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[YeulEmeralda]

Bu bu bu ps3 games look better!! Hurrdurr

Also Rise of the Ronin is an open world game. So yeah people should take a PS3 open world game if they wanna compare.
Good luck with that.

 

[UnrealEck]

EDIT: and I still firmly stand by my statement that PS5 Pro is the best place to play it.

Runs, looks and controls better on my PC.
Why would the PS5 Pro be the best place to play it?

 

[BennyBlanco]

People are laughing at you, but I think it's pretty obvious by now that if a game isn't big in China, then its odds of succeeding on Steam aren't very high.

Meanwhile, in reality…. The biggest game of the year so far just sold best on PC in the united states.

 

[Gaiff]

People are laughing at you, but I think it's pretty obvious by now that if a game isn't big in China, then its odds of succeeding on Steam aren't very high.

And if a game isn't very big in the US, are its odds of success on consoles very high? Or are we just for some strange reason singling out China?

 

[sigmaZ]

It feels like the performance is different every time I load it up. It's a surprisingly really good game though. I'm enjoying it more than Ghost of Tsushima even though that look better.

 

[Astray]

Meanwhile, in reality…. The biggest game of the year so far just sold best on PC in the united states.

And if a game isn't very big in the US, are its odds of success on consoles very high? Or are we just for some strange reason singling out China?

One country being estimated at %51 of a worldwide platform is obviously more than enough for it to move the needle on its own. This is a statistical fact at this point and is not worth debating.

Also coincidentally enough, Monster Hunter is a very big China hit! It's almost as if when something hits big in China, CCUs go up and people (incl the US) pick up the game based on that hype alone!

 

[Dr Cowley]

Spent about 40 hours with Rise of the Ronin this past week. Overall, it's a good game with much more to recommend than reviews would suggest. Traversal feels great, graphics are a marked step up from Nioh 2 and the amount of depth there is truly impressive. I'd be spending another 40 hours with the game if it wasn't for the combat. The combat absolutely fucking blows. It gave me that same initial feeling that Sekiro, Bloodborne, Nioh and Lies of P gave me: it's beating my ass, but I know it'll click. Forty hours in, it hasn't.

Not that it's hard - I'm on default difficulty and it's actually started to feel trivial, because I've leveled up enough that I can reliably brute-force encounters, even when I'm getting the shit beaten out of me. That's not satisfying to me. I want the victory to feel earned. It doesn't in RotR - you outlast the opponents. One major problem is that the game hasn't thrown any real bosses at me since the beginning. Sub-bosses enemies for days, but none that feel like proper git-gud moments.

Most of the main missions have at least two allies with you by default and this only makes matters worse: I had a major fight about twenty hours in with what would have been a get-good-or-go-home boss, but I had two allies shitting the whole thing up. So, I thought, to hell with it, I'm going to the Dojo. I'm going to fight these guys over and over until I get the rhythm. After about thirty runs at Ryomo Sakamoto, I turned the game off and deleted it. I wanted to get to the point where I could make a fool out of the guy without a sweat - I can reliably do this in other games - but there is something so inconsistent about the combat in RotR that it never actually clicks, you never get to feeling like you can reliably parry or dodge or time, or string together combos.

The parry mechanic is so crucial to doing the combat justice and it's just fucking broken. Making it a face button attack, that locks into a long animation instead of using the fucking block button like every other game in existence is some of the dumbest shit I've ever seen from a developer. With Sekiro or Lies of P, if you miss a parry you'll still get a block, if you miss a parry with RotR, you're locked into animation that will get brutalised, stagger you and leave you unable to block, parry or dodge further.

It's miserable and it's heartbreaking, because otherwise the game is kind of awesome. There's a world of variety built into the combat that would be amazing to explore, but it's a whole world of possibility built on flawed core combat that never feels good. The only other place I've seen a system like this used is Wo-Long and the dismal performance and reception of that game should have been enough to make them realise it was a shitty system. Realise that they'd be better off building on the fantastic combat from Nioh 2.

But no, they stuck with the Wo-Long system and a game that should have done really well, really didn't...

My exact thoughts too

I didn't even realise the counter was an attack till I started using a different stance.

One thing for you, its possible to remove the 2 companions at the start of a mission. Not sure if you can do it for all missions though. There is a buff on some armour pieces called 'solo attempt' that buffs you if alone on a mission.

 

[BeardSpike]

To me graphics, textures, lightning, animations, world movement animations actually resemble more of a The Witcher 3, than PS3 era title. That was the feeling I got playing Rise of Ronin on PS5. But with better combat.

Art direction matters more in this game than actual graphics, and it was top notch.

The game managed to me what The Witcher 3 did for me back in the day. Not the exact prettiest of the games out there, but it had it's WOW moments for me.

