Rise of the Ronin

[Peep Plops]

The reviews have come out as has gameplay from assorted streamer trash. Not gonna lie when I say I'm feeling pretty deflated, game looks like a PS3/4 game and while that itself isn't too bad, the framerate seems to dip frequently and everything just looks so drab.

The combat looks to be something between shitty Sekiro and Wo Long with a pretty poor variety of enemies. Although it was already established that the game wouldn't have supernatural elements, it feels a bit ridiculous when there are still Hulk-sized guys swinging around tree trunks.

The open world itself looks like the most generic slop possible, think Ghostwire Tokyo or like a Ubishit game from ten years ago. I really wish this autistic fixation on making everything into an open world would fade away already. Cominc off of FF7 Afterbirth I'm very hesitant to jump into another perfunctory open world setting with nothing interesting to do but pick up random trash and activate quick travel points.

 

[cybertoaster]

I swear if you went off popular culture, the Three Kingdoms and the Monkey King are the only two things that happened in Chinkland before the Japanese invaded.

Would be pretty cool to have a sort of action-survival title were you play as a chinese trying to make it thru the mongol invasions. Of course the gore would be off the scale, and I'm talking historically correct here not crazy monsters or those ccp propaganda movies were a japanese soldier bayonets a baby out of a pregnant lady's stomach.

So how bad was it? well when the persians sent scouts to see if they could invade china the guys were approaching a major city and saw what they thought was snow on a mountain.

Upon closer inspection the white stuff was a mountain of human skulls, not snow. Also their feet began to sink on the dirt because it was full of human fat from all the burned bodies, and many of the scouts died from pestilence.

Of course the persians would later on get to enjoy the same kinda "fun", so you could have a sequel where you play an arab doing the same, could be in baghdad which afawk got it the worst of all muslim cities.

Another candidate: a game set during that tang dynasty where they won a siege by eating the civilians there. The king literally gave his concubines to his soldiers so they could eat them, I'm not making this up.

You could also make a game about the adventures of not starving to death during mao's great leap forward but then your social score would go to minus a billion...

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

The reviews have come out as has gameplay from assorted streamer trash. Not gonna lie when I say I'm feeling pretty deflated, game looks like a PS3/4 game and while that itself isn't too bad, the framerate seems to dip frequently and everything just looks so drab.

The combat looks to be something between shitty Sekiro and Wo Long with a pretty poor variety of enemies. Although it was already established that the game wouldn't have supernatural elements, it feels a bit ridiculous when there are still Hulk-sized guys swinging around tree trunks.

The open world itself looks like the most generic slop possible, think Ghostwire Tokyo or like a Ubishit game from ten years ago. I really wish this autistic fixation on making everything into an open world would fade away already. Cominc off of FF7 Afterbirth I'm very hesitant to jump into another perfunctory open world setting with nothing interesting to do but pick up random trash and activate quick travel points.

Is Ghostwire Tokyo bad? I've had my eye on that.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Haven't seen anyone posting this

Remember, making a non-biased homogenous game without niggers based on historical events is BAD now and the studio needs to APOLOGIZE and talk about how DIVERSE they are before the game even starts. I've seen this stupid disclaimed in Jagged Alliance 3 and the recent remasters of Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid as well.
I'm not going to bother with any game doing this going forward unless you can mod the screen out.

 

[SiccDicc]

Haven't seen anyone posting this
View attachment 5841690
Remember, making a non-biased homogenous game without niggers based on historical events is BAD now and the studio needs to APOLOGIZE and talk about how DIVERSE they are before the game even starts. I've seen this stupid disclaimed in Jagged Alliance 3 and the recent remasters of Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid as well.
I'm not going to bother with any game doing this going forward unless you can mod the screen out.

>diverse teams
I know this is Koei Tecmo trying to get ESG credit, but lolwut? I guess being diverse means having an Israeli-American as your composer.

 

[Mega Black]

The reviews have come out as has gameplay from assorted streamer trash. Not gonna lie when I say I'm feeling pretty deflated, game looks like a PS3/4 game and while that itself isn't too bad, the framerate seems to dip frequently and everything just looks so drab.

Been playing it a bit since last night, I am enjoying it a great deal. The open world suffers from bland lighting, but the mission areas in particular look quite nice.

