Rise of The Ronin | Final Previews Released

As someone who was extremely excited for this game to release, the preview impressions have dampened my hype a bit. The visuals and art-style look good enough for my tastes, but I'm feeling a bit lukewarm on the gameplay. The comparisons to Sekiro's combat gives me a lot of hope, but FightingCowboy's review touched on some things that definitely resonate with me - like how everything that RotR takes inspiration from has done it better. Then again, Fextralife's review was practically the polar opposite, so I'm feeling a bit conflicted on what to think 🤷‍♂️

Still planning on buying the game either way since we don't get enough samurai games and especially not open world ones. Was debating between buying a physical or digital copy and decided on the latter; if the game blows me away then I might double-dip to get myself a physical copy (like I do for all my favorite games).

 
Sent to die against Dragons Dogma 2. I may pick it up later in the year.

Gamespot footage video says they were only allowed to use footage provided by team ninja. Which if you watch there seems to be a jitter AND noticeable pop in they quickly try to pan the camera away from when it occurs.
 
I mean, even in the first video it looked dated af game from the late PS3 era, so no wonder they haven't done anything to adress this and made it even worse with all this insane pop in, abysmal geometry, LOD, amount of objects etc. etc. etc. Can you goddamn just make another true to original formula Ninja Gaiden game (Black and 2 from X360)? How hard can it be ffs in 2024?

I cannot believe they have the guts to charge ~80 quid for such an outdated game visually with terrible Ubisoft-like open world design. Ugh.
 
I just cant with this one. It looks so much like Tsushima to me its embarrassing. I already feel like we're getting oversaturated with ancient war/samurai Japan games and shit man that didnt take long :messenger_grinning_smiling: Didnt Wo Long just come out last year too? Hey Team Ninja, take a break.

The one saving grace I can see it having is Inon Zur doing the soundtrack.
 
Arsic said:
Sent to die against Dragons Dogma 2. I may pick it up later in the year.

Gamespot footage video says they were only allowed to use footage provided by team ninja. Which if you watch there seems to be a jitter AND noticeable pop in they quickly try to pan the camera away from when it occurs.
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Sad because it will be the much better game. This is basically Nioh 3 in an open-world settings. People are very happy with the combat and world systems, the opposite of usually shallow open-world western games.
 
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Zathalus said:
And? My point was that it is possible to create a good looking game on a smaller budget. Which it is, having been done over and over again. Not anything else.
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You can't compare games like that, it's not possible. Hellblade 1 had a 20m budget and looked better than most aaa games at the time. It looked arguable better than games like w3. But it had a small scope and very different rendering budget.

In addition your examples were older, just sequels and were made in other regions than Japan.
 
Variahunter said:
It's still better than Wo Long from a gameplay perspective. But let's admit it, you've only played Wo Long because you're an Xbox Gamepass shill.

You're just happy to see the demise of this game because it's not on your box.
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I love Team Ninja games but this will have to wait because of DD2.

I agree that Team Ninja games feel quite dated by now but they are generally challenging and fun, and that's what matters the most to me. If it wasn't for DD2 this would be a day-1 purchase.
 
SJRB said:
I just can't get over how bad this looks.

In that first video, when the cutscene of the boss fight jumps to gameplay it's like it's warping back an entire generation. Obscenely flat lighting, texturework, geometry.
And that horse riding bit, oof. That city looks straight up terrible. Blurry distances with flat textures, pretty aggressive pop-in, super low geometry. Everything has a very grainy element to it, as if it's running on 480p or something. It just looks very jarring.

And before you go "what does that matter" and "not every game has to look like a big budget title", I will remind you that this game sells for the exact same price as a "big budget" title. It's 80 euros in the PSN store, 75 euros boxed. At that price point, and its PS5 exclusivity, that comes with expectations.
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I will remind you Elden Ring also sold for full price and looks significantly worse.

also, switch games looks way worse and sell for the same price. Help me understand the logic.
 
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Fabieter said:
You can't compare games like that, it's not possible. Hellblade 1 had a 20m budget and looked better than most aaa games at the time. It looked arguable better than games like w3. But it had a small scope and very different rendering budget.

In addition your examples were older, just sequels and were made in other regions than Japan.
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So it's not possible to creat a good looking game on a smaller budget? Especially in a country like Japan where developer costs are low? Because that is my only point, that a good looking game need not be overly expensive to develop.
 
Vlodril said:
"Stop spending 200 millions on game budgets. Problem solved."

"Why is this open world game looking so bad? Jesus."

There is no way we can go back to smaller budgets because people will bury everything not only on looks but on length too. "You want 80 euros for 15 hours?" etc.
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Maybe don't make a big open world game then?

Not everything needs to be open world, or have realistic visuals. All Devs need to do a better job at assessing their limitations, both by their skill set, and by how much they plan to utilize the hardware.
 