Unfortunately it was plagued by bad performence on PS5 and it is not that much better on PC, but maybe modders will help.

Does this game has only FSR? Or does it have DLSS also?

If the motion vectors are there, things like DLSS Swapper (it can swap DLSS, FSR 1, 2, 3 to 3.1 , XeSS 1 to 2) and OptiScaler (it can use FSR motion vectors to DLSS, XeSS and has early FSR4 support) would help, if they work.

 

[Gaiff]

One country being estimated at %51 of a worldwide platform is obviously more than enough for it to move the needle on its own. This is a statistical fact at this point and is not worth debating.

Yeah, so? For one, where do you get that China has half the sales or more? For two, nobody says shit when a game is only a huge hit in Japan or the US, but people suddenly have a problem with China.

Also coincidentally enough, Monster Hunter is a very big China hit! It's almost as if when something hits big in China, CCUs go up and people (incl the US) pick up the game based on that hype alone!

As opposed to the game already doing fantastic numbers back in 2019 despite being a late port and people showing up in droves to buy the day 1 sequel, but yeah, let’s pretend it’s number 1 in the US because Americans decided to play what the Chinese do.

You’re full of shit and not worth debating indeed.

 

[SJRB]

My exact thoughts too

I didn't even realise the counter was an attack till I started using a different stance.

One thing for you, its possible to remove the 2 companions at the start of a mission. Not sure if you can do it for all missions though. There is a buff on some armour pieces called 'solo attempt' that buffs you if alone on a mission.

The parry is a super high risk-high reward mechanic. If you pull it off successfully it is typically an insta-stun, but consequently if you mess it up you get dunked on.

When not used for parry, the button is an attack button. Holding R1 maps special attacks on square / triangle.

Greed and bad timing get punished.

 

[rofif]

Meanwhile, in reality…. The biggest game of the year so far just sold best on PC in the united states.

Doubt. Is this including physical and digital numbers? How do they know ?
DOUBT

 

[Gaiff]

Doubt. Is this including physical and digital numbers? How do they know ?
DOUBT

The game had a peak of almost 1.2M CCUs and put Elden Ring to shame. Circana always tracks digital+physical. Stop being a tool.

 

[Dr Cowley]

When not used for parry, the button is an attack button. Holding R1 maps special attacks on square / triangle.

That's the weird thing for me. The triangle button on it's own is both an attack or a parry depending on the timing. Hold L1 to block or press L1 to parry makes more sense.

Using R1 + triangle in Iai stance is the best thing in the game, listen to how fast those Geda clack

 

[YeulEmeralda]

It feels like the performance is different every time I load it up. It's a surprisingly really good game though. I'm enjoying it more than Ghost of Tsushima even though that look better.

That's because Tsushima is aimed at the mainstream masses. It was designed by committee as an triple A game.

I find that 7/10 games are way more fun.

 

[BeardSpike]

The parry is a super high risk-high reward mechanic. If you pull it off successfully it is typically an insta-stun, but consequently if you mess it up you get dunked on.

When not used for parry, the button is an attack button. Holding R1 maps special attacks on square / triangle.

Greed and bad timing get punished.

For me combat was really enjoyable, more so than any Souls like I have tried. Parry timings are extremely good to follow through and combat was really fluid like damn, haven't have that much fun in a long time.

I wish there were more games like these, pumped up not in 7 years long cycles. More art direction, good gameplay. Obviously without performance issues.

 

[Zathalus]

Doubt. Is this including physical and digital numbers? How do they know ?
DOUBT

They track point of sales across all major retailers in America and get digital data sent to them directly by publishers.

 

[coachmcguirk91]

The game had a peak of almost 1.2M CCUs and put Elden Ring to shame. Circana always tracks digital+physical. Stop being a tool.

Games that heavily emphasize co-op/multiplayer do better on PC. Traditional single player games sell better on PS5. It's been that way for a while now

 

[DenchDeckard]

Games that heavily emphasize co-op/multiplayer do better on PC. Traditional single player games sell better on PS5. It's been that way for a while now

PS5 users don't have friends, confirmed!

 

[coachmcguirk91]

For me combat was really enjoyable, more so than any Souls like I have tried. Parry timings are extremely good to follow through and combat was really fluid like damn, haven't have that much fun in a long time.

I wish there were more games like these, pumped up not in 7 years long cycles. More art direction, good gameplay. Obviously without performance issues.

Parrying feels incredible in ROTR. It is what makes the game, imo. The combat isn't as deep as the Nioh games, but the parrying is the most satisfying of any game I have ever played

Give First Beserker demo a try! Parry in that game is equally satisfying. It gets released later this month

 

[adamsapple]

 

[rofif]

The game had a peak of almost 1.2M CCUs and put Elden Ring to shame. Circana always tracks digital+physical. Stop being a tool.

