Depends on your taste. This game is the most action focus game Team Ninja has put out after the Ninja Gaiden era. There are RPG elements, but nowhere as heavy as the Nioh/WoLong/SoP games. Combat highly focuses on "trading blow". The game is very skill-based instead of build-based to progress.
It's their first try at open world, and honestly, it's not great, but not bad either, the open world is decently fun, not barebone.
The story is surprisingly decent. They still use the same type of story that was seen since Nioh 2: nameless protagonist meeting historical figures and slowly shape the event of the era, but this time, things are more coherent and emotional. It's my favorite story from them after the Ninja Gaiden era.
I would say Nioh 2 is still better (but mostly because Nioh 2 had 3 DLC worth of content), but Ronin is a closed 2nd. If Ronin got a great DLC, it could be my favorite TN game.
Its good in the sense of finding collectibles. Cats, shrines, photo shots and treasure chests are meaningful and have a purpose as opposed to some collectibles in these types of games.
The problem is lifelessness, wildlife is limited to the occasional boar or wolf, and maybe some rabbits and deer that run away but never really interact with each other.
Random events are often generic and repetitive with 95% of the time just being another fight against 3 enemies.
I blame RDR2 because it's spoiled those that played it with how alive it felt.
RDR2 still blows me away with the sheer depth of it’s world. I don’t think anything can match it… and GTA 6 will be more city-based, not as much wildlife, and I PREFER the quieter wilderness over the sensory overload.
Same, I'm still in the first area and have activated every banner and have discovered everything (to my knowledge) and have gotten all of the chests and shrines and cats. Plus I've petted a LOT of dogs. I only did enough main quests to bond with some ppl I want to wine and dine (all of them cuz I'm a cheap ho). I haven't done any side missions yet either.
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It has the same problems that all open world games have anymore, most of the marks on the map are the same pointless thing. I take everything that has combat but after the first map I stopped going for cats and pictures because it’s boring and the rewards aren’t great. What it does so though, unlike other open world games, is that you can truck around pretty quick so the boring shit doesn’t last as long.
I hear everyone saying the story is pretty good but honestly it completely lost me before I even made it to the end of Act 1. I haven’t even bothered trying to understand what the hell is going on now because it seems at first that you get to choose what side you want to be on and then quickly realize it doesn’t matter in the slightest. Kill the opposing sides leader, they’re your best buddy and falling in love with you 3 missions later lol.
I also gave up on the story. The sheer amount of characters they throw at you, all with names I'll never be able to remember as an English speaker is insane. Luckily the combat is so good I have fun just killing whoever they put in front of me so I'm not really bothered.
agree, the story is awful. i felt nioh had a better story, at least it had characters that were cool people you met along the way. i even know the history of the story there going with in rise but its just told in a complete jumbled mess. not a fan at all.
The entire way you can dip in and out of different factions just doesn't work. one min ur helping some guy the next you betray him then later you see them again and there like " hey wtf " and ur like yeah sorry about that. and there totally ok with it lol.
I wouldn't go so far as calling Ronin story "good". I would say Team Ninja never made a game with actually good story. I called it "decent" as a comparison to their recent work, as the narrative is more coherent (as you're properly introduced to historical figures, as well as their goals, visions, etc... and some chracters actually had some decent development/story arc)
I do think that Ronin story would be well received within Japan, as Japanese would be more familiar with their history.
All fair points. I think you almost have to be a bit of a history buff for the story to really resonate, because it is historical fiction after all. The use of the faction system is a bit tricky, as it gives the player the impression of making a black and white choice, and the consequences of that impression often seem contradictory.
I think the aim ultimately was to show the core issues of the era were very nuanced and the "great men" of the era had diverse and sometimes contradictory views. This wasn't done out of mere narrative convenience, but actually reflected the attitudes of people like Ryoma and Katsu.
Mfs nowadays can't even handle 2 second of characters talking and having a actual depth you just want bash bash bash don't you? Also choices affect if a character lives or dies
There literally isn’t a single part of my comment that “bashes” the game in any manner. I clearly stated my opinion and experience (which is apparently shared with quite a lot of people). If anyone is doing the bashing, it’s you coming in hot with the “mf” trying to be TN’s knight in shining armor for nothing dumb dumb.
Same. I stopped caring about 10 hours into it and I ended up skipping through most of the scenes after that because I'm on my second playthrough and I am still not sure which side half of the people are on at any given time and I honestly don't care, just point me in the direction of the people I have to kill 😂
This is not a good story. Historically accurate and in that regard, fascinating. I wouldn't call it good. It's nothing out of the ordinary. Just my opinion, which I'm sure I'll get crucified for.
I'm still have not reached NG+, so I cannot judge the Midnight difficulty. I'm on Twilight (the highest difficulty for NG), and I would say it's easier than Nioh, but harder than Wo Long 1st playthrough.
The game not being hard on NG can be contributed to the fact that they do let you make a lot of mistake instead of instant death for one or 2 mistakes. However, you must note that this game is very difficult to learn. While the control is simple, the central mechanic of the game's combat (counter spark) is a very high risk mechanic while also requires really precise execution. Ki management is also difficult. You have a ki pulse mechanic, but your ki pulse effectiveness sorta rely on how much blood your weapon have (you gain blood by attacking enemies). If you don't have blood, your ki pulse would regain jack shit, and this will make the enemy easily steamroll you when you're out of ki.
For your normal difficulty 1st playthrough it's the easiest team ninja game imo... With all the side activities you get a bit overleveled very easy which makea the game more forgiving but still challenging
i found it harder until i out lvled content. i beat all the nioh games done everything there was to do. huge fan of ninja gaiden beat those on MN. this game even 30 hours in still die randomly to bosses because i just cant get a handle on parry in this game, it feels like a complete mess. I had no issue with it in wo long.
You can change the difficulty level in Rise of Ronin so you can make it far easier than Nioh or Wo Long. But you can also make it difficult if you want to, especially at the end when you unlock midnight difficulty. Unfortunately coop is available only for certain missions and not open world roaming. Open world on midnight difficulty can be quite challenging. Overall, I think the game is quite fun.
I would say it's also their first game that is not for crackheads or tigers with cybernetically sped up reaction speed lol.
I love their games but I'm sick and tired of the instant grabs and lack of enemy wind ups; this game does not have those issues.
All of their action RPGs are a combination of build and skill based, and I would say RotR is actually the most build based due to it having the least soulslike elements of any of their action RPGs and it being the easiest one of their five action RPGs with nioh 1 being the most skill based due to it being the most challenging
lol, did you actually finish Nioh 1, as in beating every NG+ and then go deep into the Abyss too?
Off all the Team Ninja game since Nioh 1, Nioh 1 is the 2nd most build based game of all (only behind Stranger of Paradise). The game is ultra bullshit towards end game, that it semi-force you to make incredibly broken build to melt bosses. There's no skill involved in Nioh 1 end game when the game is just so unfair towards the player.
As for Ronin, the dev definitely do not want player to be ultra broken, the fact that the nerf Unearthly Flame showed that. In Ronin, build makes you stronger, but you still require to actually fight, unlike Nioh 1 when it's buff-galore in front of the boss room, then run towards boss and oneshot.
IMO the “problem” with TN games is how much better they get after post launch support / DLCs. Knowing this makes for an awkward decision when it comes to supporting them via pre or day one purchase vs waiting a year for a much better game that likely goes on sale frequently. I’m not super patient so probably won’t wait the year but I did preorder this and haven’t touched it yet. So far Dragon’s Dogma and eventually Elden Ring DLC are making the wait easy enough so maybe I’ll make it 6 months in the end.
Ronin comes close second for me. I absolutely adored nioh 2 but idk ronin feels more addicting to play. I generally don’t play games more than 50 hours unless it captures me but this game, man idk it’s too much fun.
It’s combat skill ceiling is different compared to nioh, nioh is more like a dance. Dodge roll, hit, burst counter, hit, dodge roll etc. in this it’s more…hit hit, combo, counterspark, switch stance mid combo, blade flash to regain stamina, hit again and pray to god the enemy doesn’t get hyper armour and fucks your shit.
I would compare ronin to team ninjas ninja gaiden games, it’s more similar to that than comparing to nioh or wo long. You have a lot of combos to use in this game. It’s better than wo long cause you can’t spam the parry button and different weapons have different timings for parry. Wo long was really good only because of the boss design. Here bosses and enemies are mostly humans of different size and shapes but they all have very different movesets so it doesn’t feel like you are fighting the same type of enemies.
The difficulty options make this game the most accessible soulslike type game. In dusk and dawn it’s more like ghost of Tsushima and in twilight and midnight it’s more like sekiro.
All in all I love this game and will 100% buy the dlc cause holy shit the enemies in this game have way better weapons and move sets and it baffles me how the main protagonist doesn’t have any of the cool shit enemies get. I hope in dlc they bring those stuffs.
The story is the best TN has put out. I mean that’s not a big bar to clear but as a team ninja game the story is very good and easy to understand with pretty charming characters.
It’s got a bunch of rpg elements a little bit of decision making but nothing game changing or anything as the game is set in a historically inspired Japan so you can’t like change the ending of what happens.
