Team Ninja's first open-world action RPG cuts to the bone

Walking through the neglected ruins of an empty graveyard, I crouched through a hole in a wall with my katana in hand, ready to strike. I was about a dozen hours into my playthrough of Rise of the Ronin, the latest open-world action RPG from Team Ninja, and I had already abandoned the beaten path for the game's main mission of hunting down fugitives terrorizing the countryside.

I approached my latest target, a notorious grave robber. I trained my sights on the body of a man slumped in a corner being ravaged by a pack of dogs. I didn't fully understand what was happening until I heard a growl from my periphery and the telltale sign of a life staff materializing at the top of the screen. Suddenly everything clicked into place: My God, the grave robber was not a man; it was a mad dog.

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