Doesn’t change anything. The numbers mason. What are the numbers.

 

[RafterXL]

The parry is a super high risk-high reward mechanic. If you pull it off successfully it is typically an insta-stun, but consequently if you mess it up you get dunked on.

When not used for parry, the button is an attack button. Holding R1 maps special attacks on square / triangle.

Greed and bad timing get punished.

A thing that helped me until I learned each weapon, and stances, attack pattern, is that you can hold block through the enemies combo and then parry just the final move. In the beginning, while you are learning, missing the parry will get you wrecked, so this helps until you are more comfortable with the mechanics.

Parrying feels incredible in ROTR. It is what makes the game, imo. The combat isn't as deep as the Nioh games, but the parrying is the most satisfying of any game I have ever played

Give First Beserker demo a try! Parry in that game is equally satisfying. It gets released later this month

The First Berserker demo kicked ass. I'm super excited for that game.

 

[Gaiff]

Doesn’t change anything.

Yes, it does. Elden Ring sold the most on PC and this presumably did even better numbers, at least for the first week.

The numbers mason. What are the numbers.

You’d never ask this question if he had said PS is the lead platform, so quit this bullshit. You don’t care about the numbers. You care about your narrative.

 

[BennyBlanco]

One country being estimated at %51 of a worldwide platform is obviously more than enough for it to move the needle on its own. This is a statistical fact at this point and is not worth debating.

Also coincidentally enough, Monster Hunter is a very big China hit! It's almost as if when something hits big in China, CCUs go up and people (incl the US) pick up the game based on that hype alone!

So you think US gamers were sitting around monitoring CCUs in Asia and making the decision to opt for the PC version over ps5 because the numbers were high?

Doubt. Is this including physical and digital numbers? How do they know ?
DOUBT

I’ve seen some amazing rofif takes in the last few years but Circana/NPD Mat lying about this singular data point for the benefit of absolutely nothing might take the cake. Why on earth would he lie about this? To what end? And yes it is physical + digital.

 

[fart town usa]

The parry is a super high risk-high reward mechanic. If you pull it off successfully it is typically an insta-stun, but consequently if you mess it up you get dunked on.

When not used for parry, the button is an attack button. Holding R1 maps special attacks on square / triangle.

Greed and bad timing get punished.

it is possible too to master the parry, lots of videos on YT and there's the dojo you can practice in. The difficulty to me is the amount of attacks and their timing, it's very clever. I don't sweat failing a parry, I definitely rely on buffs to brute force but I like having that option. As much as I enjoy the combat, I equally enjoy just riding around and doing field missions that pop up and exploring. It's such a chill and pleasant game to me. Love the OST and overall vibe.

Over the weekend I unlocked the 'modern day benkei' fight. Pretty cool and it's added a dynamic element while I explore the city. Keeping it general to avoid spoilers but it's just another thing that the game gives the player. There is so much content in this game, it's insanely impressive to me.

 

[HRK69]

Spent about 40 hours with Rise of the Ronin this past week. Overall, it's a good game with much more to recommend than reviews would suggest. Traversal feels great, graphics are a marked step up from Nioh 2 and the amount of depth there is truly impressive. I'd be spending another 40 hours with the game if it wasn't for the combat. The combat absolutely fucking blows. It gave me that same initial feeling that Sekiro, Bloodborne, Nioh and Lies of P gave me: it's beating my ass, but I know it'll click. Forty hours in, it hasn't.

Not that it's hard - I'm on default difficulty and it's actually started to feel trivial, because I've leveled up enough that I can reliably brute-force encounters, even when I'm getting the shit beaten out of me. That's not satisfying to me. I want the victory to feel earned. It doesn't in RotR - you outlast the opponents. One major problem is that the game hasn't thrown any real bosses at me since the beginning. Sub-bosses enemies for days, but none that feel like proper git-gud moments.

Most of the main missions have at least two allies with you by default and this only makes matters worse: I had a major fight about twenty hours in with what would have been a get-good-or-go-home boss, but I had two allies shitting the whole thing up. So, I thought, to hell with it, I'm going to the Dojo. I'm going to fight these guys over and over until I get the rhythm. After about thirty runs at Ryomo Sakamoto, I turned the game off and deleted it. I wanted to get to the point where I could make a fool out of the guy without a sweat - I can reliably do this in other games - but there is something so inconsistent about the combat in RotR that it never actually clicks, you never get to feeling like you can reliably parry or dodge or time, or string together combos.

The parry mechanic is so crucial to doing the combat justice and it's just fucking broken. Making it a face button attack, that locks into a long animation instead of using the fucking block button like every other game in existence is some of the dumbest shit I've ever seen from a developer. With Sekiro or Lies of P, if you miss a parry you'll still get a block, if you miss a parry with RotR, you're locked into animation that will get brutalised, stagger you and leave you unable to block, parry or dodge further.

