Rise of the Rōnin is Butter Spread Too Thin | Review 

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing us that non-linear level design is better than linear level design

Three things: 1. Regarding auteurs, the only big one really left is Suda 51 imo. People are hung up on the jank of his games though. 2. Itagaki would've eventually sunk Team Ninja based on what happened after he left and did on his own. 3. Team Ninja not being known for their graphics being a heavily regurgitated comment from many people makes me died inside. Ninja Gaiden and DOA2 on Dreamcast were way ahead of their time. They just lost their touch since NG3.

The lack of hitstun on attacking enemies during their attacks is probably the worst problem in these action game. Being forced to play lame or get 2 hit killed by a villager with a broken sword that randomly have super armor on his light attacks.

It strikes me that Rise of the Ronin could've have been served well with a world design that is like Way of the Samurai's where the world isn't open, but rather a collection of interconnected areas that you travel between. You could have characters appear and special events occur at certain times of the day

To me, (the OG) Dark Souls was more of an adventure game in the style of Ocarina of Time than it was an action game. The combat system was fine, just as it was in Ocarina of Time, but it was never really what made it special. What made it special was more so the atmosphere, the exploration, and in general the narratological (as opposed to ludological) side of the game. I've always found it bizarre that all the Dark Souls imitators have only ever really taken the combat system from it. I also find it bizarre that Team Ninja seem to only be able to make soulslikes nowadays.

Tbf Hideki Kamiya broke away from Capcom to make Platinum in the first place.

I love FROM’s games but really would wish others developers would stop trying to “replicate” them.

Ronin’s combat has way more depth and variety than Sekiro. The only comparison you can make is that you can parry here too, and Sekiro isn’t even the first game to implement a parry system. It's a bit of a surface level comparison. You also don't have to rely on parry and can utilize block and dodge for majority of the game similar to Ninja Gaiden 1. This game has more in common with Way of the Samurai than Sekiro. The open world has been a blast since it revolves around a bond system with the npcs who surprisingly have been pretty well written, and it’s been insane actually discovering over 20 different combat styles all unique with their own move sets which makes the combat encounters never getting old in my 60+ hours of playing. Game's been highly addicting

Is it just me or have Japanese game developers become almost as trend-chasing (some would say "analytics-driven") as western studios? I always admired it when Japanese studios just did their thing, even when it only had a small (but reliable) audience) niche audience.

This is yet another AAA game where everything about it resembles a "simulator" rather than an intentional, artistically-driven challenge. When everything is reduced to modular, easily interchangeable objects placed in an open world, the whole game just becomes a repeated and predictable series of code-driven simulation. So often in recent AAA games I get this vibe where I just feel like I'm "sitting in a 3D engine, orbiting game objects around each other" rather than getting lost an immersive game experience. FromSoft is the major exception to this and all comes down to that studio's amazing level and environment design. FromSoft's games constantly deliver deliberate, crafted experiences to the player. I recently decided to give Ikaruga a shot after hearing about it for many years and, man, do I wish I had played this game earlier. Every single second of that game is a direct conversation between player and developer. It wouldn't be a legendary and iconic sh'mup if it was an open world where you flew around randomly encountering bots and blowing them up for generic quest objectives. The game's systems are actually quite simple and straightforward,. It's the intense, painstakingly designed levels that makes the entire experience unforgettable. The best action games are no different. I feel like this is another symptom of the pressure AAA studios feel to ensure their games feel "long and fulfilling for a single playthrough", rather than tightly designed and a joy to replay again and again.

i dispise combat systems when the enemies' attacks do big damage and your attacks do chip feels like i am wielding a whiffle bat

