Announced at the PlayStation State of Play, Rise of the Ronin sees Team Ninja returning to a classical Japanese setting, this time at the end of the Tokugawa regime and the coming of the English to Japanese shores.
The trailer showcases a vast, industrialized Japanese open world across harbor cities, forested shrines, and other locales iconic to the period. Shown are a few means of traversing the world, including parkour, on horseback, and using a butterfly-themed paraglider much like the one players used in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
Combat is fast and brutal, fitting for the player character, a ronin caught between the modernization of Japan and the traditions of the past. Swordplay is essential to moment-to-moment gameplay, and there appear to be duels, random encounters, and other world event fights throughout. Some of the combat seemed more fantastical, with the main character using a grappling hook to zip over to an enemy while lighting his swords on fire for a spinning attack. Firearms are also key to combat, between pistols, muskets, and other small arms.
There wasn’t much to glean from the story beyond the conflict with the English arriving and all the strife their search for conquest brought to Japan’s shores. The trailer’s ending shows the main character apparently being executed, but he seems happy about the outcome, saying, “The time has come. Rise as one.”
The quote suggests that there will be mechanics around building a crew of fellow ronin to take back some portion of Japan or work together toward some common end. There is also likely to be a narrative around the ongoing conflict between, “Those who cleave to the past, and those who embrace the new” and the ronin themselves, warriors, “Free from all masters and bonds.”
Team Ninja is well known for their mechanical chops, with the Nioh series showing how the Souls-like genre can function with deep combat systems. What little we see of the combat in Rise of the Ronin leaves little doubt they’ve only evolved as a studio, as the movements are cleaner, more brutal, and are probably even more satisfying to pull off.
