For the most part, Ronin is an economical exchange. A modest sum and five hours of your time, traded for an entertaining and challenging series of bloody puzzles to solve with the acrobatic sword-wielding protagonist. Set in a dark futuristic world of corrupt corporations, you cut a bloody swathe through uniformed mooks to pierce through to the villains who wronged you. However, your enjoyment of this game can vary wildly, depending on how well you can tolerate the following: the quick and frequent (but also awkward shifts) when you go from real-time movement to turn-based combat; rare but jarring glitches when you somehow pass through walls; constant reminders that this is not a stealth game and that it is not Gunpoint. To be fair, Ronin does take some decent steps to set itself apart, but it also feels like it's in an identity crisis. It defines itself as an action game and rejects stealth, yet some objectives require it. The final level is also an excruciating chore, since it removes the checkpoint system that allowed for frequent trials and errors in all its earlier levels. Even worse, finishing the level takes you straight to the credits, with one of two images as the backdrop depending on how you finished. No satisfying conclusion to a bare-bones tale of futuristic revenge. I bought this during a sale, and I still feel a little short-changed. It's entertaining enough for its price, but the flaws make this feel like someone's first game project. If you're interested, be sure that the interesting stealth/action puzzle aspect of Ronin will be the only thing you need to satisfy yourself.
River City Girls is a nice fun romp if you held fond memories of the River City Ransom/Kunio-kun series of games. Gratuitous street brawls combined with WayForward's quality graphics, a light-hearted humorous plot, and a fantastic soundtrack make for quite the enjoyable experience. It even experiments a little with a follower system and special-theme battles. Although if you are considering this game, you might also want think about downloading the UserXpMod (aka RCGMod) which you can find on GitHub, which fixes a number of minor 'Quality of Life' issues that have nagged past players, including: tracking usables, adding missing moves' input display, and so on. Overall, I found myself satisfied with the game on my own, though the game seems very geared towards a two-player experience. If you can find someone else with similar street-brawling tastes to co-op with, I definitely recommend River City Girls for at least a half-day's worth of beat-'em-up entertainment.