Wow, this was weird. I actually agree with the premise of the video, but there are so many little things you get wrong that I end up disagreeing with 90% of the actual content. I think the main issue is that you kind of identify a real problem (good), then reach a surface level conclusion by looking at it from just one angle and leapfrogging to the next. Either that or you explain things poorly imo. Let me show you what I mean: So in Chapter 2, you more or less make the point that "action focused" games do not fit with Open-World structure because they break up the intensity of the core gameplay loop/formula. Now, following this you state that this doesn't really apply to Elden Ring because action is not the only thing it focuses on (more on this later) but then you also say here: 10:13 that "the problem with a lot of modern action games". Essentially, the distinction you seem to be making on whether its okay for an action game to have downtime/an open world is whether the downtime is well made and fun to engage with. So then, naturally, the problem isn't actually that 'Open World Dilutes Combat' but 'make all parts of the game good and synergistic'. I'm also going to go ahead and criticize something you don't explicitly say but I think exists in the subtext of this video (and also your Game Density video, which I watched for better context) and that's this idea that Team Ninja games, specifically Nioh/Wo Long/etc (actually I also disagree with grouping Ninja Gaiden and Nioh together in terms of design language and goals, maybe more on that later) are uniquely action-focused amongst Souls and other soulslikes because they 'trim the fat' as it were. They aren't. Imagine you have two hotels: Hotel A just offers lodgings and room service, that's it. Hotel B offers lodgings, room service, a bar, a spa, a pool, a movie theater, and so many amenities that you'll often find people visiting it without even booking rooms, but the rooms are still just as good as Hotel A. In this scenario, Hotel A doesn't really get to cope by saying "Oh we're a Room-focused hotel guys, look Hotel B has a punch of patrons that don't even care about the staying the night. You come to Hotel A, you come for the lodgings so yeah we're unique in that sense." If you run through a Souls game without engaging with the exploration (which is a valid way to experience them) it offers just as much 'gameplay density' as Nioh - if not more since Nioh's loading screens and mission selection between levels are longer than the time it takes to run/ride between encounters in souls. Yes, even Elden Ring (barring some specific sections). Being excellent in multiple areas or offering alternative ways to play does not detract or devalue the central experience, which in Fromsoft games is absolutely the combat. Again, that would be like saying "MGR isn't action focused because a lot of people just care about the music." Bringing it back to open worlds, like I said initially, I actually agree with the premise of the video. I think there is something lost if you have a Team Ninja soulslike where all the combat encounters are super spaced out without much quality gameplay to fill the gaps, but that's because of the [without much quality gameplay to fill the gaps] not the [combat encounters are super spaced out] part, because Nioh isn't Rise of the Ronin so they deserve to change the identity of the game even if they are the same developer (similarly to how I don't mind Sekiro dropping Souls' buildcraft because it isn't Dark Souls 3.5), but the reason is because - as you point out - the out of combat gameplay isn't very engaging and it ends up being just worse Nioh. I'm not going to give you a hard time about some of the sentiments expressed in your Gaming Density video because it's 3 years old and I'm just going to assume you've moderated some of the absurd stances there (e.g. "the point of downtime in games is primarily to stretch the runtime"), but I can see those sentiments rearing their heads a bit in this video. Now a lot of the other points in the video are just a case of taking the audience's agreement for granted without bothering to justify anything. Why exactly is it a problem that you can snipe patiently in MGSV (which, by the way, you neglected to mention the other myriad downsides of that approach being prohibitively difficult if your plan is to fulton the enemies, a core mechanic of the game, or getting shelled, or getting mortared, or helicopters, etc)? Don't know. 12:25 "If you have a combat focused game, and you have this sort of challenge of clearing out little villages in between the missions, how do you get the player to do that in a compact, combat focused way? You can't without locked in arenas." Yes you can, of course you can, just have them chase you effectively. The problem here is the execution (in RotR's case, bad AI design) not the concept. If the concern is that it messes with the specially crafted encounter design, then the ability to use guerilla tactics to outmaneuver an enemy in a position of strength is a feature not a bug, and furhtermore makes it so that the times when _you_ are the one being outmaneuvered position-wise are a nice change of pace and more engaging due to the juxtaposition. That would be like bemoaning the existence of stealth or ranged weapons in general in Nioh because it isn't melee combat. At the end of this section, you basically say "Ronin's pacing sucks", which is perfectly fine to say, but the problems you outlined aren't the principles applied but the execution of them. Your critique of the art is pretty spot on. Same with the controls. And then we get to the parry section, and while there _is_ a lot to unpack, I'll try to be more brief. You essentially say "footsies + high risk parry is better" which... I mean, the obvious rebuttal to that would be Sekiro's Deflect and Ronin's Counterspark aren't the same thing and don't serve the same purpose. You say yourself that Counterspark stops enemy strings, which isn't really true but even if it was, then of course it would be high risk, it stops strings and Sekiro's deflect doesn't. In reality, Counterspark is more analogous to the Mikiri Counter or Stomp in Sekiro since both hard-stagger on the enemy's combo finisher and you are punished for mistiming. Deflect takes more of the same role as dodging and blocking in Ronin. To sum it up, Sekiro has [Block] and [Deflect] on the same button with a dedicated [High-Risk Parry] on a different button, while Ronin has [Deflect] and [High-Risk Parry] on the same button with a dedicated [Block] on a different button. They're different systems which have different dynamics, but neither inherently has more decision making or is "better" conceptually from where I'm standing. The real meat of your argument though comes in 26:35 "...it mitigates the importance of spacing and movement, of fundamental combat" ...What? You just throw this out there and truck on as though its self evident; since when is spacing and movement synonymous with 'fundamental combat'? It's a big part of it sure, but it's no more a part of it than close-quarters parrying, reversals and counter-attacking. Maybe I'm misinterpreting and what you're actually saying is that 'making parry-combat king' upsets the balance between infighting and outfighting gameplay, but then by that token there's no way you can single out parrying for this because before Sekiro released every Soulslike, especially Nioh, was _heavily_ dodge-focused with only a small minority of attacks being parriable, and honestly that's fine. It's fine for a game to focus on one or the other. The reason a game like Sekiro is parry-focused is because the combat fantasy is based on "clashing swords". I don't really get where this footsies-good, parry-bad dichotomy stems from. Well I can hazard a guess, which I'll use to end this post. No offense dude, genuinely, but from the two videos I've seen from you, you seem to have a compulsion to uncharitably characterize things and systems that you personally just don't have an affinity for as somehow fundamentally or conceptually flawed when it's actually just not your cup of tea. While yeah, it sucks when studios you like go in directions you don't (I personally love Ninja Gaiden to death, I don't like Nioh really) it's okay to admit that the issue you have may be one of incompatibility. Otherwise, I actually liked the video more or less. Reminds me of old anime RU-vid, for better and for worse.