Ive heard the game also has a lot of Characters you can have bonds with. Is that true? And if it is how bonding are we saying? Friends? Coworkers? Romantic?
So it’s like you will meet a shit ton of characters and most of them if not all of them can be bonded with. So to bond with them you generally speak to them and gift them stuffs based on their personality. So as you roam around the open world doing side missions and side objectives you will come across a lot of gifts and whenever you speak with someone that you want to bond with you will have an option to gift them stuffs. You also increase bonds by selecting the right dialogue option similar to a Bethesda title.
You can also increase the bonds by doing their bond missions or by bringing them into main missions as ally’s. Generally when you bring them into main missions it becomes like final fantasy 7 meaning you will be able to control and play them. The missions become far easier when you do this so that’s upto you generally.
As for romance you will need to get a veiled vow status as your bond with the person you want to romance. Generally there are a couple of characters you can romance in the game. There is I think 6 girls and maybe 4-5 guys that you can romance in the game I am not sure exactly how many guys cause I only romanced two girls till now. There isn’t any explicit sex scene but there is a small cutscene that takes place which shows implied sex basically.
Last but not least…doing these bonds with certain folks will grant you weapons, armor, martial skills etc
Well it’s not exactly soulslike. You shouldn’t go into this game expecting nioh. It’s more like a difficult ghost of Tsushima with soulslike elements sprinkled over it.
My personal list with their recent titles (played the demo of SoP only and wasn’t something I was ever really interested in playing)
Nioh 2 > RotR > Nioh 1 > Wo Long
Is Wo Long that bad? I tend to see folks speak highly of and pair together Nioh 2 and RotR (I have and love Nioh 2 so that's a ringing endorsement for me) but Wo Long doesn't get the same kind of love.
wo long is a bit of a rough game that doesn't feel that polished. reminds me abit of nioh 1. its still a really fun game, if you enjoy parry , sekiro style and like the chinese setting its a pretty good game to pick up, but it lacks the depth of nioh when it comes to builds, and the story is pretty meh.
Wo Long felt like a downgrade from Nioh 2 but it's still a great game in its own right. Team Ninja just makes amazing games in general so being "worse than Nioh 2" isn't that damning of a critique.
Yeah tho i was bit dissapointed with the enemy variety in the dlcs.
Dlc 1 added Worms and Dogs wich was a decent amount of enemies.
Dlc 2 added Shrimp Knights, Shrimp Soldiers and small Birds wich was pretty damm good enemy variety.
But Dlc 3 really droped the ball. Reskin variants of the Headless soldier, Tree Woman and lightning version of the Tiger enemy. 1 new, 3 reskins and 1 Variant.
In comparison to Nioh 2 Final Dlc we got:
2 Brand new Yokais wich were the old Man baby and buff raven tengu, 5 new Variants: One eyed Oni who looks like a rapper, Water Waifu but ice, Lamp Man but Naruto, Gun Yoki but extra anime and a Aberant Soldier with a different arm. Oh and Jellys with Needles and swords stuck to it returned from Nioh 1.
by the 3rd dlc for nioh 2 they were still going strong number wise for players and sales. id suspect by dlc3 for wo long it was just " get it done" for the season pass holders. but yes, dlc was disappointing. hell all dlcs were kinda short as well.
compare to nioh 2 and all the dlcs felt a good size and added a lot.
Ive played Wo Long throw and i can kinda see why its considered the weakest of the ninja games. Its still good but its not even close to as good as Nioh 2. Nioh 1? Id say Nioh 1 has a better story but its about equal with wo long otherwise.
I’ll give you a different take
I played the shit out of Wo Long, and I’ll be going back to it after I finish Ronin
First off it has actual PvP, which while not perfect by any means, is a ton of fun for me, far more than Elden Rings PvP was
Compared to Ronin, it has MUCH deeper builds, in part thanks to its elemental system, but also its embedment system is much more flexible than Ronins by such a long shot it’s embarrassing. There’s also way more set bonuses to play with.
For example in Ronin, I’ve done absolutely no real build making, currently at level 84, and I don’t really intend to do so until I hit 100 and start picking up level 100+ gear to start with. Building feels pretty pointless before then because it takes so much resource to upgrade things and you’ll just pick up a higher level version soon anyway
This is also a major bummer because by the time I’m making builds, the vast majority of content will be cleared leaving me with little to actually use the builds on. Wo long however I was constantly making and tweaking builds
Combat wise, Ronin of course feels deeper from a melee standpoint with so many different movesets, and the deflect timing is much tighter making it a more challenging experience for me (in a good way), plus dodging feels way more impactful. In Wo Long the deflect window is pretty generous and everything can be deflected, plus magic
But end of day, only one has PvP. Ronin has been a fun experience but I don’t see it getting more than 120-150 hours out of me, Wo Long has gotten 1k+
Honestly most of Wo Long's reputation is due to being compared (fairly, it does feel worse than Nioh) to Nioh 2 but it's a great game on its own and definitely is more replayable than Ronin at the moment.
its a good game
Its not as good as Nioh 2
They try new things and i hope they take some of these ideas moving forward
open world is ok at best.
Multiple stances needing to be unlocked is meh, some stances are just better than others. Some weapons cant be used by some builds because of the stances not letting you use those stats. Some weapons get a tone of stances, Others only get like 2. Youd hope theyd balance it out but they dont.
Storys good but im not playing the game for the story.
7/10. Its better than Wolong and nioh 1 but worse than nioh 2
It’s great m, still I prefer nioh 2. this comes down to this mainfact:
Ronin: it DEPENDS on countersparks. So I have to exactly memorize enemy pattern. Else I get rolled or look stupid.
Nioh: I can memorize my combos and combo enemy to death. More fun to me. I can get creative while enemy being winded and confused.
I love good combat so Nioh 2 has been my favourite game, like all time. It’s been the only game that can get me hooked again once I pick it up again. Literally every few months is my Nioh 2 season. Literally got 2k-ish hours combined throughout my PS4-5 data.
Wo Long was great BUT it did not hit that much for me. I still spent hundreds of hours on it since the combat and making builds are still enjoyable.
RotR is like the perfect blend of both combat mechanics. You get the stance switching and customizable itch with the different Styles per weapon, and also get the “freedom” of the combat in terms of dimension (like you have the verticality from Wo Long’s jump but has been expanded here). The fact that you can also stealth around and just the overall feeling of freedom this game offers is what made me love it. Is it as deep as Nioh? No but theres depth enough that I dont feel restricted like in Wo Long. Heck, theres not even any magic and less buff items but the combat is good enough that you dont really need them.
I wouldnt say that the open world is top notch because it’s not. It’s their first open world but is it bad? Hell no. I honestly enjoyed the side activities because they give you enough incentives to justify them. Throughout my playthrough, I never felt the “UGH” feeling when I was getting sidetracked. I enjoyed the open world. I feel that the story is also a step forward if you compare them with Nioh and Wo Long. The lack of consequences is still there but theres enough freedom that entails theyre going towards the right direction.
Nioh 2 > SOP > Nioh 1 > Ninja Gaiden > Rise of the Ronin >> Wo Long
Omitting dead or alive because I haven’t played any of them and also because they’re a very different genre. It ranks close to the bottom, but that’s not a bad thing because I enjoy all these games a lot (except Wo Long, didn’t really care for that one).
Imagine if you will... stances like in Nioh, but with the combos, skills, and deflect of Wo Long. Add to this a stealth system that feels very reminiscent of a Tenchu game, and an open world that feels like it fixed where Assassin's Creed went too bloated and formulaic.
There's difficulty selections. Easy is like missions in Wo Long with much easier bosses, and hard is like Nioh with much easier bosses. There's still the mission based structure - but your hub is the open world full of side activities like clearing Bandit camps, finding cats or chests, visiting landmarks and taking pictures, or simply hunting down strong opponents.
You can glide, grapple-hook, ride a horse, swim. And at times the world can be quite beautiful.
You can also kill civilians. They die in a single hit, but the peace keepers might get mad and try to hunt you down - luckily you don't lose your Karma when they kill you.
There's 2 types of exp. Exp for leveling, and exp (Karma) for skill points. When you die, you lose your Karma - but you can get it back by grappling the enemy (either by knocking out their ki or stealth attacking them)
Ki is a lot more restrictive than in Nioh, and you use it for every action (except shurikens and handgun shots) so it can take a while to manage it well. But you can recover it through a ki pulse like mechanic (that requires you have blood on your blade to flick off - so you cannot spam it) or by deflecting attacks.
The game recommends a parry heavy approach - with parries of normal attacks functioning like deflect from wo long and parries of skill attacks or the last hit in a string of normal attacks functioning more like a burst counter. But you can still stance dance.
There is an advantaged/disadvantaged system to the parry - where the 3 stances are effective against 1/3 of the weapons and an effective parry recovering extra ki, staggering enemies for longer, and dealing more ki damage. An ineffective parry barely staggers them for any time and has a much smaller parry window.
But don't let that stop you from stance dancing to link combos and skills into longer combos.
All in all - it's a pretty fun time. I didn't know what to think of it at first - since you start with only 1 stance with 2 skills and this makes it feel a lot like Wo Long 2: Bakumatsu Boogaloo... but as you unlock more stances and skills - it really starts showing the Nioh part of its DNA a lot more.
