Developer: Team Ninja, Koei Tecmo Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment, Koei Tecmo Games
Platform: PC, PS5
Tested on: PC
Rise of the Ronin (PC) – Review
Most consoles have only a handful of exclusive titles nowadays, and we can use that term loosely. For example, Microsoft always releases its so-called exclusives for the Xbox Series X/S and PC, and you often get access on both platforms if you buy only one copy of the game. Sony approaches this differently, by offering its interesting library of exclusive titles on PS5 first, with a port following several months later for PC. This is also the case for Rise of the Ronin, the subject of today’s short review. This game was originally released on PS5 by Sony nearly a year ago, but now Koei Tecmo has decided to release the game on Steam. Thanks to this, PC gamers can also dive into this interesting but challenging title. As always, we do a short follow-up review for ports and discuss other aspects that we may have missed the first time around. We suggest reading our original in-depth review by clicking here.
With quite a few samurai-inspired titles already out there, such as the recently released Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima, it’s not that easy to know which game to pick up. One could argue that Rise of the Ronin might actually be the least accessible one in terms of gameplay when looking at the overall difficulty, but it will then please fans who are looking for a challenging experience. It leans more into Dark Souls territory, which is not uncommon for a Team Ninja project. Even so, for the PC version, nothing has changed, and you’ll still play through the same story with the same combat mechanics, and so on. It all feels great, even the second time around. The caveat here is that having the recommended specs doesn’t mean that the game will run smoothly. We encountered quite a few frame dips, and even turning down the settings didn’t help that much. Luckily, we were spared from many of the bigger issues that a lot of other PC gamers encountered. It’s a shame, really, as this is a port that deserved a lot more.
While this isn’t a Sony PC port but rather a Koei Tecmo one, we were still wondering about Steam Deck compatibility. Sadly, Rise of the Ronin is not Steam Deck verified, and so it’s not optimized if you still want to give it a go. It does run on Steam Deck, but you’ll have to make do with very low FPS, graphics that are very rough around the edges, and not a very smooth experience overall. Perhaps things could improve with some patches down the line, but we suggest simply playing it on a decent PC instead.
Conclusion
Even though Rise of the Ronin is still a great game, the performance on PC wasn’t always up to snuff, hampering the overall fun to be had. Performance issues interfered with the combat, and as timing is key here, unfair deaths did follow as a result. It’s a shame, as this title has a lot to offer, but if you can’t rely on the recommended specs being enough for a stable experience, it does feel a bit like a roulette experience rather than something you’d enjoy. Negative performance-related issues aside, our time with Rise of the Ronin was still amazing when we persevered through segments that had technical hiccups. If you own a PlayStation 5, however, we suggest picking up a PS5 copy instead. If you only have the PC version as a possible option to play the game, we would recommend waiting for a few more performance patches if your setup is only just around the recommended specs.
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