One lucky PlayStation 5 owner has recently come across a 45% discount on Rise of the Ronin at Walmart. The hefty price cut was spotted less than a week after Rise of the Ronin officially hit the store shelves.
11.03.2024 - 22:33 / digitaltrends.com / George Yang
When I grappled to the roof of a building using my hook, I felt like I’d played Rise of the Ronin before. That’s not a bad thing; I’ve played many of Team Ninja’s previous games, but it felt oddly familiar, in a bloody comforting way.
Team Ninja has released titles at a regular cadence over the past several years, and it’s impressive that the studio has been able to maintain at least a certain level of quality. The developer has experimented with different genres in that time too. It took on the Soulslike genre with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Nioh, the fighting game realm with Dead or Alive, and action RPGs with Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. This year, Team Ninja is releasing Rise of the Ronin for PlayStation 5 and taking a swing at the open-world RPG. Its gameplay incorporates many systems from Team Ninja’s previous games, and draws inspiration from other developers like FromSoftware.
Ahead of its March 22 launch on PS5, I played two hours of Rise of the Ronin. So far, it feels like a grab bag of greatest hits, stapling together Team Ninja’s influences. I’m still waiting to see if all of those ideas fully work, but a strong opening sequence and fluid combat are already carrying the opening hours of the bloodsoaked samurai adventure.
RelatedRise of the Ronin starts off with a bit of a twist. Two siblings escape a burning village with murderous samurais on their tail, and an old lady comes to their rescue. She then takes the pair under her wing and trains them to become the Twin Blades, a pair of skilled samurais. When I got to the game’s character creator, I was able to customize both heroes instead of just one.
As I got a little further into the game, it taught me that I could switch between both Twin Blade characters during gameplay. I utilized this to my full advantage when fighting the game’s tutorial boss, an American diplomat named Commodore Perry, who seeks to open up trade with Japan. My AI-controlled twin was incredibly useful as a distraction while I kept shanking the boss from behind, but I also switched to them so I could parry his incoming attacks.
Thankfully, the parrying system is much more forgiving here than in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. The window isn’t nearly as strict and I didn’t have a difficult time deflecting his attacks, draining his stamina meter, and then getting a cinematic critical hit in. Each hit and kill feels morbidly satisfying, with blood staining every inch of enemies’ clothes and pouring out of every cut or
One lucky PlayStation 5 owner has recently come across a 45% discount on Rise of the Ronin at Walmart. The hefty price cut was spotted less than a week after Rise of the Ronin officially hit the store shelves.
Last week, we asked you to travel to 19th-century Japan and share epic moments from Rise of the Ronin using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
Team Ninja's is littered with different features that can either enhance or complicate the experience. Between constantly changing stances in combat, finding certain areas impossible to reach, and having to defeat the same enemies repeatedly, the game can get frustrating quickly. pulls combat mechanics and exploration tactics from games similar to , and other, less complex titles like .
Special characters called Allies can be unlocked in to help you during various missions throughout your adventure. As you complete different quests, you can earn the trust of strong NPCs willing to aid you in future endeavors with their unique skills. Those who manage to take every available Ally on at least one mission can obtain an exclusive trophy as a reward for their efforts.
and are two epic samurai RPGs, taking place in different parts of Japan, and set hundreds of years apart. As one of PlayStation's biggest exclusives of the year thus far, the anticipation for was immense, and the game has mostly lived up to high expectations. From the developer Team Ninja, the game brings familiar elements with parallels to other samurai games from the last several years.
A Rise of the Ronin player stumbled upon a character creator preset that bears an uncanny resemblance to Hollywood actor Samuel L. Jackson. The player shared their discovery with the Rise of the Ronin community only to find out they were not alone in noticing the likeness.
is an adventure of substantial size, but whether it's possible to keep playing after the credits roll is one question that's likely to come to mind over the course of the game. As an open-world experience, has plenty of side content that could be passed over while racing toward the story's climax. The game's developer Team Ninja included a variety of optional missions in prior games like , so it's no surprise that this element carries over to the more expansive historical setting of Edo in Japan.
Another hectic week is in the bag, and I’ve been playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 so I could collect the video footage for our review and obviously not for any kind of enjoyment. It is definitely very, very fun though, even if you have to look out for the odd disappearing Pawn on PS5. Other than that it’s been New Star GP, Unicorn Overlord, Street Fighter 6, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and some Songs of Silence for my gaming week.
For Team Ninja veterans and newcomers alike, Rise of the Ronin offers a deep and satisfying combat system, set to the backdrop of the Bakumatsu era of Japan. With the game now less than a day away, I spoke to Rise of the Ronin’s Producer, Yosuke Hayashi, and Game Producer and Director, Fumihiko Yasuda, who offered their tips for players joining the Veiled Edge tomorrow.
Rise of the Ronin review: parrying has never been more fun MSRP $69.99 Score Details Pros
Back in 2022, it was announced that Uncharted writer and creative director Amy Hennig is working on a Marvel game starring both Black Panther and Captain America. Unlike most superhero titles these days, Hennig's game stood out from the rest by being set during World War 2, and its setting was shown off during a Disney showcase that same year.
Rise of the Ronin has gotten a high score from Famitsu. The upcoming action-RPG from Team Ninja nearly reached the maximum score in Famitsu, backing Rise of the Ronin as one of the year's most anticipated releases.