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[nial]

Riae of the Rõnin (ライズ オブ ザ ローニン)

Platform: PlayStation 5
Type/Genre: Single-player (plus cooperative multiplayer mode)/Action role-playing
Director: Fumihiko Yasuda (Nioh, Nioh 2)
Production companies: Koei Tecmo Team Ninja, PlayStation Studios XDEV (Japan)
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Release date: March 22, 2024
Price: $69,99, CAD 89,99, 79,99€, ¥8,980



Set during Bakumatsu in the Edo (also known as Tokugawa) period in Japanese history, Rise of the Rõnin is an open world, action RPG developed by Team Ninja (of Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden and Nioh fame). It tells the story of the Boshin War, which occurred between the Tokugawa Shogunate and several opposing factions who were unhappy with Western influence after Japan was forcibly reopened following the Sakoku era.
You have the option to embark on a solo adventure or team up with other players online for particular story missions after visiting your longhouse to seek out a mission.

Witness the narrative evolve in diverse ways based on the decisions you make and the characters you choose to align with throughout your journey.
Or confront your adversaries using a range of hand-to-hand combat weapons or opt to engage from a distance with historically accurate firearms from the period.

Of couse, don't forget to customize your character. You'll have various options available, ranging from facial features and hairstyles to makeup and body shape. Then, select a Blade Sharpening Origin to establish your ronin's fundamental statistics and skills.


fart town usa Thank you so much for the gold, buddy!

 

[nial]

Hi, GAF. I can't be playing the title right now or any later, so you will not see me posting a lot of the actual game stuff here, but I would like to read opinions on it here, which is why I made this thread.
Been looking forward to it ever since it was announced in 2022, and I noticed no OT was made for It, so I decided to make it myself (which is a first time for me).

Edit: had a whole section removed because GIFs didnt't work, but whatever...

 

[FoxMcChief]

Hi, GAF. I can't be playing the title right now or any later, so you will not see me posting a lot of the actual game stuff here, but I would like to read opinions on it here, which is why I made this thread.
Been looking forward to it ever since it was announced in 2022, and I noticed no OT was made for It, so I decided to make it myself (which is a first time for me).

Just teasing. Very good job for your first.

 

[Luipadre]

Nice finally an OT! Im buying this game a bit later, currently still playing FF7 and probably waiting for a discount, but definitely gonna play it

 

[nial]

To the ever-loving, united GAF community.

 

[Edmund]

While I'm enjoying the combat, coming from Ff7 Rebirth, you can tell the difference in quality in both games. I think Team Ninja doesn't really have the chops to make an open world game.

My friends and I were looking for the next great Team Ninja Co-op game after Nioh 2 (greatest of all time) and Wo Long (Not too bad but fun game nonetheless).

I'm still gonna give the game a shot and go in with an open mind and treat the game as its own thing.

Right now my score for the game is a 7/10.

 

[Ansphn]

This game is so damn goood. If you like Ghost of Tsushima, you will like this game. This is like a Ghost + Souls-like game with a lot of parry for combat and guns.

Im loving the story so far and loving the story more than Ghost because the main character is "Me". I'm not Jin or any character the developers created. Thats why i like create your own character games.

 

[Isa]

Yeah that's what has me excited to play it, the choices for story. That and their character editor is usually great. I'm just dreading having to make 2 sets of characters this weekend between Dragon's Fugma 2 and this.

 

[ManaByte]

Three hours in and I love it. Best Team Ninja game since NGII by far. Takes bits from Nioh but the combat is as fast as NG.

 

[ManaByte]

 

[Arsic]

Riae of the Rõnin (ライズ オブ ザ ローニン)

Platform: PlayStation 5
Type/Genre: Single-player (plus cooperative multiplayer mode)/Action role-playing
Director: Fumihiko Yasuda (Nioh, Nioh 2)
Production companies: Koei Tecmo Team Ninja, PlayStation Studios XDEV (Japan)
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Release date: March 22, 2024
Price: $69,99, CAD 89,99, 79,99€, ¥8,980



Set during Bakumatsu in the Edo (also known as Tokugawa) period in Japanese history, Rise of the Rõnin is an open world, action RPG developed by Team Ninja (of Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden and Nioh fame). It tells the story of the Boshin War, which occurred between the Tokugawa Shogunate and several opposing factions who were unhappy with Western influence after Japan was forcibly reopened following the Sakoku era.
You have the option to embark on a solo adventure or team up with other players online for particular story missions after visiting your longhouse to seek out a mission.

