Over 60 hours into Rise of the Ronin and I nonetheless haven’t found every part that Workforce Ninja’s newest open-world samurai journey recreation has to supply. And now, exterior of all of the cats to gather and fugitives to kill, there’s one other secret related to Nioh that I solely simply got here throughout. That’s proper: William Adams, the protagonist of Nioh, is lurking in Rise of the Ronin. Listed below are the small print, together with the place and methods to discover the “Blue-Eyed Samurai.”
On March 31, the PlayStation UK X/Twitter account revealed one thing I suspected was within the recreation: William Adams, the protagonist of the primary Nioh and the primary non-Japanese samurai, is in Rise of the Ronin. Effectively, not precisely. Since Nioh takes place tons of of years earlier than the occasions of Rise of the Ronin, he’s referred to as the “Blue-Eyed Samurai” right here, harking back to the wonderful Netflix anime with the very related title. Anyway, William—I imply, the Blue-Eyed Samurai—performs a small position right here, a mere sub-boss encounter as a part of the open-world pictures actions, however crossing swords with him could be very a lot well worth the effort.
You will discover him within the Shiba Prefecture in Edo, which is the second main metropolis in Rise of the Ronin. Should you pop open your mini-map and head towards Shiba’s bay, you’ll discover a photograph goal referred to as “View of the Bay at Shiba.” You don’t have to finish this exercise, however snapping a fast pic of the waterfront will provide you with silver cash to buy additional Mind ability factors. Simply left of the place you’d take the image is a little bit alcove with a dimly lit hearth illuminating the doorway. Saunter in there.
The remainder of the best way is blocked by a poorly constructed picket barricade, which you’ll destroy by blowing up the hearth barrel simply in entrance with both a bomb or a gun. When you’re inside, take the one left on the finish of the quick, slender pathway, and William—dammit, the Blue-Eyed Samurai—will probably be standing there, simply ready so that you can attempt him. And take a look at him it’s essential to, as a result of this isn’t a type of encounters the place there’s a little bit of dialogue earlier than the blades get inevitably soaked in blood. He aggros the second he spots you, however it’s not a very troublesome combat, particularly when you’ve performed Nioh. His moveset is similar to the usual assault sample you see when wielding a katana in Workforce Ninja’s 2017 Japan-set Soulslike, in order that familiarity ought to make the combat simpler to handle. Anyway, go forward and lay him out.
After the combat, you’ll earn some fairly candy rewards. The primary is a set of armor themed round Yasuke, the primary Black samurai whose title is the title of one other glorious Netflix anime. Then there’s the true prize, the Nioh-ryu fight type. It’s the identical sword approach that the Blue-Eyed Samurai, and Nioh’s William Adams, use, and it’s nice. See, there are 4 overarching fight type sorts that the myriad fight types in Rise of the Ronin fall below: Ten, Chi, Jin, and Shinobi. Every of those 4 is powerful towards sure weapon sorts and weak towards others, however Jin is probably the most well-rounded fight type of the bunch as a result of it’s efficient towards sabers and different light-weight weapons. The Nioh-ryu is a Jin-based fight type, which suggests, since most enemies in Rise of the Ronin use both katanas or sabers, you’ll primarily at all times do extra harm. Positive, there are a handful of enemies that use different fight types which may successfully counter a Jin-based one, however even then, as a result of Jin is a jack-of-all-trades, it might probably nonetheless minimize by way of even the heaviest of weaponry, similar to golf equipment and odachi.
I really like little particulars like this, non-obligatory targets that join a studio’s video games collectively in attention-grabbing and fully missable methods when you don’t know the place to look. The great factor about Rise of the Ronin is that when you occur to overlook something within the recreation, there’s a characteristic that allows you to replay complete areas and whole missions for completely totally different outcomes. So, when you wished to see what would occur when you saved an anti-Shogunate official as a substitute of killing them, you may bend time to see what occurs. Sadly, when you murk the Blue-Eyed Samurai, he’s useless for good.