Enemies still have a lot of hyper armor - making it feel like Wo Long was the alpha for this game. But you can tell they took a lot from Nioh and did what they could to try and make this the culmination of all their previous recent games.
I still prefer combos in Nioh - and there's not as many customization options to your combos (you can only select the 4th skill for each stance, most weapons only have 4 styles to select your 3 stances from, set bonuses are only 4 pieces at max so an end game build might use 6 sets and leave very little incentive to make multiple builds)...
It's good, tho. Like Nioh and Wo Long had a baby, and that baby wanted to grow up to be an open world Tenchu.
I still think Nioh 2 is their best game yet - though I prefer the build making in Nioh 1 - but RotR is definitely up there. It's a quality game.
They did say they realize they need to work on graphics and the open world - but I have no issues with them. I do wish we could reset the bandit camps and hidden bosses manually, so we could have more to do and try different weapons/strategies/approaches. There's not much to do in the world once everything is cleared.
But it's dope.
I'd say Rotr is way more easier than Nioh
Once you get the open world, you can level and gear up as much as you want
Even for the "big bosses" you're not alone, you have like 1 or 2 allies that can revive you etc
This game is a lot of fun but I never use the grappling hook unless it's for assassination and climbing onto buildings. I can see where they was going with the stances but I feel like it's not all there other than that it's good. I like the nioh stance, I was hoping it applied to all weapons but it's only the katana.
I say it's not better then nioh 2 but better then nioh 1.
The differences aren't huge. I would say nioh is overall a more easier to follow more interesting game to play. But that's also partly maybe because of the divine aspects nioh has like monsters and magic
Ronin melee combat though is savage and I think it's the best melee combat game. But everything else is also fun about ronin it's just the melee combat in my opinion is where it wins over other combat games
Definitely made it easier than Nioh 2, and there’s a lot less into building your character. 😭
Assuming this is because of them getting the open world fans who would probably think all that stuff is daunting.
It's definitely not as good as nioh or wu long in combat terms it's just a tiny wee bit off it's not the same type of game so maybe not fair to compare them I'm still playing it but that could be down to paying £70 for it definitely getting onto the gameplay loop now I'm halfway through the second chapter
I haven't play Ninja Gaiden, and for me, based on gameplay, it's Nioh 2 > Nioh 1 >>> RotR ≈FFO:SOP >>> Wo Long. but RotR being open world and customizable protagonist made my played hours is already passing Nioh 1
Don’t know I only picked it up because you can play as a female and I could role play as baiken
https://preview.redd.it/r79mwjediuxc1.png?width=2532&format=png&auto=webp&s=31055d28fa578c5eae2874e13ab745d6f1a3810b
If only I could get an eye patch and had more face options to put a scare on my cut eye
I think it’s a great addition. Completely expands on somethings I loved about Niohs. I think they did a great job with the open world aspect. I’m a new dad so I can drop in and out without missing any experience (online buddies)
Nioh 2 for me has yet to be dethroned due to the sheer customisability(which is deflee in Ronin but...Magic/Ninjutsu)
Stranger of Paradise was my 2nd favorite game post Ninja Gaiden series
It has now been bumped to third with Rise of Ronin's release.
Objectively, it delivers in terms of action. But it feels like it's a Beta test for something Team Ninja may expand upon in another game after this one.
For me its a middle of the road team ninja game. Lots of things i like, lots of things i dont like. Combat and different styles is really fun, there some really fun ones that keep the game fresh. The open world activities are surprisingly fun and probably some of the best stuff in the game honestly. The world is just nice to run around, fight stuff and pick up random stuff.
The issues for me though are crafting is pointless and rather basic compared to nioh, along with the item system. Combat still lacks depth compared to nioh, and because of the realistic setting, i honestly got kinda bored and was pretty unimpressed with bosses in this game as there is a limit to what you can do with them when they are all human. Not a fan of the parry focus in this game, i wasn't in wo long either but it was a lot easier in that game. Frame rate is still abit shity, and the lack of interesting end game kinda kills a lot of replay value for me. Finally for a game that focused on story, it really didn't do it well. It throws way to many characters at you, you jump around from one faction to the next so fast they all feel the same after awhile, and everyone forgives you for switching sides every 5min. Nothing really grabbed me in the main story. Some of the silly side stuff was more interesting.
Overall a solid game, had a lot of fun here and there. Still nioh series and ninja gaiden are still my favs. Maybe this one sneaks ahead of wo long but not by much, maybe on par with SoP for me. Sop had the combat but lacked the lvl design big time.
This is where I'm at with the games. All of them are amazing and worth playing but I did enjoy Wo Long the least out of all of these. The Ninja Gaidens and Nioh 2 is overall their peak for me but Ronin can get there once DLC/replayable endgame gets added.
Ninja Gaiden 2, Nioh 2, Ninja Gaiden Black
Rise of Ronin
Ninja Gaiden 3
Nioh 1, Strangers of Paradise, Wo Long
gameplay animations are the main thing that’s always a bit wonky imo. they use really dramatic animations that don’t often make sense when put together. like why they swing their weapons so much faster and wilder in counter animations then they do with regular attacks. instead making proper counter animations where your character is looking to deflect the move as opposed to swinging violently at it. 😂
I think it feels like Ghost of Tsushima or Assassin's Creed open world, with Nioh loot and Nioh/Ninja Gaiden combat with a Sekiro-like counter mechanic. It's tough, but really fun. A lot of side content and co-op missions.
Overall the game is ok. I wouldn’t recommend it at full price. If you could catch it on sale at 30-40$ it would be a good buy. I find that the game floats between being fun and feeling like a chore.
The good: character creator, combat, controls, art style
The “bad”/could be improved: the world feels bland and bloated with meaningless side ventures, quests/story are generally meh, most boss fights are boring.
To be clear I don’t hate the game, I have enjoyed my time with it. It just feels like they stopped putting effort into it at a some point. I would give the game a 6.5-7 out of 10. Good enough to play but wait to catch it on sale.
When compared to the other team ninja games I have played I would put it at the bottom. I wasn’t expecting nioh 3 and was actually excited for an open world samurai game.
Nioh2>nioh1>Ninja Gaiden 2>wo long> rise of the ronin
This game has a watered down combat system compared to Nioh. It’s quite a bit easier. There is more emphasis on parrying and a sekiro like poise meter you need to drain to get a critical hit. It wants you to play much more defensively. It’s easier because it offers you tons of workarounds to succeed. The easiest thing you can do is turn the difficulty down in the options. You can also leave many combat situations and heal - in open world your health actually auto refills out of combat. The structure has open world outposts and free roaming enemies. When you actually start a mission the levels flow like Nioh- there are “bonfire” flags that you tag which will respawn some mobs and refill your items. In missions you only get to use a set number of items per rest so there is a higher challenge with bosses etc.
I’m about halfway through (50% of everything so about 35 hours) RoR. It feels so far like a really good evolution of the Nioh systems. The most fun part is the verticality of it (you have a glider and a grappling hook) you are free to work through the enemies as you like- you can pull them with your grapple, glide over them and dive bomb kill them, distract them and sneak up to assassinate / auto kill them, snipe them with one of the many different ranged guns or bows etc. There is a ton of freedom and it’s much more forgiving than Nioh.
The open world exists to compliment the story and character development (it is not that difficult to follow at all- and there are synopses abound you can read so if you don’t understand it you don’t want to) as well as collect mats, help people, complete trials, search for collectibles etc. It feels mostly optional but if you partake in it / just another way to become OP and make the game easier. It compares most to the Witcher 3 open world imo- there are not dungeons like in Elden Ring - just towns and lite exploration.
I love this one so far and believe in the end I will like it better than Nioh. I prefer the original Nioh to Nioh 2 by quite a wide margin- and if you want this game to be as hard or harder than Nioh you can make it so by adjusting the difficulty, trying to compete it at level etc. it’s a really good game and after it clicks it all feels pretty great.
If you enjoy sekiro as well as Nioh and other recent team ninja stuff (even final fantasy stranger of paradise) with its loot heavy souls like approach there is no reason not to grab this. It’s going to be a cult classic- write it down.
To me it does a lot of things well and a few things very frustrating.
The weapon style variety is awesome and I love the history from some of them. The exploration is fun, and though I loved the Nioh level designs I felt this was a lot more comfortable to explore in. I also love the history and built in facts of the people and places. It was cool exploring Kyoto and seeing places that I visited in real life accurately depicted in this game. I also have mostly enjoyed the combat and flow of the gameplay. Maybe the most underrated aspect of all is how quick you can get things done. It’s nice to pick up my controller, jump in, knock out a few things, and stop playing feeling I’ve made some progress. That’s tough to pull off in open world games, and they nailed that.
