Rise of the Ronin Review – Rewrite Japanese History

The Japanese development studio with the characteristic name Team Ninja has been giving us demanding action games for many years with an emphasis on intense hand-to-hand combat, requiring not only quick reactions and strong nerves. Among their most famous series are the games Ninja Gaiden or Nioh, the second part of which can easily be considered one of the best representatives of the soulslick genre. For their latest game they decided to significantly increase the scale and storytelling, bringing us their first open world adventure reminiscent of the Assassin’s Creed series. In addition, this world tells a very ambitious story, significantly branched and non-linear. Of course, there is also a traditionally high-quality combat system or a stream of loot.

• Platform: PS5
• Publication date: 03.22.2024
• Manufacturer: Team Ninja (Japan)
• Genre: Open world ARPG.
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: yes (cooperative play for up to 4 players)
• Download data: 96 GB
• Game time: 40+ hours
• Price: 1799 CZK (Alsa)

Ronin’s Harrowing Journey

In the second half of the 19th century, the shogun decided to end Japan’s period of isolation from the rest of the world and open the country to visits and cooperation with foreigners bringing new goods, technologies and weapons. But along with this, new problems or even new diseases came to the country, which, coupled with a general threat to traditional Japanese sovereignty and culture, was very bad for some sections of society who subsequently resisted – both foreigners and the ruling shogun. . The result was years of bloody uprisings and repression. And it is during this period that you join as one of the twins whose village was destroyed, and you and your brother are subsequently trained as the “Hidden Blade”, that is, an elite samurai fighting pair.

One of the game’s big strengths is the overall emphasis on player decision-making, which means that in the editor you can customize the appearance of both twins completely to your liking (including the gender of both). brothers and sisters). After the tragic events of the game’s prologue, you are left as a lone Ronin, relying only on himself, to wander a vast land torn apart by increasingly bloody unrest. In your travels, you’ll meet historical figures on both sides of the conflict, and you’ll have to decide which one to side with – you can even try to play as both sides at the same time (with appropriate consequences). What a game absolutely needs is to offer a sense of true freedom and choice, whether it’s moving through the world, story decisions, or your character’s fighting style. There is a wide selection of costumes and weapons, including transmogrification (the ability to change the appearance of an item).

A feeling of freedom and choice to move around the world, plot decisions and combat style.

In particular, the initial decision to side with the shogun or the separatists was a very powerful experience for me: I literally spent ten minutes putting down the controller and staring at the screen, weighing the pros and cons of both sides – not only philosophically, but also the likeable characters on both sides , with whom I had already become acquainted by that time. In the end, I decided to consciously try to change history as much as possible, and in doing so, joined the side that ultimately lost in the real history of Japan. While this led to a number of interesting situations, as well as the deaths of some characters, in the end I still got the impression that the creators are not Quentin Tarantino and are hesitant to really rewrite history in a significant way – history usually tends to slide into a dead end. designated tracks, with only partial differences.

Sword Blade

But the studio’s games are usually not story-driven. Usually their focus is on the unusual combat system, and here it is no different. Although somewhat simplistic, it builds on the foundations laid by the Nioh series and adds a bit of inspiration from other similar games such as Sekiro. So the stamina indicator plays an absolutely significant role, determining for you and your enemies the ability to strike and reflect blows, or jump. Once you or your opponent “exhausts” your stamina, you will stagger for a few seconds – this is the moment when you can land a special “landing” blow on your opponent. One of the most effective tools is properly timed counter-strikes with a corresponding clink of steel, fueled by adrenaline. There are also tricks or the ability to use secondary weapons, such as a rope with an anchor, throwing stars, a revolver, and so on. There’s also plenty of room for stealth and sneaky executions from behind in a number of missions. The fights themselves are suitably bloody and brutal, including severed heads.

Timely counterattacks with appropriate adrenaline began to ring.

While the game offers three customizable difficulty levels, make no mistake: even on the easiest difficulty level there will be bosses that will truly test your reflexes and patience. Especially if you are attacked by two very strong enemies at the same time. Luckily, you also have the option of bringing along sidekicks for individual story missions, either under AI control (which you can switch to and control directly) or accompanied by up to three other online players. As in other Souls games, any problems can be solved by accompanying a more experienced or better equipped teammate. When it comes to AI companions, it’s important to do side missions for them, give them gifts, and tell them what they want to hear in conversations – the better your relationship with them, the more help bonuses they’ll unlock.

As for the overall treatment of the game, it is perfectly functional and in some places will pleasantly surprise you with an impressive landscape view or a dramatic and touching cinematic sequence. It’s worth noting, however, that the remarkably similar 2020 game Ghost of Tsushima managed to set the bar so high for its audiovisual presentation and overall aesthetics of its historical Japan theme that it looks like no one will ever come close. Of course, this game’s open world offers plenty of traditional side activities, from clearing out enemies’ lairs to finding lost cats: they’re genre clichés, but they still work if you care about them. We should also highlight the graphics modes, where in the performance settings the game most of the time stays quite close to the promised 60 frames per second, which significantly improves the impression of the action.