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[mayham2199]

Seriously, why does Team Ninja keep doing that Borderlands/MMORPG style of loot where you got the same items over and over again but with slightly different stats? They did that shit in Nioh too and I stopped giving a damn because I just couldn't be bothered to look at items' stats every time to compare them to what I currently had.

The combat in their games is heavily reliant on skill, timing, and positioning so why do they water it down with bullshit stats and crappy loot? At that point, they should just use the From approach where you have 150 unique weapons with varying movesets rather than 1,000,000 variations of 10 weapons.

Agreed. I do like the variety in Nioh but they over did it. Could have cut back all that stuff by like half and it would still be plenty of loot.

 

[Robb]

I haven’t played it, and probably won’t as this is not for me. But given the developer around 80/100 is pretty much exactly what I’d expect.

 

[Fredrik]

I dunno.

The gamer has to hopefully be engaged and take it upon themselves to do a bit of research. I understand that's not the correct answer for most but I love history/politics and I also love horror so researching J-Horror was fun and researching for this game is fun as well.

Actually, the answer is for people to just play GoT and ignore Ronin. Ronin is what it is at this point, for better or worse, and it's not gonna drastically change with whatever update they give it.

I just think it's a bummer that we got a solid Japanese developed game, with an interesting take on historical things and most of the discussion revolves around pop in and horse animations.

The OT is pretty dead but most people there are simply enjoying it and sharing great screenshots. It's a shame, really fun game that more people should be open to playing. It'll become a fan favorite once it finds its audience, I guarantee it. It's just super easy to play.

I’ll play it eventually (Steam release) but having to do research outside of the game sounds terrible to be honest. I never do that unless it’s a Souls gear guide. In-game lore is always interesting though.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Game is mid. It offers nothing new, plus a downgraded version of nioh combat to focus on a bland ubisoft open-world. Graphics is weak as well. Story forgettable. Why should it get above 80 on metacritic?

 

[fart town usa]

I’ll play it eventually (Steam release) but having to do research outside of the game sounds terrible to be honest. I never do that unless it’s a Souls gear guide. In-game lore is always interesting though.

I mean, you don't have to do outside research. The game has a similar system to FFXVI in that you can pause cutscenes and examine alliances, etc. I still feel that due to the nature of the story and it being developed in Japan, and from the perspective of Japan, it's just going to naturally be more difficult for Western gamers to really engage with the weight of the story.

Personally, I like doing a bit of outside research. I have a poli sci/foreign policy degree and was also in the Navy for 8 years so of course I'm gonna want to dig in and try to understand it more . I bet if I had been stationed in Japan I'd be more familiar with Matthew Perry, etc.

 

[Aion002]

I think what you said is fair but the bolded are pretty bogus, not so much you saying it but the overall sentiment because alot of people say it.

I'd argue that most modern games play no worse, or better, than what we got on the PS3/360.

And the whole, "this game does nothing new" that is always a bad thing until it isn't. And when it's not a bad thing, it's always for reasons that don't add up when compared to games that were roasted for being "dated".

That's also why the OT for Ronin has people saying how much fun they're having. Few, if any, are treating it like some mind blowing experience. It's just a fun game with a great vibe.

Oh sure, it's definitely is a fun game, again the combat is solid for sure, albeit not as good as other games in my opinion.

But as someone that still plays from time to time both WoTS and Nioh games, this game just feels like a wasted opportunity.

About feeling like a PS3 game, I shouldn't have said that, because both RDR and GTAV open worlds on the ps3 are still extremely fun to me to this day... While Ronin open world reminds me more of AC Valhalla, since both felt like a chore to me.

My problem with this game is probably because I was extremely hyped about it, I love Nioh 1 and 2, I love the Way of The Samurai games and I love Ghost of Tsushima, a game that was going to combine all the things that I love so much in one package was something like a dream come true... Unfortunately for me it ended up being just an okayish game at most.

 

[fart town usa]

Oh sure, it's definitely is a fun game, again the combat is solid for sure, albeit not as good as other games in my opinion.

But as someone that still plays from time to time both WoTS and Nioh games, this game just feels like a wasted opportunity.

About feeling like a PS3 game, I shouldn't have said that, because both RDR and GTAV open worlds on the ps3 are still extremely fun to me to this day... While Ronin open world reminds me more of AC Valhalla, since both felt like a chore to me.

