I like Ronin, I do. But I really wanted to love it. Everything about this game speaks to me; the setting, the combat, the narrative. It's so good, at least conceptually.

Unfortunately, at the end of my 40 something hours with Rise of the Ronin: I was left a little underwhelmed. Overall, as an open world title, Ronin has the basics down - it just doesn't evolve out from there. Ronin doesn't do nothing necessarily unique or special with it's open world - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think it's important to frame Ronin as Team Ninja's very first open world title, and it very much feels like it. I think with a sequel or the knowledge and expertise gained from developing this title, Team Ninja is better off for it. However, the activities found in the open world were just not very engaging - shooting galleries, gliding challenges, horse stuff and cat collectibles.There's just ultimately not alot to do here. Halfway through the game I just found myself becoming less and less interested in completing these objectives primarily for one reason: your reward.

I don't mind Nioh/Strangers/Wo Long's loot system. I think it works for linear structured missions, and the loop of entering a mission and looting and killing only to come back to your Dojo and upgrade etc etc works but only for those style of games. Rise of the Ronin copies this loot system, and it just does not work here. There is no satisfying loot feedback. I feel no attachment to any of my weapons. Clearing out enemy camps and stuff or getting keys to chests just leads to the same thing; more and more and more loot vomit. 55 swords and 55 spears and 55 bows and 55 guns I CAN'T DO IT!! It does not incentivize the player to want to do these side missions if the reward is for something that can be outclassed by the next side mission.

The narrative is probably where I'm the most sour. How do you finally have a cast of characters that are genuinely fun to be around (Ryoma Sakamoto my absolute goat) and you decide to have a custom protag who doesnt ever speak except like, 5 times max??? This could've been a smash hit with an established character with full voice acting. They want it to be this emotionally charged narrative about siblings fighting for different sides but only one of them talks????!!!! And the male voice sounds badass!! Really huge missed opportunity here. Again, my issue for this game is when it too heavily incorporates aspects from Team Ninja's previous soulslike-action game endeavors. They just DONT work here.


But enough about the negatives, the soundtrack is really incredible and the gameplay is Wo Long's combat refined to a point where it feels good to play in a casual way. Like it's the one thing they decided to rework to fit more in an open world game or something!! The gameplay easily carried me through the end, it's really satisfying to land parries and then it does a big air burst and all the grass blows and its like pshhshhvhh and its awesome.

Some other points:
-Gliding is arguably the best inclusion they added in to the game. So fucking fun
-Very annoying how the game wants you to climb all these walls and shit but climbing up them is jank as fuck, even though Wo Long had a really excellent wall climb mechanic that felt good to pull off
-Visually this game can be drop-dead gorgeous, but the cities are where the game kinda falls apart. The engine needs a rework here.
-Multiple maps yet they all feel the same, wish there was more environmental diversity. Theres snow missions but no snow map!
-The RPG-ness of it was a neat idea but it ultimately felt pretty underbaked, but i appreciate its inclusion.
-The Bond system was also pretty underwhelming, could've been a bit better had your protag had more involved interaction with the character (like speak to them) (stop making voiceless protags when its not necessary)

Overall, I thought it was okay towards the end. The strong gameplay carried me through an otherwise kinda boring last act, with a cast that was begging to have a bit more characterization (outside of Ryoma Sakamoto the goat). A decent first effort, but I hope the sequel fixes most if not all of my issues and delivers something truly special.