As everyone pointed out, the game has a cool style and the turn based action seems cool originally, but then you realize it's actually not very good at all. First off, its stupid how gaining skills is tied to arbitrary extra objectives in the game, meaning if you make a mistake, set off any alarm, or don't skill every single guy in levl (which should be your decision) you have to continually restart checkpoints over and over until everything happens perfectly. Then there's the combat. You die from any single 1 hit. Its fine when there are few guys and when you can play parts how you want, using stealth to whittle down numbers. But when forced into fights against multiple people the game runs out of fun and becomes frustrating. Many times you can't tell if an attack will hit you, or know all the information for the enemies next turn. Trying to plan your jumps is annoying also. To get to someone close to you and knock them down you have to jump either way too high up so youre out of range of hitting them, or too low that youll come back down to the ground and get killed by another enemies attack. Also the jump ability is terrible with the mouse, and doesn't work half the time. The fighting system can be super dumb. You will jump and knock someone down, but then everyone is on you, meaning you can't kill them, you have to jump up again, then you need to jump down. But with attacking takking a turn and with enemies being able to kill you that turn, its useless. I would constantly knock someone down and have to jus jump away, and go around a room knocking people down but never able to kill them because there would be 3 other enemies always attacking me. I could never end next to someone where I could fall and kill them on same turn. Then other times land by someone will just net you getting auto killed. It's also annoyhing there's no way to stun civilians in early stages. Meaning if you get detected you just must restart. Juging from other people's reviews the forced combat get's even worse at later stages. Some people say jus mash space bar, but you move too quickly that you can't time it to be right where you want. Better control or dual actions, landing where you want, more option for avoiding fights, taking out forced stupid objectives, and better mouse support this game could be fun. In current state can't recommend.

4/10.

Hard and unforgiving game with a steep learning curve. Story is given in bits and pieces, much like in Hotline Miami. Worth to check out if you like games like Hotline Miami, NOT A HERO, Gunpoint etc.

RONIN is a 2D, Turn-Based, Action Platformer. Pretty unique genre blend that would surely make a good game, well not so much in this case.

The developer is clearly not very experienced as the games controls are very unresponsive. The UI is terrible at showing where you'll jump next. (The dev clearly know this as he jokingly have ''hints'' telling you that the jumping arc is a lie)
Now i'll have some pros and cons.

Pros

• Clean crisp visuals.
  
• A pretty alright soundtrack.

Cons

• Unresponsive controls.
  
• Terrible UI.
  
• Frustrating level design.
  
• Backstory is sold separately.

All in all i would not recommend this game. But if you're looking for games similar to this and want a better one, (in my opinion) i would highly recommend that you check out Mark of the Ninja instead

I had been wanting to get to Ronin for a while though, I was pretty excited about it. After beating Gunpoint and I saw this one, it’s a slightly turn based version of Gunpoint, very similar anyway, except even in the hints in the game itself it says “this is not Gunpoint” haha. But the similarities are Very high. Graphics are very similar, level design is extremely similar, gameplay is quite similar. I don’t remember Gunpoints soundtrack, but the Ronin soundtrack is pretty good.

First, the bad, the really really bad, stupid idiotically bad. You can’t play this game in anything other than 1920x1080 resolution. [I don’t know if smaller works or not, I’d wager it does not]. My screen is 2560x1440. The options only allows a checkmark for full screen or not full screen. Obviously I play full screen, but when I got to a point where I had to kill a guard, a little red sword button pops up. Except I couldn’t click it. Somehow I did it accidentally. I pressed every key on the kb and nothing worked. I couldn’t progress. I looked for a manual or guide as to what button to push. I almost quit the game outright, never to be played again. Then I found a steam forum post about the resolution issue. Unchecked fullscreen, which puts it to 1920x1080 and it has worked flawlessly ever since.

So, once I was able to actually play, you jump around like gunpoint, you hack terminals by pressing up like gunpoint, you avoid and attack guards like gunpoint, you hide in shadows like gunpoint. It’s so ridiculously similar to gunpoint, EXCEPT, it’s semi-turn based, in a weird kinda way. Every second of time equates a movement, or something. It’s hard to explain. The game is real time until action starts and It auto-pauses. You can choose to jump (and choose your arc, which apparently is occasionally a lie) and sometimes your jump would last longer than a full turn, so you would land on the second turn (or do something else), you can attack, you can use grappling line, or another special unlocked ability. If you choose to attack while in a red line of death (enemy gun aim or whatever) then you would do your attack and then be shot. Unless your attack moves you, which it seems to do randomly – this is bad because it’s not always entirely predictable, though it usually is. So, you do a whole lot of jumping around until you get a clear attack of opportunity.

