These impressions are based only on the first hours of the full game, without using online multiplayer.
My strongest impression from the first hours of playing the full version of Rise of the Ronin was the feeling that I somehow already knew almost every element of this game. The open world structure, including sub-mechanics, is strongly reminiscent of the newer Assassin’s Creed series, the theme and tone of the story are noticeably reminiscent of Ghost of Tsushima, and the combat system or loot is unmistakably reminiscent of the Nioh series from the same creators (as Ronin). It’s as if the developers from the Japanese studio Team Ninja set themselves the task of imitating “Western open-world historical games” as much as possible. While it’s all very familiar, the trio of masterminds mentioned are quality games and the resulting combination will definitely be interesting if you’re a fan of them.
At the beginning of the game you will have to create a skin of your character, but be careful, you have the option to switch in this menu and create two character skins, because you are one of the “Veiled Edge” pair, which are specially trained pairs of samurai who always fight side by side shoulder. Since your “double” will be important to the story, be sure to think about his appearance. Moreover, both characters can be male or female, the choice is yours. The following story prologue pretty quickly replaces you with a training sequence, some treacherous enemy ambushes, and your first big mission aboard the Americans’ “black ship.”
While all of this is familiar, the resulting combination is fun.
The story, set in Japan in the second half of the 19th century, takes wild twists from the start and is full of unexpected twists, supported by “cinematic” animation in the game engine. However, compared to the aforementioned Western games, it seems somewhat less realistic and human, rather coming across as a kind of shorthand and superhumanly exaggerated anime cartoon, full of plucky heroes and villains with somewhat exaggerated statements and dialogue – if you’ve played Nioh, then you’ll get a very good idea , how the story works, its characters and dialogues. Perhaps, the only difference is that I have not yet encountered either supernatural creatures or magic. We’ll see how the story unfolds in the rest of the game, as it’s meant to be non-linear and your actively developing relationships with various characters, depending on your choices and completing side missions for those characters, will play a role. This.
After completing the story prologue, you find yourself in a huge open world. Its map is drawn for you as a result of your active travels and explorations, or activity icons pop up on it after you liberate one of the local villages from bandits. You’ll also get horses and the ability to teleport fairly quickly between unlocked “flags”, which also work like fires from the Souls games (replenish your health kits and ammo, but revive any killed regular enemies).
If you’ve played Nioh, you’ll have a good idea of what the story feels like.
While wandering between villages and cities, you can collect various herbs and raw materials from nature, from which you can then make first-aid kits or improve weapons. For a change, when you kill enemies, you get weapons and armor as loot, which is still similar (in properties and richness) to the Nioh series. The combat system, perhaps, will not surprise you either; it classically places an emphasis on endurance (yours and that of your enemies) and timely counterattacks or dodges. However, stealth is also a very effective way to destroy entire enemy camps with stealth killing blows by sneaking up behind enemies.
In terms of design, you have the option to set this PS5 exclusive game to three graphics modes: Performance (with a lower resolution and fewer effects, but aiming for 60fps), Quality (higher resolution, with a target of 30fps ) or ray tracing. As always, I prioritized smoothness above all else, and in the early hours of both missions and the open world, the game runs pleasantly smoothly, with perhaps the only stutter upon entering the first expansive look. Graphics-wise, don’t expect anything as aesthetically impressive as Ghost of Tsushima with its fantastically colored plains, but this game’s cooler color palette adds to the realism, and some of the character details or landscape views are definitely impressive. The filmography of the story scenes is also somewhat simpler compared to Phantom, but it serves its purpose.
You can set three graphics modes in the game.
Although some aspects can be judged from the first hours of the game, the overall impression of a huge non-linear role-playing game will, of course, emerge much later. I’m very interested to see how the implementation of online co-op with teammates will work (which we, of course, plan to test for review), I’m really looking forward to the smooth jump from a flying “rogal” to a horse while driving, as well as tricky “attacks from above” and other advanced mechanics presented in game trailers. Who knows, maybe even this story will have an interesting start, and it will be worth discussing between individual players what choices they made and what ending awaits the game. However, at this point, I’m under the impression that fans of the studio’s previous games will be happy with Ronin, and fans of the other games mentioned will probably be too.
Rise of the Ronin will be released on PlayStation 5 on Friday, March 22, and you can order the game on Alza.
Source :Indian TV
