Rise of the Ronin is Odd and Crunchy

I don't even know where I was going with the review title. This game is like crunchy water. Does it exist? No. But I can describe the feeling.

First things first, this game has a great character customization. The amount of details in the appearance customization of the main characters is insane. There are Western and Japanese style outfits and weapons. You can mix n match the top, bottom, accessories, and weapons. Also, I love how everyone in this game is insanely attractive, absolute cinema.

Graphics are not this game's strong points. It looks like a game from 2014, and feels like it too. Remember Far Cry 3? Graphics are pretty much the same with games from that era. But I don't care much for graphics, so it's not a problem for me. It's worth mentioning that some people on Steam have pointed out the strangely weak performance of this game. But I didn't encounter any performance issues or bugs, and I'm using my RTX4050 6GB laptop, which is just shy of below-average specs. So I guess I just got lucky.

The story is decent. Though if you know a little bit of Japanese history during the Tokugawa shogunate Era, you kind of already know how the story will progress. It has a weak system of Pro or Anti-Shogunate. It barely matters who you side with in Yokohama and Edo. But in Kyoto, you have 2 completely different story branches based on your choices at the start of Act 3. That one was awesome, gives a lot for replayability. The Twin Flame stuff was kind of meh to me. It loses its charm when your twin flame always escapes last minute like Kai Leng in Mass Effect 3. I hate that guy.

The combat is super sick! Fast, super duper precise, and hard. Not a big fan of the parry system, since the margin of error is too small for me. It's not similar to the Stupefy in Hogwarts Legacy, which is super easy. It's not a complaint, I have a preference for a bigger margin of error, since I suck at playing any video games. The duels are super slick, cinematic, and just gorgeous. There are styles of fighting for each weapon, even bare hands. They made the fights exciting and super strategic.

Romance options are plentiful. You can almost romance all the people you come across. And I did just that. What can I say, I'm a hoe playful explorer. As far as I know, there are no consequences for cheating. There will be some characters who will say that they know you've been cheating on them. You can easily say "Oh, my bad. Imma break up with the other one!" and they're like "Okay, no problem, Queen!" And all is forgiven.

You can catch cats and rent them out to people who need em. You can send your dog on pilgrim trips and they will return with some items. You'll also encounter other pilgrim dogs in your journey. Unique and adorable. You can also romance a cat-lover/lady geisha if that's your jam.

I love the horse. I think it may be comparable with the horse mechanics in other games I've played, like The Witcher 3, Horizon, and Skyrim. Not janky, and it never glitches on me while exploring the map. The map is large. Not massive, but large. Three locations for you to explore, and all of them are polished enough to please the eyes. Don't be too excited though, since this game still has the fetch missions plague. Ew. Not as bad as Ubisoft games, but still, it's there, and it's annoying.

I've heard of this game since its PlayStation days, it didn't look that great or interesting. But somehow, I stumbled upon this game while idly browsing Steam. While it took me 3 months to finish this game, it quickly became one of my favorite games of all time. Something about this game is scratching my itch for something that's on the blurred line of odd or unique.

This game is a shiny 8/10.
Pilgrim dogs number one.