Rise of the Ronin (PC)

Almost a year after its exclusive launch on PlayStation 5, Rise of the Ronin is coming to PC just days before Assassin's Creed Shadows, which is also set in Japan, but in a very different historical setting. What are the strengths of Team Ninja's game?

Koei Tecmo's Japanese studio, Team Ninja, is best known for its hard-hitting character-based action game franchise Ninja Gaiden, as well as action games with a focus on systemic combat based on the progression structure of the Souls games. What Nioh and Nioh 2, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin have in common is that they combine complex combat systems with many interlocking mechanics with checkpoint mechanics a la Dark Souls, but in more classic level structures. Although these games are very different, not only in their setting, but also in the way they implement their distinctive combat systems, they share the Team Ninja DNA. The same goes for Rise of the Ronin, whose battles are similar to those in Nioh and Wo Long. First and foremost, it is a combat game (with three difficulty levels) with different styles and firearms that require the player to make decisions depending on the situation. Players can choose from various melee weapons such as the katana, spear and odachi, each with different combat styles. There are also ranged weapons such as guns and bows.

Where Team Ninja has made progress is in the area of world-building: unlike its predecessors, Rise of the Ronin doesn't have a classic level structure, but an open world designed to combine a more organic quest design with the urge to explore, with new movement options such as a grappling rope (to climb onto rooftops) and hang gliders. However, the open world tends to feature the typical standard tasks, and more variety would have been welcome.

Combat also benefits from the game's Setting in 1863: Rise of the Ronin takes place just after Commodore Perry's Black Fleet invades Japan, where the traditional feudal world of the samurai meets the technological Western world - a setting rarely used for computer and video games. This is evident not only in the firearms, but also in the architecture of the game world, which mixes Japanese pagodas and Western offices. The game features several possible endings, allowing players to choose which faction to support - such as the anti-Shogunate faction, the pro-Shogunate faction, or the Western forces - changing the outcome of the story. It is possible to assassinate or protect key historical figures.

The PC port of Rise of the Ronin can run at up to 8K resolution (up to 120 fps) and supports ultra-wide and super-ultra-wide monitors. It even supports AMD FSR, Intel XeSS and Nvidia DLSS upscaling technologies, with FSR 3 used for frame generation. The game uses DirectX 12 Ultimate and features (optional) real-time ray traced reflections. Although a controller is recommended, keyboard and mouse are supported and can be customised. Publisher Koei Tecmo and developer Team Ninja will release Rise of the Ronin on PC via Steam on 11 March 2025. The PS5 version of the game was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The PC port is being brought to market by Koei Tecmo.

In general, the PC port of Rise of the Ronin is much better than that of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, but it doesn't quite reach the quality of Ghost of Tsushima. DSOG points out that the hardware requirements are a little too high for the visuals, especially with everything set to 'Ultra'.

The past three months have been very busy for Koei Tecmo. December 2024 saw the release of Fairy Tail 2, followed by Dynasty Warriors: Origins in January 2025, which was the company's second best launch on Steam with almost 70,000 CCU. The game has now sold over a million copies worldwide across all platforms. Just a week later, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black launched the Definitive Edition of Ninja Gaiden 2 - and Ninja Gaiden 4 was announced for release in 2025. This was followed by Warriors: Abyss, a new take on the Warriors franchise and its 1 vs. 1,000 action. All of these titles have been developed in-house by Koei Tecmo, Omega Force or Team Ninja. Another title is scheduled for release in March: Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land.

Conclusion

Even if the open world hadn't been so necessary, it's the multi-layered combat on the one hand and the Bakumatsu-era setting on the other that make Rise of the Ronin so special.