So glad I found this channel. It’s considerate game criticism without being too clinical or overly objective. It’s coming from someone who just loves games. Also, I’m more Team Ninja/Ninja Gaiden than FromSoft/Souls. Ninja Gaiden and Sekiro are my favorite games. I am this channel. This channel is me.

Im praying for a new DOA, we need it more than ever boys

I have never watched your channel. This being the first video I've seen from you, I am hella impressed. I'll be looking at your other videos and look forward to your steller blade review.

The algorithm did me good today, just started watching and this review is spot on in the most well stated way

Your perspective on gaming is honestly so refreshing

The aesthetics of your thumbnails and everything you design or have designed for your channel and brand is always so fresh

It's crazy how you are the only real game reviewer on RU-vid.

Man, finally started playing Ninja Gaiden 3 since I put it off for so long. I just love how much they throw at you right off the bat and just keeps that momentum. Really wish Team Ninja would go back to that 8( Wonder if they'll ever make a forth and if they do if it will do the series justice.

Mark is the type of dude to eat butter by itself

When these big Japanese game directors leave the soul of the projects tend to never recover. Sure, the talent of game creation is there but it's akin to the soul leaving the body. Look at Final Fantasy after Sakaguchi left. Look at everything post RE5 after Mikami left & look at Team Ninja atter Itagaki left. Is FF12 Good considering it's crazy development? Sure. Are the RE games after 5 good? Debatable. Are Tean Ninja a stand out company now that the rizz is gone? Nah. One director can't create a project by themselves but they certainly can add soul & syle & that is something this game lacks. 😐

It really saddens me that it seems every action game that comes out these days are just soulslike. Stellar Blade seemed like finally it would be more akin to DMC but nope! Its also a soulslike. I just want more games with their own unique battle system.

Something sad I'm noticing with these japanese companies is when they start to cater to "modern audiences" they transform into something different. I call them now global companies because they feel like a weird mix between japanese gameplay (at best) and western style (the focus of hyperrealism and bland style that can't offend anyone). It's sad because I started to stop being interested in a lot these companies and more and more started to follow this trend. Anyways great review. Followed!

