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Rise of the Rōnin | OT | Gaming Edo Age Forums

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Nothing fancy, just a little bit of modifications on one of the templates for my protagonist.

The performance is pretty mid even in "Performance" mode. Frequently falling under the VRR range and causing big judders in traversal.


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Tk4fzir.jpeg
 
O my god, the cat concierge feature, lmao.

First the Shiba dog, now the cats.

What a game.
My thoughts too.

I am not the person to gauge open world titles and how similar they are to each other but I really dig the activities in Ronin. There's a ton to do and it's all pretty leisure outside of combat. I welcome the down time.

I'm also amazed at the amount of systems to manage but somehow I'm doing just fine and not feeling overwhelmed. This is probably the most robust combat system I've ever seen in a game. The amount of options is staggering to me.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
main-qimg-b1c2d87ae25f16d550d74ca60477de55


Man this game is SO CLOSE to being truly incredible. They were almost there. It's so frustrating.

Exploring the northern part of Yokohama and seeing the European architecture, there really is a lot of attention to detail, sometimes. British guards next to the UK embassy, for example. Blew my mind.

Just for example, imagine how sick it would've been if we could grapple to any roof like the grapple in Arkham City, instead of just the arbitrary grapple points. Would've made traversal in the city so much better and I honestly don't think it's that much harder to implement.
 
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Ogbert

Member
Put in a good ten hours or so now.

Fun game. The core gameplay is great. Some jank around the outside.

If I had one criticism, the game is oddly too easy. And that’s not some gatekeeping drivel. Rather, it has excellent parry mechanics, but you never actually die enough to invest in learning the windows for enemies. I’ve pumped up the difficulty, but that’s just making enemies tankier and frustrating (especially considering the number of mobs you have to fight).

Dabbling with the stance changes at the moment, too.

There’s a lot to learn with the game.
 
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How are you guys approaching the alliance aspect?

I want to stay neutral. The way the story is playing out is kind of bizarre. I won't spoil things but I did a mission yesterday and it's like everything the game set off with has been turned on its head, just kind of bizarre.

I'm also doing side content and have barely touched main missions, not sure if that is effecting the narrative. Probably isn't but I can't be sure.

Either way, I'm having a damn good time. I'm honestly stunned that this game has engaged me like this, I effing hate open world games 99% of the time! 😅
 
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Man, the more I play of this game, the more I realize I most be seriously out-of-touch with reviewers... This game is basically everything I wanted Ghost of Tsushima to be
What's GoT like with it's open world? Never played and honestly probably won't. I never cared for Sucker Punch so I have a hard time motivating myself to try GoT.

Is it just the graphics that got people so hyped over GoT? I checked the metacritic the other day and was surprised to see the score. Not that the MC score truly matters, was just surprising because I expected to see something in the 90s but its at 83.
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
What's GoT like with it's open world? Never played and honestly probably won't. I never cared for Sucker Punch so I have a hard time motivating myself to try GoT.

Is it just the graphics that got people so hyped over GoT? I checked the metacritic the other day and was surprised to see the score. Not that the MC score truly matters, was just surprising because I expected to see something in the 90s but its at 83.

It open world like a Ubisoft game but done right. Really polished and just fun to play with lots of options how to tackle things. One of my top 3 games last generation. Even played the mini expansion and i never do that the game is just fun.

On topic i want to try ronin but just not sure because of all the conflicting opinions on combat. Any word on demo?
 
Just started first couple hours on Twilight. Really awesome all around. Having the parry seperate from block should be the new standard. It forces you to play aggressive. It's so crisp when you time it right. And the timing window seems really fair
 
What's GoT like with it's open world? Never played and honestly probably won't. I never cared for Sucker Punch so I have a hard time motivating myself to try GoT.

Is it just the graphics that got people so hyped over GoT? I checked the metacritic the other day and was surprised to see the score. Not that the MC score truly matters, was just surprising because I expected to see something in the 90s but its at 83.
Ghost of Tsushima was my favorite first-party game from Sony last gen.

