While the Soulslike genre is still firmly tied to FromSoftware and its endless toxic swamps, the last year has proven it doesn’t have to be. Lies of P, Blasphemous 2, Lords of the Fallen, and even the Star Wars: Jedi games have all shown that the genre can flourish beyond From. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rise of the Ronin might not quite be there, though.

So far, I’ve only played the first couple of hours, and while it has a few good ideas and an endless supply of cool factor, it’s hard to 🐟look at what other games have been doing in the space lately an🍌d find it anything other than underwhelming.

Set in the 1800s, when the West was only just starting to creep into Japan after centuries of seclusion (thanks, ), Rise of the Ronin puts you in the geta of a clandestine warrior from a clan known as the Veiled Edge. Your “blade twin” is lost, and it’s up to you to venture out into a J꧟apan ruled by a Shogun you’ve spent your life training to take down.

Rise of the Ronin doesn’t pride itself on historical accuracy. With twin warriors bound for life by circumstance using ridiculous abilities to fight over-the-top enemies, it almost feels like it’s on a more thematic equal footing with Dynasty Warriors than anything else. It takes a while to get on its wavelength, but once you gel with it, it’s gre꧂at fun seeing how straight Ronin plays it – part Shonen anime, part Kurosawa movie, and very, very hammy.

First up, your task is to make not one, but two different characters – your blade twins. I’m not one of those ꦿpeople who can spend hours fine-tuning the philtrum of their character, but even I got lost in just how granular the customisation is. It’s also refreshing to see a game with a focus on this era actually let you play with skin tones and a variety of hairstyles. Eventually, I settled on a slightly older pair of warriors for the ultimate slashy power couple, who can assassinate multiple unsuspecting enemies at a time and use polearms and double swords as their tools of the trade.

My Blade Twin Power Couple

So far, Rise of the Ronin has been riding solely on its vibes, but it’s harder to click with how it actually plays. A lot of games have been thrown around to describe it – one part Elden Ring, another part Assassin’s Creed, with a hint of Sekiro thrown in for good measure. That’s superficially accurate – it’s a challenging game with Souls-y elements a🌳nd the high mobility of AC and the focus on parrying of Sekiro – but it doesn’t really reflect the quality of what’s on offer here.

It might improve as I get into the ebb and flow of combat and get parrying nailed, but right now it just feels overly finnicky. Parrying in particular is a nightmare, as you have to be frame-perfect on when you parry, or else be stuck in a lengthy animation that winds up with you being hit even more. Healing doesn’t ﷺseem to work as consistently as it should, and once you finally have an open moment to strike back, it just devolves into mashing the Square button over and♔ over again.

The addition of combat arts and finishing moves helps set the pace of combat a bit better, but it still feels like I’m fumbling around instead of being the trained killing machine the story sets me out to be. Surprising for a soulslike, ranged combat is a lot better – the r🌃ifles feel weighty anꦆd the shuriken has come in clutch more than a few times – but it’s just one small part of your overall janky repertoire.

The grappling hook is also highly situational, limited to specific areas instead of letting you zip🌳 around like a ronin Spider-Man. It opens up alternate traversal routes and stealth segments, which so far haven’t been much more than another way to get behind an enemy and put a Wakizashi through their clavicle, but still suggests the game could be opening up a lot more with how you tackle its missions.

There is hope if you stick with it. After throwing myself at the frankly nonsense first boss a dozen times (true Team Ninja fare, that), I found myself finally getting ♌a feel for how essential footwork and positioning is. Dodgingꦕ, strafing, and making openings for yourself are arguably more important than being able to hit the parry button at the right time. I’m eager to see if my current qualms with combat give way as the game opens up, or if it continues to be a slightly fiddly first outing for the Veiled Edge.

Rise of the Ronin launches on March 22.