Incline Team Ninja's Rise of the Ronin

[Kefa]

Yeah, this doesn't sound too good

FightinCowboy's early impressions


Quote from him in the comments regarding combat:

My problem is the combat boils down to almost 1 button. You either mash square or put on accessibility and it does the full combo for you. You do this and work in a ability at the end of your combo and repeat until you're blocked or parried and then you counter parry until they're staggered. Repeat until you get a critical.

It's staggeringly simple compared to their past titles. It will definitely resonate with a more casual fan base, but if you want high intensity combat you're not getting it here imo

So combat is basically ONE button [Square] and that's the standard mode – i.e. not “accessibility” mode.

I'd expect this in a Suda51 game or a Western character action game, but a Team Ninja game?

PS4-level visuals aren't helping either. Some of those animations don't look too hot –look at the way the horse runs. It's hard to believe that this is an exclusive built with Sony's assistance (via XDev).

damn, this does sound and look bad
I was worried about a ubisoft-tier open world and the video showing a literal tower confirms my fears
I actually defended the graphics initially as the first videos they uploaded did not look that bad to me but this one's actually terrible and I get the ps2 comparison now.
I would probably still ignore all this if cowboy said the combat is great but the combat doesn't seem good either

really disappointed by this, subpar 30fps in dd2 it is then

 

[911 Jumper]

damn, this does sound and look bad
I was worried about a ubisoft-tier open world and the video showing a literal tower confirms my fears
I actually defended the graphics initially as the first videos they uploaded did not look that bad to me but this one's actually terrible and I get the ps2 comparison now.
I would probably still ignore all this if cowboy said the combat is great but the combat doesn't seem good either

really disappointed by this, subpar 30fps in dd2 it is then

I'm amazed at how poor it looks visually. It looks like it could be Way of the Samurai 5 or something. Apparently Koei Tecmo are aiming for 5 million units sold worldwide.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

They're a small team. It was retarded to split them up for this and Wo Long. It resulted in two hairy ass cheeks. Just regroup and make Nioh 3. They'll be fine.

 

[911 Jumper]

Another combat deep dive vid

 

[Kefa]

Another combat deep dive vid

pretty much the same opinion as the cowboy guy

 

[Elttharion]

Pretty meh-ish previews from the looks of it. This game has a big uphill battle against Ghost of Tsushima, even if I personally think that game was mediocre at best, apart from the presentation.

 

[Abu Antar]

There's one more difficulty above the normal mode. Not sure what it changes.

 

[toro]

Another game from Team Ninja, another pass from me. These retards implement either convoluted or shallow combat mechanics. There is no middle ground with them.

 

[Suicidal]

Yeah, this doesn't sound too good

FightinCowboy's early impressions


Quote from him in the comments regarding combat:

My problem is the combat boils down to almost 1 button. You either mash square or put on accessibility and it does the full combo for you. You do this and work in a ability at the end of your combo and repeat until you're blocked or parried and then you counter parry until they're staggered. Repeat until you get a critical.

It's staggeringly simple compared to their past titles. It will definitely resonate with a more casual fan base, but if you want high intensity combat you're not getting it here imo

So combat is basically ONE button [Square] and that's the standard mode – i.e. not “accessibility” mode.

I'd expect this in a Suda51 game or a Western character action game, but a Team Ninja game?

PS4-level visuals aren't helping either. Some of those animations don't look too hot –look at the way the horse runs. It's hard to believe that this is an exclusive built with Sony's assistance (via XDev).

Cowboy is a huge combatfag who will shill for any action game with a half decent combat system (he was one of the few youtubers/streamers who liked SoP and Wo Long), so if he's saying the combat is bare bones then there's a problem. But he did say that it's based on the few hours that he played so maybe it opens up later.

Still, seems like TN bit a lot more than they can chew this time.

Will probably still pick it up if/when it comes to PC because Sekiro-like combat is infinitely more fun than ubishit combat.

Hope that after this game they will go back to making games they're actually good at, if they survive at all.

 

[Skinwalker]

Ok, so I can safely remove Rise of the Ronin from my list of games to play in the future?

