Rise of the Ronin

Forse Team Ninja, a multifaceted team (so to speak!) of developers that brought Ninja Gaiden back to its former arcade glory and recently delighted us with Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty, thought it would not be bad at all to set their next game in one of the most critical historical periods of "new" Japan, bringing back into the spotlight what is the most emblematic figure of the land created by the gods Izanami and Izanagi: the Samurai.

Titoli dedicated to samurai, ronin and duels at sunset with cherry blossom petals poetically settling on the contenders’ shoulders we’ve seen countless over the last few years, and that’s putting it mildly—over the last few decades, in fact—without lacking side-scrolling 2D excursions and magnificent open worlds where historical-folkloric hybridization has reached rather lofty heights: I’m obviously referring to that 2020 Ghost of Tsushima, which in effect established itself in the royal palace of the action-adventure genre as a milestone and benchmark for everything that would come after.

And it is precisely Rise of the Ronin, a title due out on March 22, 2024 for PlayStation 5, that is everything that will come after. Team Ninja has been sharpening its swords for a long time to arrive prepared for the fight.

The first substantial differences concern the era in which the two titles are set: while GoT focused on the thirteenth century of Japan, plagued by Mongol invasions and attempts to subjugate a land so appealing to foreign armies, Rise of the Ronin takes us on a temporal leap of almost six hundred years.

Choice not only courageous but also driven by the need to distance itself as much as possible from its illustrious predecessor, so as to immerse players in a context that could vaguely recall Ghost of Tsushima while at the same time setting itself apart from it.

Senza andare troppo nel dettaglio, this historical period was crucial for Japan’s fate, as it was devastated by internal civil wars and the progressive disintegration of the feudal system: the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, certainly, but above all the definitive opening toward the West, with all that would follow from it.

Ma politics and modernization, more or less deliberate, are not the core elements of Rise of the Ronin, fortunately. The gameplay seen in the trailer looks very promising and the scenarios boast a suggestive and photorealistic aura, it could not be otherwise given the machine that runs it.

Intriguing too is the promise of multiple, crucial choices for the unfolding of the main plot and also the numerous side quests implemented in the game: if handled with foresight and a good level of writing, they could be the keystone of Team Ninja's title.

Un'altra difference in my opinion fundamental is the choice to introduce into the world of the samurai also the presence of the ninja, legendary figures and much loved by anyone who has even a little passion for pop culture: lethal assassins and charming presences, the ninja should be an integral part of the game and the opposition between Bushido, the samurai's code of honor, and Ninjutsu, which instead is based on the concept of victory to be achieved by any means and as quickly as possible, using without hesitation the most underhanded and effective methods and techniques, will certainly be an arrow, or rather a shuriken, at the disposal of Rise of the Ronin.