Witness the narrative evolve in diverse ways based on the decisions you make and the characters you choose to align with throughout your journey.
Or confront your adversaries using a range of hand-to-hand combat weapons or opt to engage from a distance with historically accurate firearms from the period.

Of couse, don't forget to customize your character. You'll have various options available, ranging from facial features and hairstyles to makeup and body shape. Then, select a Blade Sharpening Origin to establish your ronin's fundamental statistics and skills.

Respect for taking the dive to make your first OT I take it.

Very well done!

Edit: Best team ninja game since ninja gaiden days.

Combines Sekiro, Ninja Gaiden, and Ghost of T.

I’m playing Ray tracing mode with uncapped fps in the settings and it runs exactly like the 60fps mode for performance. Not sure what fuckery this is but I love it.

Dragons Fugma 2 sucks. Buy this game.

 

[Kamina]

Great to see people coming together to discuss the game properly.
I felt the Review Thread had invited some people that were only reading the worst review and judged the game based on that.
Fextralife has a very fair review that captures the positiv and negative quite well.

My Personal Rating so far is 85/100

 

[SegaManAU]

On a scale of 1 to Shogun, how good is this game? I want to grab it tomorrow.

 

[Kamina]

On a scale of 1 to Shogun, how good is this game? I want to grab it tomorrow.

Somewhere between Samurai and Diamyos, closer to Diamyos

 

[balls of snow]

Cool ot. Wanted to ask, can you customise both blade twins to be waifus or are they gender locked.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Respect for taking the dive to make your first OT I take it.

Very well done!

Edit: Best team ninja game since ninja gaiden days.

Combines Sekiro, Ninja Gaiden, and Ghost of T.

I’m playing Ray tracing mode with uncapped fps in the settings and it runs exactly like the 60fps mode for performance. Not sure what fuckery this is but I love it.

Dragons Fugma 2 sucks. Buy this game.

Don't act like a wanker, both games can be good and have their place. Dragons Dogma 2 is great and I can't wait to grab this shortly.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Thanks for the OT

I need to resist picking it up until I'm done with Unicorn Overlord and Rebirth but I already know I'll love it, Team Ninja has yet to disappoint me. One thing I find interesting regarding the discourse of Ronin is comparisons to Assassin's Creed. People have been begging for *years* that they take the AC series to Japan, now we have a game in the same vein (with arguably better traversal and undoubtedly better combat) and it's a problem, fascinating stuff.

 

[Ansphn]

Yeah that's what has me excited to play it, the choices for story. That and their character editor is usually great. I'm just dreading having to make 2 sets of characters this weekend between Dragon's Fugma 2 and this.

Im waiting to play Dogma on PS5 Pro. I cant do 30fps anymore. Hopefully they have that option by then or its going to be a long long wait for me.

 

[Ansphn]

Cool ot. Wanted to ask, can you customise both blade twins to be waifus or are they gender locked.

Yes you can. I made one twin blade look like me and the other look like my wife.

 

[DeaconOfTheDank]

Great to see we've got an OT!

Combat is sucking me in. There's so many options for combo strings. "But you only click one button to attack" - lmao that was such a disingenuous take from certain reviewers.

 

[Elios83]

Right now I'm busy with FF7R but it's really likely this will be my next game so looking forward to read the opinions here.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Thanks for the OT

I need to resist picking it up until I'm done with Unicorn Overlord and Rebirth but I already know I'll love it, Team Ninja has yet to disappoint me. One thing I find interesting regarding the discourse of Ronin is comparisons to Assassin's Creed. People have been begging for *years* that they take the AC series to Japan, now we have a game in the same vein (with arguably better traversal and undoubtedly better combat) and it's a problem, fascinating stuff.

Thing is, we already had an AC Japan-themed game with Ghost of Tsushima friend, out of all the Sony open-world games, GOT was the most Ubisoft, AC-like for better or for worse

Anyway, I like Team ninja games but...the gameplay souls-ification and infinite, OCD type loot shite in both Niohs really turned me off, couple that with bad stage layout and...yeah, can't do these type of games (if I'm gonna play a souls-like it's gonna be from FROM).