It's miserable and it's heartbreaking, because otherwise the game is kind of awesome. There's a world of variety built into the combat that would be amazing to explore, but it's a whole world of possibility built on flawed core combat that never feels good. The only other place I've seen a system like this used is Wo-Long and the dismal performance and reception of that game should have been enough to make them realise it was a shitty system. Realise that they'd be better off building on the fantastic combat from Nioh 2.

But no, they stuck with the Wo-Long system and a game that should have done really well, really didn't...

Thanks for the write-up! I'm a huge fan of the Nioh franchise and even considered buying a console because of Wo Long's terrible performance on PC

I'm definitely picking up Rise of the Ronin this week

I love seeing how far I can push and break these kinds of games

 

[Schmendrick]

Stop being a tool.

you...you know you`re talking to rofif, right?

 

[rofif]

Yes, it does. Elden Ring sold the most on PC and this presumably did even better numbers, at least for the first week.

You’d never ask this question if he had said PS is the lead platform, so quit this bullshit. You don’t care about the numbers. You care about your narrative.

Even if I said that I am asking this question because fuck pc... so what?
You take it blind on because your previous pc wins. Other way around you would question it

So you think US gamers were sitting around monitoring CCUs in Asia and making the decision to opt for the PC version over ps5 because the numbers were high?

I’ve seen some amazing rofif takes in the last few years but Circana/NPD Mat lying about this singular data point for the benefit of absolutely nothing might take the cake. Why on earth would he lie about this? To what end? And yes it is physical + digital.

Again. Another pcmr guy who loves this "data" because it favors pc

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Gaiff]

Even if I said that I am asking this question because fuck pc... so what?
You take it blind on because your previous pc wins. Other way around you would question it

Again. Another pcmr guy who loves this "data" because it favors pc

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No, I actually wouldn’t question it, just like I didn’t question SH2 having a 78/22 split in favor of PS. Monster Hunter Wilds had almost 1.2M concurrent users on the first day on PC. It did 8M in 3 days. Even assuming it sold 5M on the first day, this meant that at one point, almost a quarter of ALL the players were playing it on PC at once.

I don’t question those numbers because the game has been a smash hit on PC. If it had Veilguard-tier CCUs, but had still sold 8M, you can bet your ass I would have second guess that report.

Stop being a fucking salty tool. It’s annoying. You game on PC, yet always want to shit on it and argue whenever there are good news about it.

In addition, this was just the first week. Those awful user reviews most certainly didn’t help and I’m sure sales dropped off as a consequence.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Even if I said that I am asking this question because fuck pc... so what?
You take it blind on because your previous pc wins. Other way around you would question it

Again. Another pcmr guy who loves this "data" because it favors pc

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Let me answer for Gaiff here. No, he wouldn’t question it if it was the other way around, because that would be fucking stupid.

Mat Piscatella has been doing this for a very long time. He’s not going to lie to make Steam look good, or anyone else for that matter. Only an absolute dope would think he is risking his career to lie about this.

I only posted that here because another poster just said Steam games only sell in China, when the biggest game of the year so far just sold best on PC in the US. You are just incredibly salty that PC version is selling best.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Seems like some people are really struggling with the growth of PC gaming.

rofif its ok brother, we still love you!

 

[rofif]

No, I actually wouldn’t question it, just like I didn’t question SH2 having a 78/22 split in favor of PS. Monster Hunter Wilds had almost 1.2M concurrent users on the first day on PC. It did 8M in 3 days. Even assuming it sold 5M on the first day, this meant that at one point, almost a quarter of ALL the players were playing it on PC at once.

I don’t question those numbers because the game has been a smash hit on PC. If it had Veilguard-tier CCUs, but had still sold 8M, you can bet your ass I would have second guess that report.

Stop being a fucking salty tool. It’s annoying. You game on PC, yet always want to shit on it and argue whenever there are good news about it.

In addition, this was just the first week. Those awful user reviews most certainly didn’t help and I’m sure sales dropped off as a consequence.

Let me answer for Gaiff here. No, he wouldn’t question it if it was the other way around, because that would be fucking stupid.

Mat Piscatella has been doing this for a very long time. He’s not going to lie to make Steam look good, or anyone else for that matter. Only an absolute dope would think he is risking his career to lie about this.

I only posted that here because another poster just said Steam games only sell in China, when the biggest game of the year so far just sold best on PC in the US. You are just incredibly salty that PC version is selling best.

(2 on 1 is not fair. You win)

 

[SnapShot]

Their engine seems much, much worse than Unreal Engine

 

[rofif]

Their engine seems much, much worse than Unreal Engine

Would rather have than, than another UE game...
We need more unique engines. It's more interesting this way