The open world is pretty much an AC checklist, but don't let that deter you:
  • The setting is focused on the Mongolian invasion of Japan at the end of the 13th century, so you're mostly fighting Mongols with the occasional ronin in some areas of the game. The open world is filled with bandit camps to clear, but the combat is fun (nowhere near as good as Ronin) so I was always ready to jump into another fight to put my skills to the test.
  • One type of activity has you trying to reach a shrine at the end of a long platforming segment, which I always enjoyed. Some people might find these activities too linear, but if you focus on trying to race through them as quickly as possible then it's a lot of fun. Honestly, Sucker Punch should have included a time limit for these parts where you unlocked different tiers of rewards based on how quickly you could get through the course.
  • Sometimes you'll come across a yellow bird or a fox that tries to get you to follow them. If you do, you'll be brought to another shrine or quest giver with maybe some platforming involved en route. Mostly you're just following the creature to some discrete, out-of-the-way area.
  • Quests are usually pretty standard (fetch quests, combat encounters), but the motivation behind them is usually meaningful. I also really appreciate the opening and closing scenes of the quests because it gives the game a very episodic feel to it, kinda like you're watching a samurai TV show and this is just the latest dilemma the main character has found himself in.
  • There are some fights with infamous ronin where you can unlock specials attacks. These are easily the best combat encounters of the game, and the lead-up to the fight is hyped up immensely with NPCs describing some of the legendary feats to the main character.
  • There are quite a few side characters in the game, and they're all quite likable. They each have missions associated with them (Tales of Tsushima), and their stories are always progressed in interesting, meaningful ways. Quite a bit of moral grayness involved in some of the choices these characters make - really makes them fascinating to consider just how relatable some of them can be (I find larger-than-life characters really boring).
  • You can come across some pretty scenery and write a haiku to receive a new headband. This is mostly an activity to build up the atmosphere, so I appreciate it.
  • Sometimes you'll find a random hot spring to rest in. Doing this will increase your max health and allow the character to go into an inner monologue. It's good for character building imo.
  • Bamboo cutting! There are opportunities to increase attack power by cutting through bamboo - this requires a sequence of button presses in a short amount of time. It's super video-gamey, but I love the challenge.
  • And of course - the open world is beautiful and Sucker Punch leans heavily into their particle system to power things like falling leaves, blades of grass, falling snow, etc. The wind mechanic is very impressive since everything reacts to it. I also really appreciate how unobtrusive the HUD is, so you can just focus on the scenery. This is something Rise of the Ronin can definitely learn from; there's too much stuff on the screen when it really isn't necessary for the current context.

Here are the things that Ronin excels at that Ghost doesn't really deliver on. To me, these are some pretty critical pieces to living out the wandering samurai fantasy
  • Unfortunately, there are no major townships in Ghost. Everything you come across is some tiny rural village, and the repetition of assets is pretty obvious.
  • Ghost's combat is good enough, but nowhere near the level of Ronin. You have four stances where the effectiveness is based on a very similar rock-paper-scissors system. You also have a couple of special moves that are pretty OP, but these are independent of stances (I think there's 5 in total?). Ronin easily has at least 6+ combat stances per weapon... with like 10+ weapon types... and at least 3 special moves for each combat stance... Yeah, I don't really need to say more on this.
  • There aren't any meaningful choices in dialogue, so role-playing really isn't a thing - you just unlock some interesting dialogue when choosing one option over the other.
  • Related to above, the side-character quests aren't impactful beyond progressing their individual stories. Ronin has a focus on siding with individual factions and building bonds with characters. You can even romance some of them!
  • There isn't enough variety in open world activities (combat, platforming, fetch quest, chase a fox or bird, write a haiku) whereas Ronin offers basically all of those and then some more. I've gotten addicted to gambling by playing odds-and-evens, earned some marksmanship rewards at the archery range and shooting galleries, taken some photographs of historic sights, showcased my aptitude with glider by hitting a bunch of kites, etc. The list definitely isn't exhaustive, but the point is that there is so much more to do in Ronin, and that helps the game feel more immersive.
  • NPCs aren't really interactive. In Ronin, the NPCs run away when you get into a fight in the middle of town or jump out of the way of your horse as your gallop past. Also, did I mention there's a wanted system?
  • Loot. This can be seen as both a positive and negative when considering how much crap Ronin throws at you, but there's so many more options for customizing your playstyle and the rewards for exploration or quests are much more impactful as a result. Ghost is limited to some armor sets, sword sheathes, headbands, and talismans.
  • You can't swim under water! It's a small thing, but it really bothers me that you can only just duck your head beneath the surface of the water to hide from enemies.
  • You can't change your sword or weapon - you just have different cosmetic sheathes and hilts to choose from.