Which brings me to the next point, the difficulty spike is pretty intense. This game is HARD. There are, idk 7 bosses I think, and each one has a couple preliminary missions where you hack terminals. There really doesn’t seem to be much of a story. Gunpoint at least had an ok story mixed with some humor. But I haven’t even gotten to boss #2 yet. I have died SO MANY times. I enjoyed playing but I eventually got fatigued and went on to play some [semi]brainless OW. It’s almost like a puzzle game or a test of patience. So, if you can’t do that, then I don’t recommend it. Taylor, since you liked Dark Souls so much, you might like it, especially since you liked Gunpoint. Gunpoint is a piece of cake in comparison.

Combat tends to be in a room with 3-4 enemies. There are basic guards, who stay in one spot and shoot at your last location. Samurai that do a slash-n-dash in a straight trajectory, soldiers that seem to basically be the same as guards but have machine guns (I really don’t know the difference yet – apparently guards shoot second, soldiers shoot first), and some guys that are more prone to call for lockdown. [more on this in a minute] I think later on there are a couple more types. Guards, soldiers, and whatever the other guy is called can be knocked down and it takes two turns for them to get back up. You can kill them after knocking them down. Samurai are the most troublesome. You can’t jump at them, they take two hits to kill and you can only hit them in certain circumstances it seems. One hit stuns them, next hit kills. And of course they are dashing all over the room. Occasionally you can knock someone off a high ledge to kill them, but it doesn’t happen often.
The lockdown – locks certain doors impeding travel, calls more guards (I think), and more importantly fails one of your objectives. There are three objectives (usually) to each mission. If you complete them all, you get a skill point. If you don’t you can move on, but no point. Skill points give you things like the ability to throw a sword, throw shurikens to stun, have a body double, silently hang people from the ceiling, etc etc.

So, ultimately, it’s a really neat, cool game with some problems, but I really enjoyed it so far. I’ll definitely be playing again when I can devote the brain power.

This is a great, unique little game. Your character is the ultimate glass cannon: she can kill enemies by the dozen but dies in 1 hit. This works perfectly as a turn based action game, since you can take your time and carefully plan your approach and feel genuinely badass when you pull it off... Since you know 1 hit is all it takes to kill you.

Yes, it's difficult. You'll need to 100% the missions to get skill points from them, which is an odd choice (though it does force you to learn new mechanics). The game could also use some polish, there's some bugs and awkward physics here and there as well as a couple of encounters that seem plain unfair at first. I can see why these issues might turn people off.

Despite all that it's a very innovative, fun and well designed game and I can't recommend it enough. I know it has mixed reviews, but if you have any interest in turn based action you should give it a shot.

Painfully frustrating. Doesn't always work. Finnicky ♥♥♥♥♥. Incredibly rewarding.

A dedicated player knows - when you decode a fight's "puzzle" and execute a room full of guards like the spring-heeled angel of death, there is no greater satisfaction. A turn-based combat game that utlizes a kind of Zack-Snyder-esque, Honk-Kong-action-movie-styled time dilation to create the illusion of a constant, thrilling pace, and put you behind the visor of a hyper-aware bonafide ninja badass.

It's sick. You'll never yell louder at your screen.

The game is a stealth based sidescroller in combination with a round based attack system. Sounds strange? It is! At least for the first half of your first playthrough. You hide in the dark and while nobody is seeing you you can freely sneak around and kill some enemies without even getting noticed. After some guards recognize that you attack the combat system changes. Now every turn (your and the enemies) will be round based. It's really fun and challenging (at least in new game plus). For me it was a lot of fun to master this game. Some parts are frustating if you fail and fail over again but everytime you clear an area there is an checkpoint so in the end it should be not a big hassle to finish the game. Everytime you finish a level with all bonus objectives you get a skill point which you can spend in a little skilltree.

