You know that feeling when a game is announced, and you think, 'Wait, hasn't this been in the works forever?' That is exactly how I felt when Team Ninja first pulled back the curtain on Rise of the Ronin. And as it turns out, I was not imagining things. The studio later confirmed that the project had been in development since at least 2015, which means it was already a couple of years deep when Ghost of Tsushima was officially announced in October 2017. So no, this was not a quick reaction to Sucker Punch's samurai epic. Rise of the Ronin was already walking its own slow, stubborn path.

Speaking of that path, Team Ninja's director and president Fumihiko Yasuda described the game as 'the most ambitious and challenging' project in the studio's history. He said the team really wanted to take things to the next level by attempting to thoroughly portray the most critical revolution in the history of Japan. That is a big claim, right? But it also explains why there was no rush. According to Yasuda, development progressed slowly and freely, much like the spirit of a Ronin. I love that image: a masterless warrior wandering through a changing world, taking the long way around because the destination matters more than the schedule.

Now, in 2026, we can actually look back on how that gamble played out. Rise of the Ronin launched on PS5 in March 2024, and a PC version arrived in March 2025. So the seven-year development cycle finally turned into something we could play. It is an open-world samurai action RPG set during the Bakumatsu period, a time when Japan was being torn between tradition and modernization. Team Ninja leaned hard into its experience with samurai and ninja action games, but it also tried something different from Nioh. The combat is still fast-paced and demanding, yet the game is centered around the player's interactions with other characters and decisions that actually matter. That mix of blade work and branching choices is what makes it stand out in a crowded field.

Is it perfect? No. But was it worth the wait? I think that depends on what you wanted from it. If you came for another Nioh, you might have been surprised by the open world and the historical role-playing. If you came for a samurai epic with choices, you probably found a lot to chew on. Koei Tecmo certainly had high hopes. The company confirmed it wanted Rise of the Ronin to sell more than five million copies and treated it as one of the essential strategic pillars of its mid-term growth strategy. For comparison, it took over four years for both Nioh games to hit that mark by April 2021. So the expectations were massive.

Let me put some key facts into a table, because I like keeping things straight:

That last row is important. Before Rise of the Ronin arrived, Team Ninja launched Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty in early 2023, set in a dark fantasy Three Kingdoms world. So the studio was not sitting still while polishing its samurai epic. It was juggling multiple big projects, which makes the seven-year development timeline even more understandable. You cannot rush a revolution, especially when you are trying to portray the most critical revolution in Japanese history.

What I find fascinating is how Rise of the Ronin sits next to Ghost of Tsushima in the public imagination. Ghost of Tsushima announced in 2017 and released in 2020, became a massive hit. Rise of the Ronin started development earlier but arrived later. Does that make it a follower? I do not think so. They are doing different things. Ghost of Tsushima is about the Mongol invasion and the birth of the ghost. Rise of the Ronin is about the end of the shogunate, the arrival of Western influence, and a country splitting apart. One is a revenge story, the other is a political and personal crossroads. Team Ninja's game is less about being a lone legend and more about choosing sides in a messy, human conflict.

And honestly, that is why I am still thinking about it in 2026. We have had time to see the patches, the PC port, and the community's reaction. The game did not simply vanish after launch. It became part of Team Ninja's growing legacy alongside Nioh and Wo Long. The studio took a risk by going open world, by slowing down its usually relentless combat loop, and by letting player decisions shape the story. Some of those risks paid off. Some are still debated. But that is what makes a game interesting, isn't it?

So if you are a samurai action fan who somehow skipped Rise of the Ronin, I would say this: give it a shot. Especially if you can play the PC version, which arrived in 2025 and opened the door to mods, higher frame rates, and a new audience. The game is not just a historical curiosity. It is the result of seven years of work, a studio stretching itself, and a publisher betting on a period of Japanese history that games rarely explore with this much detail. The revolution may have been slow, but it was definitely not quiet.

In the end, Rise of the Ronin is a reminder that some games are not born from trends. They are born from obsession. Team Ninja wanted to portray a turning point in Japanese history, and it took its sweet time doing it. Was that the right call? I think the answer is yes, even if the execution has rough edges. A Ronin does not walk in a straight line. Neither did this game. And maybe that is exactly the point.