Ronin's Honour

A ronin was a samurai warrior without a master and was very much an equal opportunities vocation, so the game developers at Play’n GO have opted for a female protagonist. The villain of the story is Hannya, a masked character that features in traditional Japanese Noh plays. 

Design

When the design team at Play’n GO commit to a theme they really go all in, and that’s certainly the case with Ronin’s Honour. A great deal of time and effort has gone into the graphics and animation, which adopts a full-on manga style to great effect. There’s an epic soundtrack to accompany gameplay, and there are some fun animated cut scenes too—complete with Japanese dialogue and subtitles for extra impact.

Gameplay

There are times when Ronin’s Honour feels more like a console game than an online slot, so it’s worth trying out some demo spins or low-stakes gameplay as you get used to how it plays out. You’ll need to match up three or more symbols on adjacent reels from left to right to achieve wins but keep an eye out for the demon masks that appear on the reels. These mystery symbols will reveal the same weapon or playing icon, or a Stacked Ninja Wild. Wilds can appear as a single icon occupying three rows, or they can be split up to 9 ways for enhanced winning opportunities.

Landing three golden mask scatters activates the Battle Free Spins bonus feature, in which Ronin and Hannya each have three lives. Each split Ninja Wild costs Hannya a life, but leaving one unsplit costs the warrior a life. The aim is to defeat Hannya, which results in one final Hannya Free Spin. A Stacked Hannya Wild guarantees a win adding to the total prize payout for the bonus.

Win potential

Five-of-a-kind wins involving low-value playing card symbols won’t return your stake, so you’ll need to spin up multiple winning combos to pull ahead. Better returns come from the weapons, which pay up to 10x for the samurai sword. Splitting symbols creates additional winning ways and leads to bigger and better payouts, although outcomes are never guaranteed when it comes to slot games.

Gameplay is highly volatile, so even though there’s a decent RTP percentage which comes in above 96%, careful bankroll management is needed to achieve maximum winning potential. The top payout is an extremely impressive 30,000x the stake, so this is a game that’s definitely going to be attracting plenty of attention—just keep in mind that very few people are going to hit that top multiplier!

Our Verdict

It’s pretty hard to find fault with Ronin’s Honour, as the game looks and sounds excellent. When the designers at Play’n GO pull out all the stops they’re almost impossible to beat, and this is certainly an extremely classy production. If you love manga-style games, or you’re searching for some seriously big payout potential, Ronin’s Honour is absolutely worth a closer look.