Someone mentioned a page back that this is more like Ninja Gaiden ? Don't know, I find it hard to believe since from every video I've seen this looks like yet another spin on the souls formula (i.e, lock-on, horizontal-plane combat, dodges etc), I'd be willing to give it a try but that 80 Eurodollars price-tag is just comical for a game of this calibre, plus, after the fiasco of buying Robocop at almost full price I just can't trust Neogaf users' or the internet's opinion(s) anymore, this is something that I'll have to try myself but, not at this price.

Cheers

 

[ManaByte]

This game is so much better than DD2. Those glowing DD2 reviews were just the outlet sucking off Capcom so they could be invited to the next Resident Evil press event. The people who trashed this in reviews don't know how to play good games. This is seriously the best action game released since Ninja Gaiden II.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Thing is, we already had an AC Japan-themed game with Ghost of Tsushima friend, out of all the Sony open-world games, GOT was the most Ubisoft, AC-like for better or for worse

I loved GoT, have the plat trophy, it didn't remind me of AC *at all* and I say this as someone who digs the AC series. Anyway, curious to see how AC Red turns out.

 

[ManaByte]

I loved GoT, have the play trophy, it didn't remind me of AC *at all* and I say this as someone who digs the AC series. Anyway, curious to see how AC Red turns out.

People see "open world" and immediately think AC without even playing the game. GoT and this are nothing like AC.

 

[DeaconOfTheDank]

For those just jumping in, I'd recommend giving this video by Fextra a watch. Lots of good tips in there:

 

[benzy]

This game is so much better than DD2. Those glowing DD2 reviews were just the outlet sucking off Capcom so they could be invited to the next Resident Evil press event. The people who trashed this in reviews don't know how to play good games. This is seriously the best action game released since Ninja Gaiden II.

Yep, Ronin is damn good. The combat is much more mechanically demanding and complex than that cowboy youtuber who tried to make it sound like all you do is parry and then the only attack is spam square lol. This feels like a combination of all of their titles, including Ninja Gaiden.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

People see "open world" and immediately think AC without even playing the game. GoT and this are nothing like AC.

I liked GOT but it's an Ubisoft title in all but name, repetition and OCD-type collect-athon shite ahoy, you know, just like 99% of Ubisoft titles out there.

I played it for almost 70 hours, I should know.

As for Rise OTR, I'll express my opinion when I'll get it some months from now at 20-25 Eurodollars - not that I'm expecting to be actually surprised but, yeah

 

[fart town usa]

Make sure you go into the audio settings and change it to 3D or Surround (if applicable). It defaults to Stereo.

There's also an auto item pickup option. No button press, just walk over it.

 

[Arsic]

Great to see we've got an OT!

Combat is sucking me in. There's so many options for combo strings. "But you only click one button to attack" - lmao that was such a disingenuous take from certain reviewers.

It’s the same people who put ninja gaiden on easy or Devil may cry on easy.

“All I did was stinger with Dante on repeat. Game is trash.”

 

[DeaconOfTheDank]

Thank god for the transmog system; I've already grown attached to how I look in certain gear, but can't justify the pitiful early-game stats.

 

[fart town usa]

Yea, I'm convinced that this game is gonna be a banger. I'm super early but just taking my time and getting a feel for the overall vibe.

I love the stealth mechanics and the flow of combat is really coming together. I dig the graphics too, yea it's not bleeding edge but I really like the art style and use of color.

Typical reactionary launch week. People freaking the F out over nothing. lol, it's so dumb how it's the same cycle every freaking time.

I hate the Assassin's Creed comparisons. Maybe Assassin's Creed games just suck, like they largely always have, and it's not the open world aspect that is the issue.

 

[benzy]

The open world gameplay design in this I would say has more depth than stuff like Ghost. The bond system with characters in Ronin is similar to Persona's Social Link and is tied to the story and gameplay progression. You can even have romantic relationships later and cheat on them lol.

 

[Bartski]

this shit needs to stop

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

This game is so much better than DD2. Those glowing DD2 reviews were just the outlet sucking off Capcom so they could be invited to the next Resident Evil press event. The people who trashed this in reviews don't know how to play good games. This is seriously the best action game released since Ninja Gaiden II.

That's a surprising take. I haven't played either game, but why is DD2 a bad game and this so much better?

 

[ManaByte]

That's a surprising take. I haven't played either game, but why is DD2 a bad game and this so much better?

