The friends of Ringo Ishikawa

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa is one of the best examples of subversion within the brawler genre since the mighty Lollipop Chainsaw.

I appreciate Ringo's lack of structure. It feels real to me. [Issue #40 – July/August 2019, p. 17]

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa might look like an old-fashioned belt-scroller, but it is actually an open-world game full of life and… well, philosophy! There’s plenty of dialogue, and the way the story is told through everyday life events at school and in your neighborhood feels like real life. The game’s systems aren’t well explained, which will catch many gamers off-guard at first, but its climax has a lasting impact that is worth experiencing.

Screenshots really don’t do The friends of Ringo Ishikawa justice. What looks like a traditional side-scrolling brawler is actually something far more intricate. It’s more of a teenage simulator than anything, and with some really well-written dialogue (filled with the kind of malaise and sense of directionless rebellion we all experienced in our formative years) there’s a really interesting story to be found. Its everyday activities will remind you more of Bully or Shenmue than Street Gangs/River City Ransom, just don’t expect to have your hand held as you head out into the world to discover them.

The combat, too, can get a little confusing when a bunch of characters are on-screen. You'll end up hitting the wrong foe, which then allows your intended target to get some free hits on you. The abundance of techniques doesn't add much, either, as the basic punch and kick combos do fine against everyone. I know this isn't meant to be specifically a beat-'em-up, but the gameplay feels a little basic.

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa is quite weak in its pure playful proposal but has a real personality that could well embark you, if you are sensitive to this typical Japanese atmosphere carried by hip hop melodies and retro graphics successful in this small city, free to live the existence often in slow motion of a rascal high school and his friends. In this, again, the fact of being able to play in a nomadic way with the Switch is a plus.

While the concept of an open world beat ‘em up set in high-school sounds interesting, the way it was executed is far from perfect. Furthermore, the entire world feels meaningless, as there is no way to easily tell what time your classes begin, and where they are. It is also difficult to know where each building is in the world because The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa lacks a map/compass feature. If you are looking for a unique beat ‘em up, and are willing to manage it’s user experience issues, then this is a perfect game for you.

Some of the best character dialogue you could ask for. The music is spot on for the mods of every moment, and the open world exploration gets you familiar with the town without putting a bunch of markers on a littered map. Keep talking to the same people, nobody says the same thing two days in a row. A masterpiece in feeling, and exploration. The combat is standard brawler, but talk to the right people, and combos and positioning moves keep it from being a button masher. 10/10 must buy.

A chill game about wandering around town, chilling by yourself, getting into fights as a gang leader and trying to survive your last year of high school. It's not strictly a beat-em-up nor a JRPG like Persona where you're always looking for ideal outcomes through your activities. It's not a game you power through for hours continuously or right away. It wants you to embrace aimlessness and the ordinary. No tutorial or map or even specific goals for the most part. It wants you to take your time. It creates a rather immersive, introspective and (at least for me) existential experience that really puts you into the shoes of an adolescent with no idea where he wants his life to go or what his future will be. I enjoyed just playing for a short bit, under an hour or so, everyday, living through the titular Ishikawa dealing with his mundane life and then contemplating and journalling about where my own life is headed as well and where I want to be, whilst going about my desired activities, my routine, just like you're tasked with as Ishikawa. You can choose to beat up rival gang members, stay at home, go to the gym, study, attend school, hang out with friends, or just lie in solitude, either at smoking on your balcony or chucking stones at a body of water elsewhere in the town. All of this is set to a beautiful and chill hip-hop soundtrack that I boot up the game at times just to listen to. Make sure to savour this mindfully and slowly just like Ishikawa when smoking a cigarette.

If you were bummed that Shenmue wasn't a 2D side scroller, and you thought River City Ransom WAY better than Double Dragon (I did), then Friends of Ringo Ishikawa may be right up your alley. The story is interesting but tired. The "coming of age" stories are getting a little thick these days, although this one has its own flare and manages to translate pretty well in the atmosphere and characters presented. Speaking of translation - if it's not intentional then the English translator for this game should be fired. Misspellings, misused words, broken sentence structure, it's a mess. I don't typically get annoyed by this much in text (voice work is a different story), but if its one of your ticks, stay away. The combat is responsive, and easy to learn - it simply doesn't evolve with the same freedom of choice that RCR did. Instead it feels much like Double Dragon in this way. You'll learn the basics, you'll learn new ways of stringing together the basics, and then you'll be done learning combat. The game is short however, so it never has a chance to annoy you too much with repetitive mechanics. In fact, keeping things fresh and non-repetitive is one thing TFORI does tremendously well. By peppering in JRPG mechanics at different intervals, and a plethora of mini-games - the game as a whole does a good job of breaking you away from the monotony before it becomes overbearing. All in all, a worthwhile experience. One I would have liked to see released at a sub $10 price point, so maybe wait for a light sale before investing. 7/10

Decent graphics but the gameplay gets really old really fast. It's just too casual. Also, when a character has a cigarette, the smoke blows in the wrong direction. It's maddening.

I bought this game because I love River City Ransom and thought this was something like that but its not. This game is merciless and gives you not even a clue as to what to do outside of explaining basic controls. Right in the get go you are weak and even with blocking, you still can get hit and when you get hit, YOU GET HIT HARD. You get little to no money and the food that would normally heal you in every RCR game does nothing in this game. The only way to "heal" (that I know so far) is to smoke a cigarette while crouching and that takes almost half a day AND when I saw the day count, I figured there was some kind of time limit and sure enough there is according to a walkthrough so there's that to look forward to as you try to heal while wasting time only to find yourself dying from a fight and watch as half a day goes away when you wake back up in your bed. Also just like with healing EVERYTHING in this game forces you to wait in real time and when I say wait, I mean you better pull out your phone and do something like watch YouTube videos because you will be waiting several minutes just for something to finish. If you are an RCR fan, AVOID THIS GAME. This is not the same type of game!