"A meandering mess" isn't how I thought I'd describe the game I easily saw as my 2018 GOTY. When I first discovered The friends of Ringo Ishikawa, it seemed to have the makings of being the new River City Ransom, only with a more complex story and plot; but just like life and this game, it throws a few unwanted curveballs.

First of all, forget this is anything like River City Ransom. This game lacks the tight combat, weapons, the physics, the general chaos and even the grinding, and goes for something... I guess you could call more realistic? I just call it stiff. You mash out a few kicks or punches, put up your guard and back away when things get hairy, repeat. Gaining money after a fight is obnoxious - if a lot of enemies are grouped up together after a beatdown, you have to be pixel perfect with getting it by pressing down on them, and if they're too close to a wall or an exit, you just won't be able to. Even worse is if you're trying to get the cash and accidentally go into a store, meaning all your work was for nothing because they won't be there when you exit. Really makes you wish they just said BARF and dropped some coins.

Overall though, I found a lot of the mechanics just annoying, like to heal after a fight, you sit around smoking like it's an idler game. In fact, a lot of the games side content are you just sitting and watching the character read or eat or whatever.

This is another in a long line of Life Simulation Beat 'Em Ups inspired by or made in Japan--games like Yakuza or Shenmue. They're sandboxy, but lack the choices of WRPGs. They have combat, but it's not very complex. Instead, these games tend to focus on the minutiae - which filters down mainly to the mini games that fill up these worlds. Whether it be stand outs like Lucky Hit or spear fishing, or bores like quizzes and forklifts -- I find Ringo to lack that one memorable side game that would raise it above the bar, and it's more that I respect the detail and attention than actually finding the side content compelling. It's not like Ringo had a chance when Shenmue has Hang On, but because of the limited time schedule of the game, I felt like I was being hurried along, and not able to just sit and play them to any full degree, even if I wanted to.

Because of the limited time you have, the game is more about scheduling than anything else, yet it was genuinely hard to fill up my day with stuff to do. I was either getting into fights or running from location to location, wanting to trigger an event. There are very few people to talk to, so the story is delivered pretty flatly, with characters appearing and disappearing seemingly at random, as you run around like a chicken without his head trying desperately to get engaged with the proceedings that don't seem to have a rhyme or reason to be happening, as they lack that inter connecting tissue of good storytelling to be satisfying - though there are a few decent pay offs, but generally, the game doesn't reward player intuition and exploration. What could have helped was Bully style waypoints or just simply, a straight forward plot like the aforementioned NES RCR.

This is a spoiler free review, but read the store page very carefully. What you see is what you get, and as a result, this is a very top and bottom heavy game, with the most interesting stuff at the start and the most interesting stuff at the end, and the middle is rarely taken into account as far as story advancements go. There were many, many times I felt like I was genuinely wasting my time playing this, which, say what you will about Shenmue, or even Yakuza, their cinematic storytelling is compelling to players to keep them invested. Yakuza has how many games? There's also a reason people wanted a Shenmue 3 as badly as they did - but to get that kind of quality, you need a lot of money. Which SEGA does (or did?) have, and this game clearly does not.

What mainly kept me going though was everything to do not with actually playing the game. The sprite work is impressive, particularly its use of pastels and cream colors to simulate night and day. The backgrounds are nicely detailed and the character models are basically high quality pixel versions of SNES or GBA River City Ransom characters. The music in particular is a stand out, with some acoustic guitar and piano for the melancholy or bass-y or electric guitar tracks that at least get you pumped to run through a rather boring town. A few reminded me of nujabes and there was one that was vaguely Radiohead-ish.

Ultimately (and I struggled over this) I cannot recommend Ringo and his friends. This game is not better than the sum of its parts, which is a shame, because some of those parts are really good, but the lackluster gameplay - both combat and sandbox design wise - ultimately makes the game feel like it overstays its welcome, and a good ending doesn't really fix the games problems. I hope whatever the dev does next actually combines the elements he has here into an enticing adventure in the future.