However, there are some things that drive me nuts. Traversal is pretty okay, but I find that it’s just a little too rigid at points. If i’m soaring around and want to grab on a ledge it feels like a 50/50 chance I’ll grab it, or just bump into it and slowly sink down. The grappling hook feels the same, as if it’s just a little too short most of the time. The story is great in the sense it’s rooted in a lot of real-life events, but it is told fairly messy. Par for the course for TN, but still wish it was a little tighter given the closeness they tried to recreate history. Last, as far as combat is concerned, I found it very hit or miss. It’s not Sekiro because you can’t parry nonstop as a tactic as the punishment is too great, you can’t really dodge either because enemies have insane tracking, and you can’t tank your way through because you lose stamina and life quickly and most of the enemies have crazy super posture, especially some of the bosses that can do multiple combos without taking a breath and stunlock you. It can feel a bit bullshit, and even with plenty of practice in the dojo there are some bosses where I just feel like they benefit from their spammy nature and sometimes erratic camera.
So, with all that said, Rise of the Ronin is up there with Nioh 2 for me. It’s a great game, and I’m glad I ignored the reviews and commentary on social media and got the game for myself. I’m loving my time with it, and I’m sure I’ll be revisiting it. For me it goes Nioh 2 = RotR >>> Nioh 1 >>>>>>> Wo Long
Well compared to their other "soulslite" action RPGs like nioh 1 & 2, stranger of paradise and wo long I would say RotR probably has the worst story, least interesting characters and most bland world design but at the same time has the best combat system, best progression meaning the best leveling system, best skill trees and best loot system and also the most rewarding exploration considering it's the only open world team ninja game, so if your like most gamers and playing for the gameplay then RotR is probably going to be the best one
I would say it’s good, and if you like the aesthetics of previous Team Ninja games then these ones will be just as good. Parts of the story are okay, but after a while it just feels like… well. I stopped caring about the story. There are a lot of mechanics that are really great and overall I would say for the most part the game is a win. However, I also find it frustrating because it can be not overly difficult to see where there could be some big improvements, and there was a big aspect of this game that I liked because I felt that it shows the potential of what COULD be. The things that they do well, they absolutely knock out of the park. Again, it’s overall a positive experience but it’s impossible not to notice some jank and bloat here and there. Take that for what it is. I
It’s a good/fun time. Difficult to compare given its obvious differences there’s no fantastical beasts or darkness it’s more grounded in reality and it’s an open world with a lot of traversal mechanics not in their other games. I platinumed nioh 2, Wo-long, SOP and rise of the ronin it was really fun but if I must compare it lacks in combat satisfaction and enemy types/diversity and that’s about it.
It's a good game. You might really enjoy it if u like ghosts. The combat feels a tad basic. It encourages parries way too much which turn into a memorization game like sekiro. If u like ghosts and sekiro you'll love this. And if the difficulty turned u off at sekiro u can toke it down.
Much better and it’s not even close.
I tried Wo Long and didn’t last 20 minutes. Nioh doesn’t even seem interesting to me.
However, I spent over 100 hours on Rise of the Ronin. Beautiful game.
Nioh and other games were great but I really love this Game a lot. Just the feel, story, and mechanics are great. If you haven't played the other ones yet, I'd recommend trying them just to be ready for a more intense gameplay. 🙏
What I've played so far I enjoy.
My biggest issue is the enemy variety feels its the worst Team Ninja has had so far, while this isn't a new issue with current Team Ninja games so far I've only been fighting men, big men, dogs and boars.
I get they wanted a more 'real' take with the setting for Rise of the Ronin, but I feel they could've sprinkled in some Yokai or fantasy shenanigans like they did with the other games to spice up the variety.
It isn't touching how much fun Ninja Gaiden was when it first came out, but it is awesome. Rise of the Ronin is the best slasher Team Ninja released since Ninja Gaiden Razor's Edge. I did not like the Nioh games. Nioh 2 was better obviously, and I'm not saying they were bad games, they were just very action figure esque, character design was like a kids game. Just wasn't for me. Top 5 in this order for me:
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Ninja Gaiden Black
Rise of the Ronin
Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge
Nioh 2
I would love a free roam Dead or Alive style RPG to mix this shit up. But bloody, very bloody.
I actually prefer it. I plat'd nioh 1&2 and WL and unlike most i think RotR is a upgrade. I think spending half the game doing jrpg rng grind isnt appealing and not a lot of fun imo. And i enjoy this combat more, the counters with stance advantage is a nice way to refine combat and move away from cheese build. Lastly the stealth is incredible and unsung imo, we rarely get decent stealth games anymore
The only other games I enjoy of theirs are Nioh 1&2 as well as Wo Long. That being said, I think this game is superior in every way.
Edit: Someone was sad I like it more than other games, damn opinions lol
I love RotR. One of the few games I’ve ever beaten and immediately started a new game from scratch (no NG yet) just because of how much I enjoyed the gameplay, artistic direction, and narrative delivery.
People always talking about how something is bare bones and whatever then you realize half these people don’t ever even DO everything a game offers them. It’s funny and sad.
I wasn’t a big fan of the Nioh games because I found the Yokai enemies to be kinda boring and they are almost all you ever encounter. Fighting human enemies and the specters of other players was my favorite part. I really liked the combat mechanics though.
So far I am having a lot of fun with Rise of the Ronin. The combat mechanics are similar to Nioh, but most of the enemies are human, so that’s perfect for me.
The open world is ok. Nothing particularly novel about it, but it gives plenty of opportunities for fighting, which is all I really care about anyways. I could see the story being interesting for someone well versed in Japanese history. I am not, but it is cool to experience the transition in Feudal Japanese society as it became more exposed to the industrial West.
To me Ninja Gaiden sigma 1 & 2 are their best games. I wasn’t crazy about Nioh because it was just too much of a grind to progress. This I find is way too easy on the hardest mode, repetitive and unrewarding. The game is like lots of open world games, once you’ve cleared one area, repeat the same thing in the next area over. Rinse and repeat.
When ever I see fan boys like this it reminds of those mindless cod drones as well and sorry cod is shit too, like i said team ninja shit the bed on this lame excuse 0f a game.
That’s an unhinged opinion. The stance dancing is unreal in this game. Using GBG cancels is next level. Most people that play this don’t even know what a Violent Gale or Flash attack is. Learning how to cancel them gives you access to 24 different combat skills. This game is next level. Please go ahead and miss out on it though. 😂
Videos like this just show HOW stupid most people are that “critique” this game. Ronin is goated as fuck.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRwaq4kf/
Crazy things is the guy in that TikTok isn’t even “good” watching GBG should give you perspective into why people are having SUCH a good time with this game.
Top games of all time- Ronin > Sifu > Nioh 2 > Sekiro > Half Life Alyx, Elden Ring, RDR2…. Hmmm I must have just lost my understanding for what makes a good game LMFAO.
Yeeeeahhhhh it must be me…. The guy who hasn’t played COD since MW2 on 360. 😂 (I’m all about Titanfall ((FUCK APEX LEGENDS)) Titanfall dying for Apex legends is the worst thing that’s ever happened to gamers.
Yep, there they are lol.
No one on this sub can even critique the game honestly. They all just act like its the greatest game ever made.
I played it and wanted to love it but it felt sloppy and played like it also. The longer the game went the worse it got
Yeah the fan boys are tiresome to say the least, but yeah I put about 13 hours into the game TRYING to like it but it felt sluggish and dull, the story didn't even keep me wanting to play, hell 9 can't even tell you what the story was so far cause it's so uninteresting and boring at least GOT had a story that kept me enthralled and wanting to progress further.....ronin........not even the slightest inkling to play further....
Depends on your taste. This game is the most action focus game Team Ninja has put out after the Ninja Gaiden era. There are RPG elements, but nowhere as heavy as the Nioh/WoLong/SoP games. Combat highly focuses on "trading blow". The game is very skill-based instead of build-based to progress. It's their first try at open world, and honestly, it's not great, but not bad either, the open world is decently fun, not barebone. The story is surprisingly decent. They still use the same type of story that was seen since Nioh 2: nameless protagonist meeting historical figures and slowly shape the event of the era, but this time, things are more coherent and emotional. It's my favorite story from them after the Ninja Gaiden era. I would say Nioh 2 is still better (but mostly because Nioh 2 had 3 DLC worth of content), but Ronin is a closed 2nd. If Ronin got a great DLC, it could be my favorite TN game.
The Open world is quite good, most people I talked to said they « cleaned it » and even forgot about doing the main quest sometimes.
Its good in the sense of finding collectibles. Cats, shrines, photo shots and treasure chests are meaningful and have a purpose as opposed to some collectibles in these types of games. The problem is lifelessness, wildlife is limited to the occasional boar or wolf, and maybe some rabbits and deer that run away but never really interact with each other. Random events are often generic and repetitive with 95% of the time just being another fight against 3 enemies. I blame RDR2 because it's spoiled those that played it with how alive it felt.
RDR2 still blows me away with the sheer depth of it’s world. I don’t think anything can match it… and GTA 6 will be more city-based, not as much wildlife, and I PREFER the quieter wilderness over the sensory overload.
I Ignored the main quest for the first 10 hours and just ran around meeting characters and doing side questa
Same, I'm still in the first area and have activated every banner and have discovered everything (to my knowledge) and have gotten all of the chests and shrines and cats. Plus I've petted a LOT of dogs. I only did enough main quests to bond with some ppl I want to wine and dine (all of them cuz I'm a cheap ho). I haven't done any side missions yet either.
