forced to switch sides between two factions repeatedly

[Zundamon at Arms]

In the main storyline, the player is forced to switch sides between two factions repeatedly. You should know that such two-faced behavior was absolutely unforgivable in ancient Japan. Remember, in the first chapter, the protagonist was pursued merely for leaving their post without permission after their village was destroyed.

[Kashra Fall]

Every switch option for me has been a choice.

[Zundamon at Arms]

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

Every switch option for me has been a choice.

It’s useless. Even if you choose to side with the Shinsengumi in later events, Sakamoto Ryōma will forcibly drag you into helping the pro-Imperial faction, leaving you with no choice but to attack the Shinsengumi.

[Skylers Meth]

..aaaand this is why i just rush through the dialogue and give zero ♥♥♥♥♥ about the story. If the writers didn't care, why should i? At least the conversation lengths don't make me want to put my fist through the monitor.

[causality]

Yeah in ancient Japan I could also teleport with martial arts and fire off magical projectiles with my sword too. Oh right, it's a video game.

[Senki]

yep the story is pretty garbage and so is the execution of the ''choices''

I was wondering multiple times why I am helping the faction that I am purposely trying to go against. They even made me fight people from the faction I was trying to be friends with lmao

Lucky that the game is mostly focused on gameplay because this would kill the game for me otherwise

[Veg]

Its a hold over from team ninja's older titles where you have to be present for every major event so you constantly get shuffled from one side to the other for no reason. Its a shame because they had a good set up for an actual choice driven game but they couldnt quite get it there.

[medion_no]

Youre a ronin... a mercenary, and its pointed trought the story (at least some in some of the sides) a few times.

[gungadin22000]

As has been pointed out, the story is actually pretty great, considering it tries to tell of the highly interesting political and social developments in Japan that led to the Meiji restoration, same as Nioh telling you the stories of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi in the Sengoku period.

RoTR just adds ninjas where Nioh adds demons.

Being historically based, you cannot give the player character too much free agency, as killing Commodore Perry at the start of the game woulda resulted in significantly altering history. This is a storytelling method and is perfectly fine.

However, like in Nioh, Team Ninja is not especially good at storytelling in general, and the translation is also pretty messy a lot of the time, making it hard to follow. I wonder if it's a translation or a cultural issue, though.

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by medion_no:

Youre a ronin... a mercenary, and its pointed trought the story (at least some in some of the sides) a few times.

Ronin aren't really mercenaries. They are just unemployed Samurai. Your character isn't even that. Your character is a run away Shinobi.

The story in the game is just bad.

Originally posted by gungadin22000:

Being historically based, you cannot give the player character too much free agency, as killing Commodore Perry at the start of the game woulda resulted in significantly altering history. This is a storytelling method and is perfectly fine.

False.

You have a blade twin that is working against you. The game could let you pick a side, and every time you picked the losing side, your twin could swoop in, and course correct in a cutscene.

Like about to assassinate a guy who survives historically, your twin shows up, diverts your attention, and that person escapes.

The issue is that the writer is just copypasting ♥♥♥♥ with no idea what they are doing or why the source material they copied from did what it did.

Like It makes no sense for your ninja master to try to attack you and stop you from escaping the village at the start. The writer is just copy pasting Kasumi's story from DOA, without understanding why it worked in DOA.

[DeimosVox]

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by medion_no:

Youre a ronin... a mercenary, and its pointed trought the story (at least some in some of the sides) a few times.

Ronin aren't really mercenaries.
.

Historically they dabbled as mercenaries and bandits. Whilst a warrior is still the core of what a ronin is they are unaligned warriors who's allegiances could be bought therefore a mercenary.

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by DeimosVox:

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Ronin aren't really mercenaries.
.

Historically they dabbled as mercenaries and bandits. Whilst a warrior is still the core of what a ronin is they are unaligned warriors who's allegiances could be bought therefore a mercenary.

Wrong. They are just unemployed Samurai, period. Anything else is unrelated.

Could they be a mercenary IN ADDITION to being a Ronin? Yes, but like you mentioned, they could also just become bandits. Neither of those things are related to them being Ronin, however.

[DeimosVox]

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by DeimosVox:

Historically they dabbled as mercenaries and bandits. Whilst a warrior is still the core of what a ronin is they are unaligned warriors who's allegiances could be bought therefore a mercenary.

Wrong. They are just unemployed Samurai, period. Anything else is unrelated.

Could they be a mercenary IN ADDITION to being a Ronin? Yes, but like you mentioned, they could also just become bandits. Neither of those things are related to them being Ronin, however.

"Well, actually they are mercenaries, but you're wrong." cool buddy.

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by DeimosVox:

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Wrong. They are just unemployed Samurai, period. Anything else is unrelated.

Could they be a mercenary IN ADDITION to being a Ronin? Yes, but like you mentioned, they could also just become bandits. Neither of those things are related to them being Ronin, however.

"Well, actually they are mercenaries, but you're wrong." cool buddy.

All you are doing is proving that you do not know how words work or what correlation is.

[DeimosVox]

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by DeimosVox:

"Well, actually they are mercenaries, but you're wrong." cool buddy.

All you are doing is proving that you do not know how words work or what correlation is.

I'm not the one who doens't know what a mercenary is.

[Peregry]

"Ancient Japan"

> Game is set at the same time as the American Civil War.

Yes, those Ancient days of the Blue and the Gray.

If you actually paid attention to the years you'd note that America's withdraw from trying to be involved in Japan at the end of Chapter 1 corresponds with the time skip from 1858 to 1863... The game claims the withdraw was because of the things that happened in Japan, but, well... I can think of something rather more pressing for the Americans to be dealing with.

Further, by the 1850s Japanese Samurai traditions were fundamentally "on paper", Samurai were glorified bureaucrats who no longer regularly fought and the Code of Bushido they claimed to follow was as much of an artificial construct built to romanticize their status as the Code of Chivalry was to European Knights. In practice especially they were highly mercenary and you did have people who played both sides, not everyone in the Meiji Restoration were motivated by idealism or honor, some were motivated by greed and desire for power, just like every Civil War.