When the cost of making a AAA action adventure game is becoming really expensive and can take several years to complete,you really can’t afford to be bold and niche and cater for the 1% hardcore playerbase. In order to make money you have to make your game palatable for the majority of players in order to sell copies. Therefore you see the trends: open worlds, parrying , rpg elements, exploration. You should really consider this in your Videos. Its not because developers don’t know about game design, gameplay density etc , they have to make compromises in order to chase more sales

I just replayed your video again and what do you mean by full time job?

aggressively plain's a nice way to describe the character design in alot of these games now

Your intro is exactly why I'm always cautious about calling video games an art. Directors and game designers should consider themselves as craftsmen first before imagining themselves as artists. When they start considering themselves as artists this where they begin to sacrifice gameplay and well balanced mechanics to their "vision". That is exactly what happens with Kojima and David Cage, they're so persuaded to be doing art that they lose focus of what makes a game actually good. Of course graphic designers and music composers can think of themselves as artists but the lead designers must never forget that the concept, the idea, their vision must not come at the cost of well crafted game mechanics. And I also think that one of the reasons why when a game designer leaves a big studio to keep doing the same kind of games but "their own way" they often fail to surpass what they did before is because they tend to become self-indulgent, there is no longer somebody above them to refocus their priorities, criticize their ideas and set limits. You've got an all powerful "artist" at the helm more concerned about their vision than the core qualities of what makes a good game.

Love your takes on Gameplay Density as a concept and love that you are reviewing for the Gameplay nuts like you and I. Hope you keep up the modern action game reviews. I'll try to beat some schmups and eventually 1CC the one I like.

You're actually giving a bit too much credit to Team Ninja in a sense, when you don't consider the early development of the 3D character action genre, especially by not taking early 2000s Capcom in consideration. I'd say Team Ninja have never been innovators; they've always refined or retooled already made concepts. This goes for DOA compared to Virtua Fighter, Ninja Gaiden to Devil May Cry and Nioh to Dark Souls. Otherwise your critique is as well articulated and interesting as usual, and the points you argue for are valid.

Great video once again, it really is no contest when it comes to who is the best on youtube in really exploring the art form of great game design.

The sexy thing is 100% an over-correction, the point people were trying to make with being against sexual objectification was the general lack of women characters existing for any other purpose and the possible effect of that on our collective psyche. Failing to understand the nuance in the difference between sexiness and objectification and instead interpreting it as "westerners hate sex appeal" has led to this style or lack thereof to avoid controversy. Cool sexy characters who are interesting and have multiple sides like Bayonetta and 2B were popular even among some of the crowd who opposed objectification despite getting some controversy but overall I think they were well received. Even westerners have failed to understand this distinction somewhat and have cut back on it and now you see the Korean pop culture market flooding the void by spamming sexiness in Kpop videos and porn manhuas and video games like with their MMOs and now with Stellar Blade. Nature abhors a vaccum.

You won my subscription...I, too , love Team Ninja of the past. Ninja Gaiden 2 (vanilla version), is in my top 5 games of all time, and dead or alive 5 is my absolute favorite fighter. I have been saying for years that Fromsoft games were literally just extensions of Ninja Gaiden games. I've been waiting for someone else to note the departure of Itagaki from the company, and have been so shocked to hear so many creators say how bad Team Ninja games look. When it released, Ninja Gaiden looked better than anything else on the o.g. Xbox. Lest we forget...

this open world trend finally needs to end.

extremely underrated game design analysis! i love your channel!

Mark your right about the overlap in sexyness and style. An old way of describing beauty is: Integrity- good health. Proportionality- your nose isn't where ur ass is, etc. Radiance- the little extra that makes you stand out. This is suuuper important bcuz we have to decipher what our eyes are seeing and connectinons. Note that in this era we have reused/refurbished assets, packed scheduels and ...things outside development.

$80 hell nah. I will play old games forever if it comes to that

I appreciate how straight forward you are. Too many would not go to the point of the issue in fear of being called names. It's not just that a design can be sexy but on an objective, technical construction and appreciation of a design is also something to strive for. As someone who finds growth in effort and the appreciation of beauty in all things it's important to have good design. That's a thing the agents of the politburo could never understand. Oh and yeah, games are fucking expensive, another reason to have things that are appealing. Nobody wants to pay 70+ bucks for something that plays like ass and looks like it too.

I'm still hanging out for an action game that will make me feel as pumped as Ninja Gaiden 2 did. Who will be the next Itagaki?

can u do a team ninja tier list (just for fun!)

