Over 60 hours into Rise of the Ronin and I nonetheless haven’t found every part that Staff Ninja’s newest open-world samurai journey sport has to supply. And now, exterior of all of the cats to gather and fugitives to kill, there’s one other secret linked 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 here are the main points, together with the place and tips on how to discover the “Blue-Eyed Samurai.”
On March 31, the PlayStation UK X/Twitter account revealed one thing I suspected was within the sport: 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 lots of of years earlier than the occasions of Rise of the Ronin, he’s referred to as the “Blue-Eyed Samurai” right here, paying homage to the wonderful Netflix anime with the very comparable title. Anyway, William—I imply, the Blue-Eyed Samurai—performs a small function right here, a mere sub-boss encounter as a part of the open-world images actions, however crossing swords with him could be very a lot definitely worth the effort.
You could find him within the Shiba Prefecture in Edo, which is the second main metropolis in Rise of the Ronin. In case 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 offers you silver cash to buy additional Mind ability factors. Simply left of the place you’d take the image is a 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 be able to 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 brief, slender pathway, and William—dammit, the Blue-Eyed Samurai—can be standing there, simply ready so that you can attempt him. And take a look at him you could, as a result of this isn’t a kind 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, but it surely’s not a very tough battle, particularly for those who’ve performed Nioh. His moveset is equivalent to the usual assault sample you see when wielding a katana in Staff Ninja’s 2017 Japan-set Soulslike, in order that familiarity ought to make the battle simpler to handle. Anyway, go forward and lay him out.
After the battle, 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 method that the Blue-Eyed Samurai, and Nioh’s William Adams, use, and it’s nice. See, there are 4 overarching fight type varieties that the myriad fight types in Rise of the Ronin fall underneath: Ten, Chi, Jin, and Shinobi. Every of those 4 is powerful in opposition to sure weapon varieties and weak in opposition to others, however Jin is probably the most well-rounded fight type of the bunch as a result of it’s efficient in opposition to sabers and different light-weight weapons. The Nioh-ryu is a Jin-based fight type, which implies, since most enemies in Rise of the Ronin use both katanas or sabers, you’ll primarily all the time do extra harm. Certain, 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 may well nonetheless minimize by even the heaviest of weaponry, comparable to golf equipment and odachi.
I really like little particulars like this, optionally available aims that join a studio’s video games collectively in attention-grabbing and fully missable methods for those who don’t know the place to look. The good factor about Rise of the Ronin is that for those who occur to overlook something within the sport, there’s a characteristic that permits you to replay complete areas and full missions for completely completely different outcomes. So, for those who wished to see what would occur for those who saved an anti-Shogunate official as a substitute of killing them, you might bend time to see what occurs. Sadly, when you murk the Blue-Eyed Samurai, he’s lifeless for good.