Combat so far is a lot of fun. I saw a lot of people bitching about the parry but I've had zero issues using it effectively in combat so far. Combat is snappy and fun, I haven't played Nioh though, so I don't know what people were expecting.

Parrying a bullet back at an enemy, grappling his ass, then rushing forward and slicing his head off was really satisfying. If the game can maintain combat like that, I'll enjoy it.

I'm not really sure what people expect from the open world. It has lots of collectibles, quests, side characters to establish bonds with, loot to collect, etc; it is standard but people complaining about "standard ubishit" open worlds never seem to really explain what they would rather an open world be filled with.

I think people were really expecting AAA moviegame shit with this when it was clearly always going to be a mid-budget ARPG. In terms of gameplay depth and content it kneecaps most of its competition, but lacks visually.

It reminds me a lot of Way of the Samurai, gives me the same vibes, though admittedly this is more serious and much higher budget than those.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

Haven't seen anyone posting this
View attachment 5841690
Remember, making a non-biased homogenous game without niggers based on historical events is BAD now and the studio needs to APOLOGIZE and talk about how DIVERSE they are before the game even starts. I've seen this stupid disclaimed in Jagged Alliance 3 and the recent remasters of Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid as well.
I'm not going to bother with any game doing this going forward unless you can mod the screen out.

Not going to lie; this is genuinely concerning. I was pretty interested in picking the game up, but after seeing this crap shoved into the game, I'm a bit hesitant.

Does anyone have any more reviews for this game? Combat and gameplay sound solid enough; wasn't fond of Wo Long, but I loved Nioh and SoP, and @Mega Black's review is making it sound solid enough. That said, I'm wondering if the story is crammed full of wokeshit; not exactly thrilled about seeing a ton of Africans shoved into a story about Ancient Japan - seriously woketards, you had Yasuke, isn't that more than enough? - but how pozzed is the game, exactly?

 

[Tepes Thot]

I’ll probably be waiting until it comes to PC, because I really have no interest in getting a PS5 right now. No console wars, I have the Series X, I just don’t want another console to collect dust right now.
This one tempted me though.

Not happy about that whiny warning bs, how did the industry hate Jack Thompson but start channeling him all the same?

 

[SiccDicc]

not exactly thrilled about seeing a ton of Africans shoved into a story about Ancient Japan - seriously woketards, you had Yasuke, isn't that more than enough?

That's because they knew he was just Nobunaga's pet. They play him up so big, but really he did nothing of note and meant nothing to anyone. Even Akechi referred to him as an animal in why they didn't execute him for wielding a sword during that battle that killed Nobunaga.

but how pozzed is the game, exactly?

I haven't seen or heard anything in particular, which surprises me some given how active Koei Tecmo is with ESG. I also haven't really had a chance to play it, either.

 

[Peep Plops]

Welp I returned the game after two days and got DD2 instead (a way better game). What can I say about my roughly ten hour Ronin experience? Nothing very positive, I'm afraid. In case anyone is interested in hearing my autistic review, I've segmented it into parts so you can better form an opinion on whether to buy it or not (I recommend the latter).

As a preamble I've played all the team Ninja games before as well as every Fromsoft game so I'm coming from a place of some experience with the genre.

Combat
Basically plays closer to Wo Long than Nioh and has a very irritating rock-paper-scissors thing going on which means you have to cycle between your weapons and their assorted combat styles at the beginning of every encounter while simultaneously trying not to get one-shot by glowy red attacks. Your co-op partners are pretty much worthless and mostly serve to confuse the already feeble-minded enemy AI. I lost count how many times the enemy I was fighting instead decided to run in circles and fumble over level geometry instead of attacking me. When they do attack, a lot of the hits are adequately telegraphed but suffer from poor feedback and every other attack being a chain of strikes the game expects you to perfectly parry every time. The parry itself feels kind of shitty and overly punishing (think Wo Long) and the enemies barely react to you hitting them half the time.

The open world
Plays like it's from 2013 with graphics from 2014. The world has very little to discover besides crafting trash and the stiff npc's do little to make the world feel even the least bit alive. If you like riding a horse suffering from rickets going from one bush to the next pressing the 'gsther' button it might provide some amusement, otherwise just do the missions.
Amusingly enough the main missions are separate instances from the open world, despite the early ones at least taking place in the same space as the larger map. This and the fact that the cutscenes all fade in and out of gameplay really help to cement that 2010's feeling the game is (un?)intentionally going for.