Combat in this isn’t in slow motion like walking through mud.

 

[simpatico]

this shit needs to stop

Person who typed that makes more than the guy who coded the AI.

 

[Dorfdad]

how hard is this game? I might play on Normal or easy IM not into hard for hardness sake games. Does it accommodate shit players?

 

[Katatonic]

Are the Deluxe version extras worth it?

 

[Variahunter]

how hard is this game? I might play on Normal or easy IM not into hard for hardness sake games. Does it accommodate shit players?

I've seen a stream on easy. It should be right up your alley.

 

[Dorfdad]

I've seen a stream on easy. It should be right up your alley.

Id go normal lol but you hardcore people are sadistic

 

[Granty666uk]

I am playing on a LG cx 65 oled in Graphics mode and it feels super smooth apart from getting a strange judder effect when I slowly turn the camera. Very strange. Running it with vrr on etc.

 

[Variahunter]

This game is really good. I have 20 hours in it and I am playing on Twilight.

First, I'm playing on graphics mode limited to 30 fps.

The graphics :
The game is beautiful, not cutting edge for sure, but more beautiful than GoT. The textures, rocks, city really shines. I guess its flaw is the lighting that far better in GoT (but the textures are pretty low res in this one, and 3d models environment like rocks are basic), and the LOD that is not great, which sometimes gives long distance view a meh look (but most of the times it's ok). But at least they didn't hide it with a fog like in most PS Studios open world games.

The game is also more ambitious than GoT in its tech, given that it must manages the Z-Axis too. Which gives plenty of good level design possibilities.

The combat :
At first I was a bit concerned with the seemingly lack of depth and not finding the stances changes combos like in Nioh, but you unlock it after.
Once you get the flow of the combat, you can do devastating combos and be constantly on agression. The parries feel satisfying, and I would say that there's even more possibilities than in Nioh because you have :

- Regular attack
- Charged attack (that can do 2 combos for some stances)
- Forward attack
- Counterspark attack : used as a combo ender and cancel every move, so you can cancel a high recovery charged attack with a counterspark. Some stances have a 2 combos counterspark as a follow up.
- 2 martials arts on combat per stance, and 4 martials arts per stance to choose from. It seems if the game will add more on combat, as the 4 martial arts are mapped on the four buttons.
- Grapple objects and grapple slash attack
- Jump ability, which let you stomp on the enemy and slash from the air.
- Stance combos and Weapons change combos (like in Nioh)

The only I'm missing right now is the ability to sheathe the weapons into an slash attack, but there's one stance that is dedicated to slashes from sheaths. Just so you know, there is 12 known stances just for the Katana to choose from, each of those having 4 martial arts and its own move set... and at least 3 stances per weapons, most of the time 5 or 6.

The open world :
It's an open world by the numbers, let's say it. The level design is pretty good I'd say, with lot of things to find if you take time to figure the path to do it. It has the usual acitivities of cleaning camps, villages, finding cats, shrines, taking pictures of special things, saving random people on the road, random events, killing fugitives, some minigames (archery and guns, and using the Avicula to glide on targets).
So its the usual shit, but the actual combat and infiltration make up for it, as it's always satisfying to play.

Yokohama is cool to see realized, and lots of things are hidden in small streets and roofs. It's also pretty. I'm only disappointed by the numbers of houses explorable. But it's quite usual in open worlds. I would have like if we could enter most houses and rob them, if the itemization had more depth. You could have sold the goods, used the materials to forge weapons and armor, or just find some good loot. But for that, it would have need a really good infiltration system.
Anyway, I'm eager to see Kyoto and Tokyo !

The infiltration :
Pretty basic, it's on par with ghost of Tsushima i'd say. You can't grab the ledge and decide when you want to move on the ground. Steath kills are automated from a high ground using the grapple of course, but also jumping on targets, which is annoying to me, because I love the timing needed to jump myself and push the kill button at the right moment in Tenchu/Shinobido.
Same for the grapple, it's still sad that all the games involving a grapple can't do it in free form. They all have specific targets you can grapple on (Sekiro, GoT, Rise...). Tenchu has been doing it since 1998 on a Playstation 1 ffs...
And if the reason is to not kill the flow of the movement, then do it like in shinobido were it's automated on the closest ledge from you, but you still can target a specific ledge if you want. And if you're worried about level design, then make the lenght of the grapple upgradable, like you know, fucking Ocarina of Time in 1998 ! It would make that world much more interesting, when you come back on already explored locations.