Did you like Ghost? Trying to decide which one to get and play right now

I liked sekiro and actually really liked jade empire, back in the day. I'll still probably get this game. Just not now. Not for $70, no way.

Did you try using weapons besides the katana? I feel like the heavier weapons would be able to stagger more reliably

Stranger of Paradise is the closest Team Ninja game to a Nioh 3, I'd imagine most fans of their older games enjoy it more than this and Wo Long. Plus it isn't really aimed at mainstream with the less serious and gameplay focused setting. I think it kind of flopped in japan because of the characters being more western appeal (which unironically end up being pretty fun)

Ironically, JRPGs figured out how to combine an open world and handcrafted levels before they were even popular.

"FromSoft is like the Coca Cola and Team Ninja is like their Pepsi Cola" LOL! As someone from Atlanta, I agree with this.

One of the things I loved about SIFU. It implemented it's own systems and refined them for better gameplay. The combat in that game was amazing.

I love the immersion of open world games but the combat in them is usually too easy or not good, and the loot progression is usually minimal at best. The main things I look for in games are an interesting and immersive world, good challenging combat, and a bunch of good loot and gear options preferably with meaningful stats. Rise of the Ronin has managed to be super immersive with good and challenging combat and a bunch of loot. I can't disagree with your points, but i really wish we had more games like RotR and of course Elden Ring.

I laughed so hard when I saw you were fighting Matthew Perry in a Team Ninja game.

Its a shame people who review Rise of the Ronin cant do so without comparing it to a list of other games and not on its own merits

Loving your videos bro.

Handling multiple enemies at once is also fundamentally stronger here than it was in Nioh 1 and 2 - slightly behind FF Origin(which handles it best out of their recent catalogue). The real "issue" is that it's tools tied behind longer open world progression. Hit stuns follow a string of hit check/confirms, as opposed to a constant. Similar to strings in DoA, Tekken, and VF. As an example the counterspark attack, advancing attack, and charge attacks provide larger hit stun of frame advantage on hit, to strike again(i.e. with martial skills) uninterrupted - to check for advantage again. Basically the game wants you to pay closer attention to the defensive state of enemies and build frame advantages. You can strike the enemy and get frame advantage and then walk around to their back, and get free reign creating whiffs of red attacks instead of it being a parryfest. Enemy strings have gaps in them that you can side walk and evade around, similar to how you would do it in DoA/VF/Tekken. There are multiple different types of dashes and dodges, unfortunately again some of them come later through new stances. You'll be able to walk circles around all enemy types and create constant whiffs. So often times, countersparking an enemy is less rewarding than make them whiff air as you side step them. Perhaps the biggest issue you have is the slower progression pace to get the tools you need. The game you want is in here, though - later you can also play the game as a mission based game instead of through open world.

One of the only few game review channels that says exactly what ive been thinking for years. It's a shame the jumping doesn't have much use here, and this is yet another game with an over-centralizing parry. why bother with nuances of the rest of the combat, once you get the timings down. Been there done that. Still waiting for team ninja to make something great like with the ninja gaiden series, instead of these filler titles that don't appeal to veterans. You can feel this has the framework to be an amazing title but it doesn't hit home.

What is your opinion about Dragon's Dogma 2 ?

nice review thank you, good luck going full time !

Surely DoA6 selling poorly has nothing to do with selling the game in chunks of season passes DLC that each cost as much as the base game.

You hit so many nails in the head with this video! It's one of the best dev teams in the world and I love them too. In terms of identity though, they appear to be a little bit lost at the moment. I believe they are kind of preparing themselves and testing the market for Ninja Gaiden IV. And the way I see it, the NG Black formula is the way to go. An adventure, not an rpg, in a consistent interconnected world with rewarding exploration, almost constant white knuckle combat, interesting characters and those boss fights that made you feel like a superhero when you beat them. That would sell a lot, score high in reviews and put them back where they belong. Fingers crossed.

