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I think time is going to be incredibly kind to Rise of the Ronin
- Thread starter CloseTalker
- Start date
I find it repetitive and lacking a fully realized and dynamic world - two complete failures of an open world game, in my honest opinion.
you misunderstood me, I dont mind that. I like that. Its the fact that people were saying this WASN'T that that baffled me. Hell you have a post right above mine still saying this isnt like a Ubi game.
absolutely correct. Some of the zones in the maps are giant, and then the actual things to do in them is find 2 cats and 1 chest, and maybe 1 sidequest.
It's a Team Ninja game with an Assassins Creed open world. I 100% all three maps and I'm closing in on the end and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Performance is terrible and I kind of wish I waited for the PC version but overall it's a great game.
Oh I forgot to mention that the dialog is stiff and awkward at times but the action in the cutscenes are top notch. The dialog choices feel awkward too and you can tell it's their first time doing them.
Oh I forgot to mention that the dialog is stiff and awkward at times but the action in the cutscenes are top notch. The dialog choices feel awkward too and you can tell it's their first time doing them.
I don't think six different games over seven years is enough to result in fatigue. Especially not when all the games are great, and most people won't have played all, if not most of them.
I don't think there's any reason to look far for why RotN didn't make a huge splash. PS5-only, competing in mindshare with a PC port of Horizon 2 that launched just two days before, and DD2 which launched on the same day. Both bigger names, and it reviewed substantially lower than either of them. Not to mention KT doesn't have the marketing reach that Sony or Capcom does. And frankly I think "Nioh but open world" had limited appeal to begin with (I know the game isn't really that, but it was a common takeaway). Doesn't help that many reviews said the open world part of it was nothing special. For people who wanted a new open world game there were arguably better options.
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I say this not to directly compare Yakuza 0 because it's one of my favorite games of all time, but I haven't had this much fun with a videogame since Y0. And it shares a somewhat similar tone of trying to tell a serious story while also not shying away from being a videogame as many modern games do. It celebrates being a videogame.
I didn't like Nioh's combat and I don't really like AC checklist world design, but for some reason I love this game and think about it when I'm not playing it. Despite all the questionable takes of it having outdated or unattractive graphics, the art direction makes it an often beautiful world to walk, gallop, or glide your way through. The swaying grass and trees and gorgeous color palettes make it a very relaxing experience when you're not desperately trying to fight off three enemies at once. The combat is difficult (for me, on Normal mode, who isn't good at Nioh style combat), but not punishing and makes me want to improve, which makes me constantly searching out people to fight. It's an addictive cycle in their take on an open world experience.
There is definitely a MGSV aspect to approaching encounters. You have so many tools at your disposal, from various weapons (and multiple fighting styles) to bows, guns, grappling hook, flamethrower, stealth assassinations, and more. The only thing I wish is that the grappling hook was more freeform to allow different stealth approaches, rather than only hooking to specific points on buildings. And I wish you could swing Bionic Commando style.
I'm still relatively early in the game, but this could easily end up as my GOTY.
From what I understand (haven't gotten that far in the story) it doesn't treat any of the questionable characters with kid gloves, or glorify them in any way.
I didn't like Nioh's combat and I don't really like AC checklist world design, but for some reason I love this game and think about it when I'm not playing it. Despite all the questionable takes of it having outdated or unattractive graphics, the art direction makes it an often beautiful world to walk, gallop, or glide your way through. The swaying grass and trees and gorgeous color palettes make it a very relaxing experience when you're not desperately trying to fight off three enemies at once. The combat is difficult (for me, on Normal mode, who isn't good at Nioh style combat), but not punishing and makes me want to improve, which makes me constantly searching out people to fight. It's an addictive cycle in their take on an open world experience.
There is definitely a MGSV aspect to approaching encounters. You have so many tools at your disposal, from various weapons (and multiple fighting styles) to bows, guns, grappling hook, flamethrower, stealth assassinations, and more. The only thing I wish is that the grappling hook was more freeform to allow different stealth approaches, rather than only hooking to specific points on buildings. And I wish you could swing Bionic Commando style.
I'm still relatively early in the game, but this could easily end up as my GOTY.
From what I understand (haven't gotten that far in the story) it doesn't treat any of the questionable characters with kid gloves, or glorify them in any way.
I mean, terrible? That's a strong word for a game that has decent to good performance on release
I rented it from Gamefly, finished it and really enjoyed it. I will probably buy it when it comes to PC.
