Team Ninja put 13 romanceable characters in Rise of the Ronin. Some of them have no business being there.
The 2024 RPG is enormous, with a complex combat system, a detailed skill tree and story choices that reshape who lives and who doesn’t. Bonds sit underneath all of it. Push one far enough and you unlock a Veiled Vow, the game’s term for making it official.
You build those bonds by bringing characters on missions, handing them gifts and agreeing with them in conversation. Most of the resulting romances can coexist. A few won’t, and those partners will hand you an ultimatum the second you get involved with someone else.
Here’s how all of them stack up.
Matthew Perry is what quantity over quality looks like
You meet him by beating him in the game’s first boss fight. That’s it. That’s the meet-cute.
There’s no discernible chemistry between Perry and the main character, and the two of them never feel like anything beyond work colleagues. It’s a completely random addition that doesn’t serve the story or any of its characters. Developing a couple of love interests thoroughly would’ve been the better call than making 13 of them available.
Credit where it’s due: Perry is one of the most accepting options in the game. He won’t care if you have another partner.
Ernest Satow will wax poetic at you
Satow is a minor character at best, and even more so if you side with the anti-shogunate faction. He’s obsessed with Japan, collects items from the country and loves showing them off to you.
He’s also one of the tougher boss fights, turning up in the Act 3 mission “The Last Shogun.” He flies around the arena leaving a blazing trail of fire behind him. There isn’t so much as a spark when you tell him you have feelings for him.
Propose and he’ll proclaim how amazing the protagonist is, and how you saved him from the darkness. If you want someone to deliver speeches about you, he’s your man.
Genzui Kusaka will turn you down, gently
You can technically forge a Veiled Vow with Genzui. It just isn’t a romantic one.
Once he learns the main character wants more than comradeship, his only response is that he’s willing to enter a bond of kinship. He makes that abundantly clear to both male and female protagonists.
It’s still worth doing, even as friendship. The trigger is easy to miss and it happens fairly early, so pay attention. After you finish Genzui’s first mission, he’ll try to hand you another one. Talk to him about other things before you accept it, and you’ll start down the path toward getting closer.
Sana Chiba is still into your best friend
From the moment Sana is introduced, it’s obvious she and Ryoma Sakamoto have a complicated past. An old fling from years back would be fine. But it’s painstakingly clear she’s still interested in Ryoma, who happens to be the player’s best friend for the entire game.
She also won’t tolerate you romancing anyone else. Get involved with a second character and she’ll make you choose.
If you’re doing it anyway, raise her favor through the Bond missions “Turmoil of the Heart” and “A Tempest Calmed.” You’ll need to travel back in time in Chapter 2 to trigger her Veiled Vow conversation.
Shinsaku Takasugi plays the shamisen for you
He’s a great companion through the story, minor disagreements aside, and he carries a difficult past: he won a battle against tuberculosis and lost a close friend. A natural love interest he is not.
Shinsaku is stunned when the player confesses. “I knew you were hard to predict, but this is wild…” he said.
He does warm up once he agrees to the relationship. He’ll spend his days playing the shamisen for you, which is a nice gesture for a guy who clearly didn’t see this coming.
Ine Kusumoto doesn’t see it coming either
Ine is a doctor, and her sharp personality and intellect make her a good match if those are the traits you value. Her romance is one of the more surprising Veiled Vows on offer.
Confessing to her is so sudden and unnatural that she’s caught off guard. Her immediate response is that after all this time, she can’t bring herself to admit she loves the main character back. She does eventually admit she shares the feelings.
Like Sana, she’ll demand you break things off with her or the other person once a second Veiled Vow enters the picture.
Usugumo Dayu sends you looking for cats
Make a move and Usugumo remarks on how many other people have said those same words to her, then admits she has feelings for you too. Run into her afterward and she’ll say she’d hoped to cross paths again.
She’s a sweet talker. She makes you feel welcome every visit and offers to let you watch her dance.
Gaining her favor involves wandering around finding her cats, which is sweet and also pretty random. She isn’t the most satisfying partner, but the cat hunt unlocks the Dayu Kimono, one of the best outfits in the game. That alone justifies the detour.
Fumi Sugi comes with a timing problem
Fumi is delightful, and she has clear chemistry with the main character. She’s wholesome and sweet to you. She’s also the former wife of Genzui Kusaka, the ally you’ve been working alongside for most of the game.
Genzui eventually dies, which is what makes Fumi available.
This isn’t the Sana Chiba problem. Fumi genuinely works as a love interest. It still feels somewhat slimy to start something with Genzui’s widow that soon after he’s gone.
Soji Okita is the one you build around
Soji is a young master mentored by the legendary Isami Kondo after losing his parents when he was young. He isn’t prominent in the main story, but he turns up as a side character across several missions.
His response to your confession is tender. He admits he’s new to this and doesn’t know if he’d be a great partner, but he’s eager to try.
He’s also excellent in combat and hands you stat bonuses to Dexterity and Charm. Soji is one of the characters who won’t want you seeing anyone else. Given how good he is to fight beside, you won’t want anyone else anyway.
Kogoro Katsura was already working up the nerve
Kogoro isn’t the best romance in the game, but he’s a long way from the worst. He’s a great mission companion throughout, and even better if you side with him as an anti-shogunate faction member rather than going with the shogunate.
He admits he’s shocked the player is so open about their feelings. Then he says he’s been thinking the same thing, and that he’d already been working out how to raise it himself.
Plenty of his best moments read more like friendship than romance. He’s still a solid Veiled Vow, and he’s the rare option here who was going to get there on his own.
