Summary
Team Ninja’sRise of the Roninrepresents a bold new chapter for the studio in several ways. Not only doesRise of the Roninbring Team Ninja’s unique approach to Soulslikes and its penchant for top-tier combat design into an open-world setting, it also tells a much more grounded story pulling from real-world historical events. This grounded story ends up being both a blessing and a curse for the title, asRise of the Ronin’s firm rooting in reality prevents Team Ninja from being able to flex one of the studio’s most impressive talents. The complete lack of supernatural threats and monsters or demons inRise of the Ronin’s rogues gallery feels like a missed opportunity in comparison to other Team Ninja titles.
As far back as the studio’s reinvention of theNinja Gaidenfranchise, non-human enemies and supernatural threats have been a part ofevery Team Ninja gameup untilRise of the Ronin. BothNiohgames andWo Long: Fallen Dynastyinclude some of the most inventive and terrifying enemy designs utilizing Eastern mythology and folklore, so it’s surprising to not see the studio express these talents in what’s arguably its biggest release to-date. Their absence inRise of the Roninends up feeling like a missed opportunity that should be addressed in some future DLC.
Human Enemies Have Variety in Rise of the Ronin, But Something is Still Missing
One of the first things players will notice aboutRise of the Roninis its impeccable combat design, which deftly blends the methodical precision of Team Ninja’s prior games in the Soulslike genre with a more approachable flow and feel similar toGhost of Tsushimaor the modern open-worldAssassin’s Creedgames. A large part of what makes the combat so engaging is the enemy variety on display. Even though there are largely only three types of combatants (samurai, bandits, and American infantrymen),Rise of the Ronin’s different weapon typesand wide variety of combat stances makes each encounter an exercise in observation and seizing opportunities to press the enemy.
That said, it’s hard not to feel that Team Ninja could have gone a step further and included more non-human enemy types other than dogs, wolves, and boars. After all, this is the same studio that created some of the most impressive and terrifying monster designs in any Soulslike withtheNiohfranchise. It’s possible that to shift resources toward developing its most ambitious setting yet, Team Ninja may have needed to scale back on the number of different enemy types. Still, the absence of the studio’s trademark yokai and other supernatural threats draws a dividing line betweenRise of the Roninand other Team Ninja titles.
How Future DLC Could Introduce Yokai to Rise of the Ronin
One ofRise of the Ronin’s pre-order bonuses was a set of armor that clearly resembles the garb worn by Ryu Hayabusa inTeam Ninja’sNinja Gaidengames, so it’s not out of the question for the title to eventually receive some kind of crossover DLC with theNiohfranchise. The form that a potentialNioh-inspired DLC could take is anyone’s best guess, but Team Ninja would be leaving money on the table to not have it be some kind of special mission or group of missions in whichRise of the Ronin’s protagonist finds themselves transported to the mystical version of Japan fromNiohandNioh 2, complete with all the supernatural threats that await them there.
Rise of the Ronin’s combathas enough similarities with the combat systems fromNiohandNioh 2for such a DLC to make perfect sense in the context of both title’s gameplay, and the presence of yokai could kill two birds with one stone. Not only would aNioh 2crossover introduce a significant endgame challenge to players who had already beatenRise of the Ronin, but it would address one of the few glaring omissions in the game. Still, with no evidence that such a DLC will happen, it’s likely that the yokai will remain a missed opportunity.
Rise of the Ronin
WHERE TO PLAY
FORGE YOUR FATE IN THIS EPIC NEW SAMURAI ACTION ADVENTURE Embark on an epic journey across war-torn 19th-century Japan in this combat-focused open-world action RPG from Team NINJA, the veteran studio behind Nioh and NINJA GAIDEN.Japan, 1863. After three centuries of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s reign, the Black Ships of the West descend upon the nation’s borders and the country falls into a state of turmoil. Amidst the chaos of war, disease, and political unrest, a nameless warrior forges their own path, holding the very fate of Japan in their hands
