Rise of the Ronin Wiki

Rise of the Ronin

Rise of the Ronin is an open-world action RPG developed by Team Ninja and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, released for PlayStation 5 on March 22, 2024 and brought to Windows by Koei Tecmo on March 11, 2025. It is set in 1863, at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, as Commodore Perry's Black Ships force Japan open and the country splits between those who want to expel the foreigners and those who want to modernise with them. The player is a Veiled Edge, one half of a pair of shadow agents raised as blade twins, and the story follows the pair from the burning of their village into the middle of the Bakumatsu conflict, where they can side with the shogunate, the imperial loyalists or neither. Combat is Team Ninja's Ki-and-parry melee with Counterspark timing, eight weapon types and dozens of learnable fighting styles, and the open regions of Yokohama, Edo and Kyoto carry Public Order missions, wanted criminals, side stories and three-player online co-op.

• Counterspark — the core defensive mechanic. A timed parry that sparks on contact, breaks the attacker's Ki and opens a critical-hit window; holding guard only chips Ki, so fights are built around reading attack rhythms rather than turtling.
• Ki and Ki break — every attack, dodge and guard spends Ki. Draining an enemy's Ki with heavy hits and Countersparks staggers them for a free critical, which is how bosses are actually killed.
• Fighting styles — each of the eight weapon types carries several stances, and new styles are learned by raising Bond with the NPCs who teach them, so the move set grows out of relationships instead of a menu purchase.
• Bonds — every major character has a relationship meter fed by gifts, conversation and side stories. Raising it unlocks their fighting style, their personal questline and their support in story missions.
• Blade Twin — the player and their sibling were raised together as Veiled Edge assassins. The twin fights alongside the player in scripted missions and their fate is the spine of the main story.
• Weapon switching — two weapons can be carried and swapped mid-combo, which is the intended answer to enemies that resist a particular style or range bracket.
• Public Order — each district of Yokohama, Edo and Kyoto has a safety rating. Clearing bandit and ronin strongholds, wanted criminals and illegal checkpoints raises it and unlocks merchants, fast travel and rewards.
• Traversal — horseback riding on roads, a grappling rope that pulls the player up walls and cliffs, and a glider for crossing rooftops and valleys, all of which feed into stealth approaches.
• Stealth — crouching, hiding in cover and assassinating from above or behind. Enemy camps can be thinned before the alarm sounds, and stealth kills on officers are worth more than a straight fight.
• Online co-op — up to three players can join public or private sessions for open-world exploration, missions and the endgame training grounds.