very fun game, 10/10 gameplay

but graphics and performance are ass.

I love it

First of all, let me say that at time of writing, this is most likely my game of the year for 2025. Secondly, let's get one thing out of the way: the launch of this title was quite bad and many players suffered bad performance issues.

These have been resolved to a fairly large degree by a patch, but Rise of the Ronin is an outstanding soulslike marred by shoddy programming.

This game is everything I wanted: it is basically Nioh as an open-world game. Unlike Nioh, it has no mythological creatures, but this simply means that so much more care has gone into its core human vs human melee combat system, which is by far the best I've ever seen in an open-world RPG. It plays a lot like a mixup of the Nioh games and Sekiro, with stamina management, parrying and posture breaking being key to surviving the many high-speed duels you'll find yourself getting into and every single fight is exhilerating, particularly the bossfights of which there are at least 140, if you count the open-world named minibosses you can hunt down for loot.

However, with all the care being put into the combat system, most other systems range from mediocre to bad. The open world is perfectly functional, but hunting for collectibles is fairly bland most of the time, the "bond" relationship system with any of the HUGE cast of characters feels like busywork and the loot and RPG systems are underdeveloped. Nothing in the game apart from the combat really stands out as being particularly atrocious or great, but everything is FUNCTIONAL in getting the player to the next hectic swordfight.

One thing that does need to be lauded, however, player mobility. Your character responds very well, scales roofs with his grappling hook and flies a hangglider and jumping off a cliff only to hangglide into an enemy outpost, dropping from the sky to flying stab their leader is very satisfying.

The storyline is actually quite engrossing, although it is told poorly. Where Nioh 2 told the story of Sengoku Japan, just with demons, RotR tells the story of how the Japanese shogunate ended and Japan transitioned to being a modern state, just with more ninjas. There is a giant cast of supporting characters, most of them historical, and I found it to be both pretty educational overall.

Dialogue and quests are, however, generally badly written, and the overall plot involving the actual main character is quite silly indeed. But the sheer effort the writers to shoehorn this many historical characters from 1958-1970 Japan into the story is impressive in itself, even if it does occasionally get a bit silly. I particularly found it funny that you meet Jigoro Kano and inspire him to create judo.

Overall, this is an excellent game that nonetheless does not live up to its potential. Its coding issues aside, everything besides the amazing combat engine is somewhat lackluster, but it is quite clear that with just a liiiittle bit better management of the other subsystems during development, it would have been the best open-world game ever.

As it is, it is still my personal GOTY and a solid 8/10 game. Highly recommended for fans of Nioh, Sekiro or just open-world RPGs in general.

Loving combat (its top notch and dark souls players gonna breeze through first playtrough until hitting midnight difficulty )
Graphics - not really top shelf but it sure does have its charm
Story - it gives you an illusion of a choice ( just pick your path since end is the same either way plus you can replay for other cutscenes )
But in general loved every moment of it

I love TN games and I tried loving this one as well but I just can't. So I can't recommend this game to anyone who aren't a die hard TN fan who'll play their games no matter what.
The game is mid. It isn't great nor it is terrible.

THE GOOD :

* On Ultra/high, graphics for the most part are really good. Especially with the correct lightning. The problem is, even that is pretty inconsistent. Sometimes game will look extremely dull and flat and sometimes you'll want to stop what you are doing and take a screenshot.
* Customization is top notch. Tons of different appearances for clothes and weapons. Which TN has always been good at.
* Areas are pretty big, if you like running around and finding different encounters for combat, this game will not bore you.
* Tons of characters and dialogues. If that is your thing, you are in for a treat.
* Plot is ok'ish. If you are interested in that certain historic period, you'll enjoy it for sure.

THE BAD :
Pretty much everything else, but I'll summarize as much as I can.

*Performanca : I'm playing on a 11600k and 4070 rig and for the most part it is playable but far from optimal. Playing on 60fps mode and 1440p with most details at ultra and high.
* Combat. Very ambitous but it just ain't it. A forced parry game(meaning parrying is a requirement, not optional) with varying parry timings based on tons of circumstances like, weapon you are using, stance you are using, stances and weapons enemies are using and distance. Your muscle memory will be completely useless. If you like intuitive combat, you'll hate it.
* Camera angles. Worst I've seen in any game of this kind. Nearly every boss fight happens in an enclosed arena and even in the open world you'll find yourself stuck in corners and walls. Half the time I don't see what the enemy is doing and in a forced parry game, that never ends well.
* Loot. Absolute garbage. Almost completely meaningless. Item affixes are a joke, upgrading is redundant and useless(and too expensive) with a possible exception of a few set bonuses, 99% of them are meaningless and you guessed it, it is near impossible to find the right set parts.
* Boss fights. Again, terrible. It would be accurate to say that there is not a single unique boss fight. You repeatedly fight the "NPC" characters you meet through out your play through. Imagine Wo Long, minus the unique boss fights.
* Level design. Absolutely terrible. Very bland, uninspired and completely meaningless. With a few exceptions, out of 30-40 missions, nothing stands out.

Again, buy this if you are a diehard TN fan who love parry based combat or you get an insanely good discount.

Elden Ring but in Japan. That is what it feels like.

Nice deflect mechanic. A lot of movement abilities (Gliding, Horse riding, Grappling hook etc..) which are very fun to use.

Interesting skill tree and weapons / combat style. You can play with a follower / companion.

I would suggest to play with Japanese Voice over and subtitles in your language. It really pushed the immersion.

Negatives:
- 155 GB Storage needed. Kinda the same with Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Team Ninja using Unreal Engine always results in over the top storage usage for not really good performance you get. Horizon Forbidden West looks way better with less storage needed.
- PC Performance is the worst part. It doesn't look "cutting edge" graphically. I use a 4080 Super and a 7800x3d playing at 4k. Fluid 60 FPS with high settings is basically the best I could get. And that is not a low tier build. They are already patching continues improvements. Maybe it will get better in a few months. Horizon Forbidden West with same build I get over 120 FPS with the highest settings. This just talks volumes that game optimization matters more and more instead of the graphic card you have.

Conclusion: Everything about the game itself is cool and fun to play. I enjoy the gameplay loop a lot and the amount of tools for traversing terrain adds to the feeling. It is what a game should be, FUN.

combat is the best part, lots to do
story is somewhat of a mess
nothing special but has a charm to it
performance issues

pick up on sale

An incredibly bad port of a game that was flawed to begin with.
It will take huge optimisation and gameplay improvements before it is worth buying.

Cool concept but performance and gameplay kinda clunky. Combat feels slow and just a "holding LB" sim

good-combat

bad-everything else