Rise of the Ronin Devs Want Next Game to Accomplish More

Last week, Team Ninja released its first-ever open-world title. Rise of the Ronin has seen heaps of praise for its combat and story from players and critics alike, but while there’s plenty of role-playing goodness to enjoy, not everything has been positive. Image quality and frame-rate issues have marred the otherwise successful launch, with bland sidequests pulling groans from gamers.

In an interview with VGC, director Fumihiko Yasuda and producer Yosuke Hayashi spoke about what they had learned from the creation of this new addition to the storied Team Ninja library.

“We wanted to create a game that has a sense of freedom as well as a rich story,” Yasuda said. “We wanted players to become a Ronin, explore an open world and be able to affect the story. Of course, we have established a foundation with our action combat systems. But Rise of the Ronin was a big challenge for us, because it’s something we hadn’t done up until now in terms of the level of freedom and the story while retaining the action gameplay.”

Team Ninja has made a name for itself through more linear titles, with its popular franchises including Ninja Gaiden and Nioh.

“Personally, I’m a fan of [more linear] types of games, but with Ronin, we wanted to emphasize freedom and to allow players to approach and engage scenarios in multiple different ways,” said Yasuda. “I know our fans have played our games and they have certain expectations when it comes to our action gameplay, and I strongly believe Rise of the Ronin will be able to satisfy what they have come to expect from us.

We’re going to utilize what we learned with Rise of the Ronin to further expand our work going forward.”

Rise of the Ronin is now available on PlayStation 5.