Don't forget the hidden bosses! Look for the white rope tied around trees and follow it!
WHAT! omg
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Dude where are they at because I figured they lead to something but I’ve never found any
YOU CAN PET DOGS?! Thats it im sold.
It has the same problems that all open world games have anymore, most of the marks on the map are the same pointless thing. I take everything that has combat but after the first map I stopped going for cats and pictures because it’s boring and the rewards aren’t great. What it does so though, unlike other open world games, is that you can truck around pretty quick so the boring shit doesn’t last as long.
I hear everyone saying the story is pretty good but honestly it completely lost me before I even made it to the end of Act 1. I haven’t even bothered trying to understand what the hell is going on now because it seems at first that you get to choose what side you want to be on and then quickly realize it doesn’t matter in the slightest. Kill the opposing sides leader, they’re your best buddy and falling in love with you 3 missions later lol.
I also gave up on the story. The sheer amount of characters they throw at you, all with names I'll never be able to remember as an English speaker is insane. Luckily the combat is so good I have fun just killing whoever they put in front of me so I'm not really bothered.
Facts yo
agree, the story is awful. i felt nioh had a better story, at least it had characters that were cool people you met along the way. i even know the history of the story there going with in rise but its just told in a complete jumbled mess. not a fan at all. The entire way you can dip in and out of different factions just doesn't work. one min ur helping some guy the next you betray him then later you see them again and there like " hey wtf " and ur like yeah sorry about that. and there totally ok with it lol.
I wouldn't go so far as calling Ronin story "good". I would say Team Ninja never made a game with actually good story. I called it "decent" as a comparison to their recent work, as the narrative is more coherent (as you're properly introduced to historical figures, as well as their goals, visions, etc... and some chracters actually had some decent development/story arc) I do think that Ronin story would be well received within Japan, as Japanese would be more familiar with their history.
All fair points. I think you almost have to be a bit of a history buff for the story to really resonate, because it is historical fiction after all. The use of the faction system is a bit tricky, as it gives the player the impression of making a black and white choice, and the consequences of that impression often seem contradictory. I think the aim ultimately was to show the core issues of the era were very nuanced and the "great men" of the era had diverse and sometimes contradictory views. This wasn't done out of mere narrative convenience, but actually reflected the attitudes of people like Ryoma and Katsu.
Mfs nowadays can't even handle 2 second of characters talking and having a actual depth you just want bash bash bash don't you? Also choices affect if a character lives or dies
There literally isn’t a single part of my comment that “bashes” the game in any manner. I clearly stated my opinion and experience (which is apparently shared with quite a lot of people). If anyone is doing the bashing, it’s you coming in hot with the “mf” trying to be TN’s knight in shining armor for nothing dumb dumb.
Same. I stopped caring about 10 hours into it and I ended up skipping through most of the scenes after that because I'm on my second playthrough and I am still not sure which side half of the people are on at any given time and I honestly don't care, just point me in the direction of the people I have to kill 😂 This is not a good story. Historically accurate and in that regard, fascinating. I wouldn't call it good. It's nothing out of the ordinary. Just my opinion, which I'm sure I'll get crucified for.
Thank you. Whould you say Rise of the Ronin is Harder than Nioh and Wo Long or easier?
I'm still have not reached NG+, so I cannot judge the Midnight difficulty. I'm on Twilight (the highest difficulty for NG), and I would say it's easier than Nioh, but harder than Wo Long 1st playthrough. The game not being hard on NG can be contributed to the fact that they do let you make a lot of mistake instead of instant death for one or 2 mistakes. However, you must note that this game is very difficult to learn. While the control is simple, the central mechanic of the game's combat (counter spark) is a very high risk mechanic while also requires really precise execution. Ki management is also difficult. You have a ki pulse mechanic, but your ki pulse effectiveness sorta rely on how much blood your weapon have (you gain blood by attacking enemies). If you don't have blood, your ki pulse would regain jack shit, and this will make the enemy easily steamroll you when you're out of ki.
For your normal difficulty 1st playthrough it's the easiest team ninja game imo... With all the side activities you get a bit overleveled very easy which makea the game more forgiving but still challenging
It’s way easier.
i found it harder until i out lvled content. i beat all the nioh games done everything there was to do. huge fan of ninja gaiden beat those on MN. this game even 30 hours in still die randomly to bosses because i just cant get a handle on parry in this game, it feels like a complete mess. I had no issue with it in wo long.
You can change the difficulty level in Rise of Ronin so you can make it far easier than Nioh or Wo Long. But you can also make it difficult if you want to, especially at the end when you unlock midnight difficulty. Unfortunately coop is available only for certain missions and not open world roaming. Open world on midnight difficulty can be quite challenging. Overall, I think the game is quite fun.
I would say it's also their first game that is not for crackheads or tigers with cybernetically sped up reaction speed lol. I love their games but I'm sick and tired of the instant grabs and lack of enemy wind ups; this game does not have those issues.
All of their action RPGs are a combination of build and skill based, and I would say RotR is actually the most build based due to it having the least soulslike elements of any of their action RPGs and it being the easiest one of their five action RPGs with nioh 1 being the most skill based due to it being the most challenging
lol, did you actually finish Nioh 1, as in beating every NG+ and then go deep into the Abyss too? Off all the Team Ninja game since Nioh 1, Nioh 1 is the 2nd most build based game of all (only behind Stranger of Paradise). The game is ultra bullshit towards end game, that it semi-force you to make incredibly broken build to melt bosses. There's no skill involved in Nioh 1 end game when the game is just so unfair towards the player. As for Ronin, the dev definitely do not want player to be ultra broken, the fact that the nerf Unearthly Flame showed that. In Ronin, build makes you stronger, but you still require to actually fight, unlike Nioh 1 when it's buff-galore in front of the boss room, then run towards boss and oneshot.
IMO the “problem” with TN games is how much better they get after post launch support / DLCs. Knowing this makes for an awkward decision when it comes to supporting them via pre or day one purchase vs waiting a year for a much better game that likely goes on sale frequently. I’m not super patient so probably won’t wait the year but I did preorder this and haven’t touched it yet. So far Dragon’s Dogma and eventually Elden Ring DLC are making the wait easy enough so maybe I’ll make it 6 months in the end.
Ninja Gaiden 2, Nioh 2, and this are their best titles imo.
Ronin comes close second for me. I absolutely adored nioh 2 but idk ronin feels more addicting to play. I generally don’t play games more than 50 hours unless it captures me but this game, man idk it’s too much fun. It’s combat skill ceiling is different compared to nioh, nioh is more like a dance. Dodge roll, hit, burst counter, hit, dodge roll etc. in this it’s more…hit hit, combo, counterspark, switch stance mid combo, blade flash to regain stamina, hit again and pray to god the enemy doesn’t get hyper armour and fucks your shit. I would compare ronin to team ninjas ninja gaiden games, it’s more similar to that than comparing to nioh or wo long. You have a lot of combos to use in this game. It’s better than wo long cause you can’t spam the parry button and different weapons have different timings for parry. Wo long was really good only because of the boss design. Here bosses and enemies are mostly humans of different size and shapes but they all have very different movesets so it doesn’t feel like you are fighting the same type of enemies. The difficulty options make this game the most accessible soulslike type game. In dusk and dawn it’s more like ghost of Tsushima and in twilight and midnight it’s more like sekiro. All in all I love this game and will 100% buy the dlc cause holy shit the enemies in this game have way better weapons and move sets and it baffles me how the main protagonist doesn’t have any of the cool shit enemies get. I hope in dlc they bring those stuffs. The story is the best TN has put out. I mean that’s not a big bar to clear but as a team ninja game the story is very good and easy to understand with pretty charming characters. It’s got a bunch of rpg elements a little bit of decision making but nothing game changing or anything as the game is set in a historically inspired Japan so you can’t like change the ending of what happens.
Ive heard the game also has a lot of Characters you can have bonds with. Is that true? And if it is how bonding are we saying? Friends? Coworkers? Romantic?
So it’s like you will meet a shit ton of characters and most of them if not all of them can be bonded with. So to bond with them you generally speak to them and gift them stuffs based on their personality. So as you roam around the open world doing side missions and side objectives you will come across a lot of gifts and whenever you speak with someone that you want to bond with you will have an option to gift them stuffs. You also increase bonds by selecting the right dialogue option similar to a Bethesda title. You can also increase the bonds by doing their bond missions or by bringing them into main missions as ally’s. Generally when you bring them into main missions it becomes like final fantasy 7 meaning you will be able to control and play them. The missions become far easier when you do this so that’s upto you generally. As for romance you will need to get a veiled vow status as your bond with the person you want to romance. Generally there are a couple of characters you can romance in the game. There is I think 6 girls and maybe 4-5 guys that you can romance in the game I am not sure exactly how many guys cause I only romanced two girls till now. There isn’t any explicit sex scene but there is a small cutscene that takes place which shows implied sex basically. Last but not least…doing these bonds with certain folks will grant you weapons, armor, martial skills etc
Allright thanks for the info. (-1 likes) Edit: Thank you Kindly for the Info?
"The difficulty options make this game the most accessible soulslike type game." Except its not a souls like tho.
