Ronin

Ronin is fun to play and its strengths more than overcome its weaknesses. It lacks much by way of plot but sets a mood that creates the atmosphere it needs. It offers enough strategy and variety in its combat to overcome a somewhat short length, and invites players to playthrough again with its unscripted encounters. It has a fantastic little twist to the gameplay mechanic at the end that leads to a satisfying payoff in the final battle.

This Devolver Digital 2D platformer has a lot of chops! Developer Tomasz Waclawek has created a magnetic tribute to those old thinker arcade stand-ups. Sure, it has some similarities to other newer indie games, but the concept, design and gameplay are pretty unique. You might find yourself slinking through the first mission with relative ease, then as you grab a real handle on the controls, things become quite a lot more serious.

While Ronin lacks in story, it excels with its combat system. Because of the enemy variety, player abilities and level layout, the combat feels adaptive and is incredibly fun to play.

Ronin wears its inspiration on its sleeve. Developer Tomasz Wacławek seems to deeply appreciate Klei Entertainment’s excellent Mark of the Ninja, and simultaneously emulates a story as close to Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies as he could manage. And while those two source media inform a great deal about gameplay and visuals, Ronin manages to remain distinct. The innovation comes courtesy of a fascinating turn-based approach to combat, in which bullet and jump trajectories are telegraphed ahead of the action, leading to acrobatic cat and mouse exchanges of gunfire and flashing katanas.

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Unfinished business.

If you come into this game looking for a fleshed out story and interesting characters you might be disappointed. It’s very much about you, the enemies and moving through the stages. The story provides a nice background for what is, at its heart, a very mechanically-driven game. Ronin doesn’t pull any punches – it’s like you’re continually tossed into frantic bullet hell rooms and told “go kill everyone”, and just as you turn to leave, “and by the way, don’t get spotted.”

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With a little more refinement, Ronin could easily have been an enjoyable romp. It certainly looked the part and in the initial stages was a slick action platformer, but by the time the game reaches its conclusion, there’s little motivation to continue. It may be short, but finishing Ronin feels like running a gauntlet by the skin of your teeth. The only kicker is, there’s no moment of euphoria afterwards…

RONIN strives to achieve the level of masterful design of games like Gunpoint and Mark of the Ninja, but seems to have overlooked what made them so special in the first place. It has its moments of truly feeling like a badass, but they do not make up for the frustration of everything in between.

Overall, RONIN can be pretty challenging at first but it actually gets easier as the game progresses, mainly because not much variation was given for its gameplay except for the level designs. The story really isn’t something that would keep you interested and the big reveal isn’t really that big since it’s really quite obvious mid-game. Nevertheless, RONIN is a good game that can keep you occupied for a couple of hours though it isn’t the kind of game that would garner much mentions in a discussion. Can’t really say that it’s a must-have game but it’s still worth the playtime.