Team Ninja and Sony have released a brand new Rise of the Ronin deep dive video that goes into detail regarding the developer's painstaking process of bringing the game to life.
In the video, game director Fumihiko Yasuda says that when he was considering his initial vision for the game, he wondered "whether players would be able to play and enjoy it".
UI director Takayuki Saga says the game's open world represented "a large scale of development", while Yasuda-san says this is Team Ninja's first project on which "multiple directors" were assigned.
We also get to see animation lead Kosuke Wakamatsu and combat design director Takeo Fujisaki reminiscing about Yasuda-san joining Team Ninja during the development of Ninja Gaiden 2.
Wakamatsu-san says Yasuda-san was "impressive, although he was still young", and that the two developed a "shared understanding" whereby Yasuda-san would grasp concepts Wakamatsu-san was trying to explain before he'd finished.
CG director Yoshinori Kobayashi says he's "a fan" of Yasuda-san's works, and that he "played so much Nioh 2 that it started to affect [his] work".
Generally speaking, there's a focus on teamwork and camaraderie in the video, likely intended to show that Rise of the Ronin is more of a team effort than the usual Team Ninja projects. You can check the full video out here.
If you're unfamiliar with Rise of the Ronin, it's an open-world action RPG developed by Nioh and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty studio Team Ninja.
Unlike those games, however, Rise of the Ronin isn't a straight Soulslike; rather, it's seemingly informed by games like Assassin's Creed and Ghost of Tsushima (which is getting a PC port soon).
The game will allow you to explore Bakumatsu-era Japan and will feature characters from various factions, each of which has a different perspective on the rapid modernization Japan was undergoing during this historic time.
It'll also feature a number of different weapons with which you can get to grips, as well as a dynamic story that will have you building bonds with historical figures like Ryoma Sakamoto and Matthew Perry (the naval officer, not the actor).
Rise of the Ronin is due to launch exclusively for PlayStation 5 on March 22nd.
