New quests and content are coming to the PlayStation 5 exclusive when it launches in March, and the game’s director Fumihiko Yasuda has revealed more on the PlayStation Blog.

Team Ninja has added five new ally missions to the PlayStation 5 exclusive. When replaying a world on midnight difficulty, you can choose to have public order deteriorate again. A level sync selection feature has been added to missions from Testament of the Soul, and two new set bonuses have been added to Midnight difficulty. Dojo training partners have also been added, and the martial skill type bonus has an increased target score limit. When equipped with the same weapon type on Weapons 1 and 2, the number of styles can be increased to a maximum of 6. They changed the specs so that special equipment is given even if the player does not confess. Greetings with characters after a disconnect will return to normal over time, and they have been adjusted to make it easier to select asynchronous characters.

Yasuda revealed some details about some connections to Team Ninja’s two previous projects (Ninja Gaiden, Nioh). The Iga Ninja Armor is one of the links between Rise of the Ronin and Ninja Gaiden. From a very early stage of development, they discussed with the XDEV team at PlayStation Studio their desire to include costumes from the Ninja Gaiden series. When considering which costumes and weapons to implement, they agreed that the main character’s costume, Ryu Hayabusa, would be an iconic and recognizable costume for an in-game armor design. Historically, ninjas are said to have existed during the Bakumatsu period (late 19th century), which is the setting of Rise of the Ronin, so there is a high degree of affinity with the worldview of those titles. One of the fighting styles, Hayabusa-ryu, was originally implemented at the same speed as in the original, but the attacks were so fast and extremely powerful that they had a hard time adapting them to the game speed of this new version for Rise of the Ronin. In addition to Hayabusa’s iconic moves, such as the Izuna Drop, they also incorporated as many of Ninja Gaiden’s techniques as possible, such as his Ultimate Technique. The distinctive costumes of the Hayabusa-ryu ninja, such as the raptor-inspired headgear and sleeveless armor, were redesigned with the idea of reconstructing them using weapons and materials from the late Edo period.

William, the protagonist of Nioh, appears as a hidden boss in this game. They decided to make him appear early in the planning stage because we thought it would be a pleasant surprise for those who have played the Nioh series. Since the game is set in the late Edo period, when Japanese and Western cultures began to mix, and many Westerners such as Commodore Matthew Perry appear, the appearance of William in armor was implemented in a way that didn’t feel out of place. As for the Nioh-ryu fighting style, they initially had the idea of making the three stances that are characteristic of the series, top, middle, and bottom, into independent styles, but since the controls would have been too complicated, and since they felt that Nioh is really about fighting while switching between the three stances in real time, they implemented it as one style that encompasses the three stances. Nioh has a large number of techniques, so they had a hard time deciding which ones to include. The armor he wears is based on the Obsidian Armor that appeared in the Nioh series, and has a distressed design that evokes the passage of time from the Nioh era to the end of the Edo period. The effect of the Blade Flash in Rise of the Ronin is the Ki Pulse in Nioh. Flux can also be used, and by holding down the martial arts input, you can perform the martial arts move directly from any stance without having to change stances. It’s a difficult style to master.

Not bad background info.

Source: VGC, PlayStation Blog