Rise of the Ronin Review (PS5) | Push Square
By trying to do so much, Rise of the Ronin feels like an inferior version of everything it's inspired by. With an open world populated by map markers and side activities, it’s a worse Assassin's Creed. With a historical Japanese setting, it's a worse Ghost of Tsushima. With a combat system that prioritises parrying, it's a worse Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. At no point is it a bad experience, but the game's so run of the mill, so formulaic that attempting something new and ultimately failing would have been a more tantalising sell. You've already played better versions of Rise of the Ronin — what it's attempting is just fine, which is probably the most boring outcome possible.
The PS5 exclusive — which has been funded in part by Sony under the PlayStation Studios banner — pitches itself as Nioh for the mainstream, with difficulty options and extra accessibility settings to attract more than just the masochistic Dark Souls audience. From the pause menu, the difficulty can be adjusted on the fly to accommodate the sort of experience you're looking for. Three difficulty options are ever-present, and then you can get into the nitty-gritty by tweaking health retention and stamina mechanics.
In that, Rise of the Ronin absolutely succeeds. The default setting feels like a step down from past Team Ninja titles and if you do come across a particularly tough boss fight or sequence, there are ways to make things easier. The same can be said if things are proving too simple: a harder Twilight difficulty option is there for purists who love the challenge. Though it's a funny thing praising difficulty settings, the developer has done well to modify what it's used to in order to accommodate a wider audience. If you want to play the game like it's a traditional action-adventure title, you can. If you're there for brutal Team Ninja action, it can be played that way too.
Where it doesn't fare nearly as well is in its vast play space. With the likes of Elden Ring and The Legend of
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