Rise of the Ronin Reviews
Rise of the Ronin delivers a visually striking and mechanically solid action-adventure experience, but its repetitive side content and unremarkable story hold it back. While the PC port offers technical improvements, performance issues and underwhelming visual upgrades dampen its potential.
Put together, and Rise of the Ronin is a happy and welcome surprise in the genre. Whatever limitations it has, mostly due to its budget, are really ignored thanks to a well written story, beautiful open world, and fantastic action.
Long-time fans of Team Ninja’s titles should certainly enjoy all that Rise of the Ronin has to offer, but others may want to wait for a few more patches before diving in.
Rise of the Ronin may feature a formulaic open-world structure, but it's still an amazing action RPG despite that. Unfortunately, your mileage with the PC port may vary, so proceed with caution.
Rise of the Ronin brings Team Ninja's killer combat to an open world, making for a samurai playground with much to love and even more to see. While the open world design fails to live up to the higher points set by the robust combat mechanics and the loot system is ridiculously over-the-top, there are gems among the clutter, such as building Bonds with memorable allies, seeing how player decisions affect the ending and taking out enemies with a friend.
Despite some flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Rise of the Ronin. It’s an excellent action RPG, especially for fans of the Nioh series and Wo Long, and it avoids the content bloat that plagues many other open-world titles. The main story can be completed in around 20 hours, but overall, there’s easily four to five times the amount of content to explore. Additionally, it serves as a great entry point for those who have wanted to try a Team Ninja game without immediately throwing their controller towards the wall. Personally, I can’t think of a better starting point!
Review in Finnish | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin is a game created from a concoction of our favourite Samurai-inspired games. While it can give you a sense of déjà vu during your playtime, the game ultimately carves its own path and follows its own direction in the soulslike genre. The game is held back graphically but is redeemed through its enjoyable story and gameplay.
After my time in the Bakumatsu period, Rise of The Ronin reminded me of the often-overlooked Days Gone. Like the Bend title, Team Ninja's latest work shares many strengths and weaknesses: a derivative structure and questionable technical polish, but it’s incredibly fun gameplay hides some of its uncertainties. Crossing blades with other ronin and historical figures offers palpable joy, making up for the less impressive visuals and a weak enemy AI. If you're ready to compromise with a familiar structure, this journey in late 19th century Japan can surprise you. It may not be perfect, but it's undeniably fun.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin is a robust and enjoyable open-world adventure across 19th-century Japan. It features superb combat, an intriguing Bakumatsu-inspired setting, and a world with so much to do. However, its identity feels a little unclear at times and some repetitive missions, plus bumpy visuals, hold it back.
Rise of the Ronin is certainly not an ideal title. The developers, in their attempt to create an open-world game, should have looked towards a better authority than Ubisoft for inspiration. An open world shouldn't be an excuse to inundate players with a hundred identical activities. It has strong-points, and it's not a bad game, but there was definitely the potential to create something excellent and memorable.
Review in Polish | Read full review
There is a lot to love in Rise of the Ronin and it is a valiant first crack at an open world for Team Ninja. The gameplay and combat shine the brightest here. It does a good job of keeping you in the flow of combat. The side content is a checklist of things to do, but it serves its purpose to supplement the combat, which is a frenetic and brutal dance.
Discussing "too much of a good thing" in a review of an open world game can lead to misunderstandings, especially for those who only pay attention to the final comments and score. For this reason, we want to clearly emphasize the point. The open world of Rise of the Ronin is incredibly well-crafted. What feels excessive are the ludo-narrative variables related to the choices and freedoms given to the player. It may not be Team Ninja's most focused title (Nioh and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty are more structured and precise in what they offer). It won't be the definitive crowning achievement of the studio in the pantheon of developers because the highlighted criticisms stem from "immature" choices that limit the proverbial "next step" in their growth. However, if there’s one thing the Japanese team excels at, it’s creating increasingly satisfying and exhilarating combat systems. Even starting from mechanics we’ve seen before, they manage to deliver something new and more enjoyable every time. And Rise of the Ronin is precisely that: the most satisfying, exhilarating, and fun title from Team Ninja, despite everything.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin is the first open world from Team Ninja, which seeks to elevate its action RPG formula to a new level. In this new production, there will be no Oni or monsters to eliminate, but a scenario of clashes between the now former samurai opposed to the decisions of the Tokugawa shogunate and westerners from the United States, who wish to enter fully into the trade and life of the Japanese people. Within this era of historical transition, known as the Bakkumatsu, stands the game's protagonist, a ronin, who will set out to find his own twin blade, a comrade-in-arms he has trained with since childhood, believed dead. The open world created by Team Ninja will offer many elements of exploration, missions with multiple decision-making choices and collectables to collect. But the core of the game remains the combat system; Rise of the Ronin does not reward button-mashing in the slightest, but provides smooth and elegant combat that will make you focus on deflection and counterattack, which are necessary to survive. Although the graphics do not compare to other first-party titles from Sony, Rise of the Ronin will captivate you with its over-the-top gameplay and historical accuracy of mid-19th century Japan.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Whether it’s the skillful, satisfying combat, the occasionally gorgeous recreation of 1860s Japan, or the powerful idea of getting into shenanigans and making story-altering choices with real historical figures, Rise of the Ronin has it all. However, whatever novelty exists at the start eventually gives way to the worst kind of open-world gruel.
Rise of the Ronin isn't just Team Ninja's most ambitious game to date; it's also its most important one. With this title, the studio has pivoted into a bold new direction while still retaining the essence of its classic titles. However, if the studio's past games didn't click for you, it's unlikely that Rise of the Ronin will. But if they did, this will feel like a radical improvement from Team Ninja's previous titles, with plenty to be excited about what lies ahead.
Rise of the Ronin is a great game with rewarding combat and an engaging historical narrative, but it's primarily for action lovers as exploration often leads to battles.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin is an unfortunate example of what happens when the chase for mainstream appeal goes in the way of creative identity. While it's still a fairly enjoyable action game when it allows itself to be, it's ultimately bogged down by half-baked mechanics that make the world feel emptier than it looks.
Rise of the Rōnin is an another great PlayStation title. It's not GotY material, but it does its job well.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Rise of the Ronin is a step back for Team Ninja. The whole experience feels like a tech demo that was put aside and pulled out of a drawer at the last minute. The karma system, historical elements, and music make the game at least an average experience that will be appreciated only by die-hard fans of, for example, the second Assassin's Creed and the Japanese theme.
Review in Czech | Read full review
This was perhaps one of the games I most wanted to play in 2024. The theme of samurai in 19th century Japan is something that fascinates me immensely and, despite being a theme in many games over the last few years, this title had awakened me something through the trailers. However, the end result was disastrous, with terrible performance and gameplay that only gets away with it thanks to the combat (which, in turn, becomes repetitive very easily). The story is interesting but the way it is told is ineffective. which makes it difficult to interpret and at the end of the day, the only thing left is the combat which, perhaps even interesting for fans of “Soulslike”, however they won’t find the same difficulty as they do in a “NIOH”, for example In the end, Rise of the Ronin ends up being just another samurai game without a unique identity, which will only be recognized for being mediocre.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review