Modern open-world game meets brutal but fair Soulslike: the PS5 exclusive Rise of the Ronin is perfect for genre newcomers if you can turn a blind eye to the graphics and story.
Update from March 10, 2025: On the occasion of the PC release of Rise of the Ronin, we have republished our original review of the PS5 version from 2024. Initial conclusions on PC technology will follow after release.
On paper, Rise of the Ronin is a game I”ve always wanted. For so long I dreamed of an Assassin”s Creed in Japan and an offshoot of the assassin series that finally offers me really deep, challenging fights that I don”t eventually undermine thanks to the level and loot system.
And then my dream game also comes from Team Ninja, who have long since proven with Nioh and Wo Long that their combat systems are beyond reproach. Elegant parries, quick dodging rolls and brutal counterattacks included, inviting every opponent to a nerve-wracking dance of death.
When it comes to fighting, the open-world game really doesn”t take any prisoners and skillfully outshines Assassin”s Creed and Co. However, the developers would have been better off drawing inspiration from elsewhere for the open world and story.
Where Rise of the Ronin shines in detail and where it falters, you can read here in our GlobalESportNews-Plus test of the PS5-exclusive open-world title Beginner tips so that you can avoid my mistakes right from the start can also be found here!
Table of Contents
Playable history lesson
At the end of the 19th century, Japan is in a state of chaos, providing fertile ground for many exciting conflicts that I get to experience up close – for a change, Rise of the Ronin doesn”t take place in feudal Japan of the Sengoku era. Instead, I”m thrown into the rough transitional phase between old Japan and modernity.
The country is opening up to the West, the fall of the Shogunate (and with it the old government) seems imminent, and as a ronin – a masterless samurai – I find myself somewhere in between.I have the choice of either dealing the Shogunate its death blow or working to preserve it.
Together with my twin (you are allowed to create two characters), I am trained from an early age to become an assassin or female assassin. However, something goes wrong on our very first mission: the siblings are separated and years later my lone warrior is on her own. But not for long – I quickly find a resistance group of other ronin who are standing up against the corrupt shogunate. It seems that the country is selling off the land to foreigners for their own prosperity, and is also bringing a lot of suffering into the country, such as cholera.
Your decisions, whether big or small, influence the plot. If you let this criminal go, he will join you later. But you can also simply capture him.
But it”s not that simple in Rise of the Ronin. Over the course of the 40-hour storyline, I also get to know the opposing side. Nothing is black or white; on both sides there are honest, good people who want the best for Japan and its people, and those who will stop at nothing for the sake of power and their ideals. Despite the gripping premise, the story rarely gains momentum.
This is partly due to the presentation: characters like the geisha Taka, who secretly spies for the shogunate, or the freedom fighter Genzui, deliver rather wooden theatrical speeches than show real emotions. It is also clearly noticeable that the historical conflict takes precedence over the personal fate of individuals.
The story is mainly a vehicle to get us to the locations and battles, which is why Team Ninja leaves narrative potential here. Incidentally, the Japanese version has the most atmospheric soundtrack, but if you don”t mind subtitles, the German version is also well done. You can see for yourself in the trailer:
The story is mainly a vehicle to get us to the locations and fights, which is why Team Ninja leaves narrative potential here.
No black-and-white painting
At least Rise of the Shogun weaves interesting decisions into the story from the very beginning. This happens on a small scale, for example, when I spare a bandit leader during a side mission, who will then help me in future missions if I wish.
Or on a large scale, when it comes down to which side I ultimately choose. Depending on which missions I take on, I can increase my favor with certain characters or one of the two sides (pro- or anti-Shogunate). This not only rewards me with new weapons or armor, but also opens or closes other missions for me and lets me fight against former allies who confront me about my actions and open up other perspectives for me.
For example, if I attack a British base with Genzui, I will be surprised to meet Doctor Ine, who I have helped before. She tells me, stunned, that the foreigners are helping her fight cholera and shows me my short-sighted, violent view of the situation. Genzui”s rage, on the other hand, is based on the death of his family, who were killed by the cholera that was brought in, and I understand his motives as well.