I recently tried out the Stellar Blade demo and am very curious on your thoughts once the full game drops. If this review is anything to go by, I can only imagine how mixed your thoughts are going to be on the combat but maybe I'm the crazy one and you'll love it, we'll see. I think the major conversation people are going to have about the game is strictly going to be the character designs, which is baffling when a game like Nier Automata came out with baffling success and praise with a character whose ass is practically in frame for a majority of the play time. I feel people pick and choose when to have this conversation because it's only okay when certain games do it, almost feels like developer bias at times. Although I'd be lying if I said the characters in Stellar Blade don't feel more sexualized with the tight clothes and jiggle physics 😅. At worst, I personally felt it was an enjoyable demo that made me think of those PS2 era games like Red Ninja, Nightshade, and especially Bloodrayne with the really sexualized characters in an otherwise servicable but not too memorable game. I'd be more inclined the check it out but the story and gameplay didn't really draw enough attention for me to consider dropping the expected $80 which, yes, is fucking insane!! Also Mark, I'm curious on your thoughts on the old Yakuza games and that sort of format of action game where the open map design is condensed enough where it's not overwhelming but with plenty to do with varied combat scenarios in those "locked room" combat situations. I'm not sure if you've ever brought up that series in the past outside of your previously mentioning how you could play Spikeout in Infinite Wealth. Great video, although I think I'll stick with the Nioh games for the time being.

I would be interested in a retrospective on Wanted: Dead one year later, analyzed against other "recent" action games, including the likes of Stellar Blade and even Valkyrie Elysium (since also Soleil)..

now I'm waiting for the electric underground review of ninja blade

you're 100% correct with the opening ive never had the same respect for them after the original xbox ninja gaidens those games were on another level... strangers was the only recent title i tried and really only because of the multiplayer and how cool the mc was

You know, I never really thought about it, but you bring up a great point about jailing the player. You can easily kite enemies in Elden Ring's open world or force them into their de-aggro state by running backwards far enough and it's sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card(easily abused in Sekiro especially where every enemy has a 5 second memory). The best combat moments in those games happen in tighter spaces where you're forced to manage the situation, no matter how the big the odds are stacked against you. I've never played a souls game as an archer or spell caster because those games aren't fun unless you're up close and personal with the old sword and board. Only time I think it works is when the game is specifically designed to be played that way like Remnant From the Ashes.

i consider this more an analysis than a review, im not rly one who enjoys the action genre all that much, but i love it when content creators seamingly know their stuff and share insights on game design practices instead of just regurgitating the story..fun watch good job

Amazing review!!

I can recommend Stellar Blade.It's combat is not just focused on perfect parry's and it has lot of option how to approach. And even after parry/evade you also have multiple options what to do after that. Enemies react to your attacks but also get super armor BUT instead of ROR it is way better communicated in game when they get it back. If played right you can unleash long combos that can even cancel the enemie's attack. The best thing is , this works on bosses too and it feels great. The only thing they now need to get rid of is the fucking lock on that plagues every action game since dark souls. It is like people forgot how action games worked pre dark souls.

Borderlands 3 was like that too, you can always back off and snipe away as you move through the level but once you hit the main boss it locks you in.

I beat NG2 on Master Ninja difficulty so when I played Dark Souls for the first time I didn't get what all the fuss was about

Don't think I missed that hot screen transition at 24:38, Mark. 👌

Thank you very much for this in-depth review. i'm conflicted about this game, usually i buy all of the Team-Ninja games (of this genre), but i haven't bought this one, but your review made me want to give it a try despite all of its flaws you mentioned, so i think i'll wait for a lower price to give it a try. Also at 30:38- i didn't buy DOA 6 because of the egregious pricing policy on the previous episode, it didn't even crossed my mind to buy this one because of it. This has nothing to do with the gameplay nor chara designs (and i don't think i'm the only person in this case).

How can you say that when it comes to games focusing on combat open world design is not a good fit when we have ghost of tsushima ?

I miss NG, and its great girls, so much

The interesting thing comparing Ninja Gaiden's provocate character design with stellar blades is that NG feels like it fits with the game whilst stellar blades looks cringe and so out of place with the rest of the game. Ryu's design still is iconic, and whilst i find Rachel's a little gratuitous, it matches a general asthetic (black leather armor, some exposed areas, emblishments on the clothes etc.) Even with ayane's gear aswell. Stellar blade just looks so derivivative of some anime aesthetic character design that so many games seem to add that i find grinds against the art style of the rest fo the game.

These raw reviews are great!

