In a new interview with Famitsu, Team Ninja president Fumihiko Yasuda has revealed some interesting new details on Rise of the Ronin.
Rise of the Ronin was just announced September last year, a project between Koei Tecmo and PlayStation. While it was in development around the same time as Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, it takes the completely opposite direction in terms of narrative.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is deeply steeped in the mysticism of Chinese mythology. In contrast, Rise of the Ronin was described to be set in the real historical period of the Bakumatsu, the end years of the Tokugawa shogunate. While Team Ninja will no doubt have to take some liberties when it comes to historical details, it promises to be a more grounded story. There will be no need for embellishment in describing a very politically volatile period in Japanese history.
Freelance translator Hansuke21 has shared some details from the Famitsu interview on Twitter. Quoting Hansuke21:
“Rise of the Ronin and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Fumihiko Yasuda: The development for it is right next to Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Updates and DLC production. We also planned to release the Rise of the Ronin in 2024.
We want to release a new game in 2025. We hope to tell you about it when we can.
The development team’s growth will be slow if we keep repeating the process of releasing one game over a number of years. We have a plan to release a game every year.”
As Yasuda has described it, the development process for both Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Rise of the Ronin is part of a new plan in Tecmo Koei. They are looking to ramp up development of their games from a few games for a new game release, to a new game every year.
It’s a change that reflects the studio’s new adaptations to the new video game market. If gamers were satisfied to see Team Ninja release mainly new games in the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series for over twenty years, the renewed popularity of action games has opened up opportunities for the studio to create new projects beyond those two core franchises.
Nioh, itself published in 2017, was in production as far back as 2004! That’s nearly as old as Team Ninja is itself, around the time they made the first Ninja Gaiden for Xbox.
That does mean Team Ninja had been wanting to make action games like Nioh, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Rise of the Ronin, for nearly as long as since they have existed. What we are seeing now is really only the realization of dreams that go back decades. With Rise of the Ronin, we will see Team Ninja realize their potential even further.
Rise of the Ronin will be released in 2024 on the PlayStation 5.