My problem with this game is probably because I was extremely hyped about it, I love Nioh 1 and 2, I love the Way of The Samurai games and I love Ghost of Tsushima, a game that was going to combine all the things that I love so much in one package was something like a dream come true... Unfortunately for me it ended up being just an okayish game at most.

Totally fair and well said.

One of my best friends for instance. Absolute master at difficult games and loves Team Ninja games. He's been watching me stream Ronin and while he thinks it looks cool, he also isn't dying to play the game himself and I absolutely get it. I don't blame people at all for waiting for a sale, etc.

Meanwhile myself, I can't remember the last time I played a Team Ninja game and I generally dislike open world but this game has sunk it's claws in me. So much so that I am absolutely going to play Nioh at some point this year. Ronin made it jump to the top of the backlog for me. I've been sleeping on Team Ninja for way too long.

 

[hyperbertha]

Can we please stop labeling everything as Ubisoft open world. Ronin and Ghostwire: Tokyo were dogpiled with that label but Ronin made me realize that it's not collectables that bring open world games down, but the actual gameplay mechanics themselves.

Ronin's combat and quickness in roaming the land are what people are praising in the OT. It's a fun gameplay hook. Ubisoft games are generally a slog because the gameplay/combat is lacking.

Nope. The open-world design is fundamentally boring. Doesn't encourage exploration, or using your brain in any way.

 

[fart town usa]

Nope. The open-world design is fundamentally boring. Doesn't encourage exploration, or using your brain in any way.

You just described 90% of open world games, I agree with you for the most part. I rarely like open world titles.

With Ronin though, it's at least quick in how you complete things and the combat is great. That's why I said collectables in open world games aren't the issue.

 

[Barakov]

Nope. The open-world design is fundamentally boring. Doesn't encourage exploration, or using your brain in any way.

Perfect for an open world PS5 exclusive.

 

[Negotiator101]

Game is mid. It offers nothing new, plus a downgraded version of nioh combat to focus on a bland ubisoft open-world. Graphics is weak as well. Story forgettable. Why should it get above 80 on metacritic?

Have you read some of the comments in this thread? I'm genuinely concerned for some of these posters, delusional is a word that springs to mind.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Unfortunately... Yes.

The combat is solid, but a downgrade compared to Nioh build options and Wo Long fast paced action.

The graphics are really bad sometimes and just ok most of times, while the open world is just bland.

Also, Team Ninja tried too many different things and failed to achieve greatness in all of them. They tried to combine things from Way of The Samurai, Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh in one package, but ended up making a half-assed game that doesn't have anything really well made on it.

Finally, story wise Team Ninja was just dumb for adding Yoshida Shoin, the guy was an asshole and gamers don't give a shit about him...

Talking about the story, the story branching thing is entirely half baked, they clearly tried to emulate Way of The Samurai take on it, but differently of WoTS that has the entire game focused on player choices and freedom, this game gives you the first act to learn about one side, another act to learn about the other side and then makes you pick a side and that's it....

Again, it doesn't have the story choices of WoTS, it doesn't the visuals and cinematic feels of Tsushima and it doesn't have the deep and complex combat of Nioh, all that combined with an open world that plays like a ps3 game feels like a chore.

In other words: it doesn't bring anything new and it doesn't do anything better than other games.

I just made it to act 3 and I agree, story started off great but it’s been pretty disappointing overall. There are too many characters who provide nothing important. They would have been better served focusing on less characters and more substance story wise.

Still think 7.6 is a good score and this is a good game.

 

[ReBurn]

Critic reviews and the resulting meta scores are completely useless. Watch the multitude of video from real people and decide based on that. I'm going to pick this up in the near future and play. I just don't have the time to start a new game right now.

 

[EekTheKat]

Rise of the Ronin was basically an evolution of the Nioh formula applied to an open world. A lot of the basics of the last few Team Ninja games are here layered on top of an open world with a story that has some branching paths. The key bits of their previous games are still in Ronin, but tweaked/updated.

A key "problem" of sorts for Ronin is that the open world nature of it means you start off fairly weak and have to "earn" the fun. But if you've played pretty much any UBIsoft game in the last decade you'll have a rough idea of how slow open world games can be at the start.

One huge plus to this game was that it's one of their few games that I actually liked the story and characters - a lot of them are fairly likable with clear ambitions and flaws that humanizes them more than some western counterparts.

I think it's in part that a good amount of characters stick around a lot longer than most open world games where they'll show up for one section of the map and story and is never seen again. That and a lot of them are "companion" type characters that you can seelct as allies in missions.

