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In what is a huge surprise, Rise of the Ronin allows you to romance other characters. The process of doing so isn’t massively robust, but we’ll walk you through how to romance companion characters in Rise of the Ronin. There is a huge cast of characters in Rise of the Ronin and you have the chance to romance a fair few of them. Some characters can be romanced from the start while others can only be done later.
How to romance companions in Rise of the Ronin
You can enter romantic relationships with companions, all you need to do is find a companion who you can also raise your Favour with. Favour is tied to romantic interactions and it seems that you can only romance characters who have a Favour bar.
Once you’ve raised your Favour and Bond to max, go and talk to the companion in question. There should be an option with a small exclamation mark next to it in pink. Select this option and you will have the chance to confess to your romantic interest.
The number of romantic options increases as you play through the game. It is important to note that you should also focus on raising your Bond Rank to four with the character, as this will enable romancing them.
Check your potential romance options
You can check this information in the Bond screen in the main menu. You will notice some characters will have two gauges to fill up. The first is Bond, which all characters have, and the second is Favour.
Funny enough, after you choose a partner, you can also choose to break up. You can also cheat if you’re so inclined. You can break up with them and immediately enter into a relationship in the same conversation, which is also kind of hilarious.
Romance is a nice addition, honestly. It helps add some interesting layers to the game. Awkwardly, the best way to romance a character is to throw their favourite gifts at them over and over again. This isn’t the most in-depth system, granted, so don’t expect too much.
Another problem with romance here is you can have seemingly endless partners without any repercussions. Only sometimes will one of them call you out for seeing someone else. Without throwing in any spoilers, some characters in the game may or may not become a romantic interest later in the game. Your choices can cause this to happen, so bear this in mind.
How to romance Princess Atsuko
To romance Princess Atsuko, all you need to do is complete bond missions that are related to her. Alternatively, you can simply give her gifts to increase your bond and favour with her, which will then allow you to romance Atsuko. You first meet Atusko when you go to Edo, and there will be story-related quests and personal Bond Missions for you to complete involving her.
Rise of the Ronin – romance options and who can be romanced
We’ve found there are 13 romance options in Rise of the Ronin. While this might not be every character, we’re confident we have the majority of them. A word of warning, some spoiler characters are in the list below, and some will be available only after reaching a certain point, depending on your in-game choices. Here is the list of romance options:
- Ryoma Sakamoto
- Princess Atsuko
- Ine Kusumoto
- Sana Chiba
- Fumi Sugi
- Shinsaku Takasugi
- Genzui Kusaka
- Kogoro Katsura
- Goro Katsura
- Taka Murayama
- Ernest Satow
- Soji Okita
- Usugumo Dayu
As mentioned, you can seemingly romance as many characters as you please without any repercussions. The incentive behind this is to get unique Accessories and items, but it is up to you if you’d rather break up first or just go around cheating.
This screen indicates a new Bond Ally has been unlocked.
Sometimes you can get called out for cheating. Image captured by VideoGamer
Sometimes you get to go on special quests and dates with your Bond Ally. Image captured by VideoGamer
Choose your words carefully. Image captured by VideoGamer
Check your progress with each character in the Bond menu. Image captured by VideoGamer
Is there same-sex romance in Rise of the Ronin?
Thankfully, yes there is same-sex romance in Rise of the Ronin. To test this, we romanced Princess Atsuko as a male and then we changed our character at the Longhouse to a female character. This had absolutely no impact on the romance with her and everything was the same. We have tested this with a male character, and the process is exactly the same.
How to increase Favour and Bond in Rise of the Ronin
The best way to increase your Favour and Bond ranks with your companions is to simply throw their favourite gift at them. You can see in the Ally menu what each person likes and dislikes, and there is a tooltip on the gift you have to let you know if it will match their taste. Gifts can only be given to a person once and then there is an internal cooldown before you can gift them again.
Another reliable way to increase Favour and Bond is to complete Bond missions with the ally you want to romance or get closer to. You don’t have to end up in a relationship with them and you can choose to dump them if you want.
It is important to note that not all allies have a Favour bar for you to raise. Most companions will have both, but there are a few exceptions. Generally, we found that any ally who has a Favour bar is able to be romanced, and some of these romance options aren’t available unless certain story conditions are met.
Rise of the Ronin romance FAQs
How many characters can you romance in Rise of the Ronin?
Out of all the characters in Rise of the Ronin, only a select few are romanceable. We’ve found 13 characters you can romance.
How many partners can you have in Rise of the Ronin?
Seemingly, as many as you want. You can get called out, but there doesn’t seem to be any negative outcomes from it.