Rise of the Ronin does a good job of making me question both sides again and again – neither is crudely portrayed as purely good or evil. If you find yourself tearing your hair out over it, you don”t have to despair: an integrated time line lets you relive earlier missions and locations at any time and make new decisions.
All good open worlds are three
You can also switch between the open worlds, because Rise of the Ronin offers a total of three, which I visit one after the other: the port city of Yokohama, the former capital Edo (now Tokyo) and the old imperial city of Kyoto. This is also where the parallels to Assassin”s Creed or Ghost of Tsushima are most evident.
Because unlike, for example, an Elden Ring, Rise of the Ronin offers a modern standard open world à la Ubisoft. In plain language, that means: liberate areas, recover chests, kill elite opponents, protect peasants from marauders or wolves in random events, pray at shrines, pet cats or master mini-games such as mounted archery and glider courses in the air.
This formulaic nature is certainly noticeable in the three hubs – apart from a few animals, isolated NPCs, resources and quest givers, the world seems barren and offers hardly any stories or secrets along the way that are not marked. The fact that even such open-world standard fare keeps me interested is due, in this case, to the great combat system and the many weapons or tools that add depth to activities compared to other open-world titles.
A bombastic combat system
Rise of the Ronin excels at its combat system– precisely because the different difficulty levels now make it accessible to those who previously found Nioh or Sekiro too hard. The “how” suddenly makes the soulless outposts exciting again.
My lady-ronin has a total of two melee and ranged weapons that I can swap out at any time. On top of that, there are different fighting styles for each weapon, which on the one hand enable certain combos and on the other hand are effective to different degrees depending on the opponent. For example, I can focus on skill and quick stabs to dance around my opponents – or I can knock them down with powerful, brutal blows.
This alone creates an impressive variety of combat, depending on whether I wield Odachi, Katana, Long Sword, Ox Saber, Twin Blades and so on. As in Sekiro, dodging is usually not enough to efficiently bring my opponents to their knees. To deal decent damage, I have to break their ki – the stamina bar, so to speak.
A samurai role-playing game
Aside from the story-related decisions, you can also customize your ronin in detail in-game:
- Loot: By completing missions and exploring the world, you will earn equipment and new weapons with different bonuses, perks and play styles. Combining sets increases the effect. To prevent you from walking around like a clown, you can choose a different style on top.
- Fight styles: Depending on the weapon, you can choose from a variety of styles that you can equip and switch as you see fit. This also affects the special attacks and combos you can perform, and the efficiency with which you can beat each opponent.
- Skills: As you level up, you can invest in several skill trees, each of which boosts other skills. The strength tree favors direct attacks, the skill tree ninja techniques such as sneaking or shuriken, and the intelligence tree, for example, your use of tinctures or your powers of persuasion in conversations.
- Bindungen: Entscheidungen, Gespräche oder Geschenke festigen eure Beziehung mit bestimmten Figuren, was euch zusätzliche Belohnungen, Hintergrundinfos oder Aufträge einbringt.
I drain my opponents” ki with perfect blocks and Spark of Counterattack, which briefly disorients them and gives me a window to counterattack. Even on the easiest difficulty level, you have to learn the timing, but you have a more generous time frame in which to do it.
But that”s not the whole story of the fights. For example, you can use a grappling hook to pull enemies towards you or hurl exploding barrels or jugs of poison at them. You can also apply such status effects to your weapons and, in addition, use ranged weapons such as pistols, rifles or bows and special tools such as a flamethrower.
As you progress through the game, you can use different skill trees to expand and customize your playstyle by investing points – for example, by enabling aerial assassinations for silent approaches, increasing critical attacks in direct combat, or investing in your oratory skills so that you can sometimes even avoid conflict altogether.
Vielfalt statt Frust
So viel Freiheit und Flexibilität make the fights the highlight of Rise of the Ronin. If you want, you can delve deep into combos and fighting styles or approach every conflict tactically – on the higher difficulty levels, this becomes a must. For example, you can often approach your opponents stealthily and eliminate them silently to avoid being overrun. You can also use the terrain to your advantage with a glider and grappling hook to attack from above.