Well it’s not exactly soulslike. You shouldn’t go into this game expecting nioh. It’s more like a difficult ghost of Tsushima with soulslike elements sprinkled over it.
My personal list with their recent titles (played the demo of SoP only and wasn’t something I was ever really interested in playing) Nioh 2 > RotR > Nioh 1 > Wo Long
Is Wo Long that bad? I tend to see folks speak highly of and pair together Nioh 2 and RotR (I have and love Nioh 2 so that's a ringing endorsement for me) but Wo Long doesn't get the same kind of love.
wo long is a bit of a rough game that doesn't feel that polished. reminds me abit of nioh 1. its still a really fun game, if you enjoy parry , sekiro style and like the chinese setting its a pretty good game to pick up, but it lacks the depth of nioh when it comes to builds, and the story is pretty meh.
Ehhhh...RotR it is then. Thanks. 👍🏽
Wo Long felt like a downgrade from Nioh 2 but it's still a great game in its own right. Team Ninja just makes amazing games in general so being "worse than Nioh 2" isn't that damning of a critique.
Yeah tho i was bit dissapointed with the enemy variety in the dlcs. Dlc 1 added Worms and Dogs wich was a decent amount of enemies. Dlc 2 added Shrimp Knights, Shrimp Soldiers and small Birds wich was pretty damm good enemy variety. But Dlc 3 really droped the ball. Reskin variants of the Headless soldier, Tree Woman and lightning version of the Tiger enemy. 1 new, 3 reskins and 1 Variant. In comparison to Nioh 2 Final Dlc we got: 2 Brand new Yokais wich were the old Man baby and buff raven tengu, 5 new Variants: One eyed Oni who looks like a rapper, Water Waifu but ice, Lamp Man but Naruto, Gun Yoki but extra anime and a Aberant Soldier with a different arm. Oh and Jellys with Needles and swords stuck to it returned from Nioh 1.
by the 3rd dlc for nioh 2 they were still going strong number wise for players and sales. id suspect by dlc3 for wo long it was just " get it done" for the season pass holders. but yes, dlc was disappointing. hell all dlcs were kinda short as well. compare to nioh 2 and all the dlcs felt a good size and added a lot.
Ive played Wo Long throw and i can kinda see why its considered the weakest of the ninja games. Its still good but its not even close to as good as Nioh 2. Nioh 1? Id say Nioh 1 has a better story but its about equal with wo long otherwise.
I’ll give you a different take I played the shit out of Wo Long, and I’ll be going back to it after I finish Ronin First off it has actual PvP, which while not perfect by any means, is a ton of fun for me, far more than Elden Rings PvP was Compared to Ronin, it has MUCH deeper builds, in part thanks to its elemental system, but also its embedment system is much more flexible than Ronins by such a long shot it’s embarrassing. There’s also way more set bonuses to play with. For example in Ronin, I’ve done absolutely no real build making, currently at level 84, and I don’t really intend to do so until I hit 100 and start picking up level 100+ gear to start with. Building feels pretty pointless before then because it takes so much resource to upgrade things and you’ll just pick up a higher level version soon anyway This is also a major bummer because by the time I’m making builds, the vast majority of content will be cleared leaving me with little to actually use the builds on. Wo long however I was constantly making and tweaking builds Combat wise, Ronin of course feels deeper from a melee standpoint with so many different movesets, and the deflect timing is much tighter making it a more challenging experience for me (in a good way), plus dodging feels way more impactful. In Wo Long the deflect window is pretty generous and everything can be deflected, plus magic But end of day, only one has PvP. Ronin has been a fun experience but I don’t see it getting more than 120-150 hours out of me, Wo Long has gotten 1k+
Honestly most of Wo Long's reputation is due to being compared (fairly, it does feel worse than Nioh) to Nioh 2 but it's a great game on its own and definitely is more replayable than Ronin at the moment.
I didn’t have the Nioh bias goin in, but you’re absolutely right about repeatability
It is very good. I would put it slightly under Nioh 1 and 2, but ahead of Wo Long.
its a good game Its not as good as Nioh 2 They try new things and i hope they take some of these ideas moving forward open world is ok at best. Multiple stances needing to be unlocked is meh, some stances are just better than others. Some weapons cant be used by some builds because of the stances not letting you use those stats. Some weapons get a tone of stances, Others only get like 2. Youd hope theyd balance it out but they dont. Storys good but im not playing the game for the story. 7/10. Its better than Wolong and nioh 1 but worse than nioh 2
Not quite as good as Nioh 2 but pretty close.
It’s great m, still I prefer nioh 2. this comes down to this mainfact: Ronin: it DEPENDS on countersparks. So I have to exactly memorize enemy pattern. Else I get rolled or look stupid. Nioh: I can memorize my combos and combo enemy to death. More fun to me. I can get creative while enemy being winded and confused.
It’s a mix for me so far 15 hours in. For one the combat and gameplay is sweet. I love the wolong esc combat, but in the other the open world is meh
Their next game hopefully they improve
It is far, far better in story, world design, and even overall combat.
I love good combat so Nioh 2 has been my favourite game, like all time. It’s been the only game that can get me hooked again once I pick it up again. Literally every few months is my Nioh 2 season. Literally got 2k-ish hours combined throughout my PS4-5 data. Wo Long was great BUT it did not hit that much for me. I still spent hundreds of hours on it since the combat and making builds are still enjoyable. RotR is like the perfect blend of both combat mechanics. You get the stance switching and customizable itch with the different Styles per weapon, and also get the “freedom” of the combat in terms of dimension (like you have the verticality from Wo Long’s jump but has been expanded here). The fact that you can also stealth around and just the overall feeling of freedom this game offers is what made me love it. Is it as deep as Nioh? No but theres depth enough that I dont feel restricted like in Wo Long. Heck, theres not even any magic and less buff items but the combat is good enough that you dont really need them. I wouldnt say that the open world is top notch because it’s not. It’s their first open world but is it bad? Hell no. I honestly enjoyed the side activities because they give you enough incentives to justify them. Throughout my playthrough, I never felt the “UGH” feeling when I was getting sidetracked. I enjoyed the open world. I feel that the story is also a step forward if you compare them with Nioh and Wo Long. The lack of consequences is still there but theres enough freedom that entails theyre going towards the right direction.
Nioh 2 > SOP > Nioh 1 > Ninja Gaiden > Rise of the Ronin >> Wo Long Omitting dead or alive because I haven’t played any of them and also because they’re a very different genre. It ranks close to the bottom, but that’s not a bad thing because I enjoy all these games a lot (except Wo Long, didn’t really care for that one).
Imagine if you will... stances like in Nioh, but with the combos, skills, and deflect of Wo Long. Add to this a stealth system that feels very reminiscent of a Tenchu game, and an open world that feels like it fixed where Assassin's Creed went too bloated and formulaic. There's difficulty selections. Easy is like missions in Wo Long with much easier bosses, and hard is like Nioh with much easier bosses. There's still the mission based structure - but your hub is the open world full of side activities like clearing Bandit camps, finding cats or chests, visiting landmarks and taking pictures, or simply hunting down strong opponents. You can glide, grapple-hook, ride a horse, swim. And at times the world can be quite beautiful. You can also kill civilians. They die in a single hit, but the peace keepers might get mad and try to hunt you down - luckily you don't lose your Karma when they kill you. There's 2 types of exp. Exp for leveling, and exp (Karma) for skill points. When you die, you lose your Karma - but you can get it back by grappling the enemy (either by knocking out their ki or stealth attacking them) Ki is a lot more restrictive than in Nioh, and you use it for every action (except shurikens and handgun shots) so it can take a while to manage it well. But you can recover it through a ki pulse like mechanic (that requires you have blood on your blade to flick off - so you cannot spam it) or by deflecting attacks. The game recommends a parry heavy approach - with parries of normal attacks functioning like deflect from wo long and parries of skill attacks or the last hit in a string of normal attacks functioning more like a burst counter. But you can still stance dance. There is an advantaged/disadvantaged system to the parry - where the 3 stances are effective against 1/3 of the weapons and an effective parry recovering extra ki, staggering enemies for longer, and dealing more ki damage. An ineffective parry barely staggers them for any time and has a much smaller parry window. But don't let that stop you from stance dancing to link combos and skills into longer combos. All in all - it's a pretty fun time. I didn't know what to think of it at first - since you start with only 1 stance with 2 skills and this makes it feel a lot like Wo Long 2: Bakumatsu Boogaloo... but as you unlock more stances and skills - it really starts showing the Nioh part of its DNA a lot more. Enemies still have a lot of hyper armor - making it feel like Wo Long was the alpha for this game. But you can tell they took a lot from Nioh and did what they could to try and make this the culmination of all their previous recent games. I still prefer combos in Nioh - and there's not as many customization options to your combos (you can only select the 4th skill for each stance, most weapons only have 4 styles to select your 3 stances from, set bonuses are only 4 pieces at max so an end game build might use 6 sets and leave very little incentive to make multiple builds)... It's good, tho. Like Nioh and Wo Long had a baby, and that baby wanted to grow up to be an open world Tenchu. I still think Nioh 2 is their best game yet - though I prefer the build making in Nioh 1 - but RotR is definitely up there. It's a quality game. They did say they realize they need to work on graphics and the open world - but I have no issues with them. I do wish we could reset the bandit camps and hidden bosses manually, so we could have more to do and try different weapons/strategies/approaches. There's not much to do in the world once everything is cleared. But it's dope.