There's probably more I can list, but I would have to write out something a lot longer and more nuanced to where it should probably be enough to go in its own thread.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Don't get the hate this games getting.. Sometimes the graphics don't look that great,but the combat looks fun as hell. If I didnt buy DD2 I'd get this.

The combat is fun, but the presentation part of the game is definitely subpar. Visuals are early to mid last-gen and the performance, even in the "Performance" mode is unstable.

There is a good game underneath it and the added difficulty options make it far more accessible to a greater audience than their previous game(s) but it's unpolished.
 
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My impressions after about seven hours:

Exploration and open world are great. Maybe other open world games have done this, but I love how you can set a marker somewhere and your horse will take you there and you can auto collect any resources you pass near along the way. I also like how it reveals icons of objectives or collectables but only after you’ve done enough stuff in an area.

The UI sucks. It’s like… really bad. I’m also not really feeling the combat yet. I understand you can change stances and weapons… but do you ever get more combos for a stance? Very underwhelming skill tree too.

Love the gore and the narrative so far seems solid. Kind of regret getting this over DD2 right now. So far a 6.5 or 7 is as high as I’d go.
 

Hestar69

Member
The combat is fun, but the presentation part of the game is definitely subpar. Visuals are early to mid last-gen and the performance, even in the "Performance" mode is unstable.

There is a good game underneath it and the added difficulty options make it far more accessible to a greater audience than their previous game(s) but it's unpolished.
Think they could fix the performance issues? I've been playing Dragons dogma 2 and the performance can't be worse than that (hopefully) lol.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Ghost of Tsushima was my favorite first-party game from Sony last gen.

The open world is pretty much an AC checklist, but don't let that deter you:
  • The setting is focused on the Mongolian invasion of Japan at the end of the 13th century, so you're mostly fighting Mongols with the occasional ronin in some areas of the game. The open world is filled with bandit camps to clear, but the combat is fun (nowhere near as good as Ronin) so I was always ready to jump into another fight to put my skills to the test.
  • One type of activity has you trying to reach a shrine at the end of a long platforming segment, which I always enjoyed. Some people might find these activities too linear, but if you focus on trying to race through them as quickly as possible then it's a lot of fun. Honestly, Sucker Punch should have included a time limit for these parts where you unlocked different tiers of rewards based on how quickly you could get through the course.
  • Sometimes you'll come across a yellow bird or a fox that tries to get you to follow them. If you do, you'll be brought to another shrine or quest giver with maybe some platforming involved en route. Mostly you're just following the creature to some discrete, out-of-the-way area.
  • Quests are usually pretty standard (fetch quests, combat encounters), but the motivation behind them is usually meaningful. I also really appreciate the opening and closing scenes of the quests because it gives the game a very episodic feel to it, kinda like you're watching a samurai TV show and this is just the latest dilemma the main character has found himself in.
  • There are some fights with infamous ronin where you can unlock specials attacks. These are easily the best combat encounters of the game, and the lead-up to the fight is hyped up immensely with NPCs describing some of the legendary feats to the main character.
  • There are quite a few side characters in the game, and they're all quite likable. They each have missions associated with them (Tales of Tsushima), and their stories are always progressed in interesting, meaningful ways. Quite a bit of moral grayness involved in some of the choices these characters make - really makes them fascinating to consider just how relatable some of them can be (I find larger-than-life characters really boring).
  • You can come across some pretty scenery and write a haiku to receive a new headband. This is mostly an activity to build up the atmosphere, so I appreciate it.
  • Sometimes you'll find a random hot spring to rest in. Doing this will increase your max health and allow the character to go into an inner monologue. It's good for character building imo.
  • Bamboo cutting! There are opportunities to increase attack power by cutting through bamboo - this requires a sequence of button presses in a short amount of time. It's super video-gamey, but I love the challenge.
  • And of course - the open world is beautiful and Sucker Punch leans heavily into their particle system to power things like falling leaves, blades of grass, falling snow, etc. The wind mechanic is very impressive since everything reacts to it. I also really appreciate how unobtrusive the HUD is, so you can just focus on the scenery. This is something Rise of the Ronin can definitely learn from; there's too much stuff on the screen when it really isn't necessary for the current context.