The game leans on history, but it's more like a TV drama set in that period of time instead of an entirely faithful historical documentary.

To me this turned out to be probably my favorite Team Ninja effort in the Nioh era, probably because it leans heavily on history vs mythology and legends of the previous games.

 

[Zuzu]

Personally so far in my playthrough I wouldn’t give it more than a 7/10. It’s got good combat and an interesting location but it’s not an amazing game. It’s fun but not incredible. The open world design is very similar to Assassin’s Creed but it’s not broken or anything, just very much a copy of what has come before. I think it’s probably rated fairly but other games have been rated too highly which makes it seem like this game is quite a bit worse than a lot of other games even though that may not be the case.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Even the Japanese know Western game "journalists" are shit and that's saying a lot considering the language barrier

That said, why we got so many generic open world games set in historical Japan recently? First Ghost of Tsushima and now Rise of the Ronin

 

[Astral Dog]

Metacritic is trash, it actually has become worse over time.

not sure about this specific game as i haven't played it, Team Ninja normally has good action/controls mixed graphics bad everything else

 

[fart town usa]

Personally so far in my playthrough I wouldn’t give it more than a 7/10. It’s got good combat and an interesting location but it’s not an amazing game. It’s fun but not incredible. The open world design is very similar to Assassin’s Creed but it’s not broken or anything, just very much a copy of what has come before. I think it’s probably rated fairly but other games have been rated too highly which makes it seem like this game is quite a bit worse than a lot of other games even though that may not be the case.

Well said.

 

[FoxMcChief]

 

[Fredrik]

I mean, you don't have to do outside research. The game has a similar system to FFXVI in that you can pause cutscenes and examine alliances, etc. I still feel that due to the nature of the story and it being developed in Japan, and from the perspective of Japan, it's just going to naturally be more difficult for Western gamers to really engage with the weight of the story.

Personally, I like doing a bit of outside research. I have a poli sci/foreign policy degree and was also in the Navy for 8 years so of course I'm gonna want to dig in and try to understand it more . I bet if I had been stationed in Japan I'd be more familiar with Matthew Perry, etc.

Okay but you do realize that you can’t expect that everyone, and reviewers, have the same background and interests as you, right?

Sounds like it’s a divisive game for western gamers, then the score should reflect that in western reviews. That’s my thinking.

It’s cool if the game gets things right for japanese people though. It’ll be interesting to see how Ubisoft manage that with their Assassin’s Creed samurai game considering what they did in Valhalla, where they gave the male protagonist a nordic and fully gendered woman’s name.

 

[Melfice7]

To everyone on the fence about the game, if you liked nioh and like this era of japanese history, you will love the game, the graphics however are just terrible for an exclusive in 2024

 

[ANDS]

Legit stunned at some of the responses in this thread (xenophobia, FightinCowboy bandwagoning. . .really?) to describe the response to this game when the simplest answer is always the most obvious: there's other shit to play and nothing in the game previews screams "Must play now!"

Game looks perfectly middling, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise to folks "shocked" by the reception as TN has put out what, a game a year since NIOH? Hard to believe they were able to fully commit to ROTR (an open world departure from their previous efforts) on such a schedule.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

Legit stunned at some of the responses in this thread (xenophobia, FightinCowboy bandwagoning. . .really?) to describe the response to this game when the simplest answer is always the most obvious: there's other shit to play and nothing in the game previews screams "Must play now!"

Game looks perfectly middling, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise to folks "shocked" by the reception as TN has put out what, a game a year since NIOH? Hard to believe they were able to fully commit to ROTR (an open world departure from their previous efforts) on such a schedule.

ROTR has more content than 95% of AAA games. It has incredible bang for your buck value if you like action RPG's

 

[Fabieter]

Just saying, exclusivity leads to salty takes. It is what it is. Next up is Stellar Blade
I think Helldivers 2 and Palworld is the way to do it whenever possible to gain some hype and positive talks. Console+PC and day 1 on Steam for some concurrent player talk.

We have dozens of day one pc exclusives without the shitty takes on a game. Or the salty comments are exclusive to a specific community idk.

 

[Aion002]

Game looks perfectly middling, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise to folks "shocked" by the reception as TN has put out what, a game a year since NIOH? Hard to believe they were able to fully commit to ROTR (an open world departure from their previous efforts) on such a schedule.

Not really...


