00:00 Rated M for Mature.
00:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:05 My dear sister, I write these lines with a heavy heart
00:15 as I find myself once more imprisoned by Shogunate forces.
00:21 These corrupt men accuse me of treason,
00:25 but I say it is they who betray our land,
00:28 leaving her in great despair.
00:30 They are scared and weak, clinging to power,
00:34 no matter the cost.
00:36 Let them pass judgment, for I chose my fate years ago
00:41 when the black ships arrived like mountains rising from the sea.
00:46 It struck fear into their hearts that night,
00:49 but for me, a flame was kindled,
00:52 flickering with the promise of a new Japan.
00:55 She can be sovereign, and she can be free.
01:00 Seize this opportunity, my sister.
01:03 Rise up and oppose.
01:05 Seek allies wherever you find them, and bring them to our call.
01:10 For if our vision is to succeed, the Shogunate must fall.
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01:18 Rise of the Ronin is without a doubt
01:33 Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo's biggest and most ambitious project to date.
01:42 Team Ninja has always designed action games,
01:45 usually following a linear level design,
01:48 which leads to an all-powerful boss.
01:51 This time, I wanted to make a game where the player could fully immerse themselves
01:56 into the game's world, the universe and story.
02:07 You play as a powerful Ronin, trained from a young age as one half of a pair
02:12 by a secretive group known as the Veiled Edge.
02:16 Separated from your blade twin for the first time, you now find yourself alone.
02:22 The Bakumatsu era is a special period in history for Japan.
02:35 American gunboats, known as the Black Ships,
02:38 arrived off the coast of Japan in the mid-1800s,
02:42 forcing Japan to open up its market to the Western powers.
02:46 This caused great turmoil in the country between the ruling Shogunate,
02:54 who looked to maintain military power while containing both the threat from the West
02:58 as well as the anti-Shogunate forces, such as the Choshu clan,
03:02 who wanted to overthrow the Shogunate and change the way Japan was run.
03:06 You could say that Haji and the Shoka-Sanjuku school was the birthplace of this ideology,
03:23 following the teachings of its most influential figure in Yoshida ShĹŤen.
03:28 Although it was a different world in a different time,
03:33 I believe he could be compared to Socrates.
03:37 I wanted to depict his teachings and his life
03:45 from the moment I started working on Rise of the Ronin.
03:49 It wasn't just a philosopher.
03:55 He insisted on the importance of taking action.
03:59 The people must rise and demand revolution.
04:06 How else can change endure?
04:09 Rise of the Ronin is set during the period known as Bakumatsu
04:19 and at the moment that is the darkest before dawn.
04:22 The darkness is represented by the constant political pressure piling on the Shogun,
04:27 widespread disease and several battles being fought and lost.
04:32 I wanted to show that energy building up in these darkest moments
04:44 while the people waited for everything to implode.
04:48 I was impressed how the team focused on every detail during the creation of this universe.
04:55 A great story unravels based on actual historical research,
04:59 from the cities and villages to the historical figures depicted,
05:03 such as Katsu Kasha or Sakamoto Ryoma.
05:07 There's also a specific energy from that period in history
05:10 that the team as a whole wanted to express within the game.
05:16 Looking at the Bakumatsu era,
05:19 it was a time where multiple schools of thought and cultures were merging together.
05:25 I wanted to express that chaotic world through sound.
05:34 When it came to the score,
05:39 we related with the black ships coming to Japan
05:42 by having an Occidental composer, Inon Zur, join us on the project.
05:47 It's interesting to notice that the two main instruments
05:52 that are carrying most of the melodies in the score
05:56 are one Japanese and one Western.
05:59 The cello on one hand is very Westernized,
06:03 but playing the Japanese melodies is almost like talking to this era.
06:09 And the shakuhachi on the other hand, such a strong Japanese signature.
06:14 But when it plays the music from the score,
06:17 I let it many times play melodies that are more Westernized.
06:22 So together, this choice really added to the whole soundscape of the score.
06:29 From an art perspective,
06:31 it was not just about building a large-scale world which would have been planned.
06:36 So, in order to avoid that,
06:38 we worked on building landmarks during the process.
06:42 Yokohama, Edo, Kyoto,
06:45 it's a place where we wanted to create a landmark.
06:49 We wanted to create a landmark that would be a landmark
06:53 that would be a landmark during the process.
06:56 Yokohama, Edo, Kyoto.
06:58 It turns out Koei Tecmo has offices in these three locations,
07:02 making them somewhat familiar.
07:05 So it was easy to start to build an image for them.
07:09 Obviously, these locations were very different back then though.
07:15 While we looked at these and continued our research process,
07:19 we realized we had to add more texture to the game.
07:23 We started working on the colors and the atmosphere
07:27 in order to build Ronin's environment.
07:31 As you wander through various locations,
07:38 some territories are dangerous as they are controlled by bandits.
07:43 Alternatively, a city would be ruled differently,
07:46 bringing in new types of challenges and battles.
07:49 You can feel how that was recreated as you play the game.
07:53 I believe players will be able to enjoy that.
07:58 It is time to end this.
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08:21 (((NO-SYSTEMS)))
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