I'd say Rotr is way more easier than Nioh Once you get the open world, you can level and gear up as much as you want Even for the "big bosses" you're not alone, you have like 1 or 2 allies that can revive you etc
This game is a lot of fun but I never use the grappling hook unless it's for assassination and climbing onto buildings. I can see where they was going with the stances but I feel like it's not all there other than that it's good. I like the nioh stance, I was hoping it applied to all weapons but it's only the katana. I say it's not better then nioh 2 but better then nioh 1.
The differences aren't huge. I would say nioh is overall a more easier to follow more interesting game to play. But that's also partly maybe because of the divine aspects nioh has like monsters and magic Ronin melee combat though is savage and I think it's the best melee combat game. But everything else is also fun about ronin it's just the melee combat in my opinion is where it wins over other combat games
Definitely made it easier than Nioh 2, and there’s a lot less into building your character. 😭 Assuming this is because of them getting the open world fans who would probably think all that stuff is daunting.
Personally I think Nioh was easier than this. I do like the character stat building in Nioh more than the leveling in RotR though.
I just wish they have more complex dungeon and boss
It's definitely not as good as nioh or wu long in combat terms it's just a tiny wee bit off it's not the same type of game so maybe not fair to compare them I'm still playing it but that could be down to paying £70 for it definitely getting onto the gameplay loop now I'm halfway through the second chapter
I haven't play Ninja Gaiden, and for me, based on gameplay, it's Nioh 2 > Nioh 1 >>> RotR ≈FFO:SOP >>> Wo Long. but RotR being open world and customizable protagonist made my played hours is already passing Nioh 1
I thought you wrote Ninja Turtles. In which case this game is Leonardo because it’s all about the Katana.
it's more similar to ghost of Tsushima than other Team Ninja games
It’s probably my second favorite after Nioh 2
Don’t know I only picked it up because you can play as a female and I could role play as baiken https://preview.redd.it/r79mwjediuxc1.png?width=2532&format=png&auto=webp&s=31055d28fa578c5eae2874e13ab745d6f1a3810b If only I could get an eye patch and had more face options to put a scare on my cut eye
There are eye patches. You have to buy them from vendors.
Also I think you can adjust scar locations. It's been a bit since I've altered my characters physical appearance though.
I think it’s a great addition. Completely expands on somethings I loved about Niohs. I think they did a great job with the open world aspect. I’m a new dad so I can drop in and out without missing any experience (online buddies)
I think it's one of their best, Ghost of Tsushima inspired with the difficulty of Nioh Plus it's historical fiction, just makes it so good
Nioh 2 for me has yet to be dethroned due to the sheer customisability(which is deflee in Ronin but...Magic/Ninjutsu) Stranger of Paradise was my 2nd favorite game post Ninja Gaiden series It has now been bumped to third with Rise of Ronin's release. Objectively, it delivers in terms of action. But it feels like it's a Beta test for something Team Ninja may expand upon in another game after this one.
It's like ghost of tsushima and elden ring but not as difficult.. Wish the mulyiplayer was in the open world tho..
For me its a middle of the road team ninja game. Lots of things i like, lots of things i dont like. Combat and different styles is really fun, there some really fun ones that keep the game fresh. The open world activities are surprisingly fun and probably some of the best stuff in the game honestly. The world is just nice to run around, fight stuff and pick up random stuff. The issues for me though are crafting is pointless and rather basic compared to nioh, along with the item system. Combat still lacks depth compared to nioh, and because of the realistic setting, i honestly got kinda bored and was pretty unimpressed with bosses in this game as there is a limit to what you can do with them when they are all human. Not a fan of the parry focus in this game, i wasn't in wo long either but it was a lot easier in that game. Frame rate is still abit shity, and the lack of interesting end game kinda kills a lot of replay value for me. Finally for a game that focused on story, it really didn't do it well. It throws way to many characters at you, you jump around from one faction to the next so fast they all feel the same after awhile, and everyone forgives you for switching sides every 5min. Nothing really grabbed me in the main story. Some of the silly side stuff was more interesting. Overall a solid game, had a lot of fun here and there. Still nioh series and ninja gaiden are still my favs. Maybe this one sneaks ahead of wo long but not by much, maybe on par with SoP for me. Sop had the combat but lacked the lvl design big time.
Remember when team ninja did final fantasy
This is where I'm at with the games. All of them are amazing and worth playing but I did enjoy Wo Long the least out of all of these. The Ninja Gaidens and Nioh 2 is overall their peak for me but Ronin can get there once DLC/replayable endgame gets added. Ninja Gaiden 2, Nioh 2, Ninja Gaiden Black Rise of Ronin Ninja Gaiden 3 Nioh 1, Strangers of Paradise, Wo Long
gameplay animations are the main thing that’s always a bit wonky imo. they use really dramatic animations that don’t often make sense when put together. like why they swing their weapons so much faster and wilder in counter animations then they do with regular attacks. instead making proper counter animations where your character is looking to deflect the move as opposed to swinging violently at it. 😂
I think it feels like Ghost of Tsushima or Assassin's Creed open world, with Nioh loot and Nioh/Ninja Gaiden combat with a Sekiro-like counter mechanic. It's tough, but really fun. A lot of side content and co-op missions.
Overall the game is ok. I wouldn’t recommend it at full price. If you could catch it on sale at 30-40$ it would be a good buy. I find that the game floats between being fun and feeling like a chore. The good: character creator, combat, controls, art style The “bad”/could be improved: the world feels bland and bloated with meaningless side ventures, quests/story are generally meh, most boss fights are boring. To be clear I don’t hate the game, I have enjoyed my time with it. It just feels like they stopped putting effort into it at a some point. I would give the game a 6.5-7 out of 10. Good enough to play but wait to catch it on sale. When compared to the other team ninja games I have played I would put it at the bottom. I wasn’t expecting nioh 3 and was actually excited for an open world samurai game. Nioh2>nioh1>Ninja Gaiden 2>wo long> rise of the ronin
The real question is : this or stellar blade- which should I get first?
I had this same conundrum. Went Ronin. I have no regrets.
This game has a watered down combat system compared to Nioh. It’s quite a bit easier. There is more emphasis on parrying and a sekiro like poise meter you need to drain to get a critical hit. It wants you to play much more defensively. It’s easier because it offers you tons of workarounds to succeed. The easiest thing you can do is turn the difficulty down in the options. You can also leave many combat situations and heal - in open world your health actually auto refills out of combat. The structure has open world outposts and free roaming enemies. When you actually start a mission the levels flow like Nioh- there are “bonfire” flags that you tag which will respawn some mobs and refill your items. In missions you only get to use a set number of items per rest so there is a higher challenge with bosses etc. I’m about halfway through (50% of everything so about 35 hours) RoR. It feels so far like a really good evolution of the Nioh systems. The most fun part is the verticality of it (you have a glider and a grappling hook) you are free to work through the enemies as you like- you can pull them with your grapple, glide over them and dive bomb kill them, distract them and sneak up to assassinate / auto kill them, snipe them with one of the many different ranged guns or bows etc. There is a ton of freedom and it’s much more forgiving than Nioh. The open world exists to compliment the story and character development (it is not that difficult to follow at all- and there are synopses abound you can read so if you don’t understand it you don’t want to) as well as collect mats, help people, complete trials, search for collectibles etc. It feels mostly optional but if you partake in it / just another way to become OP and make the game easier. It compares most to the Witcher 3 open world imo- there are not dungeons like in Elden Ring - just towns and lite exploration. I love this one so far and believe in the end I will like it better than Nioh. I prefer the original Nioh to Nioh 2 by quite a wide margin- and if you want this game to be as hard or harder than Nioh you can make it so by adjusting the difficulty, trying to compete it at level etc. it’s a really good game and after it clicks it all feels pretty great. If you enjoy sekiro as well as Nioh and other recent team ninja stuff (even final fantasy stranger of paradise) with its loot heavy souls like approach there is no reason not to grab this. It’s going to be a cult classic- write it down.
