Team Ninja reveals it’s working on a second action RPG, Rise of the Ronin

Team Ninja has been busy. The studio that brought us Ninja Gaiden and Nioh are working on two projects, and they’re both oddly similar to one another. Some months back, Team Ninja announced Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, an action RPG in a similar vein as Nioh. Yesterday, it announced a new game in the same genre. Rise of the Ronin was revealed during the PlayStation State of Play as a PS5 console exclusive.

There is a key difference between the two games. Wo Long is set during the Three Kingdoms era of China, while Rise of the Ronin is taking us back to feudal Japan. I mean, it’s practically in the name. Expect to see samurai clashing swords. Specifically, the game is set during the “Bakumatsu,” a period during the late 19th century Japan, according to Team Ninja director, Fumihiko Yasuda. Western influences have brought changes to the country, as well as firearms. Both swords and guns are used together in the game’s combat, which was prominently shown in its reveal trailer.

Rise of the Ronin certainly looks Nioh-esque. If you were hoping for another similar game brought to us by the house of Dead or Alive, you’re in luck. Because we’re getting two. Rise of the Ronin is still fairly early in development, considering its release window. However, things have progressed well enough for Team Ninja to show off quite a bit of gameplay. The trailer below lets you meet the protagonist, who cuts down and blasts foes with fancy moves and footwork. So far, it looks like a fun time.

Rise of the Ronin may come to PC eventually

In a PlayStation Blog post, Yasuda writes that Rise of the Ronin will be “the most ambitious and challenging project for Team Ninja Studio to date.” It deals with a dark chapter of Japan’s history, a time when the country was torn by civil war and disease. The Ronin warrior you play as must navigate a story involving issues with the western influences while standing between the feuding Tokugawa Shogunate and the Anti-Shogunate factions.

“By harnessing all the skills and knowledge we’ve gained over the years we really wanted to take things to the next level by attempting to thoroughly portray the most critical revolution in the history of Japan including the darkest and ugliest chapters that many will shy away from,” Yasuda writes. “This is undoubtedly the most ambitious and challenging project for Team Ninja Studio to date. Yet we will allow our experience in creating samurai and ninja action games to guide us through this journey.”

Rise of the Ronin is likely coming to the PC platform, and I imagine it’ll be in the same year advertised. Sony has only marked it as a console exclusive to PlayStation 5. At times, when a game is advertised to be console exclusive to a specific console, we sometimes see it also come out for PC. If so, the game could arrive on PC at launch or sometime soon after. Xbox owners will be out of luck, however, at least until an exclusivity period presumably ends.

The article has been updated for clarity.