Action RPG Rise of the Ronin launched for PlayStation 5 in March, taking players to the rapidly changing world of mid-19th century Japan. However, players will notice some familiar things from Team Ninja’s other action games, with the studio explaining the new game’s Nioh and Ninja Gaiden Crossovers.
Nioh and Ninja Gaiden Crossovers explained
“When considering which costumes and weapons to implement,” said director Fumihiko Yasuda, “we’ve agreed on the costume of the main character, Ryu Hayabusa, as an iconic and recognizable costume for an in-game armor design.” Team Ninja altered the design to fit Rise of the Ronin’s setting, but it’s still recognizable.
Developers also worked hard to re-create Ryu’s combat style in the new game. “Rise of the Ronin marks the first appearance of Ninja Gaiden-related content on PS5,” Yasuda explained, “so re-creating these features in high-resolution 4K format was a challenge.”
The Nioh crossover is a minor spoiler, though many players will have found it by now.
As many Rise of the Ronin players discovered, Nioh’s protagonist William, appears as a secret boss in the game. The new game takes place about 250 years after Nioh. We decided to have him appear early in the planning stage,” said Yasuda, “as we thought it would be a pleasant surprise for those who have played the Nioh series. However, Yasuda doesn’t think including someone who looks like him is too much of a leap. Team Ninja based his armor on the Obsidian Armor from Nioh but with 250 years of wear and tear.
Initially, developers also wanted to include each of Nioh’s three stances as a different combat Style in Rise of the Ronin. However, they decided that might be too complicated for players. Instead, Team Ninja combined all three stances into a single Style.
Rise of the Ronin May Update
In addition, team Ninja’s blog post provides some information on the update coming to Rise of the Ronin this week:
- New and expanded content
- 5 new Ally Missions added.
- When replaying a world in Midnight, you can choose to have Public Order deteriorate again.
- Level sync selection feature added to missions from Testament of the Soul.
- Two new Set Bonuses added to Midnight difficulty.
- Addition of dojo training partners.
- Add Martial Skill type bonus and raise limit of target score.
- Gameplay Improvements
- When equipped with the same weapon type on weapons 1 and 2, the number of styles can be expanded to a maximum of 6.
- Changed the specifications so that special equipment will be given even if the player does not confess.
- Changed the specifications so that greetings with characters after a breakup will return to normal over time.
- Adjusted to make it easier for asynchronous characters to be selected.
