Red Ronin

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Red Ronin, released on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox one, and Nintendo Switch in 2021, is a character-based Puzzle game with some elements of classic Dungeon Crawlers where players take the role of a sword-wielding woman slashing her way through enemies in tile-based levels where players must carefully consider each move as they slide across the rooms to reach each level’s exit.

Red Ronin makes use of some decent pixel art visuals depicting your character’s slick movements and her ruthlessly bloody dispatching of enemies with some nice animated flair. This is backed by a catchy electronic soundtrack. For a good example of what to expect, check out Be Quick. In short, this game looks and sounds great, and its presentation does a good job making the action within the game seem smooth and enjoyable.

As for that gameplay, this is a game that plays very similarly to Slayaway Camp, with players sliding across the room until they encounter an obstacle to stop them, and killing any enemies they meet along the way. However, this game gets a bit of added depth as players must avoid ending a turn adjacent to any human enemies (who will kill you if you do), and must stealthily evade drones and their range of vision. Enemies don’t remain in place, either – moving through the environment in predictable patterns in time with your own moves. In addition, you gain extra movement abilities, such as the ability to freeze enemies for a turn, or to use your drone to redirect your movement. However, these abilities are always handed out only upon collecting pickups, and you almost always are given only exactly what you need to progress through a level.

It is this last bit, more than anything, that I think holds back Red Ronin from being a better game. Every one of the game’s levels feels perfectly-crafted in a way that usually only allows for one solution, one correct way to move through that room, which may make it a more tightly-designed Puzzle game, it cuts down on the feeling of an intense fight through hordes of enemies, allowing little room for player creativity. You’re not thinking the best way through each of the game’s levels, you’re largely just looking for the way the game wants you to get through it.

The result is a game that’s not bad, per se, but one that feels far more tame and by-the-book than its initial invigorating experience of slicing through your first few rooms of enemies in a visceral fashion. Red Ronin ends up being an above-average Puzzle game, but one that truly feels like it had the potential to be so much more, if only its design weren’t so focused on forcing players to play the way the game wants you to, and allowed them to truly cut their own path through enemy territory. Despite this, it’s still a game fans of character-driven Puzzle games may want to give a try.

tl;dr – Red Ronin is a character-based Puzzle game comparable to Slayaway Camp, where players slide their katana-wielding character through hordes of enemies to reach each room’s exit. This game has a great visceral presentation, but it’s extremely focused design highly limits’ player creativity, resulting in a game where you’re looking for the solution the game wants you to make, not coming up with your own. It’s still a decent entry in the genre, but one that fails to live up to its great potential.

Grade: C+

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