 

[Multidirectional]

Cowboy is a huge combatfag who will shill for any action game with a half decent combat system (he was one of the few youtubers/streamers who liked SoP and Wo Long), so if he's saying the combat is bare bones then there's a problem. But he did say that it's based on the few hours that he played so maybe it opens up later.

If they don't even make a good combat system for it then why make the game at all? All is left at that point is a sandbox with outdated graphics and terrible pop-in everywhere, which most likely also runs like crap, given Team Ninja record. Good combat design is their one unique strength compared to the competition so kinda hard to believe they would shit the bed in that regard as well. Without that there's no reason for anyone to buy the game.

 

[notpl]

Cowboy is a huge combatfag who will shill for any action game with a half decent combat system (he was one of the few youtubers/streamers who liked SoP and Wo Long), so if he's saying the combat is bare bones then there's a problem. But he did say that it's based on the few hours that he played so maybe it opens up later.

If they don't even make a good combat system for it then why make the game at all? All is left at that point is a sandbox with outdated graphics and terrible pop-in everywhere, which most likely also runs like crap, given Team Ninja record. Good combat design is their one unique strength compared to the competition so kinda hard to believe they would shit the bed in that regard as well. Without that there's no reason for anyone to buy the game.

I don't know, really. Everything they've done since Nioh 2 has left me totally baffled.

 

[Multidirectional]

I don't know, really. Everything they've done since Nioh 2 has left me totally baffled.

SoP at least has fun combat, even if it's a heavily flawed game in many other aspects. And from what I played of Wo Long that one seemed to have enjoyable combat too, but didn't get far there because couldn't get stable 60 fps in fights. But yeah, obviously both games nowhere near as good as Nioh 2.

 

[Abu Antar]

Ok, so I can safely remove Rise of the Ronin from my list of games to play in the future?

I did for now.

 

[911 Jumper]

70 dollar for combat gameplay where one button does everything. Perhaps Sony urged Team Ninja to make it “accessible” so casual gaymers can enjoy the “cinematic experience” with fewer cognitive demands.
Team Ninja did have something called Hero Mode in Ninja Gaiden 3, though. It gave the player assists such as auto blocking and auto health healing. It even automated some of the combos. So this decision to make combat less mentally taxing could also be a result of a direction change at Team Ninja.

 

[Kefa]

70 dollar for combat gameplay where one button does everything. Perhaps Sony urged Team Ninja to make it “accessible” so casual gaymers can enjoy the “cinematic experience” with fewer cognitive demands.
Team Ninja did have something called Hero Mode in Ninja Gaiden 3, though. It gave the player assists such as auto blocking and auto health healing. It even automated some of the combos. So this decision to make combat less mentally taxing could also be a result of a direction change at Team Ninja.

People like to bash Sony but their launch titles were Demon’s Souls and Returnal. Both are hard games. I think it’s entirely on TN. I also don’t think nioh or wo long are too complex anyway, no one is forcing you to use the stances, they don’t even give you a huge advantage anyway.

 

[cruel]

Another game from Team Ninja, another pass from me. These retards implement either convoluted or shallow combat mechanics. There is no middle ground with them.

Both Nioh & Nioh 2 were a very good middle ground. Ki Pulsing and stance switching becomes natural very quickly.

 

[911 Jumper]

70 dollar for combat gameplay where one button does everything. Perhaps Sony urged Team Ninja to make it “accessible” so casual gaymers can enjoy the “cinematic experience” with fewer cognitive demands.
Team Ninja did have something called Hero Mode in Ninja Gaiden 3, though. It gave the player assists such as auto blocking and auto health healing. It even automated some of the combos. So this decision to make combat less mentally taxing could also be a result of a direction change at Team Ninja.

People like to bash Sony but their launch titles were Demon’s Souls and Returnal. Both are hard games. I think it’s entirely on TN. I also don’t think nioh or wo long are too complex anyway, no one is forcing you to use the stances, they don’t even give you a huge advantage anyway.

