I picked up Rise of the Ronin during a winter sale, fully aware of the mixed (and sometimes brutal) reviews floating around. Expectations were kept safely low. Surprisingly, after spending a good amount of time with it, the game turned out to be far more enjoyable than its reputation suggests—provided you know exactly what you’re coming for.

First, Combat. It's Where Ronin Truly Shines

The combat is excellent. In fact, it’s comfortably more complex and rewarding than Ghost of Tsushima. Team Ninja’s DNA is all over the system—stance switching, weapon variety, parries, counters, and enemy pressure that actually forces you to play well, not just look cinematic.

Fights feel mechanical in a good way, timing matters, mistakes are punished, and mastery is genuinely satisfying. If Ghost of Tsushima feels like a beautifully choreographed samurai film, Rise of the Ronin feels like a hands-on martial arts workshop where the instructor hits back.

Second, Exploration
It's Fun, Slightly Silly (in a Good Way). Exploration is another unexpected highlight. Traversing the open world using a combination of horse riding, grappling hooks, and even gliding makes moving around consistently enjoyable. The horse gliding, in particular, feels just silly enough to be fun—historical accuracy quietly steps aside and lets gameplay take the lead.

This mobility keeps the world engaging, even when the environments themselves aren’t groundbreaking. You’re rarely bored moving from point A to B, which is more than can be said for many open-world games.

Now, let's get down to why this game has negative review.

Performance is the game’s biggest technical sin. It’s noticeably CPU-bound, (my temp is rose above 80) with inconsistent frame rates that can pull you out of the experience—especially during busy combat encounters. It’s playable, but far from ideal, and easily the weakest part of the package.

The story, unfortunately, doesn’t do much to compensate. While the historical setting has potential, the narrative lacks emotional weight and memorable characters. It functions more as a backdrop than a driving force. You won’t rush back to see “what happens next”—you’ll come back because the combat is fun.

TLDR:

Rise of the Ronin is a game that makes a very clear trade-off: exceptional combat and enjoyable traversal in exchange for technical roughness and a forgettable story. Buying it on sale was absolutely the right call, and if you approach it as an action-first experience rather than a narrative epic, there’s a lot to love here.

It may not rise as high as its ambitions suggest—but when swords clash and mechanics click, it earns its place. And honestly, sometimes that’s all a samurai game really needs.



Other Positives Worth Mentioning

Deep customization: Weapons, combat styles, and skills allow for meaningful build variety.

Challenging encounters: Boss fights demand attention and mechanical understanding.

Strong gameplay focus: The game knows its strengths and leans into action rather than distractions.

The Downsides: And Yes, They’re Real

One of my favourite games of 2025. Rise of the Ronin boasts intense combat, huge customizeability, and a unique story/setting.

The open world is filled with a lot of main quests and sidequests. Sidequests always felt relevant to the main game, and not just thrown in there.

Combat is what sets this apart from a lot of similar games: was more challanging than Ghosts, but not as tough as Sekiro. Huge variety of weapons to mess around with from both the East and the West. Every weapon has at least 3-4 different styles, and the Katana has a lot more. Also, multiple difficulty options for different kinds of gamers.

There's an insane amount of gear and character customization options. The controls are fully programmable, and the game settings are probably some of the most indepth I've ever seen in a game. Really impressed.

The story focuses around the turn of the 19th century, with different factions in Japan, as well as Foreign factions from Europe and America. Not too many games set in this period, which is a huge draw for me. Does a good job at presenting all the different sides and their motivations. Solid characters.

Game performed generally quite well for me, while it doesn't look as great as some games, it has its moments. A lot of the tech issues people were having involved a Windows 11 update that has since been fixed. Game never had any issues on Windows 10.

Bought the game despite the mixed reviews and loved it in the end. Recommend.

I would like to revisit this game someday when there's a performance patch (which might not come anytime soon knowing Koei Tecmo), or when I get a better PC.