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"The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa" a River City Ransom inspired game (Steam)
- Thread starter seiki
- Start date
Fuck it, I caved and bought it. I might pitch an article to the website I write for and do a mini-review write-up.
I retweeted his tweet about his dad doing the pixel art and he thanked me for it.
I retweeted his tweet about his dad doing the pixel art and he thanked me for it.
So I have a lot of the little aspects figured out, but not the fighting. How do I learn new moves? What's the point of the video store? Why does my bookshelf have something there but all I can do it turn it on or off. Not sure what it does.
I just "beat" the game, but I'm very confused. Basically ended up in an endless brawl by myself and the credits started rolling. Ok...
Stumbled across this and bought it on a whim. Got involved in a random fight and knocked out on my second day. Seems pretty neat. I just want to raise this kid's grades up though.
Oh wow, I guess this came out on Switch today? Was just about to hop on steam to pick it up. Had no idea about this game.
Tim Rogers just did a stream and an article on the game. Apparently, it's really fucking good.
I think I'm gonna jump in after Katana Zero.
I think I'm gonna jump in after Katana Zero.
Refunded this after trying it. Guess I should've looked more into it because the videos really spoke to me (love the japanese high school delinquent setting) but the "just figure everything out on your own" nature of the game made me instantly lose interest after the opening. Shame.
so, i finished this game last night. up until this point i was pumped to tell everyone about how much I loved Sekiro and that it was my favorite FromSoft game and my game of the year already.
then i played The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa.
i wont gush too much, but man, this game is a fucking treasure. part of me is thankful that there is no direction whatsoever - discovering the town on my own and figuring where everything was and when it was open was hugely instrumental to my enjoyment of the game. i will say i would have enjoyed a few combat hints. having said that, a few in-game weeks solves that problem and combat is actually really fucking rad once you level up a bit and learn some new moves. you feel like a genuine teen banchou badass when you drop into aggressive stance and knock a dude out with one punch to start combat, ducking and weaving and dancing around, laying these scrubs out all over the street.
HIGHLY recommend. i played it on Steam, so im sure the Switch version is improved in some ways so its even better.
then i played The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa.
i wont gush too much, but man, this game is a fucking treasure. part of me is thankful that there is no direction whatsoever - discovering the town on my own and figuring where everything was and when it was open was hugely instrumental to my enjoyment of the game. i will say i would have enjoyed a few combat hints. having said that, a few in-game weeks solves that problem and combat is actually really fucking rad once you level up a bit and learn some new moves. you feel like a genuine teen banchou badass when you drop into aggressive stance and knock a dude out with one punch to start combat, ducking and weaving and dancing around, laying these scrubs out all over the street.
i kinda love that it doesnt matter what you do in-game or what decisions you make - the ending is the same. the entire game is just super and genuinely heartfelt and sad and existential in a really refreshing way. friends growing apart, making decisions that result in difficult, adult consequences... the fact that whether or not you spend lots of time with your friends or not, theyre still not going to show up for you at the end, even when you did for them. for instance, i played as if i saw the writing of coming maturity on the wall, so i really worked hard on improving my grades, passing my tests with As, getting (and keeping) my job at the video store, working out and boxing, &c... but in the end, things wouldve worked out the same whether i chose to do those things or not.
i can see why some people might not appreciate that, and totally respect it. but i really digged on it in a big way. theres a creeping sense of inevitability and finality as the days go on, and i was fully expecting a scenario where maybe the roles were reversed, and Ringo ends up maturing out of the delinquint life: maybe finally get serious with Aiko, seeing his gambling addict friend (Masaru?) get into trouble with yakuza and "disappear", Goro just phase out of the group and go all in on school theater, Ken and Shiro doing their own thing...
...and all of those things kind of happen, except Ringo doesnt let any of the lessons hes learning sink in. instead, he regresses while his friends move on, and goes to drown in a sea of violence that we dont know he survives. the moment you get the news that Goro was beaten into a coma was that trip over the waterfall - whatever path the story was going, there wasnt going to be a middle "best of all worlds" ground. either Ringo was going to ascend or descend, and either way it was going to be crushing. the slow fade to black and the title popping up on screen as you keep fighting waves of enemies, so brutal.
i can see why some people might not appreciate that, and totally respect it. but i really digged on it in a big way. theres a creeping sense of inevitability and finality as the days go on, and i was fully expecting a scenario where maybe the roles were reversed, and Ringo ends up maturing out of the delinquint life: maybe finally get serious with Aiko, seeing his gambling addict friend (Masaru?) get into trouble with yakuza and "disappear", Goro just phase out of the group and go all in on school theater, Ken and Shiro doing their own thing...
...and all of those things kind of happen, except Ringo doesnt let any of the lessons hes learning sink in. instead, he regresses while his friends move on, and goes to drown in a sea of violence that we dont know he survives. the moment you get the news that Goro was beaten into a coma was that trip over the waterfall - whatever path the story was going, there wasnt going to be a middle "best of all worlds" ground. either Ringo was going to ascend or descend, and either way it was going to be crushing. the slow fade to black and the title popping up on screen as you keep fighting waves of enemies, so brutal.
HIGHLY recommend. i played it on Steam, so im sure the Switch version is improved in some ways so its even better.
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