I just want to be able to buy it please. Please Sony, Koei - anyone. Please let me give you money.
(I hope time will also be kinder to Wo Long, with all of the DLC and polish it really is a great game.)
(I hope time will also be kinder to Wo Long, with all of the DLC and polish it really is a great game.)
like every team ninja game (save for wo long) the lack of a day 1 pc release means I'll pick it up whenever it shows up
It's good. As far these kind of open world games go, it's certainly among the best in terms of core gameplay. Way more people would enjoy this than they think they would if they gave it a chance.
That said, I'm definitely finding myself liking it less and less as I reach the end, with the story being the main thing keeping me on the hook funnily enough. I was withholding judgement until I reached the postgame difficulty but I don't think it'll actually change my perspective in terms of gripes with the game at this point. The open world pretty much serves as a well realized backdrop for the game, but it does nothing to actually uniquely elevate the game's combat or overall gameplay and morseo serves to drag it down more than anything (other than introducing more means to circumvent full-on combat, which isn't a positive as far as I'm concerned considering all these other options are super shallow).
Traditional missions are much shorter than prior Team Ninja games which really dampens a lot of the encounter escalation and density you used to get from these kind of things. The open world has a similar problem with there being lots of segmented relatively small encampments and battles (many of which can be triviliazed even quicker if you engage with any of the stealth tools you have). Honestly found myself wishing there was a more focused concentration of battles since there are a ton of weapons and styles to tinker with, but the structure of the game doesn't make trying this stuff out on a whim for prolonged periods of time effortless to do due to the spaced out encounters.
And then there's other aspects that feel like they lack cohesion. For example, bonds being a huge part of the game, but allies only being a thing during missions and not in the open world (this makes engaging with allies, some of which have bespoke movesets that the player cannot use or faction alliegances that prevent them from taking part in a healthy chunk of missions, feel like an unfruitful usage of time opposed to simply learning your main character). The loot system is dreadfully boring and toned down from other ARPG Team Ninja games, with a lot of the set bonuses being very uninteresting, but a healthy chunk of your rewards are still loot. The game having a larger focus on multi-man fights but still using a lock-on system that makes these encounters way more funky than they ought to be. The blood guage having no distinctly noticeable visual tell and being tucked away from the stamina meter for reasons that aren't clear to me.
There's tons more little things that come across as a little sloppy for a Team Ninja game, but it's whatever. It's a good time overall, even if I'm not super hot on it at the moment and find a lot of these things pretty annoying moreso than most.
That said, I'm definitely finding myself liking it less and less as I reach the end, with the story being the main thing keeping me on the hook funnily enough. I was withholding judgement until I reached the postgame difficulty but I don't think it'll actually change my perspective in terms of gripes with the game at this point. The open world pretty much serves as a well realized backdrop for the game, but it does nothing to actually uniquely elevate the game's combat or overall gameplay and morseo serves to drag it down more than anything (other than introducing more means to circumvent full-on combat, which isn't a positive as far as I'm concerned considering all these other options are super shallow).
Traditional missions are much shorter than prior Team Ninja games which really dampens a lot of the encounter escalation and density you used to get from these kind of things. The open world has a similar problem with there being lots of segmented relatively small encampments and battles (many of which can be triviliazed even quicker if you engage with any of the stealth tools you have). Honestly found myself wishing there was a more focused concentration of battles since there are a ton of weapons and styles to tinker with, but the structure of the game doesn't make trying this stuff out on a whim for prolonged periods of time effortless to do due to the spaced out encounters.
And then there's other aspects that feel like they lack cohesion. For example, bonds being a huge part of the game, but allies only being a thing during missions and not in the open world (this makes engaging with allies, some of which have bespoke movesets that the player cannot use or faction alliegances that prevent them from taking part in a healthy chunk of missions, feel like an unfruitful usage of time opposed to simply learning your main character). The loot system is dreadfully boring and toned down from other ARPG Team Ninja games, with a lot of the set bonuses being very uninteresting, but a healthy chunk of your rewards are still loot. The game having a larger focus on multi-man fights but still using a lock-on system that makes these encounters way more funky than they ought to be. The blood guage having no distinctly noticeable visual tell and being tucked away from the stamina meter for reasons that aren't clear to me.
There's tons more little things that come across as a little sloppy for a Team Ninja game, but it's whatever. It's a good time overall, even if I'm not super hot on it at the moment and find a lot of these things pretty annoying moreso than most.
