Team Ninja has been on a roll these past few years, with 2017’s Nioh, 2020’s Nioh 2, 2022’s Stranger Of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin and 2023’s Wo Long Fallen Dynasty. With every new game, the Japanese developer has been refining their craft, improving with each subsequent game. While they were previously accused of shoehorning into the Souls-like trend, I believe they’ve grown and made their own distinctive gameplay style beyond simply being another conventional Souls-like. That’s especially true with their upcoming game, Rise Of The Ronin, which is also their most ambitious game yet in terms of sheer scale. If I could describe Rise Of The Ronin in the easiest terms, it’s more like Sucker Punch’s Ghost Of Tsushima in many ways while still retaining the deep combat that Team Ninja is known for. This hands-on preview will be based on the first two hours of the game.

Shogun

With Rise Of The Ronin, Team Ninja finally dips their toes into the world of open-world, sort of like what FromSoftware did with 2022’s Elden Ring. But that’s enough with the Souls-like comparisons because just like I previously mentioned, the gameplay mechanics and combat in Team Ninja’s games are now deep enough to warrant their own sub-genre. Remember the different combat stances you could switch in real-time in Ghost Of Tsushima? Nioh 2 also had the same mechanic, but it was infinitely more varied, as Nioh 2 not only had many weapons to choose from, but each weapon had four stances, respectively.

All of that returns in Rise Of The Ronin, but incredibly with even more depth added, as players can now not only unlock new unique stances called Combat Styles (each stance now has a distinctive name to distinguish them from each other), but you can also UPGRADE each of them to more powerful and complex versions. For instance, one of my favourite weapons, the western saber, has different stances such as British Training or U.S. Training. How cool is that? So, yeah, the rock-scissors-paper-style stances from Ghost Of Tsushima don’t hold a candle to this. Oh, and the weapon choices? Besides the usual bladed weapons and whatnot, you have bayonets and handguns in Rise Of The Ronin. Yeah, freaking bayonets.

There’s also proper stealth gameplay in Rise Of The Ronin, which is an improvement over the Nioh games but it was already featured in Wo Long Fallen Dynasty. Stealth isn’t anything special in Rise Of The Ronin, but it works well enough to be a viable gameplay mechanic on the side to complement the combat. Most importantly, it does feel snappy, crunchy and deadly, so that’s good enough for me. What Souls-like mechanics are there in Rise Of The Ronin, then? Well, the Souls-like checkpoint system (places, where you can restore health and bank in your EXP) similar to bonfires in Dark Souls or the shrines in Nioh) returns in Rise Of The Ronin but seeing as this is an open-world game, they also act as fast-travel points. You accumulate EXP called Karma points in Rise Of The Ronin and you’ll lose them when you die, but Rise Of The Ronin is a lot less punishing in that regard.

Speaking of the difficulty in Rise Of The Ronin, so far it definitely feels like Team Ninja’s easiest game to date, comparable to that of Stranger Of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. Just like that game, Rise Of The Ronin features several difficulty options (Dawn/Easy, Dusk/Normal, Twilight/Hard), which is not a staple of Souls-like games and were not available in Nioh or Wo Long Fallen Dynasty before it. Plus, you can change the difficulty setting at any time during the game, making this also one of Team Ninja’s most accessible games yet. Does that mean Rise Of The Ronin isn’t a Souls-like or it’s a game for babies? A thousand times no.

This is still a pretty difficult game at normal difficulty, and there’s even an “undefeatable” boss at the beginning of the game that challenges you like a Souls-like barrier boss. You know, the type of boss that, even if you can’t defeat them, the game will still let you progress through the story. However, if you do manage to beat this “undefeatable” boss, you’ll get a different cutscene and a Silver trophy for your efforts. So, yeah, while Rise Of The Ronin doesn’t seem to be as hard as previous games, that doesn’t mean that it’s too easy either.

A major combat mechanic in Rise Of The Ronin is the Counterspark mechanic, which is the game’s parry mechanic. Yes, parrying is a huge part of Rise Of The Ronin’s gameplay, and arguably the most important mechanic in order to break the Ki meter of enemies. If you’ve played Nioh 2 or Wo Long Fallen Dynasty before, this will be extremely familiar, since you can only really do proper damage when you’ve broken the Ki meter of enemies. I feel like Counterspark feels even better and more satisfying to execute than the Burst Counters in Nioh 2. It feels more like parrying in FromSoftware’s Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, where you can parry each attack/move in an enemy’s combo. Don’t worry though, the parry timing in Rise Of The Ronin is MUCH more forgiving than Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, and there’s a setting where you can make it even easier if you want. You’ll feel like a parrying god in Rise Of The Ronin without having to tear your hair out.

Another returning mechanic is the loot system from the Nioh games. If you didn’t like managing loot in previous Team Ninja games, I’m afraid there’s still plenty of that in Rise Of The Ronin. That being said, sifting through loot in Rise Of The Ronin does feel more streamlined and refined, so it doesn’t feel as much of a chore as in previous games.

And for those complaining that Rise Of The Ronin will be boring because it’s grounded in history and has no fantasy elements? Well, you’re right that it has no giant monster bosses or fantastical mythical elements. That being said, like I mentioned above, Rise Of The Ronin is more like Ghost Of Tsushima anyway (or Assassin’s Creed but less so these days because even Assassin’s Creed games have fantasy elements these days). While you just fight humans in Rise Of The Ronin, it’s never boring or bland due to the sheer variety and depth offered by the different weapons and Combat Style stances in the game. Plus, the Counterspark parry mechanic and everything else makes for a combat system that feels challenging and satisfying, even if you’re not fighting cosmic dragons or whatnot.

The Last Samurai

Last but not least, the historical setting is a plus. The story and setting of Rise Of The Ronin is unique because one, it’s an era rarely explored in games or other media, and two, it’s a crossroads between the antiquated and modern eras. It’s a time of great change for Japan, as they start opening up to the world again after centuries of isolation and discovering advancements in science and technology. There’s also the East versus West tension, and more (a lot of this subject matter and themes were also explored in the recent Disney+ Hotstar series, Shogun). It’s an interesting era rife with the potential of exploration, which makes it perfect for an open-world game.

Plus, the specific era the game is set in makes it possible for players to fight with bayonets and early handguns/rifles against samurai with katana, or vice versa. One of the reasons the saber and bayonet are my favourite weapons in the game is because of how they contrast with older and more traditional weapons such katanas and spears. And if you think that Rise Of The Ronin is too grounded or realistic, it’s really not. There are gliders and ancient flamethrowers for god’s sake.

Published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Rise Of The Ronin launches exclusively for the PS5 on 22 March 2024. Stay tuned for our full review of the game closer to the eventual release date.

Until then, mata ne!