Could be a bit of both. Demon's Souls and Returnal really are the only two PS5 exclusives that are old-fashioned hard. All the other PS5 exclusives are games which can be completed by an average gamer. Sony doesn't seem to care about securing hardcore exclusives anymore.
A number of Team Ninja programming, level design, and tech staff who worked on the DoA and Ninja Gaiden games left after DoA5. Very few members stayed beyond DoA5. So today's Team Ninja is literally not the same Team Ninja that put out DoA 1 to 5 and the Ninja Gaiden trilogy. That probably explains why something has always felt off with Team Ninja's post-Ninja Gaiden output.

 

[Elttharion]

70 dollar for combat gameplay where one button does everything. Perhaps Sony urged Team Ninja to make it “accessible” so casual gaymers can enjoy the “cinematic experience” with fewer cognitive demands.
Team Ninja did have something called Hero Mode in Ninja Gaiden 3, though. It gave the player assists such as auto blocking and auto health healing. It even automated some of the combos. So this decision to make combat less mentally taxing could also be a result of a direction change at Team Ninja.

People like to bash Sony but their launch titles were Demon’s Souls and Returnal. Both are hard games. I think it’s entirely on TN. I also don’t think nioh or wo long are too complex anyway, no one is forcing you to use the stances, they don’t even give you a huge advantage anyway.

Both are hard games but Returnal was a flop and Demon's Souls sold poorly considering how hyped Souls like games are these days.

 

[cruel]

Fextralife video is a little bit less depressing than the one from Cowboy, but still far from great:



It looks the game will offer:
- fun, but very limited combat system
- boring open world with repeatable tasks
- PS4 era graphics
- generic story & generic characters

I feel like 'trying to appear to a wider audience' combined with dividing the forces between Wo Long and this will bite Team Ninja ass a lot in the long term. This, plus releasing this on the same day as DD2, which has so much marketing going for it.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

70 dollar for combat gameplay where one button does everything. Perhaps Sony urged Team Ninja to make it “accessible” so casual gaymers can enjoy the “cinematic experience” with fewer cognitive demands.
Team Ninja did have something called Hero Mode in Ninja Gaiden 3, though. It gave the player assists such as auto blocking and auto health healing. It even automated some of the combos. So this decision to make combat less mentally taxing could also be a result of a direction change at Team Ninja.

People like to bash Sony but their launch titles were Demon’s Souls and Returnal. Both are hard games. I think it’s entirely on TN. I also don’t think nioh or wo long are too complex anyway, no one is forcing you to use the stances, they don’t even give you a huge advantage anyway.

This and Sony clearly isn't nerfing the Stellar Blade devs. Seems kind of goofy to blame this trainwreck on them. Team Ninja has had a spotty track record for a while now.

 

[911 Jumper]

Lol, Stellar Blade will, in addition to traditional difficulty levels, have options, which can be enabled at any time, to make combat easier.

Stellar Blade Has Support Features for Easier Combat

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Lol, Stellar Blade will, in addition to traditional difficulty levels, have options, which can be enabled at any time, to make combat easier.

Stellar Blade Has Support Features for Easier Combat

I wasn't really talking about difficulty. The original guy was blaming Sony for RotR having simplified 1-button mashing style combat. The combat in Stellar Blade looks fairly complex if you're not intentionally dumbing it down.

 

[Kefa]

70 dollar for combat gameplay where one button does everything. Perhaps Sony urged Team Ninja to make it “accessible” so casual gaymers can enjoy the “cinematic experience” with fewer cognitive demands.
Team Ninja did have something called Hero Mode in Ninja Gaiden 3, though. It gave the player assists such as auto blocking and auto health healing. It even automated some of the combos. So this decision to make combat less mentally taxing could also be a result of a direction change at Team Ninja.

People like to bash Sony but their launch titles were Demon’s Souls and Returnal. Both are hard games. I think it’s entirely on TN. I also don’t think nioh or wo long are too complex anyway, no one is forcing you to use the stances, they don’t even give you a huge advantage anyway.

Both are hard games but Returnal was a flop and Demon's Souls sold poorly considering how hyped Souls like games are these days.

Not going to argue if it flopped or not, but the game’s honestly great. The setting, story, sound design, and most importantly gameplay are all amazing.

 

[cruel]

Skill Up preview:



Not impressed as well.