Rise of the Ronin Reviews
Rise of the Ronin surpasses Ghost of Tsushima in many aspects (with the exception of graphics), while offering a highly entertaining slice of Japanese history. And the high level of variation and the plethora of options make Ubisoft managers cry in the closet.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Rise of the the Rōnin doesn’t feel like a game that is worth $70 in my opinion, it is a hodgepodge mix of some of gaming’s biggest trends lately but never amounts to the sum of those parts. I really miss when Tomonobu Itagaki was at Team Ninja; and NOT for the oversexualized women in DoA or crazy volleyball games but for the awesome ninja action games.
A jack of all trades and master of some, though Rise of the Ronin feels like a melting pot of influences from other games, it is also quite the surprise of the year for me thus far as it clearly shows that Team Ninja has a confident grasp of compelling open world design in a way that many of its genre stablemates do not. Though the visual presentation might be comparatively a little rough around the edges, Rise of the Ronin nonetheless is simultaneously the most accessible and ambitious game Team Ninja has done to date and one that both hardcore action RPG fiends and open world adventure aficionados will surely embrace.
Rise of the Ronin struggles to find its identity in ways that hinder what would otherwise be one of Team Ninja's finest works. A compelling story told against the backdrop of the 1850s Bakumatsu Period is instead overshadowed by a vapid and uninspired open-world setting and a narrative that rarely feels like the player has agency.
Rise of the Rōnin takes Team Ninja’s formidable combat system and lets it revel in a large open world. Swinging your blade has never felt better due to the number of options available to annihilate your opponent. Even though it follows the expectations of the genre and the visuals are mixed, each step in feudal Japan is exhilarating and pulsates with the spirit of the samurai.
Rise of the Ronin is a samurai amusement park, an open-world adventure with an excellent combat system, in which the abundance of activities might distract you from a compelling and well-told storyline. It is closer to an Assassin's Creed than a souls-like or any of Team Ninja's earlier games and could have been even better if from a technical standpoint it had been less problematic.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin isn't a bad game; it's something debatably worse: completely forgettable. With dated open world design and a monotonous narrative, the cracking combat of a Team Ninja title is left to try and pick up the pieces. It manages to get the title in acceptable shape, and with its Bonds system and culture clash, just about forms an experience one could enjoy. Where it falls apart is the fact the open world is so intrinsically linked to all these features and mechanics that it's impossible to find pleasure in them for any respectable length of time. Rise of the Ronin is designed to attract a wider audience than Team Ninja titles past; what they find might put them off for good.
Rise of the Ronin’s story is still good enough to keep players hooked, effectively luring them into the gameplay loop, which does have plenty of its own merits. But it’s dubious whether the various iniquities of the game are good enough to justify where it goes, especially knowing that all that effort can’t change which way the wind is blowing for Japan by the end.
Rise of the Ronin is undoubtedly the most ambitious of the titles developed by Team Ninja to date, as well as the riskiest. This is because the vision shaped by the studio has led it to face unprecedented challenges in terms of design and technical implementation, deriving from the choice to opt for an open world that frames a more articulated narrative structure than that of the previous productions of the Japanese collective.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin offers an enticing, streamlined take on complex Team Ninja action, but it will prove somewhat disappointing if you're a fan of mechanically rich combat.
Rise of the Ronin is the most ambitious game of Team Ninja and by far. Much more narrative than its predecessors, it unfortunately takes quite a long time to become really interesting. That's the risk when you want to create fiction when it doesn't need to. But it is also the fault of an open world far behind a certain Ghost of Tsushima. In the end Rise of the Ronin is an open world game among many others, but with an ultra-dynamic, demanding and very deep gameplay.
Review in French | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin has an excellent parrying system that makes its Soulslike gameplay feel challenging, yet fair compared to its contemporaries.
Rise of the Ronin is a great open world game but it has many flawss in things like its mission design and graphic presentation. Although is another good reason to have a PS5.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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Review in German | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin shows exactly what that money buys. From the awkward horse animation to the silent protagonist, in every cutscene fading out to a loading screen instead of dynamically swinging back behind the protagonist, in the constant tooltip tutorials and the entirely unmotivated progression systems with no contextualisation in the world.
Team Ninja's ambitious open-world action RPG is one of the best games about the Bakumatsu era ever, but its repetitive, uninspired open-world activities bog down what is an otherwise captivating experience.
If you have the time and the inclination Rise of the Ronin is a deep game with a rich, character-driven, story. However, you'll have to do battle with the controls, the multitude of systems, and endless reserves of useless loot, as well as your enemies, to get there.
Rise of the Ronin is not merely an amalgamation of open-world tropes with punishing combat. While its side activities may be unremarkable and its serene world more barren than alive, each system feeds into itself. This is done in service to further expand upon Team NINJA’s character-driven combat fantasy, one supplemented by a narrative housed in cultural and political intrigue during one of Japan’s most turbulent periods. Whether looking for a casual, open-world jaunt or a ferocious action-adventure, Rise of the Ronin is steeped in choice.
While still an apt Souls-like experience, Rise of the Ronin struggles to find its identity amongst Team Ninja's catalogue. It feels like it's being pulled in different directions, and starts to collapse under its own ambition in the third act. In saying this, the DNA of Nioh and Wo Long is palpable here, and I have no doubt that fans of Team Ninja will enjoy this first foray into open world design despite its shortcomings.
An ambitious open-world action-RPG with fast-paced combat, choice-based storytelling and a variety of gameplay systems that keep the experience fresh.