Nioh: 2016.
Nioh 2: 2020.
Wo Long: 2023.
Rise of The Ronin: 2024.

RoTR is the exception... Also, it's worth mentioning that Wo Long final expansion was released on December 2023... So they still had people working on Wo Long through almost all 2023.

 

[Deerock71]

Easy, dont let mere "score" tell you what game is worth it and whats not.

While I agree, not everyone will listen.

 

[Fredrik]

We have dozens of day one pc exclusives without the shitty takes on a game. Or the salty comments are exclusive to a specific community idk.

It’s just what I see. Exclusivity to one platform always seem to lead to lots of negativity, with people searching for faults and exaggerating them on social media so regular people eventually think the issues are problematic for real.

Console+PC means it takes much more salty takes to rise above the noise of people simply playing and enjoying the game. Can be enough to create serious hype, like Helldivers 2 and Palworld.

The search for faults on Stellar Blade has already started, might be a noisy release.

No Rest for the Wicked is coming up soon and is exclusive to PC until v1.0, we’ll see how that goes.

 

[crackajack]

But for an overseas audience, the magic may get lost in translation.

"Turbulent Edo period" sounds nice, but if I already need to know half of its details, to understand what is happening than a game review might only reflect that. I guess for Japanese people really getting our middle ages or AC's Italy or whatever is quite similar, but western media has I think entered their entertainment landscape and through that some actual history more than theirs is known here.
Don't know Ronin, but I think that's a problem of many japanese games. They seem to require some deeper understanding of Japanese culture and past while that has not penetrated the west much or not at all, despite them being on the forefront of gaming, but severly lacking in movie and TV stuff, outside of some enthusiasts that watch animes, maybe understand Japanese to some extent or whatever and know that Japanese seem to be afraid of little girls very often.
Ghostwire Tokyo was repetitive to play, but the most disappointing thing for me was that all the mumbo jumbo of Japanese folklore might have been interesting, if it wasn't entirely foreign to me and the names weren't just thrown in with one liner explanations. Also a game where players (from Japan?) rate it higher, while imho the gaming press got it perfectly right.
The Japanese devs maybe should take a step back and maybe "our" problems with their games can be solved when it is made more accessible to us. But when they mimic western style of anything it almost always shows that they don't understand us one bit and are kinda stuck in Marlboro man is cool ads. So I don't know how and if those worlds an be synchronized.

 

[Fabieter]

It’s just what I see. Exclusivity to one platform always seem to lead to lots of negativity, with people searching for faults and exaggerating them on social media so regular people eventually think the issues are problematic for real.

Console+PC means it takes much more salty takes to rise above the noise of people simply playing and enjoying the game. Can be enough to create serious hype, like Helldivers 2 and Palworld.

The search for faults on Stellar Blade has already started, might be a noisy release.

No Rest for the Wicked is coming up soon and is exclusive to PC until v1.0, we’ll see how that goes.

You dont understand. Console players usually just beg for a game if its something good like they are doing with half like alxy which valve still didn't bother to port over but no negativity whatsoever. Its just some pc guys who can't accept console exclusives.

 

[xiskza]

Probably Xbots review bombing, I've seen them say it looks like a PS2 game...

 

[Fredrik]

You dont understand. Console players usually just beg for a game if its something good like they are doing with half like alxy which valve still didn't bother to port over but no negativity whatsoever. Its just some pc guys who can't accept console exclusives.

Anything Xbox related and Sony fans are there highlighting negatives. Anything Playstation related and Xbox fans are there highlighting negatives. I’ve been here for nearly 20 years, I do understand and I’ve seen it all and also been apart of it unfortunately.
It is what it is. And we’ll see what happens with Moon’s Wicked soon, hopefully there won’t be droves of console fans highlighting everything slightly negative. I’ll be there day 1, can’t wait!

 

[Ozriel]

We have dozens of day one pc exclusives without the shitty takes on a game. Or the salty comments are exclusive to a specific community idk.

Anything Xbox related and Sony fans are there highlighting negatives. Anything Playstation related and Xbox fans are there highlighting negatives. I’ve been here for nearly 20 years, I do understand and I’ve seen it all and also been apart of it unfortunately.
It is what it is. And we’ll see what happens with Moon’s Wicked soon, hopefully there won’t be droves of console fans highlighting everything slightly negative. I’ll be there day 1, can’t wait!

At 8.6/10, The user score is significantly higher than the metascore. There’s no indication that the game is being review bombed by fanboys on any side.

