Between our excellent experience playing Ghost of Tsushima released on PS4 and ported to a near-perfect version on PS5, as well as watching the Shogun series, to say that we have been excited about the release of Rise of the Ronin is a euphemism.
Buy Rise of the Ronin at the best price
Its release is scheduled for March 22 in the same way as Princess Peach Showtime in a diametrically opposite register, we had the chance to get our hands on the title in order to give our opinion on this latest big exclusive to date on PS5.
A story that should have been exciting
Rise of the Ronin takes us back to 19th century Japan, during the arrival of black boats from the West. Coming to the land of the rising sun in order to force the Japanese into trade, the Japanese are torn between traditions and modernity.
A truly exciting time where you play as a Ronin, choosing to carry out missions for the benefit of the shogunate, or conversely for its fall.
However, screenwriting is not the studio’s specialty. Team Ninja and this is strongly felt here. The staging of the story is dated and not up to what we can usually experience through Sony exclusives, even outside of games from PlayStation studios.
Moreover, the beginning of the story is very hasty, and we hardly have time to become attached to the characters, to their past, but also to their involvement in the title. A problem which is partly explained by the choices made by the studio regarding character customization.
Extremely in-depth customization
The game begins by offering to personalize the 2 protagonists who are “the secret blades”. Without being as advanced as that of Cyperpunk, the character editor of Rise of the Ronin is still particularly complete.
However, this one perplexed us on several aspects. Indeed, the beginning video of Rise shows two children seemingly from Asia who are twins.
However, the character editor allows you to create characters with completely different skin colors, which creates an initial inconsistency in the story.
Once the appearance of the characters has been chosen, we then move on to their basic statistics which then define their abilities.
It is not necessarily necessary to spend a lot of time changing clothes, given that quickly in the game, it will be possible to upgrade the equipment in order to acquire better stats. Stats that are of capital importance in the title, with an evolving skill tree that allows you to determine what skills and what type of Ronin your character will be.
It is thus possible to promote strength, dexterity, intelligence or charisma. An essential point to which we will return later in this test.
Smooth artistic direction for outdated graphics
If you find that the aesthetic of the smooth skin of the characters evokes titles like Dead or Alive with skin smoother than that of a baby born less than 2 weeks ago, it makes perfect sense.
In this regard, the facial animations of the main characters lack expressiveness, probably since Rise of the Ronin offers as much customization with its editor.
This is also a constant among NPCs who are not key characters in the story; the appearance of Western characters in particular is terribly stereotypical.
Concerning the graphics of the title, let’s not beat around the bush, what could have happened in the mid-life cycle of the PS4 is rather scandalous on PS5 while Sony has mentioned that it is itself close to bowing out.
Of course, a game’s graphics aren’t everything, so you shouldn’t expect miracles as Team Ninja has instead focused on the combat system.
An unintuitive combat system
Unlike other Souls Like, we will applaud the inclusiveness of Rise of the Ronin which offers 3 difficulty modes here.
If the easy mode is still not for everyone, it still helps to avoid too much frustration for less skilled players.
However, this combat system hardly offers a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment, too frustrating in the name of realism, notably because of the stamina bar (here called Ki) which dictates to the player how to play.
This therefore prevents you from fighting by parrying too often, dodging too often, or pressing the attack button too often for the taste of the game.
Thus, it is difficult to fight and react on instinct when you have to keep an eye on the endurance bar and thus think about each movement during a scuffle. The punishment for this loss of stamina bar is that the character stops moving altogether for a few seconds in order to be at the complete mercy of enemies. For realism, we’ll come back.
In addition, the timing of the attacks is very difficult to understand, which results in boss fights and endless returns to the banner. Indeed, the enemies clearly show when they are preparing to attack, but as this attack comes in two very distinct stages (attack preparation, pause, then attack) in an action that lacks naturalness, the timing of the counter rarely falls just right.
Furthermore, we also do not understand the choice that the studio made in offering raise the guard with the L1 key, then have a key dedicated to the counter with triangle. Moreover, be aware that performing a counter blitz on an attack will not prevent enemies from continuing their combos, for which you will have to counter each attack if you wish to have a strategic advantage.
It is however possible to carry out certain adventure missions with one or two players online, which remains ideal in combat in order to have a real strike force, and which is a rather original and unexpected gameplay element. in this kind of title.
The way of the Ronin
This is probably where Rise of the Ronin stands out most from Ghost of Tsushima. Indeed, the story of the main character is totally dependent on the choices you make.
Thus, from the first minutes of the game, crucial choices having a major impact on the rest will have to be made. If you are the lone wolf, lawless assassin type, you will be able to kill everyone in your path, but you will not necessarily have allies to carry out the missions with you, which can prove to be a problem. handicap in the rest of the game.
As we mentioned previously, the statistics and other skills of your Ronin are essential in the sense that this will determine your possibilities. Thus, certain skills from the charisma tree will, for example, give you the possibility of lying in your dialogues with NPCs, which is particularly useful in certain situations.
Completing certain missions and certain choices will also allow you to determine whether you are pro shogunate or not, which is also important in the story.
Our opinion about Rise of the Ronin on PS5
Team Ninja’s first open world mission, it was obvious that the game featuring samurai and ronin was going to come up against comparison with the excellent Ghost of Tsushima released almost 4 years ago. Praised by critics and the public, the title of Sucker Punch had set the bar very high with regard to games of this genre.
After having high expectations about Rise of the Ronin is rather one of the rare PS5 exclusives which is rather a disappointment. It is also rather difficult to believe that an American studio managed to create a deeper Japanese story and atmosphere than a Japanese studio.
Indeed, Rise has chosen to offer extensive customization and choices leading to different stories, which results in a weakened scenario. Some players will probably find pleasure in the combat system, which is ultimately not very instinctive in our opinion.
Buy Rise of the Ronin at the best price
This still remains the most attractive point of Rise of the Ronin with the possibility of carrying out certain missions in multiplayer. Visually disappointing, the title generally seems to have remained with the previous console generation. Left to choose, we would certainly have preferred a more linear and more successful game rather than a half-hearted open world.
Rise of the Ronin
79.99
WE love
- The possibility of doing certain missions in multiplayer
We like less
- A combat system at the mercy of a stamina bar
- Visually several years late
- Its light storyline