Here are the things that Ronin excels at that Ghost doesn't really deliver on. To me, these are some pretty critical pieces to living out the wandering samurai fantasy
  • Unfortunately, there are no major townships in Ghost. Everything you come across is some tiny rural village, and the repetition of assets is pretty obvious.
  • Ghost's combat is good enough, but nowhere near the level of Ronin. You have four stances where the effectiveness is based on a very similar rock-paper-scissors system. You also have a couple of special moves that are pretty OP, but these are independent of stances (I think there's 5 in total?). Ronin easily has at least 6+ combat stances per weapon... with like 10+ weapon types... and at least 3 special moves for each combat stance... Yeah, I don't really need to say more on this.
  • There aren't any meaningful choices in dialogue, so role-playing really isn't a thing - you just unlock some interesting dialogue when choosing one option over the other.
  • Related to above, the side-character quests aren't impactful beyond progressing their individual stories. Ronin has a focus on siding with individual factions and building bonds with characters. You can even romance some of them!
  • There isn't enough variety in open world activities (combat, platforming, fetch quest, chase a fox or bird, write a haiku) whereas Ronin offers basically all of those and then some more. I've gotten addicted to gambling by playing odds-and-evens, earned some marksmanship rewards at the archery range and shooting galleries, taken some photographs of historic sights, showcased my aptitude with glider by hitting a bunch of kites, etc. The list definitely isn't exhaustive, but the point is that there is so much more to do in Ronin, and that helps the game feel more immersive.
  • NPCs aren't really interactive. In Ronin, the NPCs run away when you get into a fight in the middle of town or jump out of the way of your horse as your gallop past. Also, did I mention there's a wanted system?
  • Loot. This can be seen as both a positive and negative when considering how much crap Ronin throws at you, but there's so many more options for customizing your playstyle and the rewards for exploration or quests are much more impactful as a result. Ghost is limited to some armor sets, sword sheathes, headbands, and talismans.
  • You can't swim under water! It's a small thing, but it really bothers me that you can only just duck your head beneath the surface of the water to hide from enemies.
  • You can't change your sword or weapon - you just have different cosmetic sheathes and hilts to choose from.

There's probably more I can list, but I would have to write out something a lot longer and more nuanced to where it should probably be enough to go in its own thread.

Great write-up. Ghost of Tsushima is a very sober, minimalistic experience. It's very focused but because of that quite limited in its execution. The majestic beauty of the world is huge pillar that keeps the game going, you're just constantly overwhelmed by ever-changing scenery. The minimalistic approach resonates in the world design, but with it's great color schemes and vast horizons makes playing the game a very serene, spiritual experience.