 

[Fredrik]

At 8.6/10, The user score is significantly higher than the metascore. There’s no indication that the game is being review bombed by fanboys on any side.

Review bombing on metacritic is one thing, posting and highlighting and exaggerating negatives on social platforms is another thing. It’s always there for exclusives. Every single time.

 

[TexMex]

Just saying, exclusivity leads to salty takes. It is what it is.

Wait what? There are countless exclusives with massive scores.

 

[Negotiator101]

Probably Xbots review bombing, I've seen them say it looks like a PS2 game...

PS4 game and not one of the better ones either.

 

[Fredrik]

Wait what? There are countless exclusives with massive scores.

Sure and as I said I don’t know if it can affect the metascore. But it’s a fairly quiet release now for a 1st party published title and being on PC would’ve no doubt increased the talk and hype and general positivity and helped it stand up against DD2. I’m thinking Ghost on PC could be a bigger release now than Ronin, which is a bit sad considering it first arrived 4 years ago. But who knows Ronin could be bigger than we think, there are no sales numbers yet right?

 

[The Infectious Paradox]

What's the general consensus on people's enjoyment of Rise of Ronin vs Dragons Dogma 2? I haven't looked into either much but I'd consider one

 

[ANDS]

ROTR has more content than 95% of AAA games. It has incredible bang for your buck value if you like action RPG's

Middling doesn't mean bad. I think most UBI games are middling, but I still play them because they are fun to me, but I'm not shocked if one of their countless open-worlds doesn't land commercially or critically. Nothing I saw in the previews for this game generated "must have" hype and I imagine I'm not the only one.

Not really...


Nioh: 2016.
Nioh 2: 2020.
Wo Long: 2023.
Rise of The Ronin: 2024.

RoTR is the exception... Also, it's worth mentioning that Wo Long final expansion was released on December 2023... So they still had people working on Wo Long through almost all 2023.

Their Wikipedia suggests a company that is constantly working on a multitude of projects. Are all of them AAA; no? However at a minimum, in the last three years they have released: SOP, WL and RTR, none of which are "small" games.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Was hopeful but it never looked good and I'm not talking about its visuals(that's another topic altogether)

 

[Varteras]

Automaton...

 

[Aion002]

Their Wikipedia suggests a company that is constantly working on a multitude of projects. Are all of them AAA; no? However at a minimum, in the last three years they have released: SOP, WL and RTR, none of which are "small" games.

I completely forgot about Strange of Paradise.

2022, 2023 and 2024... Each year a new game indeed.

 

[hyperbertha]

ROTR has more content than 95% of AAA games. It has incredible bang for your buck value if you like action RPG's

I find this mindset funny. AC Valhalla has the best bang for your buck out of all games ever made. Well guess what? Doesn't matter cuz all that content is Trash..

 

[rhodesianshepard]

I find this mindset funny. AC Valhalla has the best bang for your buck out of all games ever made. Well guess what? Doesn't matter cuz all that content is Trash..

My comment was in relation to Rise of the Ronin being rushed to release. Team Ninja put a shitload of effort into making this their biggest game to date, and it shows when playing it.

If anything, Rise of the Ronin is the polar opposite to the typical Ubisoft experience. The game values your time incredibly well. The "Bond System" has some of the best sidequests of any open world game in recent years. You have no stamina outside of combat, including your horse. The game is purposely designed around you being in combat the majority of the time. And the biggest reason the combat loop doesn't get stale is because Team Ninja is constantly throwing new enemy's(with unique movesets) at players. The variety is crazy

 

[recursive]

All everyone would talk about in every single thread here pre-release was "muh graphics". I haven't seen so much whining about visuals before and they're not even that bad, meanwhile the combat always looked superb and most people would try and ignore it.

I hope the same people are not in this thread wondering why the game is underrated.

Completely agree. When people have been happily playing ps3 demon souls variations for over a decade seems weird to shit on graphics in this game.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Beat the game tonight, probably going to lower my personal score to a 6.5 or a 7. Still a good game, but that last act is really bad. Story goes from great in act 1 to good in 2 and into the toilet in 3.

Core gameplay is good, but the open world is full of typical Ubi stuff, reminds me a lot of Spider-Man.

 

[Plague Doctor]

I think it's safe to assume that practically all establishment reviewers are just shit now. If you have a specific reviewer you trust, stick with them and support them specifically. Do some research in user reviews and see what they say.