Okay, that’s it. I’m going to say it. I’m done. The world needs to take a break from Japanese-inspired samurai games for a while because, much like the Zombie game fad of years past, there is only so much you can do with the same theme before it all starts to feel old and tired, which is unfortunately where Rise of the Ronin falls.
Now, don’t get me wrong here, I don’t think Rise of the Ronan is a terrible game; I just don’t think it’s a great one, and for one of the most highly-anticipated game releases of the year, to leave me looking for something else to fill that heart hole is disappointing, to say the least.
In case you missed it, Rise of the Ronin is the latest game from Team Ninja, the developer behind Nioh, and it promised to deliver a high-octane role-playing story combining Eastern and Western combat styles.
From the day Rise of the Ronin debuted, it drew comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima, with many looking forward to following another samurai warrior in Japan in an open-world adventure.
If you were one of those people, then I do have to ask you to rain in those expectations, not by a little but a lot because Rise of the Ronin never “rises” to the former game’s excellence and instead delivers a frankly uninspired story, sometimes iffy graphics and bland button mashing combat.
So, to give you the rundown of the story you’re in for here: When Rise of the Ronin begins, players will assume control of two characters (either in single-player mode or online co-op).
These characters are the ill-fated Twin Blades, a warrior unit for the Veiled Edge, specially trained by the Kurosu clan to oppose their shogunate overlords.
The twin blades were brought together years before when their village was destroyed by shogunate spies and torn apart again during the tutorial when an assassination goes wrong.
Now, one of the best parts of the game was getting to play around with the two characters in the really well-put-together character creator.
However, players will only get to play as one of these twins for a large chunk of the game, and while the game tries to play on the twin souls trope, the relationship between the characters is just never fleshed out enough to make me feel particularly bonded with either one of them or care about their bond with each other.
I digress. Whichever of the twins you choose is known only as the Protagonist, and this is about as exciting and thrilling as the game’s story ever gets – regardless of what the cinematically thrilling opening sequence will have you believe.
The game truly lost me in how incredibly shallow and pointless the choices you make in this choice-focused game feel.
Without trying to ruin too many of the game’s “thrilling” story reveals, I’ll just say that choices are presented as a core part of Rise of the Ronin. Players will have the option between aligning themselves with Pro-Shogunate or Anti-Shogunate factions.
However, it doesn’t much matter which way you decide to go at things because the game has a very firm idea of where you should stand, and that’s that.
After spending hours and hours making more choices than any adult unable to decide what they want for dinner is comfortable making, I found my character being forced into mission after mission that just wholly spat in the face of all the choices I had been strong-armed into making.
And for someone who usually rides and dies by game choices, it’s disappointing to see how disposable they are here.
Even the combat ended up feeling disappointing, fast. At first, I enjoyed running around like a crazed samurai-sword-wielding manic, slaying all who dared stand before me.
Then, my partner pointed out that every single attack looked the same and resulted in the enemy getting their head chopped off. After that, the magic spell was broken.
But that’s not to say that the combat is inherently superficial; in fact, it’s presented as being anything but. Players can choose from ten different primary weapon types and six sub-weapons.
Each weapon has various customisable combat styles, which can be adjusted mid-battle to target each enemy’s weakness. Something which sounds like a dream in theory, but the reality is clumsy combat that feels just as repetitive as any button-mashing game’s combat is apt to do.
And I’m not exaggerating here; what starts as feeling thrilling and fast soon feels so repetitive that I couldn’t be bothered and spent more time trying to avoid combat than actively engaging in more samsie-feeling fights.
Then there is the ally system. Whether playing alone or with friends, there are a bunch of allies players can take into battle alongside them – each one seemingly more forgettable than the last.
Another core mechanic is building and maintaining relationships with these NPCs outside combat to strengthen your stats. Still, you can give only so many gifts to what is essentially a virtual shop mannequin before you start to doubt your sanity.
Much like in other games, these NPCs will try and engage you in conversation, but while writing this now, I can’t recall even a single of these exercises in tedium to use as an example.
It’s not that this concept is terrible; in fact, it’s a system that many other games have implemented and pulled off too much success. It’s just incredibly bland in Rise of the Ronin.
While running around, players also have the chance to run into people looking for help, which will strengthen their bond with the given area. Once again, this started as fun. But then I realised I was just doing the exact same thing, again and again and again and much like the rest of Rise of the Ronin, it got old. Fast.
It’s not that I think that Rise of the Ronin is a bad game. It’s just that I can’t think of a single reason to call it a good one.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another game to play. I’m not sure what that will be, but I know it won’t be Rise of the Ronin.
