Here's a more positive write-up for this thread, I'm sure we could all use it... :D
So most of the named characters in Rise of the Ronin refer to historical characters -- obviously not always in the most historically accurate matter for the sake of the game, but there's a surprising amount of attention to their true historical details. The game is obviously very male-dominated due to the historical setting, but it does features a number of great women in it, two of which in particular that I found really damn cool, and I liked them even more upon reading about the real-life counterparts.
Koto Nakazawa is a swordswoman, in the game she joins the Shinsengumi, an elite group of shogunate warriors:
Her real-life counterpart is even more badass, and she must have inspired the Red Sonja trope hahah:
en.wikipedia.org
Another cool lady in Ronin is Sana Chiba:
The way she is introduced is a bit weird at first; she is presented as the fiancée of the protagonist's friend (Ryoma Sakamoto) and seems a bit goofy and lovesick, but eventually you see that she has ambitions and desires of her own outside of "must marry Ryoma". And, well, I can't fault the game because that's also true to history, as she was indeed Ryoma's betrothed and was genuinely in love with him (going further into that story may spoil the game so I'll stop there XD). According to historians, later in life she became a healer and a businesswoman as well:
*3/15/2019 – A small update on the name of Sana’s youngest sister, as well as on the text for the pic “Chiba Gekikenkai”.*2/8/2021 – A few updates to specific informat…
lightinthecloudsblog.com
(Note that as I said, those pages could contain some slight "historical spoilers" for the game, so keep that in mind!)
There's also a side-quest involve both Sana and Koto, along with Princess Atsuko who needs their help, and you end up facing a random boss who is also a woman (called Yoshie Oguri, I couldn't find historical references to her though):
Team Ninja wasn't always great with women, to say the least. Their old games often sexualized them tackily, and though Nioh improved on that there were still a few questionable examples. And while she wasn't sexualized or anything, they did Ginchiyo Tachibana a bit dirty in Nioh, she was actually way more badass in real life than she is presented in the game (the game presented her as a victim, when she in fact repelled and scared off her aggressor). But, it does seem like they're improving a lot on that front, and I hope they continue to get better at handling women in their games.
And hey, I learned a fair bit about that piece of Japanese history and its many colourful characters, so that was cool. Ryoma for example was a really interesting person and it's no wonder he's a Japanese folk hero showing up in a number of Japanese media.
(And for those inclined, he's pretty easy on the eyes in the game, and can be romanced too... tee hee)