In addition to outlining the missions and features imminently arriving in Rise of the Ronin's next update, developer Team Ninja took the opportunity to point out the PS5 exclusive's connections to previous entries in the studio's back catalogue, specifically the Nioh and Ninja Gaiden series. Warning: a boss spoiler for Rise of the Ronin is incoming; the developer says two months is long enough.
Over on the PlayStation Blog, Team Ninja director and game producer Fumihiko Yasuda spilt a considerable amount of ink outlining exactly how Rise of the Ronin connects to two of its other franchises, Nioh and Ninja Gaiden.
Team Ninja was eager to collaborate with PlayStation Studio's XDEV team to get Ryu Hayabusa's iconic Ninja Gaiden costume in the game. Initially, one of the game's combat styles (Hayabusa-ryu) would be implemented at the same speed as in the original, but Team Ninja couldn't make it work. Hayabusa's iconic Izuna Drop, as well as his Ultimate Technique, made it into the game. Ryu's costume marks the first appearance of Nina Gaiden-related content on PS5, meaning everything needed to be remade in high-resolution 4K format, and the team took into account materials available at the end of the Edo period for the redesign to make sure it looked authentic.
As for the Nioh connection, Team Ninja let slip a minor spoiler: the protagonist of the first game, William Adams, appears as a hidden boss in Rise of the Ronin. The studio has wanted to do this since the early planning stage, believing it would be a pleasant surprise for players. Fun fact: the character of John Blackthorne in FX's recent Shōgun adaptation (based on the novel by James Clavell), better known as the Anjin, is based upon the real-life figure of William Adams. Adams was the first Englishman to visit Japan and even aided the Tokugawa Shogunate to come to power; fittingly, for this achievement, he has been forever immortalised as the face of Team Ninja's Nioh series.