We’re a little over a week away from Team Ninja’s Ghost of Tsushima-esque open-world RPG set in the final years of Japan’s Edo period, Rise of the Ronin. The game was initially announced at Sony’s State of Play on September 13 2022. Now a little over a year later, and we’re about to see what the developers of Ninja Gaiden and Nioh have been cooking up at their studios. Though the game’s embargo is set to lift on March 21, just a day before the official release (make of that what you will), we’ve already begun to see some previews of the game.
The impressions thus far from those that have gotten the chance to dive into this world have ranged between good and somewhat milquetoast. Some media outlets and online personalities are fairly unenthused by what they’ve played of the game so far, making comparisons to Assassin’s Creed and other par-for-the-course open-world RPGs. These reactions were quite surprising as Team Ninja have historically made games that always managed to stand out in terms of either their visual flair, or frenetic combat. Neither of which, it seems, are elements that are a part of Rise of the Ronin’s offerings. Team Ninja’s last outing in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, which though sold relatively well, also didn’t overwhelmingly capture the hearts of many critics the way their previous games did. All of this may signal a need for the team to reevaluate how they move forward with their next project, while also considering their identity as developers and what made their past games unique.
What People Are Saying
According to YouTuber Ralph from SkillUp, Sony had told previewers that they were able to play the main story up to the conclusion of a certain mission, which would take about two hours, though didn’t set such restrictions for the open-world. Ralph had put around five hours into the game, and after this time he had the following to say about Rise of the Ronin: “It’s very played out, and by the numbers…think Far Cry Japan and you’re very much on your way. It feels like pretty low-hanging fruit from a studio who, when they turned their attention to the Souls-like formula, were able to deliver a whole lot of innovation to core combat design, immense complexity of weapons and move sets, and a deep RPG-led gear game to enrich all that further.” He would go on to say that though some of those combat elements exist in Ronin, it seems far more stripped down. A sentence of particular note comes just a few moments later in his preview where he says, “I really did feel like I was playing Team Ninja’s version of Ghost of Tsushima, rather than a unique game that they themselves had developed from the ground up. The whole thing seems to lack identity or the ‘X’ factor that has made Team Ninja’s games great…”
Liam Croft from PushSquare shared similar, albeit a tad more positive, sentiments about the game after his time with it by saying: “Compared to Team Ninja’s past titles, Rise of the Ronin feels bigger, grander, deeper. But is it actually better? At the moment, it’s difficult to say. The experience has proved consistently decent to good in its opening couple of hours, but it’s yet to really knock our socks off with an impressive mission or exhilarating sequence that showcases why Sony decided to take the game under its wing. While some elements certainly show promise, the four hours of play this preview affords us to discuss publicly aren’t hitting on the same level as other PS5 exclusives. Right now, Rise of the Ronin is good. But it isn’t great.”
Finally, Blessing Adeoye Jr. from Kinda Funny had this to say on the Kinda Funny Gamescast: “[The game] doesn’t have a good personality that’s really separating it from the other games I’ve played. The more I play this game, the more I’m like, ‘I could play Ghost of Tsushima, or Sekiro, or Assassin’s Creed.’ I could play any other open world game that’s doing a lot of the same things, but with a bit more spunk to it.”
Double-A Is The Way
To be fair, there are a good few people who’ve gotten access to the preview that are on the more positive side of things. Dustin Legarie from IGN, for one, is particularly impressed with what he’s played thus far. Aside from criticizing the less-than-stellar visuals, he had nothing but positive things to say about his first few hours with Rise of the Ronin. With that said, however, it does seem that there’s somewhat of a thematic throughline between all of these previews, that being that the game comes across as a tad…uninspired. Simply another, fairly polished, open-world RPG that has all of the essential and finely crafted open-world mechanics developers have come to master over the past decade; with yet another feudal Japan skin lathered on top. None of this is inherently bad, and could suffice for most as these types of games have been tried, tested, and easily please much of the gaming public. But for a studio like Team Ninja, a studio responsible for the ever-so iconic–and anything but bland–Ninja Gaiden series, a game like this seems like a misstep.
All of this, of course, is simply observation from what we’ve seen thus far and what people who’ve played the opening hours are sharing. It may very well be that Rise of the Ronin has some cheeky surprises hidden away further into its story, which would make this entire article moot. It would be a great thing if that actually happened, however things like that are oftentimes not the case, especially when it comes to these larger first-party titles. As such, it makes these previews carry more weight, and makes one question some of the creative decisions that went into making a game that seemingly deviates from what the team has historically been known for. Though we may not have a clear-cut answer for such a hypothetical, a quick look at the sheer volume of games the team has been outputting in recent years gives credence to the idea that Rise of the Ronin may simply have been a contractual obligation made with the shareholders of Koei Tecmo in mind.
Once again, my hope is that Rise of the Ronin ends up being a stellar title that’s on par with Team Ninja’s previous works. But early signs are somewhat concerning. If this does indeed turn out to be a “Ghost of Tsushima at home” with bland open-world elements, then it may be time for Team Ninja to consider taking pause to reflect if this never-ending strive for triple-A growth is sustainable, and if reverting back to slick, polished, and unique double-A experiences–those the studio had excelled at not too long ago–isn’t a better way forward for their continued success.