The combat, aside from the four stances, never changes. You never get a different weapon. The customization is extremely limited: you cannot customize Jin in any way (which always annoys me in open world games) and even though there are quite a few outfits you can't mix and match. There are no towns, there is almost zero NPC interaction out in the world aside from fighting squads of Mongols/brigands/ronin, which are scattered throughout the world in a very mechanical way. You can almost see the engine code running "O the player has moved 200 feet, time to spawn in a squad".

I feel it's kind of unfair to compare both games. Not only because Tsushima is four years old at this point, but also because the games are on opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of design philosophy.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
What's GoT like with it's open world? Never played and honestly probably won't. I never cared for Sucker Punch so I have a hard time motivating myself to try GoT.

Is it just the graphics that got people so hyped over GoT? I checked the metacritic the other day and was surprised to see the score. Not that the MC score truly matters, was just surprising because I expected to see something in the 90s but its at 83.
Superb art design for the locations and just being a decent ac japan with better combat and plot (not by that much tho).

It was a decent 7\10.
 
So I just bought this because it looks fun and because it seems to be getting good praise here. I hope it's a good time, otherwise I'm cursing the lot of you lol.
I hope you like it. It's certainly not a masterpiece and when I stream it I can't help but feel like anyone watching would think it's a boring game, but the game is just really fun to me. Hard to describe. I've got 25 hours in and I'm not bored at all. The platinum seems easy to get as well so I might go for it.
 
This is a good review/essay on the game.

I like his comments on stealth (real forgiving), parrying (it's hard), and how easy/quick it is to complete stuff on the map.




Also, I dabbled in coop with randoms last night and it's fun. Doesn't seem to have any voice chat but it's honestly not necessary.

Game literally dumps you into a mission and immediately kicks you out when you kill the main enemy. I can see this being used if you get stuck playing solo. One mission boss on solo (w/ AI sidekicks) had me down to the wire but I managed to succeed. In coop though, we just triple teamed the fool and I healed once I think.

It's an absolutely welcome addition but seems super basic. Game is smart in that you can only join missions you've already completed in your game.
 
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Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Due to reading this thread, I bought a copy that Amazon delivered to me last night, same day (what crazy times we live in). I put about 3 hours into it last night, and I love it!

I'm still a total noob at the combat, though. I tend to just want to button mash, which leads to me having to heal during battle way more than if I just slowed down a tad and learned to parry/dodge better.

I started the game on RT mode, but quickly switched to Perf. The game looks pretty good to me, and going by those screenshots above, can look downright gorgeous when it wants to.

Glad I bought it, can't wait to play more! (despite having Unicorn Overlord, Rebirth, DD2, and others all going...)
 
Due to reading this thread, I bought a copy that Amazon delivered to me last night, same day (what crazy times we live in). I put about 3 hours into it last night, and I love it!

I'm still a total noob at the combat, though. I tend to just want to button mash, which leads to me having to heal during battle way more than if I just slowed down a tad and learned to parry/dodge better.

I started the game on RT mode, but quickly switched to Perf. The game looks pretty good to me, and going by those screenshots above, can look downright gorgeous when it wants to.

Glad I bought it, can't wait to play more! (despite having Unicorn Overlord, Rebirth, DD2, and others all going...)
Nice. You'll get better at the combat as you go along. Keep in mind that parrying isn't absolutely required. I'm sure it'll be a factor with some bosses but dodging/blocking is always viable. I'm focusing more on dodging now and am having more success. Parrying is effing tough! Some attacks I have down but good grief the timing is tricky.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
TN are historically very good with post launch support, so I'd expect steady improvements over the next year.

They are very heavy on incentivizing replay, so I'd expect higher difficulty settings at the very least.
 

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Nice. You'll get better at the combat as you go along. Keep in mind that parrying isn't absolutely required. I'm sure it'll be a factor with some bosses but dodging/blocking is always viable. I'm focusing more on dodging now and am having more success. Parrying is effing tough! Some attacks I have down but good grief the timing is tricky.

