Rise of the Ronin, NPCs living large, and more
Team Ninja's deep-dive into Japan's Bakumatsu Period is finally upon us and it's a great addition to the growing legion of samurai videogames. Plus there's some stray thoughts on NPCs
How good do NPCs have it these days, huh?
The first couple of months of 2024 alone threw up a handful of interesting outings for non-player characters. And it was probably the first time I sat and scrutinised these unsung heroes this closely.
This was likely because it was within the space of around 30-or-so days that we saw the respective releases of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Persona 3 Reload and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to name but a few (or more accurately, to name the games that I actually played). While several games have done justice to NPCs in the past, this was the first time I could recall multiple games that did so launching at roughly the same time.
And so whether it was the delightful Gizmo in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the creepy “Pubescent student” from Persona 3 Reload, the excited villagers commenting on your every move (or so it seemed) in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, or the array of weird and wonderful characters approaching you for a fight (or a random errand) in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the NPC union has had little to complain about.
After all, they’ve got representation, meaty roles (or thereabouts) and care being taken with their appearance and sound design. What more could an NPC ask for really?
Review: Rise of the Ronin
Developed by Koei Tecmo’s Team Ninja and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment
Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆
I had mixed feelings about Rise of the Ronin when I first watched the world premiere trailer during December 2023’s Game Awards. I understand the game was announced some three months prior, but this was the first I was hearing of it. The initial thought that went through my mind was “Ghost of Tsushima… with a glider… and guns?”.
As the weeks rolled by, I was convinced Rise of the Ronin was going to be a hodgepodge of some nice features from the aforementioned samurai adventure by Sucker Punch Productions, one or two original ideas, and a generous handful of open-world filler.
With the launch date on the horizon, I was offered an early review code. ‘Sure, why not?’ I thought, safe in the knowledge that even if it was just a copy-paste job, more Ghost of Tsushima could surely only be a good thing. My other consideration was that the game was made by Team Ninja — the studio behind the interesting (at the very least) Nioh and Ninja Gaiden games — and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment — who, let’s be fair, have yet to drop a clanger in the PlayStation 5 generation.
And so it arrived and dropped me into the final dregs of Japan’s Edo period — the Bakumatsu1. This is a most fascinating time in Japanese history (and of course, foreign policy) as it witnessed the push and pull between those wanting to integrate with the world and those wanting to stay away. It also saw a reimagining of how Japan was to be ruled/governed with the shogunate (very simply, a military dictatorship) giving way to the restoration of imperial rule. Additionally, it was this very part of history that was brought to life in Like a Dragon: Ishin! — which naturally piqued my interest in the period.
All looking pretty good so far:
Reputed developer
Reliable publisher (mostly)
Very interesting setting
At worst, a fun ripoff
Jekyll-sama and Hyde-san
After sinking nearly 30 hours into Rise of the Ronin, I am of the opinion that while there are some obvious similarities with Ghost of Tsushima, the two games are distinctly different animals. In a lot of ways, the two games are comparable to the Robert Louis Stevenson novella alluded to in the subhead.
Where Ghost features a linear and somewhat straightforward story, Ronin’s plot is a more complex, branching and choice-driven affair. The former, set in 1274, deals with the prospect of repelling a Mongol invasion2 by any means necessary. The latter, on the other hand, is set a whole 600-odd years later and deals with Japan’s internal and external struggles. Ghost is an extremely polished, spiritual experience, while Ronin is a rather more jagged, political thriller.
The 2020 Sucker Punch game features effortlessly elegant and easy-to-learn combat, coupled with zen-like navigation (remember the Guiding Wind?), and Team Ninja’s outing sports a slightly clumsy and very busy — with multiple fight styles, weapons and combos — combat system, and a very conventional approach to navigation. Finally, where Ghost is grounded in reality for the most part, Ronin plays around with gliders and grappling hooks to make traversal a bit more fun.
I could go on, but in the interest of brevity and not making this piece seem like a comparative analysis, I’ll stop here.
Big decisions, big outcomes
Outside of the realm of narrative adventures (see games by Telltale Games, Quantic Dream, Don’t Nod, Deck Nine Games and the like) and quirky titles like Undertale, there are precious few games that come to mind where your choices actually impact how the story eventually shakes out. As I approach the conclusion of my first playthrough, I’m convinced Rise of the Ronin is one such title, and as such, I’m champing at the bit to fling myself back into it and play things out differently.
One of the biggest reasons for this was that the game had me making choices no sooner than it was satisfied that I’d learned the ropes, and could handle myself in Yokohoma — the starting region. As established earlier, the game drops you into a Japan in flux, with pro- and anti-shogunate forces amassing. Expectedly, both want you on their side.
After a prologue that sets the stage for your nameless protagonist to embark on their quest, almost every main mission and a majority of side missions had me in three minds:
How will my decision affect my pro-shogunate leaning and bonds with those in that camp?
How will my decision affect my anti-shogunate leaning and bonds with those in that camp?
Is my decision taking me to my original objective or is it merely sidetracking me?
I’m fully aware that I may well embark on my second playthrough and find to my great disappointment that the choices offered by the game are merely illusory, however, with the the finish line in my sights, it certainly hasn’t felt that way. For starters, it took me a few seconds (minutes, on occasion) of hemming and hawing to decide on the direction in which I wanted to take a number of quests. And this was less because I had an ideal endgame scenario in mind (eg do good and be seen as a paragon of virtue) than the fact that I had no way of knowing how my choice would impact my character, the primary objective or the story as a whole.