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Looks fun but not a day 1 purchase.
I trust Team Ninja to deliver solid combat, I don't trust them to deliver good open world design or a worthwhile Story.

The graphics seem fine to me. Sure it looks dated but if the rest of the experience is solid who cares, specially if runs at 60fps with decent IQ.
That said, it will get destroyed by DD2.
 
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Represent. said:
"gameplay first" in reality means "gameplay only".

The combat is the only thing that looks decent here. Everything else looks straight garbage.

So basically, when you're not hacking and slashing, the game sucks.

It's an open world, the game needs to be enticing to explore and easy to be immersed in
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tell me what special elements did ghost of tsushima's open world had that made it so special ? did it had any great loot ? any meaningful activities that we havnt seen in other open worlds ? Any enemy AI improvements ?

its was just a beautiful game with mediocre game mechanics and open world and yet its still considered a masterpiece , that tells everything you need to know about the modern gamers
 
samoilaaa said:
tell me what special elements did ghost of tsushima's open world had that made it so special ? did it had any great loot ? any meaningful activities that we havnt seen in other open worlds ? Any enemy AI improvements ?

its was just a beautiful game with mediocre game mechanics and open world and yet its still considered a masterpiece , that tells everything you need to know about the modern gamers
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Ghosts of Tsushima also sucked. I have it as a 6/10.

Only good thing was the visuals. Didn't even care for the combat. Same death animations over and over again. Took me right out of the combat. But at least the story was alright and due to nice visuals I could at least get somewhat immersed in the world.

Both of these games should be linear. They suck ass at making open worlds. If ghosts 2 doesn't have Uncharted 2 levels of improvement then I have no hype for it
 
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FoxMcChief said:
Maybe don't make a big open world game then?

Not everything needs to be open world, or have realistic visuals. All Devs need to do a better job at assessing their limitations, both by their skill set, and by how much they plan to utilize the hardware.
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Problem is giant games like GTA, UBI, Bethesda etc…. sell high production open world games at the same $70. So a lot of studios try to replicate them with big scope to entice value gamers who prioritize quantity as a key factor.

Another thing about gaming too is that when you hear about devs making a new studio and the founders are all veteran industry people notice how their new game they need funding is always a big splashy game?

There's no turning back. They can only go up. Not too often you see these vets open up a studio and make indie games for $10. Too low brow. Those games are made by broke noname losers. Experienced workers from big companies can only make games similar to what they made before. That's a disaster waiting to happen. You'd think like any business, you'd start small and grow responsibly. But they go head first into a lake assuming there's no rocks. And if they could make big games at EA, it means they can make it at their grassroots studio. Makes no sense.

I've always worked at big corporations. Even my first job out of university was at a big company we all know. If I was to open my own business one day (I wouldn't), it would be stupid if I tried to replicate making shit like proctor and gamble or Panasonic. I'd start small and see how it goes instead of going balls deep in the first try.

As I said many times. gaming and tech has too much money and debt floating around. And too many weird egos. No wonder so many companies spend like crazy like money is unlimited. And why their corporate culture can be so toxic and volatile. You got a bunch of Wild West kind of people with a bag of cash to spend.
 
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Represent. said:
Ghosts of Tsushima also sucked. I have it as a 6/10.

Only good thing was the visuals. Didn't even care for the combat. Same death animations over and over again. Took me right out of the combat. But at least the story was alright and due to nice visuals I could at least get somewhat immersed in the world.

Both of these games should be linear. They suck ass at making open worlds. If ghosts 2 doesn't have Uncharted 2 levels of improvement then I have no hype for it
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very few companies can do proper open world games , its very hard to make a big world and also fill it with activities that dont become repetitive and boring , i think the key is having great sidequests scattered around , and when i say great i dont mean "go get x from point A and bring it to me " or "go clear my farm of mobs" type of quests , and another key is having puzzles that give useful loot that actually make an impact on your build not just find a sword/gun with +10 damage

if you cant do that stick to hub worlds but with high density like mankind divided , the world wasnt big but there were interesting things to find out everywhere and it gave you multiple ways to reach them as long as you were using your brain
 
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I've pre-ordered this. This is exactly up my street. The action will be excellent and I'm supporting TN and Techmo. Hopefully they will make more games like this. I think it will be a good game with great playability. Probably around the 85% meta.
 
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samoilaaa said:
very few companies can do proper open world games , its very hard to make a big world and also fill it with activities that dont become repetitive and boring , i think the key is having great sidequests scattered around , and when i say great i dont mean "go get x from point A and bring it to me " or "go clear my farm of mobs" type of quests , and another key is having puzzles that give useful loot that actually make an impact on your build not just find a sword/gun with +10 damage

if you cant do that stick to hub worlds but with high density like mankind divided , the world wasnt big but there were interesting things to find out everywhere and it gave you multiple ways to reach them as long as you were using your brain
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It's funny because when it comes to quests (I'm sure there's google pages about it) I remember reading somewhere there's like 5 main kinds of quests…. Kill everything, fedex fetch quest, escort mission, kill king foozle, etc…. There's probably a couple I missed. But in a nutshell that's probably most of them right there.
 
