There’s not enough variety that was in the Nioh dilogy.
As a result, Rise of the Ronin is easy to skip and lose nothing. However, those who want to plunge into one of the most interesting periods of Japan have every chance to enjoy an interesting story and a good combat system. However, it is better to wait for discounts.