Traversal
The glider sucks shit and is somehow a step back from the one in Arkham Asylum while the grappling hook hews closer to the one on FF7R than Sekiro, in other words it's stiff and terrible to use with way too few grappling points. The jumping feels stiff and shitty, basically Wo Long yet again. Not like it really matters since you'll quickly find that there's no point to it and nothing to find besides checkpoints and crafting materials.

Graphics/overall fidelity
Like previously mentioned the game looks like ass and has trouble maintaining a consistent framerate. Calling the looks last-gen would be doing a disservice to games like Ghost of Tsushima which looked way better than this washed out dreary heap of polygons and flat textures. The sound design is one of the few positives I can give the game and playing in english is occasionally hilarious due to the borderline racist accents some characters have.

In summary
If you've always dreamed of an AssCreed game with slightly better combat and worse traversal this might just be the one for you. For anyone else I recommend avoiding this heap entirely and doing something more fun like getting a haircut or raking leaves.

Score: 2/5

 

[A_Skellington]

You know, I agree with parts of your review, @Peep Plops but I think you're shitting on the game too much.
Saying that DD2 is a way better game though...


Both have issues and both look like dog shit compared to Ghost of Tsushima, but that's to be expected; GoT is a first party game made for a previous gen and polished for this one. Koei is what, third now?

I'm on PS5 and don't have framerate issues playing in ray tracing mode so I wonder if it's a tech issue with your install?

You also neglected to mention that you can repec your build and that there's transmog for everything you can equip. (Including primary and sub weapons) Did you get to the long house and mess with anything there?

 

[Peep Plops]

You know, I agree with parts of your review, @Peep Plops but I think you're shitting on the game too much.
Saying that DD2 is a way better game though...


Both have issues and both look like dog shit compared to Ghost of Tsushima, but that's to be expected; GoT is a first party game made for a previous gen and polished for this one. Koei is what, third now?

I'm on PS5 and don't have framerate issues playing in ray tracing mode so I wonder if it's a tech issue with your install?

You also neglected to mention that you can repec your build and that there's transmog for everything you can equip. (Including primary and sub weapons) Did you get to the long house and mess with anything there?

I played it on PS5 so I doubt it was a tech issue. And as far as I know the game is also an exclusive title much like GoT was and also only available on the Playstation (for a while at least).

Personally I think DD2 looks a lot better thanks to better lighting, animations and the world feeling more real and less "flat" than in Ronin. I didn't mention respecing because the core gameplay just didn't work for me and I doubt fiddling with stats and gear would've made much of a difference.

Like I said, it's my autistic review reflecting my own feelings, not trying to be exhaustive or pretend I'm an authority on anything, just preambled so you know where I'm coming from.

 

[Mega Black]

That said, I'm wondering if the story is crammed full of wokeshit;

I'm still in the first act but the only thing I'd say is remotely woke about the game is the fact that you're trained by an old Shinobi lady (who you kill) and the CC lets you make a person of any race or gender and it's never commented on. On that same token you can ACTUALLY make attractive female characters with minimal effort.

So far it's been all Japanese and white people. There's no gender bullshit or random niggers walking around. There is some debate about having to get with the times but given the time period that's pretty much the central conflict.

That's because they knew he was just Nobunaga's pet. They play him up so big, but really he did nothing of note and meant nothing to anyone. Even Akechi referred to him as an animal in why they didn't execute him for wielding a sword during that battle that killed Nobunaga

Niggers have so little to be proud of that the idea one of them wuz a real samurai 'n shieet is just too important for them to acknowledge the truth. He was just a weird living toy for Nobunaga to bring around court to freak out other people.

Calling the looks last-gen would be doing a disservice to games like Ghost of Tsushima which looked way better than this washed out dreary heap of polygons and flat textures.

The game is desaturated but Ghost of Tsushima is borderline fantasy with how it portrays feudal Japan. This is a more authentic portrayal aesthetically.

I also haven't been having as many stuttering or framerate dipping issues the past day or so as I was the first day. I can't tell if there was an update or something in my settings made a significant difference.

 

[Mega Black]

Double post but fuck it. I don't want to come across like too much of a shill, but since I'm one of, like, four people who own the game I might as well get it out there.

