Rise of The Ronin is worth your time (Review)

recently I was lucky enough to spend four months traveling through Japan and experience that was nothing short of extraordinary as a longtime fan of Team ninja and an avid admirer of Japan's Rich history and stunning Landscapes I eagerly anticipated the release of Rise of the Ronin and the game largely delivers offering a captivating portrayal of one of Japan's most intriguing historical periods set against the beautiful backdrop of the country sprawling mountains and stunning Countryside the shift to a more accessible gameplay style coupled with an open world format has somewhat diluted team ninja signature combat intensity interestingly I feel that the fewer team ninja games you've played the more likely you are to enjoy the combat in Rise of the Ronin however veterans will still find plenty to appreciate with its engrossing historical setting and fascinating political Intrigue it's hard not to enjoy a team ninja game that immerses you in the turmoil and drama of the Baku M superod like rise of the Ronin does rise of the Ronin excels in two key areas its portrayal of true historical events during one of Japan's most fascinating eras and its ability to evoke the peace and serenity of exploring Japan it's unlike any other country I've ever been to and Rise of the Rin does a great job of Translating that to a video game I can attest to the game's remarkable ability to recreate that tranquil feeling despite the backdrop of a brewing Civil War the Ingram Recreation of iconic locations from Mount Fuji to various shrines brought back Vivid memories of my travels I mean I was even able to virtually walk the same street I stayed on in asakusa narratively the game uses historical figures settings and events to immerse you in the political complexities of the time without taking sides fans of the acclaimed TV series Shogun will find rise of the ru in and intriguing followup as it essentially depicts the end of the Shogun it that the series introduced 200 years earlier so all in all rise of the Ronin represents a mix of bold steps forward and a couple of steps back in the name of accessibility because team ninja have a adapted their unique blueprint to an open world story-driven framework nevertheless if you have even a slight interest in Japanese history and culture rise of the raring is well worth your time the game not only captures the essence of a pivotal era in Japan's past but also reflects on the issues that resonate even with the country today tracing their Origins back to the end of Japan's period of isolation [Music] [Applause] A wise man once told me that you only get one chance at a first impression sadly that wise man didn't work on Rise of the Ronin first impressions are crucial for some and unfortunately rise of the rone and stumbles out of the gate the game suffers from some noticeable texture popping and lack of detail which makes the world feel somewhat flat to be fair I mean I just come from playing Stellar blade before diving into rise of the Ronin on the same day which may have heightened that contrast but that feeling didn't shift through my full playthrough whether that's texture loading lighting appearing late or just straight up lack of detail it's hard to argue that for the majority of the experienced rise of the running looks good now at times it can impress but those moments are few and far between compared to the general level the popping issues part textures and lack of details are particularly disappointing when compared to visually stunning games like ghost of sushima the game's engine feels dated by now and the English voice acting is soar as switched the Japanese voice actors early which significantly improved the experience and sadly performance-wise the game struggles as well even in performance mode it doesn't maintain a stable 60 FPS which considering the level of the visuals is very disappointing I had drops going into the low 40s regularly which did make me a little bit sad while high graphical quality isn't my top priority in most games performance stability especially in a tight Nick combat sandbox like team ninja games I have issues with Graphics are the least important part for me and if it makes up for in other areas I'm willing to forgive it this is a new segment I'm putting my reviews called five weird or wonderful things AKA five wow yes I thought of that all by myself so here we briefly touch upon five weird or wonderful things in Rise the Ronin in a quick fire format let's get into it number one cats yes there's a lot of cats in this game I love cats you collect cats you pet cats you send cats on missions for you I mean if that isn't worth an extra 20% on review score I don't really know what is number two font size who was was the guy at Team ninja who thought this font size and UI size was okay you can't reduce it it's like the guy didn't know anything more than font size 200 it's awful number three real life events like I'll touch upon further in the review rise the Ronin has you taking part in actual real life events assassinations raids that happened during the end of the bakumatsu period it's honestly so cool to be involved in these setpiece moments especially when you read around it afterwards number four the sequel to the Shogun TV show that's kind of what rise the Ronin is if you've been lucky enough to watch the incredible Shogun show on FX and Disney then you'll know that that serves as the beginning of the Shogun rise the raring of course deals with the end PS if you haven't watched Shogun what the hell are you doing stop watching this review go watch it it's the best TV show of The Last 5 Years and number five auto travel why do more games not have auto travel hit L2 choose a destination and your horse will weirdly gallop and its weird Trot to wherever you want it's actually really handy because I know this sounds a bit lazy but you can kind of just go to the next destination while answering emails or texting people back or you know refreshing Twitter or whatever people do nowadays yeah I like the AO travel I think more games should have it and that is the end of the first weird or wonderful sponsored by nobody so some of the decisions made for gamep play and combat in Rise of the Ronin felt like a small step back for myself interestingly team ninja has removed some of the build crafting from the car progression Loop in Rise of the Ronin a feature that I loved in Neo and warong sadly there's little need to engage in upgrading or getting the set bonuses unlike the aforementioned games where those upgrades really impacted the combat perhaps I'm being nitpicky here but I've spent