The last level has a small changed style which is quite interesting and still the hardest part of the game. For me this game was really great. I definetely recommend this game!

First off, I want to say that this game got me to invest enough time into it to complete it 100%. Yes that includes the NEW GAME PLUS mode and all Steam Achievements despite barely having over 12 hours put into it.

• Unique mashup of stealth, combat, and tactical thinking
  
• Talent tree that helps customize early game playstyle (Eventually unlock everything)
  
• SImple yet engaging artstyle
  
• Multiple ways to complete objectives (Some work better than others)
  
• Hazards and enemy selections are consistently introduced throughout game
  
• Learning curve isn't steep. Easy to learn, hard to execute perfectly

• Bugs, glitches, and the like are common
  
• Price a bit iffy.
  
• Levels can be downright infuriating
  
• Game itself is short

You start off as a young woman on a mission of revenge. Exposition of the world and her backstory are given mainly through short intros and dialogue between missions. There isn't much story besides that.

The gameplay itself is something refreshing, mixing together 'beat em up' aspects with stealth and careful planning. However, this is not purely a stealth game as the branding on this may seem. You will have to engage in open combat many times in order to properly play this game. You will also die, many MANY times. Enemy patterns and behaviors are learned through experience. You'll die to them and learn from it. These patterns can be exploited later to your advantage and are usually reliable enough to do so consistently. However, as a result of this, interactions with enemies can seem really repetitive, especially if you're stuck on a level and don't change your tactics or try coming in from a different angle. Most of your time playing won't be on new levels, but rathe on the same ones trying new things out. On a similiar note, the soundtrack suffers from this repetition. While not bad, it can get dull after hearing it for the 30th time.

Bugs popped into gameplay during my personal experience. A handful of times I phased through a wall and out of the map after grappling to it, and other times enemies would spot me despite being compltely out of sight. A majority of the game, however, was perfectly fine. Yet it does seem that a large amount of other players are reporting more bugs than what I witnessed.

This game brings something new to the table in the form of its turnbased stealth combat system, yet the game itself is pretty short. Great concept with adequate gameplay to back it up that requires patience, timing, and skill. Bugs are present and probably will not be fixed as the last update was a year ago. Can be repetitive at times. I recommend this game when it's on sale.

An action I've played that's unlike any other! Hard, clever, well designed, action packed, with just enough blood to remind you that you're playing a Devolver game!

This is

A note from this coon before the Good the Bad and the Ugly:
This game pushes bounderies I feel were meant to be broken! It challenges the genre it says it is, and puts the whole game in a league of it's own. What do you expect from a Devolver Digital game? Playing for a brief time and getting hooked it what you should expect!

HOWS THE GRAPHICS?
Hand drawn is how they are! and I just love it! The coding for the animation, hitboxes, and world around you in this game are just superb and give a plesant homage to animators like Genndy Tartokovsky. Which equals and A++ in my book by far.

WHAT ABOUT THE STORY?
Seeing as I only played for around 2 hours or so, I can't give a huge verdict of the story, but here's a long and short of it.
You play a ronin out for blood in a dystopian world that shunned him (her? I dunno).
With that enough it already sounds like an unreleased Genndy Tartokovsy plot line! Which is A OK!

GAMEPLAY?
Let me level with you here...TOUGH.AS.NAILS! Not only do you have to deal with the side scrolling platformer aspects, you also have to deal with the stealth & turn based action aspects. As first when I learn how this game was gonna work I was like "Whaaaaaaat?" and then I played it and I was like "YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, that's tight!". let me put a cherry on top of that awesomeness, it also has RPG elements with upgrades and levels for your character, how cool is that mix?!

SO WHATS THE COON'S VERDICT?

Pros:

• Amazing concept from the ground up.
  
• Fuggin amazing art direction.
  
• Gameplay that is groundbreaking and never seen before.

Cons:

• Hard as hell
  
• steep price

Final Score

NOTE: My score not being perfect is simply cause I havent finished it, its a tough game and can get easily frustraiting in later levels. This is for hardcore gamers and not for people who like it casual 100% of the time. Hotline Miami kinda diffculty here, I tells ya!

I really didn't like the gameplay. The trajectory is absolutely unpredictable, the skills are not really useful. There are better games with a similar gameplay...