Rise of the Ronin Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Rise of the Ronin is an ambitious game, and the first time Team Ninja has set its sights on creating a fully open world. The setting is a time where Japan is on the precipice of change, in the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration. In real life, this was the end of the Shogunate era and the opening of up of Japan to the world. In Team Ninja’s vision, this time period is a good ‘what if?’ scenario. You can choose to align with the Shogunate or the Anti-Shogunate faction, but there’s little black and white clarity in this complex political and societal upheaval. Also, there is lots of combat.

First things first, you’ll start with creating your own character, and this comes with a huge amount of flexibility to manipulate almost every feature in minute detail. You can spend your time sculpting your character, or press randomise and let the game create a complete mash up. From there it’s the choice of your combat style, which varies from the classic katana wielding killer, to classes that use paired swords, sabres, and spears. This decision impacts upon the weapons that your character has the best proficiency with, and also unlocks a bonus skill in the strength, dexterity, charisma, and intelligence. However, just because you’ve picked a particular class doesn’t mean you’re locked out from other skills, and you can grab them later as you level up.

Combat is not just about the weapons you wield, but also the style you choose. Each style has its own move set and has its advantages and disadvantages against enemies. As you keep using a style your proficiency will increase with it, and unlock some new moves too. The core aspect to combat is Ki, essentially the stamina bar, which depletes for every action in fights from attacks, defending, and dodging. Enemies have the same bar too, so the real aim is to exhaust their Ki bar so that they stagger and let you perform a powerful attack. It is all about timing when fighting, and parrying is a key part of each battle to get