The age of the samurai is coming to an end. The chaos of the Warring States period bleeds into the stagnancy of the Edo period, and an age of peace has no room for warriors. You take on the role of samurai retainers Jiro or Taro as various pressures try to destroy them.
AUTHOR
Nicola Kapron
VOICE ACTOR
Nate Barham
SUITED FOR
Teens, Adults
PLAYING TIME
15 min
CHOICES
15
ENDINGS
4
Game Flow
Medium
ATTENTION LEVEL
Medium
It is 1637, Japan. After 100 years of samurai dominance, the land has no more wars to fight in, and thus no need for a heavily-armed, highly-respected warrior class. The Tokugawa Shogunate has begun cutting dead weight.
Once fired, a samurai becomes a ronin and loses his position, his home, and his purpose. Ronin have a very short life-expectancy and a tendency to self-destruct.
The player takes on the role of Jiro or Taro, two samurai serving under Lord Arita, as political, interpersonal, and economic pressures try to destroy the Arita Clan. Obstinate, righteous Jiro discovers an assassination attempt against Lord Arita. Meanwhile, resourceful and Taro puts his charisma to work looking into the conspiracy behind the assassin.
In Tale of Ronin, an RPG roguelike currently in development, the fall of the Arita Clan forms the background of the tutorial. This audio story will provide an inside look at how the clan fell. Jiro and Taro’s fates are up to the player, and the decisions they make before and after the clan’s destruction could lead them to a new form of happiness… or straight into the depths of despair.
4.7 out of 5 stars (based on 10 reviews)
From the first scene, the game drew me in. There was clearly a lot of thought and research put into the world-building which was also balanced with quick decision-making and action that felt meaningful as it also delved into the characters’ values, reasoning, and psychology. This has been the most detailed game I’ve played on this platform, and I hope to see many more with this level of attention to detail!
This story was a treat to play through. Not only do the characters feel fully realized, even the opening choice of who you want to be is great in creating player agency.
I played as Jiro on this first play through, and all of his choices and thoughts felt as though they would be unique to his honorable character. Even at the end, serving his lord through honor guides his choices, and that made for the player choice all the more interesting.
Looking forward to the next chapter!
I feel like this game gives you a lot of agency. You choose your characters and how you feel at different points, which is great because I tend to get attached to the players I control. Even though it was a short story, a lot happened, and there was so much I wanted to explore.
I enjoyed playing the story. Choosing a character to play was a cool feature, and I wonder how different my experience would have been had I chosen a different one.
I’m only giving it 4 stars because there were slight imperfections and perhaps a mix-up of branches. First, the same information was repeated twice in slightly different wording, and then, when I went to speak with the prisoner, even though I’d talked to him before, I was given a description as if I was seeing him for the first time.
Apart from that, a very good experience overall.
This story is set in a very interesting time period and is written very well. The intrigue it tells about pulls you in, the choices feel meaningful and the characters have distinct and different qualities.