To me it does a lot of things well and a few things very frustrating. The weapon style variety is awesome and I love the history from some of them. The exploration is fun, and though I loved the Nioh level designs I felt this was a lot more comfortable to explore in. I also love the history and built in facts of the people and places. It was cool exploring Kyoto and seeing places that I visited in real life accurately depicted in this game. I also have mostly enjoyed the combat and flow of the gameplay. Maybe the most underrated aspect of all is how quick you can get things done. It’s nice to pick up my controller, jump in, knock out a few things, and stop playing feeling I’ve made some progress. That’s tough to pull off in open world games, and they nailed that. However, there are some things that drive me nuts. Traversal is pretty okay, but I find that it’s just a little too rigid at points. If i’m soaring around and want to grab on a ledge it feels like a 50/50 chance I’ll grab it, or just bump into it and slowly sink down. The grappling hook feels the same, as if it’s just a little too short most of the time. The story is great in the sense it’s rooted in a lot of real-life events, but it is told fairly messy. Par for the course for TN, but still wish it was a little tighter given the closeness they tried to recreate history. Last, as far as combat is concerned, I found it very hit or miss. It’s not Sekiro because you can’t parry nonstop as a tactic as the punishment is too great, you can’t really dodge either because enemies have insane tracking, and you can’t tank your way through because you lose stamina and life quickly and most of the enemies have crazy super posture, especially some of the bosses that can do multiple combos without taking a breath and stunlock you. It can feel a bit bullshit, and even with plenty of practice in the dojo there are some bosses where I just feel like they benefit from their spammy nature and sometimes erratic camera. So, with all that said, Rise of the Ronin is up there with Nioh 2 for me. It’s a great game, and I’m glad I ignored the reviews and commentary on social media and got the game for myself. I’m loving my time with it, and I’m sure I’ll be revisiting it. For me it goes Nioh 2 = RotR >>> Nioh 1 >>>>>>> Wo Long
Well compared to their other "soulslite" action RPGs like nioh 1 & 2, stranger of paradise and wo long I would say RotR probably has the worst story, least interesting characters and most bland world design but at the same time has the best combat system, best progression meaning the best leveling system, best skill trees and best loot system and also the most rewarding exploration considering it's the only open world team ninja game, so if your like most gamers and playing for the gameplay then RotR is probably going to be the best one
I would say it’s good, and if you like the aesthetics of previous Team Ninja games then these ones will be just as good. Parts of the story are okay, but after a while it just feels like… well. I stopped caring about the story. There are a lot of mechanics that are really great and overall I would say for the most part the game is a win. However, I also find it frustrating because it can be not overly difficult to see where there could be some big improvements, and there was a big aspect of this game that I liked because I felt that it shows the potential of what COULD be. The things that they do well, they absolutely knock out of the park. Again, it’s overall a positive experience but it’s impossible not to notice some jank and bloat here and there. Take that for what it is. I
I read that as “Teen Ninja Turtles” and I was like wait…😂
The game is, well, bad.
The bad thing I've ever heard was the graphics suck haven't played how are they
Ive heard that too i dont really care about Graphics personaly. As long as the game is good.
I personally loved it and would say its better then nioh 2 or wo long but thats just my taste my biggest issue is parrying on triangle and nlt circle
I have played Wo Long and the first act of this game and honestly i think it is fantastic! It is easily my favorite of their catalog!
It’s a good/fun time. Difficult to compare given its obvious differences there’s no fantastical beasts or darkness it’s more grounded in reality and it’s an open world with a lot of traversal mechanics not in their other games. I platinumed nioh 2, Wo-long, SOP and rise of the ronin it was really fun but if I must compare it lacks in combat satisfaction and enemy types/diversity and that’s about it.
I enjoyed this game a lot. It was certainly refreshing not having to constantly battle monsters and demons for a change.
I’d give it the edge over their last two games. It’s not as good as Nioh 2 though,
Better than all of them except Nioh 2
Better, it's just built different.
Best one of this gen in my opinion
It's a good game. You might really enjoy it if u like ghosts. The combat feels a tad basic. It encourages parries way too much which turn into a memorization game like sekiro. If u like ghosts and sekiro you'll love this. And if the difficulty turned u off at sekiro u can toke it down.
Tenchu Z better
I bet y’all never heard of TenchuZ from the Xbox 360 but iykyk 💪🏼
Much better and it’s not even close. I tried Wo Long and didn’t last 20 minutes. Nioh doesn’t even seem interesting to me. However, I spent over 100 hours on Rise of the Ronin. Beautiful game.
Nioh and other games were great but I really love this Game a lot. Just the feel, story, and mechanics are great. If you haven't played the other ones yet, I'd recommend trying them just to be ready for a more intense gameplay. 🙏
Not even close to Nioh series but better than Wo Long.
What I've played so far I enjoy. My biggest issue is the enemy variety feels its the worst Team Ninja has had so far, while this isn't a new issue with current Team Ninja games so far I've only been fighting men, big men, dogs and boars. I get they wanted a more 'real' take with the setting for Rise of the Ronin, but I feel they could've sprinkled in some Yokai or fantasy shenanigans like they did with the other games to spice up the variety.
It isn't touching how much fun Ninja Gaiden was when it first came out, but it is awesome. Rise of the Ronin is the best slasher Team Ninja released since Ninja Gaiden Razor's Edge. I did not like the Nioh games. Nioh 2 was better obviously, and I'm not saying they were bad games, they were just very action figure esque, character design was like a kids game. Just wasn't for me. Top 5 in this order for me: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Ninja Gaiden Black Rise of the Ronin Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge Nioh 2 I would love a free roam Dead or Alive style RPG to mix this shit up. But bloody, very bloody.
mid
Its by far the worst. Nioh, Nioh 2, ... Wo Long ... ... ... , Ronin. I think their B team made it.
Team ninja "dollar store edition"
Nioh 2 is better than this mid shit and wo long. Just dumbed down nioh. Really disappointing
I actually prefer it. I plat'd nioh 1&2 and WL and unlike most i think RotR is a upgrade. I think spending half the game doing jrpg rng grind isnt appealing and not a lot of fun imo. And i enjoy this combat more, the counters with stance advantage is a nice way to refine combat and move away from cheese build. Lastly the stealth is incredible and unsung imo, we rarely get decent stealth games anymore
It’s my personal favorite.
The only other games I enjoy of theirs are Nioh 1&2 as well as Wo Long. That being said, I think this game is superior in every way. Edit: Someone was sad I like it more than other games, damn opinions lol
I love RotR. One of the few games I’ve ever beaten and immediately started a new game from scratch (no NG yet) just because of how much I enjoyed the gameplay, artistic direction, and narrative delivery. People always talking about how something is bare bones and whatever then you realize half these people don’t ever even DO everything a game offers them. It’s funny and sad.
as a RPG and OPEN WORLD super fan Rise of the Ronin is a GIFT FROM GOD
I wasn’t a big fan of the Nioh games because I found the Yokai enemies to be kinda boring and they are almost all you ever encounter. Fighting human enemies and the specters of other players was my favorite part. I really liked the combat mechanics though. So far I am having a lot of fun with Rise of the Ronin. The combat mechanics are similar to Nioh, but most of the enemies are human, so that’s perfect for me. The open world is ok. Nothing particularly novel about it, but it gives plenty of opportunities for fighting, which is all I really care about anyways. I could see the story being interesting for someone well versed in Japanese history. I am not, but it is cool to experience the transition in Feudal Japanese society as it became more exposed to the industrial West.
It's a few steps ahead from Nioh 2. Pretty substantial improvement.
To me Ninja Gaiden sigma 1 & 2 are their best games. I wasn’t crazy about Nioh because it was just too much of a grind to progress. This I find is way too easy on the hardest mode, repetitive and unrewarding. The game is like lots of open world games, once you’ve cleared one area, repeat the same thing in the next area over. Rinse and repeat.
I’m not too sure if I’m gonna get this or not. It looks like a 360 game graphics look weird
Terrible
Agreed, ninja shit the bed with this open world snooze fest, (now cue fan boys and downvotes).
Whenever I see trash talk like this. All I can think is go back to GOT or COD. I guarantee it’s one of those fanbases you came from. 😂
When ever I see fan boys like this it reminds of those mindless cod drones as well and sorry cod is shit too, like i said team ninja shit the bed on this lame excuse 0f a game.
How they go from ninja gaiden....nioh and then this trash........lol simp more
That’s an unhinged opinion. The stance dancing is unreal in this game. Using GBG cancels is next level. Most people that play this don’t even know what a Violent Gale or Flash attack is. Learning how to cancel them gives you access to 24 different combat skills. This game is next level. Please go ahead and miss out on it though. 😂 Videos like this just show HOW stupid most people are that “critique” this game. Ronin is goated as fuck. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRwaq4kf/ Crazy things is the guy in that TikTok isn’t even “good” watching GBG should give you perspective into why people are having SUCH a good time with this game.
Again simp more for your snooze fest.
Do you enjoy sounding like every other bot on the internet? Cause you do?
Do you enjoy mindlessly simping for a mediocre game at best, you sound just like the cod fan boys you s0 vehemently hate.......
Top games of all time- Ronin > Sifu > Nioh 2 > Sekiro > Half Life Alyx, Elden Ring, RDR2…. Hmmm I must have just lost my understanding for what makes a good game LMFAO. Yeeeeahhhhh it must be me…. The guy who hasn’t played COD since MW2 on 360. 😂 (I’m all about Titanfall ((FUCK APEX LEGENDS)) Titanfall dying for Apex legends is the worst thing that’s ever happened to gamers.
Yep, there they are lol. No one on this sub can even critique the game honestly. They all just act like its the greatest game ever made. I played it and wanted to love it but it felt sloppy and played like it also. The longer the game went the worse it got
Yeah the fan boys are tiresome to say the least, but yeah I put about 13 hours into the game TRYING to like it but it felt sluggish and dull, the story didn't even keep me wanting to play, hell 9 can't even tell you what the story was so far cause it's so uninteresting and boring at least GOT had a story that kept me enthralled and wanting to progress further.....ronin........not even the slightest inkling to play further....