Ronin (video game)

Ronin (stylized as RONIN) is a turn-based action platform video game developed by Polish indie developer Tomasz Wacławek, designer at Polish indie studio Flying Wild Hog, and published by Devolver Digital. It was released for Microsoft Windows on 27 May 2015 into Steam Early Access and left it on 30 June 2015. A later update for the game introduced builds for OS X and Linux on 15 October 2015. A PlayStation 4 port of Ronin was released on 1 November 2016.

For other uses, see Ronin (disambiguation).

Ronin
Logo of Ronin
Developer(s)Tomasz Wacławek
Publisher(s)Devolver Digital
Designer(s)Tomasz Wacławek
Programmer(s)Tomasz Wacławek
Artist(s)Łukasz Piskorz
Writer(s)Tomasz Wacławek
Composer(s)Patryk Karwat
EngineGameMaker: Studio
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows
  • WW: 30 June 2015
OS X, Linux
  • WW: 15 October 2015
PlayStation 4
  • WW: 1 November 2016
PlayStation Vita
  • WW: TBA
Genre(s)Action, platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

Ronin has a stealth-based business complex level design, which the designer Tomasz Wacławek described as a rip-off from Tom Francis' Gunpoint.[1] The player needs to avoid being seen by the guards and use the surprise moment for silent kills. Once in a fight situation, the player has to dodge the guards' attacks and get the right angle to defeat them.

Plot

Ronin is about a young girl, known as the "Rōnin", who has lost her father for unknown reasons and the only thing she has left is a photo of five former associates of her father, responsible for his death. The Rōnin is now in charge of self-justice by taking revenge upon those five persons, one at a time.[2]

Development and release

Ronin was originally created for the itch.io "Cyberpunk" Game Jam, it was submitted under the user name teedoubleu in March 2014.[3] Although it didn't get any high ratings, the highest being place #88 in the category "Relevance", it won the Developer's Showcase and Jury Award at the World of Gamedev Knowledge Conference 2014 (WGK) in Gdańsk, Poland.[4][5] After having gained a new artist, Łukasz Piskorz, the game's graphics were polished up from pixel art to high-quality 2D art. This change was done not only to make it look better, but also to distinguish it from Gunpoint. Piotr Iwanicki, creative director of Superhot and part of the WGK award jury, gave Wacławek then the idea of handing Ronin over to Devolver Digital, and so he did.[6] Their first public collaborative announcement was the release of Ronin's reveal trailer.[7]

After a longer silent development phase, Wacławek released an updated version of the original Ronin game jam entry, using the new graphics, soundtrack and functions of the full game, to its itch.io page on 20 April 2015, therefore recalling the page from "RONIN" to "RONIN Demo".[8] The game was initially released onto Steam Early Access on 24 May 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux, however, the OS X and Linux versions were taken down due to their instability. The game left Early Access on 30 June 2015 for Microsoft Windows only.[9] On 18 June 2015, it was announced that Ronin would be ported to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.[10] On 15 October 2015, update #9 for the game introduced builds for OS X and Linux.[11] On 1 November 2016, the port of Ronin for PlayStation 4 was released.

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic(PC) 70/100[12]
Review scores
PublicationScore
PC Gamer (US)74/100[13]
Hooked Gamers7.8/10[14]
The Escapist2/5[15]

Ronin generally received positive reviews. The review aggregator Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version of Ronin a score of 70/100, based on 39 reviews.[12] Reviers praised the game's overall design concept and the alikeness with Gunpoint. Though, people still differentiated them, where Phil Savage from PC Gamer stated that Ronin is "the schlocky B-movie to Gunpoint's more cerebral stealth-puzzling".[13] Something that was not as well received was the repetitivity of some levels, as Matt Porter from Hooked Gamers wrote: "Each of the five people you have to kill are in the same type of boring office building".[14] Ronin's lowest review rating, was given by Steven Bogos from The Escapist, who gave the game a low score of a 2/5, stating that "Ronin is a remarkably average game. When it works, it's kind of fun, but there just isn't enough here to maintain interest, and it has nothing that we haven't seen before".[15]

gollark: Why did you do it this way? *Deliberate* insanity?
gollark: I assumed it was by letter, hm.
gollark: ... what does `split` do without arguments?
gollark: &s test on
gollark: That is all.

References
  1. Francis, Tom (12 August 2014). "It's Time I Did Something About This 'Gunpoint Ripoff'". Pentadact.com. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  2. "RONIN on Steam". Steam. Valve. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  3. Wacławek, Tomasz. "RONIN Demo by teedoubleu for Cyberpunk Jam". itch.io. Itch Corp. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  4. SUPERHOT Team (9 September 2014). "SUPERHOT on Twitter: "Ronin won Developers Showcase on @KonferencjaWGK. It's the same place we started last year!"". Twitter. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  5. World of Gamedev Knowledge (17 September 2014). "WGK on Twitter: "Ronin won Jury Award and Warlocks Audience Award at WGK this year. Support the game here:"". Twitter. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  6. Devolver Digital (22 January 2015). "Devolver Digital on Twitter: "Introducing RONIN, a turn-based action platformer coming to PC in 2015. Watch the trailer and follow @RONINGame!"". Twitter. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  7. Devolver Digital (22 January 2015). RONIN: Turn-Based Action Platformer. YouTube. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  8. Wacławek, Tomasz. "RONIN Demo by teedoubleu". itch.io. Itch Corp. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  9. Nunneley, Shephany (30 June 2015). "Ronin slices and dices her way out of Early Access onto PC, Linux and Mac". VG247. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  10. Priestman, Chris (18 June 2015). "Ronin's Turn-Based Stealth Killing Is Coming To PS4, PS Vita Though". Siliconera. Curse, Inc. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  11. Lowrie, Nigel (15 October 2016). "Mac + Linux and Update 9". Steam. Valve. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  12. "RONIN for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  13. Savage, Phil (30 June 2015). "Ronin review". PC Gamer. Future US. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  14. Porter, Matt (30 June 2015). "RONIN review for PC". Hooked Gamers. Cutlass Isle. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  15. Bogos, Steven (3 July 2015). "Ronin Review - Lacking in Ninja-like Precision". The Escapist. Defy Media. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
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