In many missions, you will also have your companions at your side as AI companions. You can switch to them seamlessly during combat, which opens up new weapons and strategic possibilities for you – as well as a second chance if you die. Optionally, you can also bring up to two other players with you here, but they cannot accompany you directly in the open world. The co-op is limited to the mission area. If you do die, the checkpoints are very well placed – you usually restart right before the fight and don”t have to repeat the mission. You only lose karma, which you can convert into skill points. If you die again, it”s gone, but you”ll earn more than enough points from all over the world anyway, so it”s hardly worth mentioning.
The only real criticism of the fights is the poor variety of enemies. Since Rise of the Ronin is set in a historical setting, you won”t encounter any monsters or legendary figures. You are limited to human and animal opponents, who still use a wide range of attacks and weapons, but are not comparable to giant snakes or flaming demon wheels.
An accessible Souls-like
Rise of the Ronin has a total of four difficulty levels, one of which you unlock as the endgame after the main story. The normal and hard difficulty levels are suitable for veterans who have already mastered Nioh or Sekiro, while beginners are introduced to the gameplay more gently via the story variant.
In addition, Rise of the Ronin offers many more customization options, such as automatic additional attacks or a targeting aid. So if you want, you can give yourself more leeway for mistakes without sacrificing much of the actual gaming experience. Because even on the easiest difficulty level, you have to learn counters and fighting styles – just not to perfection.
Beginner Soulslike with visual weaknesses
So how much you enjoy Rise of the Ronin depends on the combat and how much you enjoy the unusual scenario. However, you”ll have to turn a blind eye to that as well. While the samurai game offers truly diverse and visually appealing open areas, it can”t keep up with current PS5 titles.
Nevertheless, Rise of the Ronin is by no means ugly: in Yokohama, Western buildings stand side by side with Japanese temples, while in Edo you can roam through fields of white flowers or even visit places like Ueno or Asakusa that are known from modern Tokyo – including their shrines and other landmarks.
branches heavy with cherry blossoms sway in the evening red, rain lashes down on geishas in embroidered kimono hastily seeking shelter, and torch-bearing bandits sneak through the rice fields at night. Despite everything, the changing weather and times create a mood and the individual scenes are interesting and variedly designed – the armor, weapons and characters in particular impress with a great sense of detail.
The developers are visibly trying hard to get the most out of their world, but they can”t completely hide the technical weaknesses.
Of the three graphics modes, I recommend the one designed for FPS because it displays the fights most smoothly. Unfortunately, the other two judder during combat and make little visual difference – not even the ray-tracing variant. The environments usually look strangely sterile and uniform, and the level of detail decreases significantly, especially in the distance.
So you”re not looking at a PS5 feast for the eyes, but you are looking at a bombastic action role-playing game that steals the show from the open-world competition, at least in this area. Especially if you”ve been skeptical of Souls-like games because of their difficulty, Rise of the Ronin could be the perfect gateway drug. Team Ninja is visibly trying to appeal to a wider audience without sacrificing the variety and elegance that makes the challenging combat so magical in the first place.
The bottom line from the editorial team
Soulslike and brutal are often used synonymously. Normally, Dark Souls-inspired action role-playing games compete with each other when it comes to testing my frustration tolerance with brutal boss fights and surprising traps in the levels. Rise of the Ronin never tires of challenging me either – especially on the harder difficulty levels.
However, this time the developers also want to reach out to people without a hardcore tolerance for frustration. Be it through a classic open world, a comprehensible story or the easiest difficulty level, which still makes the fights challenging but also doable for beginners. Rise of the Ronin is not cryptic, not complicated, not unfair or ruthlessly brutal. If you want, you can create a very digestible experience here thanks to the help features, which score points above all for their sophisticated and versatile combat system – not just for their challenge.
I can warmly recommend Rise of the Ronin to newcomers to Souls as an introduction to the genre (and yes, I know Miyazaki-san doesn”t like the term, but I”m using it for the sake of simplicity, sorry!) and also to fans of Japan and open-world games, although for me Ghost of Tsushima still takes the crown when it comes to story and setting.