Just to be clear I really like you work. You have turned me on to some great games, and I find myself in agreement with you far more than the opposite. That said, I find your comparison to MGS V to be a very poor example. I bring this up because it's the second time you've made a comment that (the first one being your FF16 review) that I found to be wholly incorrect. MGS V is centered around a player driven experience. It gives players an infinite number of options to experiment with, mix and match. Are your going the stealth route, are you minimizing by your presence? Or are you going in with force by bombardment, smoke, helicopter in fil or extraction, etc. MGS V take th approach where even a side mission can feel like it's own full blown game in itself. That said you've inspired me to make my own video on the game to prove my point. Like I said before I lole your work, but it's clear that your approach to MGS V is the problem not the game itself. That said it sounds like you need to play the FOB missions, which are excellent challenges for those craving a more linear design. Edit: the philosophy of the open world in MGS V is to allow the player to build familiarity with the level design and mechanics. It is then that one realizes how genius the level design is in MGS V and how there is nothing to date that even compares.

The man trapped inside the CRT TV speaks the truth. Team Ninja has been losing their protagonism in gaming for a while now, even amongst the Eastern devs. They aren't bad per say, however they haven't made anything exceptional or unique in a long time. It's not a surprise Team Ninja isn't a name many think of when talking about big eastern game developers anymore.

Really thoughtful critique. I’ve never even heard of Jade Empire before watching this since I didn’t have any Xbox systems. Is it worth checking out?

But butter spread too thin is delicious

Happy to see this reviewed. I knew you wouldn't love it , but I like to see your thorough takes on these more mainstream games. I love Nioh so much, and its so frustrating that post-Itagaki Team Ninja, as extremely talented as they are, are catering to trends and not their own skill set. I'm all for a new IP, but really if they could just put out a lean action game, I feel even the reviewers would like it more than this, it surely would kill Sifu in gameplay. Even Nioh hasn't fully capitalized on its best attributes yet for me. If Nioh 3 got rid of the loot and simplified the RPG systems... I guess I want Ninja Gaiden 4.

Such a great review not just covering this games faults but touching on why so many of these games now, like FromSoft stuff, are saturated with boring mechanics like obsession with parries and incredibly annoying super armor / lack of meaningful hitstun.

Great review and breakdown of the game design of Rise. Also "Zelda for adults" is exactly how I described Dark Souls and even Demons Souls when they first released.

30:31 well if that doesn't just sum up modern games style in general. The open world commentary was good, I was feeling such ruminations myself playing Dragons Dogma 2 and really missing that more condensed linear dungeon crawl that was in Dark Arisen expansion to the first game. I love open world exploration and finding things in the map, but that's a one time event and you can't get that sense of discovery on a second playthrough. So going back just for the gameplay bits and it becomes a slog. Thats why despite normally getting at least 3 playthroughs of other fromsoft games I got like halfway through a second play of Elden Ring and had to drop it, its just too much filler in between.

Funny you say that about Kojima because starting with Peace Walker then going into Metal Gear Solid V and then finally culminating in Death Stranding, his team makes some of the best mechanically put together games out there.

Honestly i will NEVER understand why Team Ninja doesn't replicate the success they had whit Ninja Gaiden 1. Semi-linear world whit a satisfying combat where you are a powerhouse BUT can easily get killed. It genuinely feels they lost their identity.

Saying that directors aren't involved in the minutiae of mechanical design in these games seems like a stretch. What did you base that on?

Just FYI, turn on auto-loot if you're still playing. I noticed that a crafting item had R1 appear in your footage. Ain't nobody got time for that, lol.

It was interesting that the review didn't touch on the level-up curve, and just how much the inclusion of an overall player level breaks the combat system. It's absurd how fast you become OP if you focus on completing side quests, and it upends everything else. Even as someone who was willing to slog through the open-world to get to the combat, when I did get into those more interesting "jailed" battles or boss fights I often had very little impetus to give it 100%. I played on Hard, and in the early game the difficulty felt good, landing somewhere around where Lie of P did, in that it was challenging enough to make me sweat a bit here and there, but if I focused I would succeed. Yet, I soon found that even being 4-5 levels above the recommended level for the Quest meant I could lazily soak up tons of damage, get in the occasional good parry/counter, and succeed on my first try in battles that were clearly supposed to be much more challenging.