Maybe my GOTY so far? I'm pretty much addicted, this is the kind of game that you play for fun and challenge rather than a life altering experience of truly cinematic proportions. Each day I put the game down I can't wait to get home, put the kids to bed, then cram in a couple more hours before I zonk out and do it all over again.

Combat doesn't put it's best foot forward, but after actively trying to improve I have gotten to grips with awkward parry timing and can recognize many enemy stances from the outset of combat. I appreciate that a game with this much content can still throw curveballs my way on occasion. Being an RPG, I think the early level hobo phase can be a bit too unforgiving for people, but once you learn that the parry isn't done during red flashes or right before the animation, but during connection, and suddenly counter spark becomes much more viable. You also have an extremely generous block, compared to souls, not keeping your guard up is a bad move.

Enemy variety is 'lacking' for people but only because faggots want zombies and demons to kill. It's actually got a huge variety of enemy types and movesets to learn, compared to Ghost, this complaint makes no sense to me at all.

I also haven't had any issues with enemies getting stuck? Enemies tend to have a short range of pursuit, where backing off far enough can see them awkwardly shuffling back to their zone before re-aggroing as soon as you get too close, but it's a non-issue for the most part.

The open world is full of filler content, but it's all very quick and gives you swift access to more stealth and combat, which is where most of the joy lies, and side quests so far have been fairly elaborate and enjoyable. Doing terrorism with the boys is a lot of fun.

There are also a wide variety of random encounters. Beggars asking for alms, enemy ambushes, people challenging you to duels, and other players can have their ronins appear in your world during these or at random that sre fun to fight and reward you with special loot. I have had repeats but I'm glad since it means even old areas can have some content and life breathed into them.

Graphically the game isn't a looker but it does have that cool historical tourism angle where you can go and find unique structures and actual historical locations and read about them to learn cool facts. Some areas look much nicer than others, and I think people complaining about how ugly the game is are expecting Tsushima levels of beauty from a game that is trying to do much more than just be an eye pleaser, even then, I thinks the game still looks decent. Some areas are prettier than others, the city is somewhat grimy with spots of beauty here and there, but much of the countryside has a nice aesthetic.

Character models in particular look very nice, as do cutscenes. Animations are snappy and satisfying, though traversal animations like climbing and the grappling hook should have had more attention put in.

Also nobody talks about the impressive character customization. You can make really awesome looking characters and there are a lot of fun cosmetic options to make your personal ronin-fu.

Basically, I consider the game certifiedjapjankkino/10. You either git gud and enjoy the combat or what the game has on offer or you don't.

 

[Mary the Goldsmith]

Also nobody talks about the impressive character customization. You can make really awesome looking characters and there are a lot of fun cosmetic options to make your personal ronin-fu.

Ok I'm sold, question: Can I customize both twins? similar to Fallout 4 were If I play as the guy I can still customize the wife? And follow up: If you can customize both, those the nonplayer twin die early on?

 

[Mega Black]

Can I customize both twins?

Yes, you can even change their gender so if you want two brothers or sisters you can. You also unlock the ability to completely alter appearances for both of them for free once you reach the longhouse.

If you can customize both, those the nonplayer twin die early on?

You end up separated after the tutorial, so you only actively control one twin for the majority of the game, BUT the other twin plays a role in the story and you will see them again, so making them look cool does have a payoff.

 

[Mary the Goldsmith]

The other twin plays a role in the story and you will see them again, so making them look cool does have a payoff.

Excellent, I hated spending time on customizing the wife in Fallout 4 only for her to die in the first 10 minutes of the game, and is never seen again, not even in flashbacks or something.

 

[Mega Black]

Excellent, I hated spending time on customizing the wife in Fallout 4 only for her to die in the first 10 minutes of the game, and is never seen again, not even in flashbacks or something.

Yeah, bear in mind you won't see them a ton, at least early on, but they certainly seem more involved than F4.

The game also has favorites and character codes that you can share online so if you don't feel like spending a ton of time making a cool looking twin you can just plug in a code.

 

[Mega Black]

Made it to the second area of the game, still digging it. Performance in the open world is a little worse in Edo, but still far from unplayable. Mission areas look downright good, though. The burning estate, sneaking around in my Shinobi getup, slicing ninjas open, that gave me some very solid Tenchu vibes.

 

[Sniperwoof]

How does this look worse graphically than both Nioh 2 and Wo Long despite being on a PS5 exclusive?