Rise of the Ronin was already having a rough start on PC after its Steam release last week, but the situation just got even worse as reports have begun rolling in from players about their save data getting erased.
Koei Tecmo posted a response to the issue on Monday, stating, "We are currently looking into and investigating reported save data issues for Rise of the Ronin Steam edition." The blog post goes on to outline a few potential fixes, including correcting conflicts with third-party file sharing services like Dropbox, restoring from backup save data, and ensuring you have Steam Cloud turned on.
Koei Tecmo also shared a customer support page with even more steps that may resolve the issue, although for now it's still digging into the problem.
Players report losing hours of game progress to this issue, with many claiming they get an error code when closing the game and find their save files wiped. Some players have even said local, manual saves were erased by this glitch, so it seems like it's not exclusively an issue with cloud saves. It's still unclear whether the problem is a Steam Cloud glitch or an error on Koei Tecmo's part, but it doesn't bode well considering the PC port of Rise of the Ronin is already grappling with a slew of performance issues.
Koei Tecmo has promised a patch to improve PC performance, but for the time being recommends players lower their FPS limit to 60 to smooth out graphics issues. That's disappointing advice considering Koei Tecmo previously advertised 8K resolution and 120 FPS for the PC edition of the game. It's no surprise players are frustrated to see PS4-level visuals that struggle to maintain a stable framerate even on high-end PCs, especially considering most players seem to agree that the game is otherwise a fun experience.
As PC Gamer's Rise of the Ronin reviewer Joe Donnelly put it, "Don’t get me wrong, I love a rambling systems-heavy open-world action RPG romp as much as the next guy. [...] What I’m less into is unpredictable performance issues. I’m far less enamoured by FPS counts that shuttle between single and triple digits faster than a round of Family Feud."
Inexplicably deleted save files are the last thing Rise of the Ronin needs right now, but hopefully there will be a fix in the sorely-needed patch Koei Tecmo is working on. For now, however, Rise of the Ronin players may want to be careful that they save often and double check that their save files are getting backed up in Steam Cloud properly to minimize the likelihood of losing dozens of hours of progress to this save data issue.
