Should You Kill Or Spare Gonzo In Rise Of The Ronin?

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The first important choice to make in is whether to kill or spare the bandit chief, Gonzo. The game is full of consequential decisions which can radically affect the overall journey, but not as much the final outcome. Bonds are a fundamental mechanic in, but some players meet the sharp end of a katana before ever developing a relationship with the main character.

Gonzo is a side character in, voiced by Andrew Futaishi, who first appears in the game's sixth main mission, In this mission, players have the choice to either kill or spare Gonzo, each choice leading to a different path for the character. If players decide to kill Gonzo, he is removed from the rest of the game entirely, but if he's spared, he changes the future of a particular side mission and can also become an ally.

For those who are feeling generous and decide to spare Gonzo in, the only rewards this action yields immediately are several unimportant consumables that are essentially irrelevant. He does still give up the key to his Storehouse and the Permit into Yokohama, which are both critical quest items. But, the incentive for sparing this Bandit Chief lies not in the mundane items he rewards immediately, but rather in the gift of friendship he bestows in the long run.

The choice to spare Gonzo comes after fighting him; players must still defeat him in 's first truly difficult Boss fight and then decide whether to take his life or let him go.

After sparing Gonzo, the player will run into him again in a future side mission titled In this quest, a stranger asks the player to go rough up a criminal who stole from them. The criminal turns out to be Gonzo, who thanks the player once again for sparing his life, and then the same choice from before — kill or spare — appears again. If the player decides to spare Gonzo a second time in, the duo returns to the original stranger and kills him and his associates.

After completing this stranger quest, the player then forms a bond with Gonzo, and he becomes an