It's really good and I hope time is kind to it. Team Ninja deserves the success. The game has so much heart and charm, too. The story and characters are actually pretty interesting, and it's fascinating to see how historically accurate most of them are, too.
Yeeeeep
Ubisoft's problem isn't its template or formula, it's the sheer bloat of their games, and how the combat or gameplay mechanics are just serviceable at best. Doing multiple bandit camps when the combat is mediocre and simple is boring, but when the combat is so good, you won't mind, you might even want to seek it out.
It's a super cozy game that wants you to finish it, and it feels great to play, I loved the fights, even if it's not as hard as other souls games you can still get annihilated quickly if you're not careful. I really need to watch Shogun though, I am very into the time period, hell, I started reading up on the actual story of the time and it was fun to later see those events on Ronin
I'm nearly done with all the trophies and I would say the game is okay. It's not bad, but it certainly isn't great either.
The main issue I had is that the game is not immersive at all. Between the slient protagonist which you can customize to make him/her look like a buffoon, the pointless choice system (you can switch alliegiances between missions with no consequences) and gameplay that is not grounded in the slighest, I felt disconnected from that world despite interesting characters, a rather beautiful world and a nuanced approach to the various political ideas of this troubled era.
Combat is a watered down version of Nioh. I think Wo Long had a better execution of the "parry the red attack" idea. Also I think the whole ki/stamina system needs to go, it's been five years since Sekiro showed how it should be done.
We'll see if time will be kind to this game, my feeling is that when Assassin's Creed Japan and/or Ghost of Tsushima 2 get announced this year Rise of the Ronin will quickly be pushed on the wayside of the conversation.
The main issue I had is that the game is not immersive at all. Between the slient protagonist which you can customize to make him/her look like a buffoon, the pointless choice system (you can switch alliegiances between missions with no consequences) and gameplay that is not grounded in the slighest, I felt disconnected from that world despite interesting characters, a rather beautiful world and a nuanced approach to the various political ideas of this troubled era.
Combat is a watered down version of Nioh. I think Wo Long had a better execution of the "parry the red attack" idea. Also I think the whole ki/stamina system needs to go, it's been five years since Sekiro showed how it should be done.
We'll see if time will be kind to this game, my feeling is that when Assassin's Creed Japan and/or Ghost of Tsushima 2 get announced this year Rise of the Ronin will quickly be pushed on the wayside of the conversation.
The game is fucking amazing. If you're a fan of that map icon clearing genre of open world, this is the best one ever made. The moment to moment combat is leagues above every other game that gets the effusive praise for being rigidly confined in the same structure.
I will never understand how presentation alone is the justification for a higher score, as the combat stances and engagement here just feel leagues above other games I've loved like Ghost or Horizon.
I think a lot of us have played a ton of these games. You open the map, it's a billion icons, you put on a podcast, or the new Taylor or High on Fire album, and just pleasantly roam and complete your checklist. Oh except this one has a glider. Has endless customization for loot. Has a hilarious bond system. A camera, a fire pipe, cats to pet, and the best combat system in this genre ever made.
I just don't understand it - it's absolutely enthralling, one of my favorites of the year!
I will never understand how presentation alone is the justification for a higher score, as the combat stances and engagement here just feel leagues above other games I've loved like Ghost or Horizon.
I think a lot of us have played a ton of these games. You open the map, it's a billion icons, you put on a podcast, or the new Taylor or High on Fire album, and just pleasantly roam and complete your checklist. Oh except this one has a glider. Has endless customization for loot. Has a hilarious bond system. A camera, a fire pipe, cats to pet, and the best combat system in this genre ever made.
I just don't understand it - it's absolutely enthralling, one of my favorites of the year!
OP
OP
Period! This is a perfect description of what makes the game so engaging for me.
It being console exclusive worked against it for me. Because it released same day as a sequel to one of my top 10 games, it was an incredibly easy choice to wait for the PC version. Doesn't help that it's a team ninja game and brute force will do a lot to make it feel more polished.
Ronin feels very cozy for about the first bit sure, but then the Ubiworld design fatigue kicks in after you cleared out your upteenth fucking bandit camp.
It's a mid game through and through.
Everything team ninja did to expand on the game through its open world is a case scenario of what not to do. It would have been so much better to have a made a dedicated, focused action game than something that feels 10 years dated, both in design, performance and visuals.
