Among the most interesting surprises in the State of Play, the Rise of the Ronin occupies a prominent place, let’s try to evaluate the situation a little.
Given the size of the team and the projects already in the works, it was hard to expect Rise of the Ronin to arrive from team ninja, rather than thinking that it could be a project that broad. The announcement came as a complete surprise during last night’s state of play with an amazing promo, while everyone thought Koei Tecmo was completely captured by Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, another very interesting game, but this point seems almost secondary to this other title.
The first video gave the opportunity to show a little the atmosphere and tone that the developers sought with this game, but the idea is that it is real Open world action RPG And that Koei Tecmo aims to make it a million great sellers that put everything in a different light. It seems that the development has already been going on for 7 years now, and given that the release is scheduled for 2024, we will talk about massive processing times, comparable to the great projects of Rockstar Games.
Of course, it is possible that at this time production has been going very slowly and that the game has only recently taken on significant dimensions, perhaps once Partnership with Sony It would publish and is supposed to inject a good amount of money into the project, but the fact remains that it is, on purpose, possibly the most ambitious game the team of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive have seen so far. A lot of interest certainly, but also many questions, especially in terms of actually being able to complete an open world of this size and also being able to mark it with a good original imprint, but also given Nioh’s precedent, the hopes are high.
So let’s summarize Everything we know about Rise of the Ronin.
Feudal Japan is back in fashion
We can now talk about a real trend: Feudal Japan (or thereabouts) is back in fashion: in a few days, we attended the Assassin’s Creed Codename RED show, Like Dragon: Ishin! And the rise of Ronin specifically, with the last two decades sharing the same reference decade, in terms of temporal aggregation. Compared to titles such as Ghost of Tsushima and the aforementioned Ubisoft game, the Japanese producers consider a more interesting period, characterized by political and cultural turmoil on different levels. In fact, there is talk of the end of the Edo period, when the “black ships” of Westerners – as the trailer for Rise of the Ronin tells us – appeared in Tokyo Bay, forcing the opening to the West and putting an end to sacoTwo centuries of isolation in Japan.
came to Bakumatsuwhich led to the end of the shogunate, from the social organization known as bakovo And back to the central structure of the empire with the Meiji Restoration.
This is exactly Transitional period It is also clearly visible at the beginning of Rise of the Ronin Trailer, with an overview of Crow’s Journey highlighting a strange mixture of classical Japanese architecture and new structures emerging in cities. In all this, the function and role of the samurai was also lost: some of these became definitively embedded bureaucrats in the new imperial structure, while others became ronin, or vagrant fighters with no definite purpose in life. One of these is the protagonist of the game, a fighter who has no ties but who seems to be able to influence the chaotic course of the country.
fighter without rules
For a warrior who has devoted his life to defending certain ideals, the collapse of the established order is a clearly tragic event, which leads to the loss of reference points. The a hero Rise of the Ronin finds himself in this situation, but he can still count on a few key points: his great fighting skills and a certain sense of justice, which will likely lead him to fight against some of the distortions of modern society. The title actually refers to a form of organized rebellion, rebellion, which could have something to do with the Satsuma Rebellion, as far as we can assume. A great deal of security is instead obtained from combat systemThis is an area where Team Ninja has historically excelled. Once again, it seems that a lot of attention has been paid to this element of the gameplay, which will be central to an open world RPG.
On the other hand, after experiencing Nioh, we can expect some interest in combat technology and tactical use of weapons, with some additions that seem to give a great dynamism to the action. Take big concessions from Bushido, the protagonist far exceeds the katana and is also able to use different firearms, as we have seen in the fight in which he uses a rifle bayonet using the blade and bullets at the same time, but also in the scene where he was cooling the enemy by pulling a powerful pistol, which may be surprising Extremely, keeping in mind the classic clichés of this kind of setup. The method of ronin, in essence, also manifests itself in the freedom to approach combat, as the protagonist is now detached from the strict moral codes and traditions imposed by bushido that can range from Various techniques and weapons.
freedom of action
This freedom offered by ronin, which allows the hero to build his own warrior’s morals and ethics, should be reflected at different levels in the gameplay, in short. We’ve seen how this appears to have major implications for the combat system, which relies on a range of weapons and techniques that can be used to deal with different situations, but which must also reveal itself in displacement system The protagonist in the open world. The unpredictability of movement symbolizes the grappling hook and glider, two tools we’ve seen successfully associated with traversing large settings. In addition to their use in clashes, they can allow new ways to interact with scenarios, and also open the way for a certain exploitation of verticality for landscapes, as well as looking at how different structures of time taken into account present ideas for exploration in this sense.
Added to all this is the vividly open world, which illustrates the enormous ambitions of Rise of the Ronin, but also represents a huge unknown, for a team that has so far focused on different, tougher structures. The ability to explore a A wide open world It is in itself a symbol of the freedom given to the player and there is no better way to get into the role of Ronin, a wandering warrior in search of adventures and purpose in life.
Adding to these great features, the game’s capabilities reach remarkable heights, which also explains the ambition that Koei Tecmo has forged towards this project. Still a long time to go, but the features are very promising and well summarized from the first trailer: we’ll have to see how Team Ninja will manage a production of this scale, considering that even the video reveals several edges that can be smoothed from an artistic point of view, but Between now and 2024, it will be one of the titles to watch.
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