It's not that the game doesn't have the best visuals, it's just that the game is downright ugly. I expect more from Sony exclusives. That being said, I'm sure the gamers the game targets don't care much about the visuals in this game.
 
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Xtib81 said:
It's not that the game doesn't have the best visuals, it's just that the game is downright ugly. I expect more from Sony exclusives. That being said, I'm sure the gamers the game targets don't care much about the visuals in this game.
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why are you people obsessed with visuals, its a third party exclusive, not a Sony made game.
 
tmlDan said:
I will remind you Elden Ring also sold for full price and looks significantly worse.

also, switch games looks way worse and sell for the same price. Help me understand the logic.
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Elden Ring on PC looks significantly better than this and that's a 2 year old cross gen game.
 
The pop in is such a shame. That is unacceptable at this point. Especially when your game doesn't even look that impressive graphically.
 
NT80 said:
Elden Ring on PC looks significantly better than this and that's a 2 year old cross gen game.
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no it does not, are you serious lol

It looks horrible, that clocktower in the gif on PS twitter looks better than any building, texture-wise, than anything in ER
 
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Negotiator101 said:
It's normal to want a visually impressive game regardless who makes it but it seems this game isn't exactly setting the world alight gameplay wise either.
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all i have been hearing is great things about the gameplay, i guess if you cherrypick points in certain videos you can say otherwise.

it looks significantly better than Wo long at least. The parry simulator.
 
I fuckin hate western gamers and journalists, always whining about graphics and other trivial crap. They're the reason why budgets are skyrocketing and everything is becoming gaas and micro transactions.

I'm so glad Nintendo doesn't listen to them and does their own thing. Gameplay always wins. Even the best graphics eventually becomes outdated but good gameplay is forever.
 
I've watched a few previews for the game and it's been mostly positive opinions, particularly on combat and story. Not sure where the Gaf negativity is coming from tbh.

I'm probably not day 1, but that goes for DD2 as well - and in both cases because I have a silly backlog of games to play atm. I will be getting it at some point soon. Maybe reviews will tempt me into a day 1.
 
tmlDan said:
no it does not, are you serious lol

It looks horrible, that clocktower in the gif on PS twitter looks better than any building, texture-wise, than anything in ER
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Are you? On PC Elden Ring not only looks better but with it being a 2 year old cross gen game the expectations would've been lower than when what they are now for a 2nd party PS5 exclusive.
 
Fbh said:
Looks fun but not a day 1 purchase.
I trust Team Ninja to deliver solid combat, I don't trust them to deliver good open world design or a worthwhile Story.

The graphics seem fine to me. Sure it looks dated but if the rest of the experience is solid who cares, specially if runs at 60fps with decent IQ.
That said, it will get destroyed by DD2.
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this. look forward to hearing impressions. if they've managed to create an open world that genuinely feels good (& doesn't overstay its welcome, like tsushima), I'd very likely become interested...
 
NT80 said:
Are you? On PC Elden Ring not only looks better but with it being a 2 year old cross gen game the expectations would've been lower than when what they are now for a 2nd party PS5 exclusive.
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artistically and design wise it is much nicer, but the texture work is not better than the example i gave. Also, the character models and faces look absolutely terrible in ER (not the bosses and their designs, they're amazing)

Maybe if you provided an example i would change my mind but i saw the new DLC trailer and it looked like ass.
 
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DeaconOfTheDank said:
As someone who was extremely excited for this game to release, the preview impressions have dampened my hype a bit. The visuals and art-style look good enough for my tastes, but I'm feeling a bit lukewarm on the gameplay. The comparisons to Sekiro's combat gives me a lot of hope, but FightingCowboy's review touched on some things that definitely resonate with me - like how everything that RotR takes inspiration from has done it better. Then again, Fextralife's review was practically the polar opposite, so I'm feeling a bit conflicted on what to think 🤷‍♂️

Still planning on buying the game either way since we don't get enough samurai games and especially not open world ones. Was debating between buying a physical or digital copy and decided on the latter; if the game blows me away then I might double-dip to get myself a physical copy (like I do for all my favorite games).

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I am feeling what you are saying.

Also saw this:

 
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I just removed this from my GameFly game queue. Maybe I'll give it a try as a PS+ game in a year or so. Animations, gameplay and visuals just don't do anything special or stand out.

I hope the devs return in a style of Assassins Creed 2, where the sequel is 10x better than the first in almost every way.
 
Feels like an ok game. No more, no less.

Not fussed about the graphics, but the Open World does sound a bit bland.
 
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