Highlights

• Rise of the Ronin features open-world exploration and player-influenced story choices.
• The game's map system follows modern standards, offering icons for landmarks, fast travel points, and collectibles.
• Unlike Skyrim, Rise of the Ronin reveals all map icons in an area when players increase their Bond Levels through activities.

Rise of the Ronin is Ninja Gaiden developer Team Ninja's most ambitious title yet, as it is the first of the developer's games to feature open-world exploration and a story directly influenced by the player's choices. As Team Ninja's first open-world title, it had a lot riding on it, especially with how often the open-world genre of video games is chastised for generally believing bigger is always better. As many open-worlds have proven, however, that isn't always true. Fortunately, Rise of the Ronin's open-world is executed well enough despite still observing the same rules that most modern open worlds tend to follow.

While the open-world genre wasn't necessarily popularized by Bethesda's acclaimed title, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, open-world games have nonetheless been influenced by Skyrim since its release. That holds true in Ubisoft's numerous open-world titles, as well as Rise of the Ronin. While Rise of the Ronin certainly borrows elements from Skyrim's open-world model, it is still very formulaic in its approach and could be considered something more akin to a Ubisoft open world than anything else. Still, the open-worlds of Skyrim and Rise of the Ronin are similar in some of the most fundamental ways.

How Rise of the Ronin's Open World Map Compares to Skyrim's

Rise of the Ronin's Open World Is More Formulaic by Modern Standards Than Skyrim's

By modern standards, Rise of the Ronin's open world is largely formulaic and not necessarily leaps ahead of other open worlds. On the game's map, players can eventually find icons for landmarks, fast travel points, and collectibles. As collectibles are acquired, their icons disappear, and as landmarks are visited, their icons are grayed out. It's a fairly typical approach for a modern open-world game, especially when it comes to Ubisoft's open-world model. However, it's quite a bit different than Skyrim's open world, and this is likely due to the time gap between the two games.

On Skyrim's open-world map, players can only see icons for locations they've visited. Any collectibles — including weapons, gear, or beneficial items — can't be seen on the map. Instead, these items must be sought out by the player through natural curiosity-driven discovery. Even so, the maps of both Rise of the Ronin and Skyrim eventually become filled with icons, depending on how much players explore.

Rise of the Ronin Takes a Much More Innovative Approach to Map Reveal Than Skyrim

As players explore Skyrim's open world, as long as they are close enough to a location — whether it be a cave, a city, or a landmark — it will show up in the player's compass as a dark icon. This indicates that the player has not visited yet. Once they visit it, the icon for that location turns white and then appears on the player's map. Until a location has been discovered, it will not appear on the map itself, only on the compass.

In Rise of the Ronin, on the other hand, players can reveal every map icon in an area by increasing that area's Bond Level to 3. Players can do this by completing various activities in the area, whether it be discovering Veiled Edge Banners or completing quests. Each Bond Level reveals an increasing number of icons on the map, and getting it to Level 3 eventually reveals everything, even collectibles. Rather than simply showing players everything there is to find in the game, Rise of the Ronin encourages players to explore on their own for a bit before it takes their hand and shows them where else to go.

While some of Skyrim has certainly made it into Rise of the Ronin, the two games approach their open worlds differently. Skyrim only shows players locations they've visited, whereas Rise of the Ronin shows players more as they explore. Rise of the Ronin is closer to a traditional open-world game than Skyrim, but Skyrim is, after all, almost thirteen years old now.