I tried some dodging but I'm so used to Elden Ring that it felt like RotR's dodge only moved me 2' or so. Felt like I didn't move far enough to avoid attacks. Again, that's just because I'm coming off of a 100+ hour ER run, so I'm sure I just need to experiment more with Ronin's combat. Good to know that dodging is viable!!
 
I tried some dodging but I'm so used to Elden Ring that it felt like RotR's dodge only moved me 2' or so. Felt like I didn't move far enough to avoid attacks. Again, that's just because I'm coming off of a 100+ hour ER run, so I'm sure I just need to experiment more with Ronin's combat. Good to know that dodging is viable!!
Same for me. I still play ER on a somewhat regular basis. Definitely had to adjust to Ronin.
 
One thing I've realized from playing this game is that I don't know jack shit when it comes to Japan's history, outside of America's perspective on WWII at least.

I've always been focused on themes/symbolism with J-Horror. I've never really looked into Samurai/Ronin, etc. I love politics and foreign policy though, it's actually the degree I have and my main goal when I was younger was to be a diplomat of all things.

What I'm getting at is that this game has forced me to do brief amounts of research so I can grasp the weight of Matthew Perry, what a Ronin is, etc. It's so damn cool. Now I'm much more invested in my choices when it comes to alliances and parts of the story have much needed context for my personal benefit.

Matthew Perry in particular, I really need to read up on this guy. I'm somewhat familiar with the name but I didn't realize the standing that he had/has in Japan. I read somewhere that 90% of school-aged kids know his name, his image and are familiar with his impact on Japan. I started the game thinking he was some obvious villain but that clearly doesn't seem to be the case.

The fact that we got a historical, though loosely focused I'm sure, epic from Japan themselves, it's just so cool to me and something that I'm damn glad I'm able to experience. This is a really cool game and I've said it before but it deserves to be applauded by the gaming community. Too many people allow themselves to get bogged down by technical issues and graphical benchmarks.

It makes me think of the argument of videogames as an art form, clearly they are. I wish more people would be willing to embrace more games, warts and all, and see past the headlines and meet a game at it's level. This game will find its audience in due time but it's always a bummer to see a game release and it's immediately written off by a large segment of the community.
 
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YukiOnna

Member
Put in a good 12-15 hours in and still only just got my footing in Yokohama in terms of the story, but I'm loving it. Living up to my expectations so far and is close to the living a Samurai fantasy dream game I've always wanted. I don't care about it achieving technical marvel since art direction makes this game look beautiful, but the engine is showing its age in various spots like performance.

If anything, the experience is much closer to reminding me of RDR2 (except in a setting and period I'm much more interested) than a Ubisoft title and the side activities are casual and easy to engage in along the way. I'm positively surprised at how skill tree's work and it isn't as linear as I was expecting it to be.

Also, I must have used Photo Mode 500 times by now, lol.
 
I still don’t understand how to unlock new stances for weapons or if you ever open up new combos. My main stance at the start is the double sword but I still only have one stance for it. The katana, I have three stances unlocked for it.

I’ve also started using a spear and it seems pretty broken.
 
I still don’t understand how to unlock new stances for weapons or if you ever open up new combos. My main stance at the start is the double sword but I still only have one stance for it. The katana, I have three stances unlocked for it.

I’ve also started using a spear and it seems pretty broken.
Some side objectives off stances as a reward. Just hover over them and it will tell you
 
PS5 says I'm at 26 hours. Game is a certified banger. Can't stop playing it, it's just so easy to engage with. I'm mostly doing field work but I did a bond mission tonight and it was fantastic. Nice change of pace and just a fun set piece in general. Level 19.

I'm still in Yokohama. I got two other full maps to get to. Game is massive. Really curious what the other two spots will look like.
 
I've been clearing out the map and finally went to level up my stats after a couple of hours. I had like 24 skill points waiting for me lol

This game makes it easy to become overleveled really quickly. Might need to bump up the difficulty since I can barely get a couple of hits in on an enemy before they die.

Also, because I'm loving the combat so much, I really hope the devs implement a feature to reset enemy bases
 
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