Introduction
"And we're back with another blog of First Impressions and Gameplay Review ! That's the show where we give you some straight-up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games released. As usual, it's me, Jake Baldino, and today we're talking about Rise of the Ronin. This is the newest game from Team Ninja, the folks behind so many games, more recently Neo1 and 2, and Wulong Fallen Dynasty. They've kind of taken things they've learned from those games and set their ambitions on an open-world adventure in a cool historic setting. And while Rise of the Ronin is almost clearly flawed, so far I've been having a lot of fun with this one. There's a lot to it, a lot to explain and break down, so before we do get into it, just the usual disclaimers: We've been playing a review copy on PS5, that's where this footage is captured, and it's running in performance mode. And this blog is spoiler-free, so don't worry."
Gameplay and Combat Mechanics
"Now, I mentioned flaws right at the start, but to be completely honest the elevator pitch cuts through a lot of that. Wulong or Neo meets Ghost of Tsushima's open world, just a different period. A vast open-world adventure with Team Ninja's brand of spin-off souls-like combat but in a big world filled with quests, side quests, loot, hidden things, collectible cats, towns, NPCs, and cool traversal. I think for some people that's all they needed to hear, and I think the game nails that premise. At least, this game is messy and it throws the kitchen sink at you: systems, skill trees, weapons, alliances, character bonds, and a ton of stuff. I'm going to try and break down at least most of it. Some of those systems are better than others; you know where one area might falter, another might kick ass."
Combat Depth and Skill Tree
"Combat is the main gist of the game; there's a lot of it, and that is a lot of fun. So you have multiple weapon types to take advantage of and hone and develop, like maybe one katana, two swords, a few longer weapons, heavier weapons, ranged weapons, guns, bows and arrows, and pistols, all of them have their own move sets and animations and capabilities. Now, as you progress, you unlock multiple swappable stances to take advantage of with melee weapons, each of them with their little differences and speeds and they tend to have different advantages over different enemies. You have a dodge, a roll, a block, and a special parry deflect mapped to Triangle that you're going to need to learn to get the hang of really quickly."
Open World Structure and Quests
"Structurally, the game is open-world with stuff to do and quests and side quests to follow. You can track them all in the pause menu. Now, throughout the world, there are bonfires that you can hit, that you can cash in your souls that you get from killing enemies, although, with this, it's called karma, so just kill some enemies, run back to the nearest bonfire flag you can find, click it, and cash that stuff in to unlock some skill tree points. It's a skill tree that relies on just regular skill points and specialized points for each of the trees like dexterity, strength, etc. And it works good; it's a solid, satisfying skill tree with meaningful upgrades that I liked."
Story and Setting
"Now, Team Ninja also goes full-on storytelling here, and it has its ups and downs. It's 1850s Japan, and to its credit, I think it's one of the few games focused on the Takamatsu period in Japan's history if I'm pronouncing that right. It just makes for a unique setting and flavor. You're exploring rolling fields and mountains and plains with beautiful cherry blossom trees, bamboo forests, all of that. But then you're also exploring places influenced by countries outside of Japan coming over. Pretty early on, you're introduced to Yokohama; it's a metropolitan city with a mix of Western and Eastern cultures and people walking around and architecture that is unlike anything I've seen in a game before."
Graphics and Visuals
"I will address the elephant in the room: you can already tell from watching this, graphically, the game doesn't look very good. YouTube videos make it worse; it's a little better running in person, like on my screen at home, but this game just does look very, very outdated. Man, I love the colors and some of the details and some of the art direction, but it's all brought down by simplistic visuals, some really weird jacked-up lighting in spots, tons of texture popping, and even some just ugly, almost low-res textures. Like this is unfortunate because the setting is so beautiful on paper."
Conclusion
"Ultimately, Rise of the Ronin is a pretty standard open-world type of thing where you're clearing out enemy bases, collecting things, and leveling up. Some people don't need another one of these games, but this one has a unique setting and some kickass combat. It's ugly looking sometimes and it seems long. I don't know how much blood can be drawn from this stone or just how much steam it has throughout, but it is just good video game junk food time, you know? It's not as highly precise as a Souls game and it's not as artsy and contemplative and controlled as a Ghost of Tsushima. It is very much its own thing. For some people, if you know what that means or you know what that entails, you might be into it. It's not the next big thing, but it's flawed fun. So there you have it. There was a lot to describe with this one, but I hope I got my point across. This is a First Impressions and Gameplay Review; you know how this goes by now. I give you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinions."
Outro
And that's all for today. Leave us a comment, let us know what you think. And as always, we thank you very much for reading this blog. I'm Zaid Ikram. We'll see you next time right here on Speed Tool.
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