ROR is nothing like Sekiro. It's better for it. Completely disagree with your assessment of this game. It's fantastic

I really like Ronin and have 40+ hours so far but I hear what you're saying. I'm also not an expert with Team Ninja combat. Ronin is definitely catered towards those who may not have played TN games in the past. That being said, Ronin made me realize that I've been sleeping on TN for far too long and I have every intention of going back and playing their games I missed out on. It doesn't feel like a Souls title to me at all though, it's just a typical open world game with an interesting setting and really fun combat with a ton of options.

are you gonna review dragon’s dogma 2? somewhere in all that open world bloat is a really good action game imo (much like the first one)

Great review, this really was the right channel to review this game ;) Very cool that you were managed to put a review out this soon after the game's release. I definitely agree about the point of needing some more sex appeal in the game. I'm under the impression that Koei Tecmo actually sees the value in this, so maybe this is somewhat Sony's fault.

While I agree with your critiques of how the open world messes with the combat design, I do think that it really adds to the "fantasy" of being this traveling samurai cleaning up Japan. Clearing out outposts has an obvious, visible, permanent impact on the world, and I think that the highly compact nature of the map (at least the early parts, where I'm at now) mean that I'm only SECONDS away from the next map marker to clear off. It's easy to sink into this rhythm and get an almost "Power Washer Simulator" groove, haha But again, I do completely agree that it comes at the cost of tightness in the combat encounters. I'm glad Rise of Ronin exists, but I hope that this isn't the template for all Team Ninja games going forward.

Maybe Team Ninja need a big flop before they bring back what their core demographic wants but their whole production pipeline is "spread thin" so that they make sure no big flop ever happens cant lose much if you dont commit much

Also, regarding Stellar Blade… it looks like a Soulslike, it feels like a Soulslike… but it might actually be a character action game?? Really interested to hear you break that down. There is really… not much that it does which doesn’t exist in character action. I’m sure you’ll hate the Sekiro parry, but I wonder how you’ll feel about literally everything else, and whether you feel like it’s useful, fun, or possible to ignore the parry. Might be kind of a wolf in sheeps clothing.

They should've just made Nioh 3

So, everyone keeps making comparison to Elden Ring, Sekiro or Dark Souls. Rise Of The Ronin feels like a spiritual successor to the Way Of The Samurai series. It feels like the next evolution of that game series. I recommend checking out Way Of The Samurai 3, you could do the 4th game as well, but I think the 4th game wasn't as great, but that's just me. Rise Of The Ronin feels a lot more like Way Of The Samurai 3 or 4 than Nioh or Sekiro, at least in my opinion. Take of that what you will, the Way Of The Samurai series was always one of my favorites, but it's never been popular with the gaming community. They always made just enough money to get a sequel done I think, until Way Of The Samurai 4 flopped big time on it's release in 2011. Maybe someone at Team Ninja also really liked the Way Of The Samurai series and decided to do an Homage to Way Of The Samurai. I mean, Rise Of The Ronin isn't that far off of a title name from Way Of The Samurai.

That right arm doing a lot of work in this review.

I'm playing through Rise of Ronin now and I can definitely say I enjoyed Wo Long more. I'm on the second region and I feel like there's not much going on accompanied with the lack of notable bosses. It's just village after village and open world collectathon shenanigans. I'd prefer Nioh/Wo Long mission based stages over this tbh.

you are so dang right about team ninja just... getting fuckin boring and lame. i dont think ive enjoyed one since nioh 2 and even then it feels like theyve been struggling ever since NG2.. yeugh sad and lame indeed.

great video what do you think about urban reign?

i wasn't a fan of doa back in 2000s when Itagaki was making these games, but i am pretty sure, if Itagaki was still with team ninja, Tekken didn't have such easy time as "The Only 3d Fighting game" , he surely came up with some idea about making a comeback or something, i only say things i heard and feels like, ...i think , he really cared about his game, about the characters he entered in his fighting games, their connection to his other games like NG, (no shit, he clearly said "Kasumi is team ninja's heroine and his fav character"), i heard, he had some plans for a strucking story mode for doa 5 (when fighting games didn't have story mode at all)...i don't know what would happened if Itagaki would had remained...but i am pretty sure, at worst case scenario, doa and ninja gaiden would have still breating, and giving challenge to tekken and fromsoftware ,at least a little , or maybe so much