considerable time with Team ninja games over the years that said I did enjoy the counter [ __ ] mechanic once I got into the floor but that's also an issue here the variety of enemy stances and weapons often disrupted that core flaw stance switching feels a bit gimmicky offering minimal effort for maximum reward in war long you could enter a trans-like state where you'd counter everything seamlessly I just you didn't reach that level in Raj the runin the game's easier overall difficulty the presence of NPCs who can revive you in harder missions multiple times and the nature of an open world Souls light game create an inconsistent difficulty curve this isn't just an issue with rise of the Ronin I generally feel open world souls games have that issue but that's a topic for another video I will say that I felt rise the Ronin lacked The Edge that previous team ninja games had just purely in terms of combat oddly enough the fewer team ninja games you've played the more you're going to enjoy this one and times rise the Ronin reminded me of the old school tenu games with its rooftop sneaking and assassinations the enemy AI is more convenient than challenging often attacking you one at a time even when the enemies are in groups the bond system which allows for some really nice character development and rewards with skills and skill points add some depth as well as a bit of camaraderie now the open world does lean sadly towards a Ubisoft style though you can turn off the map markers to make it a more free form experience due to the realistic settings enemy variety is lacking but I guess that just comes with the territory of the setting you're in I think we know team Ninja can provide enemy variety as they have done in previous games when they get to kind of be free with their imagination but that just can't be the case here the amount of weapons and stuns do actually allow for variety on an enemy by enemy basis the actual design of the enemies is pretty see me throughout as a huge fan of the combat and build crafting in warong and Neo I couldn't help but feel a touch disappointed overall by the offering here on a fight by fight bases the combat is good overall it just Falls a touch short compared to previous games and that's maybe the cost you pay for accessibility it's the cost you pay for a more realistic setting and as I'm going to touch on now I feel the narrative payoff is probably worth it overall bakum mat Superior depicted in Rise of the Ronin is a fascinating period in Japanese history and the issues that come about during that period still resonate through Japan now if you've watched the recent Disney TV show Shogun you're going to be familiar with the beginning of Japan's relationship with the Shogun the game however focuses on the end of that period marked by the forced opening of Japan through the unequal treaties it was a tumultuous time in Japanese history with a brutal repression of those scen as supporting either side of the conflict what I appreciated most about the story here is his balanced perspective The Narrative doesn't take sides highlighting the positive and negative ideals behind both this approach sheds a light on the complex issues Japan faced during this era almost every character you encounter in this game is a historically significant figure that actually existed from Sakamoto Roma to yida Shen I'm probably butchering those names these individuals played crucial roles not only in the fall of the shoga but also the rise of the Magi restoration the story not only addresses Western influence and the unequal treaties that were forced upon Japan and led to a lot of the civil unrest but also the Cher outbreaks that devastated Japan these were brought from foreigners coming into the country and just added fuel to the fire when I traveled Japan I spent a lot of time in museums reading about this end of isolation and the years that preceded it it's fascinating to me deeply interesting if you're interested in Japanese culture and history and how Japan became the Japan it is today this is a story you must hear and really experiencing this story in a video game made me wonder why more games don't delve into such an important and intriguing historical period And I hope others find the story just as compelling knowing that it's rooted in real historical events and characters there are choices to be made for the storyline in Rise of the running but sadly those choices are Just an Illusion they have very little meaningful impact on the journey the story takes but I guess that's okay considering this is retreading actual historical events there are some dialogue choices that do have some effect on missions and dialogue options but there's nothing deeper than that in reality overall though I have absolutely no quals with the story with the way they execute the story The Way They implement it I think is really well done I've seen many comments about players being unhappy with the review scores for Rise of the Ronin I believe this can be easily explained you might be surprised to learn that most reviewers for major Publications don't finish the games they review review codes are often provided late and Publications insist on meeting strict embargo deadlines and as a result that first impression I talked about that rise the Ronin makes or fails to make I feel played a significant role in shaping those reviews also just open world fatigue or fatigue from just playing so many games can lead to negative press don't forget ghost to Sima actually didn't review that well in release by a lot of big Publications a lot of them calling it Bland that's also why my reviews take a while I play games to completion before forming an opinion I always make notes during but I'm open to editing my thoughts as I go along but overall my thoughts on Rise of the Ronin is that if you're into Japanese history and culture as well as the country itself then rise of the Ronin is well worth a go basically a team ninja game with a fantastic compelling storyline do I wish the combat was a bit more hardcore most definitely but in some ways I kind of feel that was a sacrifice for the game we got and if that's the case I'm totally okay with it let me know your thoughts in the comments if you enjoyed rise the Ronan could you get over the graphical issues the technical issues what did you think of the story did the story make you more interested in the history of Japan or just this period at all thanks very much for watching take care peace

Channel: Pass-The-Controller

Views: 2,052

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Id: vmcJ8wgCqrk

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 04 2024