Rise of the Ronin (PS5)
By: Sony
From the Rise of Skywalker and Rise of Gru to Rise of the Machines and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it seems everything is on the up. And before Jesus can get in on the act this Sunday, Sony’s latest samurai epic sees the ronin rise in a limb-lopping historical hack n’ slasher.
In development for nearly a decade, Team Ninja – most famous for Dead or Alive’s bikini-straining fisticuffs – have turned to the history books for an open-world action RPG set during the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. And while it’s hard to avoid comparisons with Sony’s own Ghost of Tsushima, Ronin is set some 600 years later.
Raised as an assassin, players roam late 19th century Japan in search of their Blade Twin, who goes missing after a skirmish with opening boss Matthew Perry (poor guy’s not been dead six months and they’re already making him out to be a wrong ‘un). With its main missions divided into pro-shogunate, anti-shogunate or neutral, your choices will influence who lives or dies.
Team Ninja’s signature combat and deep loot systems – honed on 2017′s Nioh - give it both barrels in their first ever open world game, with three dense cities to explore and a sprawling, quest-bloated map dotted with enemy camps to slaughter and shrines, either on foot or atop your trusty nag. And lots of cats, which the game rewards players for petting.
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Being Sony published, it’s accessible enough not to scare away the masses, boasting an ambitious character-driven story and none of Nioh’s overwhelming systems. The combat is fantastic - this is Team Ninja, after all - and sticking your blade into the gizzards of enemies involves a deadly dance of blocks and attacks.
Sword duels focus on reading enemy patterns, emphasising parries while managing your Ki and Blood meters to keep enemies on their tippy-toes without draining your own stamina. Hunting fugitives unlocks new combat styles, and over the course of the game you’ll amass a wide a variety of swords, stances and sub-weapon options. Being late 1800s, you can also bring guns to a knife fight or use fanciful contraptions like hang gliders, letting players stealth attack from above.
Alas, Rise of the Ronin also lurches into Team Ninja’s time-honoured inventory-management grind. With missions dropping an insane amount of loot to sort, half your time offers all the fun of a day at the dump. Technically it’s all rather last-gen, with ropey animation and rough textures that pale in comparison to the four-year-old Ghost of Tsushima, while at 40-odd hours long, it can outstay its welcome.
Still, as a cinematic history lesson, Rise of the Ronin’s ripping yarn offers all the blood-soaked swordplay fans could want, even if it is a little rough around the edges.
