Your Thoughts on Rise of the Ronin: What You Loved and What Fell Short

[Jackson]

Hey friends,

Let’s set aside performance issues for a moment and focus on the game itself. I’m not looking to turn this into a hate thread, but I personally didn’t enjoy my time with Rise of the Ronin overall. I’ve attached my full review below for those interested in my detailed thoughts, but to keep it brief, I felt the Open World elements ended up dragging the game down. It felt a bit too checklist-y, taking away from the experience. The combat, while not bad, didn’t live up to what I’ve come to expect from Team Ninja games, and the missions I experienced didn’t really impress me in terms of design or innovation.

What about you? What aspects of the game did you enjoy, or what didn’t work for you? Let’s hear your thoughts!

My Review – Feel free to skip reading this, it’s just expanded thoughts for those interested

As a long-time fan of Team Ninja, I was eager to dive into Rise of the Ronin. Their action games have been some of my favorites to replay, and their mastery of fast-paced, skill-based combat is something I’ve always admired. That said, I have to be upfront—if any other developer had made this game, I likely wouldn’t have purchased it.

One of the biggest departures from Team Ninja’s usual formula is the game’s heavier emphasis on storytelling. While cutscenes can be skipped, there are frequent dialogue choices that add some replay value by leading to different outcomes. Unfortunately, the facial animations are stiff, and the voice acting is just okay. These aspects don’t matter much to me personally, but for those drawn to the game because of its narrative focus, it’s worth mentioning. The story starts strong but quickly becomes bloated, often losing momentum due to repetitive structure. A recurring issue is fighting allies as bosses, only for them to act as if nothing happened moments later. It kills the tension and makes the narrative feel disjointed.

After the opening mission, progression mostly involves following quest markers to the next activity. At best, this leads to a solid combat mission and a boss fight. At worst, it forces you into unengaging AAA design tropes—following NPCs as they talk about plot details or engaging in gimmicky side activities like taking pictures, shooting galleries, or aerial glider events. These additions feel like padding rather than meaningful gameplay.

Another major shift is the introduction of an open world. Unlike previous Team Ninja games, where you’d jump straight into missions, Rise of the Ronin connects these through a larger map filled with checklist-style activities. I’ve never played an open-world game that felt truly necessary, and this didn’t change my mind. Traveling between missions feels like wasted time rather than meaningful exploration.

To counteract this, the game provides several traversal tools: a horse (which can be summoned instantly), an auto-run feature (which literally plays the game for you during travel), a hang glider, and fast travel points. While these make movement less tedious, the fact that so many tools exist to bypass traversal just highlights how unnecessary the open world is in the first place.

Another new addition is the bonding system, where relationships with characters can be strengthened by giving them gifts. Unfortunately, this feature locks certain combat stances behind relationship progress, making it technically optional but punishing players who don’t engage with it. Again, it feels like padding that pulls focus away from the game’s core strength: combat.

Speaking of combat, this is where Rise of the Ronin is at its best. The mechanics are closest to Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty but without the Morale and Spirit systems. Combat is weapon-based, with multiple stances that encourage countering enemy weaknesses. While weapon classes have unique special abilities and attack ranges, they don’t feature unique combo strings, making them feel less distinct than in previous Team Ninja titles. Parrying is a core mechanic, and missing a parry can be brutally punishing, but landing one gives players the upper hand. Combat primarily involves fighting humans, with occasional animals, but variety begins to wear thin as enemy weapons and stances repeat. Even the best combat system struggles when too much time is spent outside of combat, and this game doesn’t do enough to keep the experience engaging between fights.

Missions—especially boss fights—are the game's highlight, but even they feel less exciting than I’d hoped. Most missions are short, featuring a few basic encounters before a boss fight, often with the option to bring allies. Level design is simplistic, usually just linear paths or disconnected arenas. Boss fights stand out with expanded movesets, sometimes feeling like they belong in a completely different (and better) game. However, their difficulty balance is wildly inconsistent, and some bosses repeat, diminishing their impact.

Ultimately, Rise of the Ronin left me frustrated. The game sold well, surpassing the Nioh series—one I vastly prefer—which makes it feel unlikely we’ll see a return to that style. But even evaluating Rise of the Ronin on its own merits, it feels like a game chasing trends rather than refining what Team Ninja does best. Combat and missions are strong, but they’re stretched thin by an open world and side content that fail to add real value. If you’re a die-hard Team Ninja fan, you might find enough here to enjoy. But for me, it was a disappointing step in the wrong direction.

[Steven Silverheart]

Good review. How is the progressions systems? Loot? Etc?

[Jackson]

Originally posted by Steven Silverheart:

Good review. How is the progressions systems? Loot? Etc?

Thank you for the reply and positive feedback!

Progression is handled in a few ways, there's skill points and gear being the two major mechanics. Skill points, are spent to add more mechanics to your character, so these are generally more exciting as a progression tool. These allow you to heal outside of combat, perform multiple assassinations, use speechcraft in some capacity with NPCs and the like.

Loot drops from any enemy, chests, and as quest rewards, and similar to other typical Team Ninja games if you're familiar, If you're not, I would say the primary thing you'll look at is what has the highest damage and defense value, as the other stats are overwhelmingly verbose and not particularly helpful until the gear level stops (think literally 2% increases to a stat), so generally those values can be ignored until toward the end of the game.

Hope that helps!

[Trilkin]

Originally posted by Steven Silverheart:

Good review. How is the progressions systems? Loot? Etc?

It's Diablo-style loot like Nioh.
You progress by gaining karma (experience) that converts into skill points you can invest in each of the trees associated with the four main stats which unlocks different passive effects as well as a few techniques through button inputs. You also get stat-specific skill points that unlock certain nodes in those trees not unlocked by karma. You can also get them as drops in chests and off of bosses.
You learn different styles through certain boss fights, bonds and with specific NPCs on the map (usually highlighted in some way) and each gives every weapon different frame data and special moves. You can equip multiple styles at a time and swap through them in combat as well, but not as snappily as Nioh's high/mid/low stance swapping.

[Steven Silverheart]

Thanks guys.... still cant decide if i want this game or not. Loved Nioh1,2 and Wo Long.

[Trilkin]

Originally posted by Steven Silverheart:

Thanks guys.... still cant decide if i want this game or not. Loved Nioh1,2 and Wo Long.

You'll probably like this game then, honestly.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by Steven Silverheart:

Thanks guys.... still cant decide if i want this game or not. Loved Nioh1,2 and Wo Long.

I don't want to steer your decision into a negative direction, but I love Nioh 1, 2, Wo Long, and Stranger of Paradise, but this didn't land for me. I appear to be in the minority, though I do feel like this game is separated from the above titles. If you do end up getting it, I hope you enjoy it.

[Veiled]

Originally posted by Jackson:

Originally posted by Steven Silverheart:

Thanks guys.... still cant decide if i want this game or not. Loved Nioh1,2 and Wo Long.

I don't want to steer your decision into a negative direction, but I love Nioh 1, 2, Wo Long, and Stranger of Paradise, but this didn't land for me. I appear to be in the minority, though I do feel like this game is separated from the above titles. If you do end up getting it, I hope you enjoy it.

I think the same, love Nioh and Wo Long, also Ninja Gaiden games and this combat is terrible, feedback is so bad and I hate how the combat feels, there is no flow in this one.