Rise of the Ronin was provided by Koei Tecmo for review. Thank you!
When Rise of the Ronin was announced on the PS5, I was so intoxicated by the world being shown. Seeing a samurai with a gun flying around on a hanglider was so cool, and knowing that Team Ninja, the developers of Ninja Gaiden, were working on it sold me. Now, the game is finally here on PC, and I finally had the chance to play it. Even with some minor issues here and there, the gameplay more than makes this a worthwhile experience to enjoy.
When it comes to making flashy, gratifying combat, Team Ninja is towards the top of that list. From the gorgeous fast-paced action of Ninja Gaiden to the souls-like esque Nioh, they have consistently shown they can make engaging and exciting gameplay that is hard to put down. Rise of the Ronin is in that camp and is easily the best part of the game.
It feels like a mix of their best games in a way. The faster-paced slicing mixed with the countering (or countersparks, as they call it in-game) strikes a nice balance between button mashy and necessarily strategic. You have multiple weapons to choose from that all feel different from each other and have fleshed-out move sets. On top of that, you have various combat stances to give you an edge against the foes you encounter, sub weapons like guns and a flame thrower, Martial Skills for stronger attacks, and items that can heal you or give you a quick out if you want to get away from a battle.
I truly love Rise of the Ronin's combat. Not only is it so satisfying to slice enemies up and change weapons and stances on the fly, but countering strikes coming at you is so delightful. The mix of the flash from the blades and the sound of metal hitting each other just works so well. This is great since countering is a crucial element of combat. Combined with the sub-weapons and items, the combat always feels fresh and versatile. I would find myself running around and seeking combat instead of keeping the main story going, a testament to how well the system works.
I also enjoy the stealth mechanics, and I feel that these were implemented nicely. It was enjoyable to sneak around and pick off enemies one by one. If I could change one thing, it would be that not all assassinations are one-shot kills. For stronger enemies, it can take away half or a quarter of their health, which I understand, but I feel like if you are sneaking up on someone, you have a chance to just kill them outright.
There are several ways to fine-tune your stats and make yourself more powerful. You will constantly get new and more powerful weapons and armor, which can have different stat buffs as you play. We also get experience from killing enemies, which can give you points to unlock new skills and increase weapon proficiency, and you can upgrade your weapons, armor, and combat stances. These mechanics work together to build yourself up and slowly, but surely, give you an edge over the enemy. I enjoy this kind of mechanic with constant, random drops with varying stats, giving me chances to build out my Ronin how I want to.
The experience you get is similar to a souls-like game, but it has some minor changes that I feel are an improvement. When you kill enemies, it fills up a bar to determine the number of skill points you will get. However, if an enemy kills you before you can make it to one of your checkpoints, the enemy will have a Vendetta assigned to them, and you will have to kill them to get all of your unclaimed experience back. I do appreciate that once you get to a checkpoint, all of your experience will be claimed, so you won't lose it anymore.
Rise of the Ronin’s open world is full of enjoyable activities that feel quite varied from each other. From fighting groups of enemies to restoring cities and helping random bystanders to finding cats across the map and shooting targets, it was easy to get lost in all the events that could pop up. None of it felt like filler, it was either quick and gratifying challenges or more combat, and I enjoyed it all.
However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of navigating this open world. Besides running around, we have our horse and glider to traverse more quickly and a grappling hook to get up some surfaces. The horse is quicker than running and does auto run, but it still wasn’t as quick as I would have liked it. As for the glider, it’s a cool concept, but it feels a bit stiff to use. I would have loved to see us with the ability to gain speed when going down or get a boost when using the grappling hook to propel forward into the air. It just didn’t feel as dynamic as I had hoped.
The grappling hook is more fun to play around with. We can use it to get up on ledges that are too high or pull enemies towards us, and there are some enjoyable parkour-ish challenges with it. I wish there were more surfaces to use it on or a way to use it on any ledge to pull us up, but it’s still enjoyable.
The tale of Rise of the Ronin is more fascinating than I expected. The setting of Japan in 1863, when American influence was starting to rise, led to some really interesting locals and people to meet. It's a big reason guns are in the game, making combat even more interesting. I like seeing the comparison between traditional Japanese architecture mixed with the more modernized American approach. It also leads to some interesting Japanese and American figures butting heads, which adds more to the period we are playing in.
The general story is intriguing, and your choices feel impactful, which can lead to one of the game's different endings. What started as a search for your Blade Twin thrusts you into conflicts that will dictate the future of Japan. There are two forces to choose from, and your decisions impact how the story ends and whether some characters die. I didn't expect this complexity, which is a nice touch.
I didn't feel like there was a lot of variety in all of the missions I played through, but with how much I enjoyed combat, I didn't mind it too much. Most missions are just going through different locations, sneaking around, killing, or killing enemies. Even some missions where you must find something will require killing almost all enemies.
Graphically, Rise of the Ronin can be gorgeous. The models, animations, and environment are great, and I enjoyed seeing the sights. I found many great locations to sit, look at the world, and enjoy. I found multiple places I could take a picture and make it my wallpaper on my phone or desktop, and it would look fantastic. I wish the color pallette was a little more vibrant, but it still works well.
Rise of the Ronin is an awesome game to play, but it isn't playable on the Steam Deck. The game pushes the CPU and GPU of the Deck to the max, and will regularly drop frames, sticking around 18 - 23 FPS on the lowest possible settings. Because the game is pushing the CPU hard, we can't make many changes to get it running on the Deck comfortably, so I would say this is not playable.
I also recommend not using frame generation. It not only doesn't help, but it makes the entire experience much worse with extra input lag and stuttering.
Overall, I don't have any recommendations here since I can't get the game into a playable state. It would be better to stream this from a PS5 or Remote Play it from a more powerful Desktop PC.
Rise of the Ronin does have a specific User Accessibility tab, which allows you to change controller mapping, whether you toggle or hold buttons for certain actions, automize certain actions like aiming, grabbing, crouching, and collecting items, subtitles and their size, and a toggling a range of effects like dismemberment, blood, motion blur, and more.
It doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it has great controller and cloud save support. It also does recognize the HDR screen of the OLED Steam Deck.
Rise of the Ronin is a great open-world action RPG that is fun to play. The combat is exquisite and a high point for this experience, and there are a lot of great activities to keep you busy. The story was surprisingly intriguing, with meaningful choices and an interesting tale. Navigating the open world wasn't as fluid as I would have liked it to be, and the missions can feel a bit repetitive, but it is overshadowed by the excellent gameplay mechanics and story being told.
I wish it could run on the Steam Deck, but unfortunately, there's no way to get it working without major compromises that still won't make it stable. Still, if you have a better computer to stream from, this is a great game to enjoy on PC.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Rise of the Ronin is a great open-world action RPG with positives that heavily outshine the negatives, but it won't be enjoyable on the Steam Deck.