Here’s a spoiler-free example to illustrate what I mean: An incredibly damning letter needs to be retrieved from a particular location. You are approached by pro- as well as anti-shogunate forces to get them the letter. On the face of it, beyond simply deepening bonds with one set of characters rather than another, there seems to be little to that choice. But then you look closer, and handing the anti-shogunate forces the letter could go a long way in exacerbating xenophobia in the country, while handing it to their rivals could result in several citizens meeting their end. It’s a catch-22 situation, much like other similar dilemmas you’ll face in Rise of the Ronin.
These conundrums don’t necessarily fly at you during every single mission, but when they do, they will inform your approach to the game, the allies you can have and the strength of those alliances, and so on.
That’s all well and good, but what’s the game like really?
Camera angles can sometimes be a little wonky, climbing up obstacles can on the odd occasion require a bit of trial-and-error, a bunch of objects seem to explode into a million pieces when you walk into them, and the medley of grappling hook and glider traversal isn’t as smooth as I’d like.
But apart from those quibbles, Rise of the Ronin was a most enjoyable ride. The story is gripping, well-paced and ultimately quite satisfying. The insertion of in-game versions of such real-life characters as Sakamoto Ryōma and Commodore Matthew Perry helps add a nice dose of the ‘historical’ to the historical fiction playing out before your eyes — as does the manner in which the regions of Yokohama, Edo and Kyoto are depicted. Supporting all this is some punchy combat that feels rewarding when you figure out a new fighting style or take down one of the game’s tougher ‘formidable enemies’ without so much as a scratch on your person.
Through it all however, I was acutely aware that there wasn’t a single area in which I found the game to be truly innovative. Katana, odachi and spear combat have been done in a variety of different ways before; so too has a projectile-bladed weapon mix and the ‘light attack-heavy attack-dodge roll-parry’ dance. Open-world games have also done the ‘break map into pieces and let player gain control of pieces’ bit before. Visually and for a game releasing in 2024 on a ninth-generation console, it looks fine. Gliders sure as hell aren’t a new development. And even the Bakumatsu era has been done before. So too have swords on fire.
It took me until long after I’d switched off the PlayStation 5 and moved on to some side mission in life to realise just where Rise of the Ronin was truly special. And the word that stayed with me throughout the time I spent on the game (and several hours after) was ‘efficiency’. Let me elaborate: I’ve played numerous third-person open world titles and one thing that always stuck in the back of my mind was the amount of time I must have wasted watching animations of characters picking up loot, crafting resources, berries or what-have-you. I must’ve spent an equal amount of time watching my character clamber onto and off a variety of steeds and vehicles. And don’t even get me started on the hours (that’s probably no exaggeration) parsing through inventory to sell off stuff I don’t need.
An area where Rise of the Ronin really knocks it out of the park is in terms of its quality of life improvements. To name but a few, summoning your horse automatically leads to you hopping on her/his back, you can set resource and loot gathering to be an automatic exercise, you can also set inventory items below various levels to be dealt with (disassembled or sold) automatically, and the game also skips cutscenes that you’ve already seen before (after you’ve died and returned, that is). Probably the best of the lot is the neat little feature that lets you go back and play pivotal missions from the opposite (ie pro-shogunate, if you went the anti- way before) perspective.
I would go as far as to argue that this attention to detail in terms of making the player’s life that tiny bit simpler makes the rest of the game a whole lot more enjoyable — something that isn’t instantly obvious. And in doing so, it makes the overall package a lot more immersive, even if said package doesn’t include anything new per se.
Overall, I highly recommend Rise of the Ronin for its engaging story, the choices you have to make, the combat, the interesting array of NPCs (and there they are again; they really are having a great time), and the sights and sounds of 1800’s Japan. I’m less enthused by the janky compass that got me lost on numerous occasions, the slightly peculiar skill tree (featuring a weird grouping-together of skills), the weird targetting mechanism, some repetitive side content and the filler material — like helping locals in trouble and the snooze-inducing search for cats (I was bored after the 10th cat).
After a 2023 that saw the release of one superb title after another, it appears the first quarter of 2024 has also been a strong one for games (but not the people making them). And Rise of the Ronin definitely belongs among the Q1 2024 batch of top titles.
Game reviewed on PlayStation 5. Review code provided by publisher
In closing…
Having traded in my katana for spandex, I’m currently playing 2K Sports’ WWE 2K24. A full review will soon follow, but for now, it would appear that the franchise has well and truly left its days of hilarious glitches, tedium in gameplay and boring content behind.
The Bakumatsu period (1853-1868) marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and the transition to the Meiji Restoration. It began with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's American fleet in 1853, which forced Japan to end its isolationist foreign policy. This led to growing anti-Western sentiment among nationalist groups calling for the "expulsion of the barbarians." There was a major political divide between pro-imperial forces (ishin shishi) and the shogunate's shinsengumi swordsmen.
In 1274, Kublai Khan launched the first Mongol invasion of Japan, assembling a force of 15,000 Mongol, Chinese, and Korean troops. The invasion fleet first attacked and conquered the islands of Tsushima and Iki before attempting to invade the main island of Kyushu. However, the Japanese samurai put up fierce resistance at the Battle of Hakata Bay. Just as the battle raged on, a powerful storm, later dubbed the "divine wind" or kamikaze, destroyed much of the Mongol fleet, forcing them to retreat. The failed invasion was a major setback for Kublai Khan's ambitions to expand the Mongol Empire.