Rise of the Ronin: Another Disappointing PC Port from KOEI TECMO

In a mere five days, KOEI TECMO will unveil Rise of the Ronin for PC. This action roleplaying game first made its debut nearly a year ago as a PS5 exclusive under Sony’s publishing banner. This timeline mirrors the gap between the releases of Nioh on PlayStation and its eventual PC launch, suggesting a trend towards timed exclusivity for KOEI TECMO titles.

While Rise of the Ronin shares similarities with Nioh, it aims for a different gameplay experience, drawing more parallels to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. For a comprehensive assessment of the game, be sure to check out Kai’s detailed review. In this article, the focus shifts to the technical performance of the forthcoming PC version.

Technical Foundations and Engine Performance

Developer Team Ninja opted for KOEI TECMO’s in-house Katana Engine, a framework previously utilized in games like Dynasty Warriors 9, Wild Hearts, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Unfortunately, these titles were plagued with technical issues, and Rise of the Ronin appears to follow suit. Even on high-end PC configurations, players may encounter performance bottlenecks and subpar graphical fidelity.

Modern Features and Customization Options

On the bright side, the game does include support for contemporary gaming features such as:

DualSense Adaptive Triggers
High Dynamic Range (HDR) compatibility
NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Resolution (DLSS) and Deep Learning Anti Aliasing (DLAA)
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 3
Intel XeSS
Ray Tracing for reflective surfaces.

Customization options are abundant, allowing players to disable certain visual filters like vignette and chromatic aberration, which many will find beneficial. However, the frame rate is capped at 120 frames per second, and the cutscenes are limited to 60 FPS. This is reminiscent of previous issues in titles like Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced before Rockstar lifted its own frame cap, prompting speculation that modders may intervene in this instance as well.

Custom Benchmark While Roaming in Yokohama

Performance Analysis and User Experience

The performance aspect is particularly disappointing. On a setup boasting an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D coupled with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, Rise of the Ronin struggles significantly. Upon exploring Yokohama at 4K resolution with all settings maxed and utilizing DLAA alongside Frame Generation, the game barely achieves 64 frames per second. Moreover, stuttering is prevalent, with the Frame Latency Analytics Tool (FLAT) indicating that over 14% of the benchmark time was spent in stuttering conditions.

This marks the worst performance observed since configuring this PC, compounded by a lack of stunning visuals. Although Rise of the Ronin presents improved graphics over previous KOEI TECMO offerings and boasts a more extensive world to explore, the improvements are minimal. Even with DLAA activated, shimmering and aliasing persist—issues previously witnessed in Nioh and Wo Long. Moreover, several assets appear rendered at low resolution, despite the game’s massive install size of 151.6 GB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7DnbDsRG4A

Rise of the Ronin PC 4K Maxed (DLAA/RT) Gameplay on RTX 5090, 9800X3D (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7DnbDsRG4A)

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

It would not be surprising to see Rise of the Ronin garner mixed user reviews on Steam, particularly with technical issues likely to be highlighted in player feedback. Despite its intriguing premise, the game’s performance is poised to pale in comparison to that of Assassin’s Creed. Typically, one might suggest waiting for a developer-driven performance patch, yet KOEI TECMO’s track record in this area is not particularly reassuring. Improvement in performance on GeForce RTX 50 GPUs would also benefit from NVIDIA’s potential whitelisting to leverage the latest DLSS transformer and possibly enable Multi Frame Generation.

While this could ostensibly address some of the game’s most pressing performance issues, the chronic technical setbacks encountered in KOEI TECMO titles suggest that a shift to the Unreal Engine—as seen with the remaster of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black—might be a more prudent long-term solution. Despite its own set of challenges, Unreal Engine presents a more sophisticated and capable framework.

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