I just finished Dragon's Dogma 2 (loved it), and I'm looking for something new to play. I loved Nioh 2 and played almost 200 hours of it. Loved Ghost of Tsushima. But I'm not into Souls games. And while I know graphics aren't the most important, I do want something that doesn't look dated. Will this be for me? Seems like it.
yeah most people miss this and rush to stuff everything with a map, to ubi box.
what's making those games feel bloated is mainly the tired moment to moment gameplay.
if you manage to make traversal and combat fun in your open world, you are already leagues above any recent assassin's creed.
i haven't tried this yet, but looks promising in those aspects
Picked up a used copy on eBay the other day for $50. Hoping I will enjoy it more than Dragon's Dogma 2.
DD2 bored me, the combat was interesting at first but it honestly didn't really impress me after mid-way through the game and the story was so bland.
I'm all for a "cozy" open world game with map markers right now. Especially since I'm a big fan of Team Ninja games and their combat.
DD2 bored me, the combat was interesting at first but it honestly didn't really impress me after mid-way through the game and the story was so bland.
I'm all for a "cozy" open world game with map markers right now. Especially since I'm a big fan of Team Ninja games and their combat.
The game depicts the right-wing historical figure who laid the foundation for Japan's imperialist expansion, and the director showed his admiration for him by calling him "Asian Socrates". This led to a ban on the release of this game in South Korea. There's more information in this thread.
Rise of The Ronin will not be released in South Korea after Fumihiko Yasuda compares Shoin Yoshida to Socrates
https://x.com/Genki_JPN/status/1757322448327020633?s=20 https://youtu.be/hY9lSAZQfbk?si=OcMjt0IWMlpQpVDv&t=197 https://v.daum.net/v/20240213154414014
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FWIW, Shoin Yoshida is depicted relatively positively but I wouldn't say he's glorified, since his followers are shown to be frequently unreasonable, racist, and bloodthirsty. (The game also doesn't talk about Yoshida's views on Korea whatsoever, which may be seen as sanitizing him, IDK, but the Wikipedia article on him doesn't mention any of that either 🤔 I'm guessing his problematic aspects are not commonly known among the English-speaking world)The game depicts the right-wing historical figure who laid the foundation for Japan's imperialist expansion, and the producers show their admiration for him by calling him "Asian Socrates". This led to a ban on the release of this game in South Korea. There's more information in this thread.
Rise of The Ronin will not be released in South Korea after Fumihiko Yasuda compares Shoin Yoshida to Socrates
https://x.com/Genki_JPN/status/1757322448327020633?s=20 https://youtu.be/hY9lSAZQfbk?si=OcMjt0IWMlpQpVDv&t=197 https://v.daum.net/v/20240213154414014
I would guess that the game presents the stance that Yoshida had grand ideas for the future of Japan but his teachings were often distorted or misinterpreted by fanatics who read what they wanted into what he said.
If the game glorifies anyone, it's Ryoma Sakamoto more than anyone else, really.
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The game depicts the right-wing historical figure who laid the foundation for Japan's imperialist expansion, and the director showed his admiration for him by calling him "Asian Socrates". This led to a ban on the release of this game in South Korea. There's more information in this thread.
Rise of The Ronin will not be released in South Korea after Fumihiko Yasuda compares Shoin Yoshida to Socrates
https://x.com/Genki_JPN/status/1757322448327020633?s=20 https://youtu.be/hY9lSAZQfbk?si=OcMjt0IWMlpQpVDv&t=197 https://v.daum.net/v/20240213154414014
Thanks. I think I remember that now that I see it again. I have not been following this game very closely.
it's just so so shallow… it's charming but i can feel my life slipping away as the clock ticks on
I've translated some of Yoshida's writing in the thread above regarding his thoughts on invading Korea：
Anyway, I'm just trying to provide some perspective. Political issues are always determined by a group's common history and perspective. The Korean people have the right to be angered by this, especially given the development of the new right-wing in Japan. I'm not arguing that Western players should adopt the same attitude, but there's no harm in recognizing why local Koreans (and other Asian countries that were victimized by Japan in WW2) view it the way they do.
Decent would probably what I describe a game with a frame rate that dips within the PS5's VRR range or may below it but not often. This game constantly dips and it's noticeable. It also goes into a really stuttery 30 FPS for all conversations and cutscenes. Did this stop me from putting 50 hoursd into the game? No, but idk how else to describe the performance other than terrible. Performance tolerance is of course subjective. There are some people that don't notice constant dips in some Switch games that make me scratch my head. So yeah, milage may vary.
I don't disagree at all. Just explaining how Yoshida is depicted in the game itself.
