EDO OR DON'T

RISE OF THE RONIN stumbles onto PC

- Joe Donnelly

Rise of the Ronin on PC has kept me guessing for all the wrong reasons. Don’t get me wrong, I love a rambling system-heavy open-world action RPG romp as much as the next guy. I’m fond of being led on countless wild goose chases across fantastical lands with ambiguous historical grounding. And 1m partial to layered combat systems, brutal melee combinations, and enemies who scale in difficulty as I become increasingly adept at waving a pretend wooden stick around while clicking my real-life mouse at the exact right moment. Lest I cop one in the mouth myself, of course.

What I’m less into is unpredictable performance issues. I'm far less enamored by fps counts that shuttle between single and triple digits faster than a round of Family Feud, and I don’t care much for being forced into slow motion movement in built-up areas, wading through proverbial Edo-era treacle, simply because my screen is busy with NPCs and quest-givers. Team Ninja, it must be said, has blazed a trail into the action RPG genre over the last few years. But the developer is also no stranger to poor PC ports in that same stretch. And that makes recommending Rise of the Ronin on PC via Steam in its current state difficult.