Should You Side With the Shogunate or the Anti-Shogunate in Rise of the Ronin? Explained

Rise of the Ronin features plenty of opportunities to make choices that impact how the rest of your game goes, and one of the biggest is which faction you want to support. That’s why we’re here to break down whether you should support the Shogunate or Anti-Shogunate with a detailed guide.

Rise of the Ronin Shogunate and Anti-Shogunate – Which Faction Should You Choose?

In general, the faction you should choose in Rise of the Ronin comes down to three general factors.

The first factor is which characters you want to build stronger bonds with. Each faction has their own specific characters that you can only grow closer to if you choose to side with their faction for certain missions. Choosing the opposing faction can lock you out of bonuses to their bond level, which in turn can make it impossible to grow closer to them or even romance them.

Likewise, the Faction you choose can impact what rewards you get from missions and what rewards are generally available to you. Both the Shogunate and Anti-Shogunate factions have access to specific items, cosmetics, and titles that you can only get if you side with them, which in turn means that you can get locked out of certain content if you side more heavily with one faction over another.

Finally, it’s worth considering the ending you want to unlock. The Faction you side with ultimately determines which of the game’s multiple endings you get, with the faction you chose influencing how the world is shaped by your choices. Certain characters’ fates are also impacted by your Faction choice, so it’s worth supporting the faction tied to any characters that you want to guide toward a better conclusion for their story arcs.

Can You Side With Both Factions?

With all of that said, you don’t need to worry too much about which faction you want to choose early on.

For the first two parts of Rise of the Ronin, you have to work with both the Shogunate and Anti-Shogunate forces to complete missions. You can build up your bonds with characters from both factions during this time, and you won’t be punished too harshly if you choose one over the other.

You do, however, need to side with one over the other in the main story’s third part. After that, you won’t be able to switch sides and can’t select missions that favor the opposing faction. Keep this in mind, and use the above factors to determine which faction is best for you.

How to Side With Each Faction in Rise of the Ronin

Now that you know what siding with each faction entails in Rise of the Ronin, you might want to know if there are specific steps you need to take to end up with the Shogunate or Anti-Shogunate factions as fast as possible in Rise of the Ronin.

Though it is a work in progress, we do have some general steps you can take to woo each side during a given playthrough. We’ve listed said steps down below for your convenience, and you can expect updates if and when we confirm more specific actions you need to take.

How to Side With the Shogunate Forces

The Shogunate supporters intend to back up the Shogunate’s goal of working with the foreigners, and generally want allies who feel the same. To that end, you need to help them with any missions where the option is available.

It’s also wise to bond with and romance characters tied to the faction. These include the characters from the western forces like Matthew Perry and Ernest Satow, as well as the Pro-Shogunate forces like Taka Murayama and Isami Kondo.

How to Side With Anti-Shogunate Forces

The Anti-Shogunate forces oppose the Shogunate’s decision to work with the foreigners, and wish to expel them from Japan. As such, it’s best to help them with reach their goal and aid them in any and all missions that you can.

You can also more easily bond with and romance characters from the faction, which in turn can bolster your support for them. Characters you can do this with include Ryoma Sakamoto, Genzui Kusaka, and Kogoro Katsura.

And that’s everything we have on whether you should choose the Shogunate or Anti-Shogunate faction in Rise of the Ronin. For more on the game, check out our guides on how to upgrade weapons and armor and how to get strength skill points.