This is what I don't get with developers nowadays. They make everything explorable from the beginning. Just NO. This is not good game design. Make some areas that either are blocked by the items I don't have at the moment, or because the enemies are too strong (this one they actually do in Rise of the Ronin).

Other than that, there's a lot of different animations for the stealth kills, which is a welcome surprise.

The AI is not really good, it'll have a hard time seeing you on daytime when you're what, 10 to 15 meters away ?
Same for the sounds you make, they don't hear shit as long as you're crouched. There's an endgame ability that reduces your sound steps... but why ? They all have hear loss, and can't even hear when you break objects 2 meters from them.
And if someone knows how to open doors instead of breaking them by dashing through, I'll be glad to hear it...

Story :
The story so far is good, an I'm quite eager to see how some character develops. Also, sometimes you will have the same mission given by two opposite factions, and it's up to you to favor one or the other. At your own risk because you might loose some opportunity to develop the relatonship and learn new combat stances or martial arts.

Conclusion :

I have obviously not finished the game and quite far from it, so it's not a review. Its just my thougths on that limited time. But some parts like the infiltration won't be any different by the time I have finished the game.
I'm really enjoying it so far. Mastering the combat feels really satisfying and exploring the open world is quite good.

 

[Red-Dead-Ocelot]

As a dude who sucks at Souls games and stopped even trying to play them, i find it really fun playing on easy. The "Soulslite" feel is definitely there. There's still a challenge but doable. Also, Raytracing mode + uncapped fps this game can be gorgeous at times. I'm really loving it.

 

[SJRB]

Yeah I'm doing a more extensive write-up soon but I've been playing this game for *checks notes* nine hours today and it's great.

In fact, it's the most fun I've had with a new game in quite some time. Yeah the graphics are shit and I've been dunking on them for weeks now, but the game is good. It feels like Sekiro-lite with its combat, the atmosphere is good, the character customization is amazing. When the sun hits the grass fields just right it gets pretty damn nice either way. The bulk of the poor graphics are in the city of Yokohama. There's just something wrong with it, I don't know. Like they forgot to create textures for the ground. It's so weird.

There are plenty of issues with the game, especially when you consider it is a PS5 exclusive, but for me it's just the perfect mix of challenging but not too challenging combat, great atmosphere and typical Assassin's Creed stealth jank.

 

[Kamina]

The story really picks up at the end of the Yokohama chapter.
There also seems to be a feature that allows you to replay missions and decisions, altering the story retroactively.

As a dude who sucks at Souls games and stopped even trying to play them, i find it really fun playing on easy. The "Soulslite" feel is definitely there. There's still a challenge but doable. Also, Raytracing mode + uncapped fps this game can be gorgeous at times. I'm really loving it.

I‘m having a hard time seeing what RT mode actually does, beyond sone water reflections.

 

[DeaconOfTheDank]

The story really picks up at the end of the Yokohama chapter.
There also seems to be a feature that allows you to replay missions and decisions, altering the story retroactively.

Yeah! I was pretty impressed that they implemented something like this for a game with branching paths.

I‘m having a hard time seeing what RT mode actually does, beyond sone water reflections.

From some DF commentary, RT reflections for small bodies of water are the only thing that's implemented. Comes at a slight cost of resolution when compared to the normal graphics mode.

 

[Kamina]

From some DF commentary, RT reflections for small bodies of water are the only thing that's implemented. Comes at a slight cost of resolution when compared to the normal graphics mode.

Seems like Performance Mode is the way to go then.

 

[fart town usa]

This game is fantastic.

I'm still super early (in the geisha cutscene) but everything just feels incredibly solid so far and I'm looking forward to seeing how the story plays out. It's cool have a historical game like this from Japanese developers. Playing with the Japanese voice track of course. The sense of adventure and the interesting people I've met remind me of the John Woo epic Red Cliff, I love that movie. Also the main reason I'm playing as the girl, my interpretation of Zhao Wei's character from the movie.

I went the spy route so my weapons are Spear and Sabre. I like both. Combat is so damn solid in this game.

 

[Arsic]

Seems like Performance Mode is the way to go then.

Yep. After tinkering around it.

I did the first major “stronghold” today with 2 other players in co op. That was a fun time.

Game keeps on giving!