Summary
Rise of the Roninwas made by Team Ninja, a development team known for their challenging action games. Rise keeps the tradition of having difficult combat, while delving into the genre of open-world exploration, with a massive historical narrative and a large map to discover.
While Team Ninja’s games have had hidden elements in the past, Rise of the Ronin is its biggest game yet, with plenty of room to tuck away references to previous titles. Some of these details can help you through the game, while others are just fun additions for the fanbase.
6Characters Can React To Your Veiled Vows
It Is The Game’s Romance System
In Rise of the Ronin, you can have relationships with multiple characters, something that has a use beyond being friendly. Maxing out a relationship and making a Veiled Vow can earn you exclusive rewards, from special weapons to armor sets exclusive to that character.
The only problem is, a Veiled Vow is basically a deep romantic connection with someone, and if you do that with multiple people, some of them might object to that. You have no real way to hide who you make a Veiled Vow with, so you’ll have to choose carefully if you want to keep things amicable with everyone.
Certain characters, like Princess Atsuko, don’t mind it if you have multiple Veiled Vows.
The characters reacting to these scenarios is a nice detail, giving weight to an otherwise calculated decision. If all you care about are the rewards, be sure to max out these relationships one at a time, so you may break things off with one character and move on to the next.
5Hidden Moves With The Glider
Your Horse Can Help You Land Safely
There are a lot of mechanics in Rise of the Ronin, but not all of them are properly explained. Some mechanics are even entirely missable, like the horse, for example. Although, if you missed your chance to get a free one early on, you can always buy one later.
Yet, even once you have these things, knowing everything they can do takes some experimenting. The glider, for example, has a way of extending its flight time if you use your grappling hook on the wooden platforms scattered throughout the rooftops.
you’re able to also keep up your momentum by landing on your horse after a glide, simply by using the horse whistle after dropping from the glider. Be sure not to do that from a lethal height, otherwise you will still plummet to your death.
4The Blade Twin Is A Sekiro Reference
The Game As A Whole Takes Inspiration From It
The Dark Souls series has, unsurprisingly, inspired a lot of games to follow that model, which can be seen in Team Ninja’s Nioh series. While Rise of the Ronin still has plenty of Soulslike elements, Team Ninja was clearly inspired by the parry-heavy gameplay of Sekiro for this title, showing that it is still looking closely at what FromSoftware is doing.
The similarities to Sekiro don’t end with the gameplay though, since there is a character who goes through a similar journey to Sekiro’s protagonist. Your Blade Twin faces off against an unstoppable enemy, gets their arm chopped off, and seemingly dies at the beginning of the game.
If those similarities aren’t enough for you, both characters also miraculously survive, have their arm replaced with a prosthetic, and can throw a grappling hook from it. While their personalities clearly differ, the pains your Blade Twin goes through are too similar to what happens in Sekiro for it to be a coincidence.
3The Team Ninja Logo In A Flag
You Can Also Find The Elite Ninja’s Blade Here
A game containing the developer’s own logo isn’t rare, but it is strange to find it printed on an in-game flag. But once you get to the Edo region in Rise of the Ronin, you can find a Team Ninja flag hidden in a dojo, although it is a little tricky to get.
Once you enter the dojo where you can find Sawamura, check the back wall in the lobby for a hidden door. In it, you’ll see a flag with the developer’s logo on it, and a chest containing the Elite Ninja’s Blade, one of thebest weapons for stealth-based characters.
2You Can Dress Like Ryu Hayabusa
The Outfit Has A Set Bonus Too
Team Ninja has many famous titles under its belt, but few go as far back as Ninja Gaiden, the character action game where Ryu Hayabusa dealt with swarms of demons with nothing more than his ninja skills. You don’t really deal with any demons in Rise of the Ronin, but you can learn ninja skills to help you in your journey.
One of the masters of the ninja arts in Rise of the Ronin is Sawamura, someone wearing an oddly familiar outfit if you’ve played Ninja Gaiden. While that alone makes for a great reference to a past title, you canearn that look for yourselfif you unlock Sawamura’s Veiled Vow.
1You Can Fight William As A Secret Boss Fight
He Was The Main Character Of The Original Nioh
The main character of Nioh, the highly acclaimed Soulslike by Team Ninja, was William Adams, an Irish man swept into a magical samurai story by chance. The games made after the first Nioh often have you make your own character, so William stands out as one of the last proper main characters made by the developers.
You can find William in Rise of the Ronin, specificallyas an optional boss fightin Edo. While the blue-eyed samurai you face in the cave isn’t literally supposed to be William, he looks just like him, and he even has some of his original Nioh moves.