The Pro's

+Great music

+Great sprite work

+Chill ambience

The Con's

-Bad mini games

-No worthwhile content at several points

-Filler that stretches out a simple story for way too long

-Simplistic combat

-Boring

"A meandering mess" isn't how I thought I'd describe the game I easily saw as my 2018 GOTY. When I first discovered [b]The friends of Ringo Ishikawa[/b], it seemed to have the makings of being the new River City Ransom, only with a more complex story and plot; but just like life and this game, it throws a few unwanted curveballs. First of all, forget this is anything like River City Ransom. This game lacks the tight combat, weapons, the physics, the general chaos and even the grinding, and goes for something... I guess you could call more realistic? I just call it stiff. You mash out a few kicks or punches, put up your guard and back away when things get hairy, repeat. Gaining money after a fight is obnoxious - if a lot of enemies are grouped up together after a beatdown, you have to be pixel perfect with getting it by pressing down on them, and if they're too close to a wall or an exit, you just won't be able to. Even worse is if you're trying to get the cash and accidentally go into a store, meaning all your work was for nothing because they won't be there when you exit. Really makes you wish they just said [i]BARF[/i] and dropped some coins. Overall though, I found a lot of the mechanics just annoying, like to heal after a fight, you sit around smoking like it's an idler game. In fact, a lot of the games side content are you just sitting and watching the character read or eat or whatever. This is another in a long line of Life Simulation Beat 'Em Ups inspired by or made in Japan--games like Yakuza or Shenmue. They're sandboxy, but lack the choices of WRPGs. They have combat, but it's not very complex. Instead, these games tend to focus on the minutiae - which filters down mainly to the mini games that fill up these worlds. Whether it be stand outs like Lucky Hit or spear fishing, or bores like quizzes and forklifts -- I find Ringo to lack that one memorable side game that would raise it above the bar, and it's more that I respect the detail and attention than actually finding the side content compelling. It's not like Ringo had a chance when Shenmue has Hang On, but because of the limited time schedule of the game, I felt like I was being hurried along, and not able to just sit and play them to any full degree, even if I wanted to. Because of the limited time you have, the game is more about scheduling than anything else, yet it was genuinely hard to fill up my day with stuff to do. I was either getting into fights or running from location to location, wanting to trigger an event. There are very few people to talk to, so the story is delivered pretty flatly, with characters appearing and disappearing seemingly at random, as you run around like a chicken without his head trying desperately to get engaged with the proceedings that don't seem to have a rhyme or reason to be happening, as they lack that inter connecting tissue of good storytelling to be satisfying - though there are a few decent pay offs, but generally, the game doesn't reward player intuition and exploration. What could have helped was Bully style waypoints or just simply, a straight forward plot like the aforementioned NES RCR. This is a spoiler free review, but read the store page very carefully. What you see is what you get, and as a result, this is a very top and bottom heavy game, with the most interesting stuff at the start and the most interesting stuff at the end, and the middle is rarely taken into account as far as story advancements go. There were many, many times I felt like I was genuinely wasting my time playing this, which, say what you will about Shenmue, or even Yakuza, their cinematic storytelling is compelling to players to keep them invested. Yakuza has how many games? There's also a reason people wanted a Shenmue 3 as badly as they did - but to get that kind of quality, you need a lot of money. Which SEGA does (or did?) have, and this game clearly does not. What mainly kept me going though was everything to do not with actually playing the game. The sprite work is impressive, particularly its use of pastels and cream colors to simulate night and day. The backgrounds are nicely detailed and the character models are basically high quality pixel versions of SNES or GBA River City Ransom characters. The music in particular is a stand out, with some acoustic guitar and piano for the melancholy or bass-y or electric guitar tracks that at least get you pumped to run through a rather boring town. A few reminded me of nujabes and there was one that was vaguely Radiohead-ish. Ultimately (and I struggled over this) I cannot recommend Ringo and his friends. This game is not better than the sum of its parts, which is a shame, because some of those parts are really good, but the lackluster gameplay - both combat and sandbox design wise - ultimately makes the game feel like it overstays its welcome, and a good ending doesn't really fix the games problems. I hope whatever the dev does next actually combines the elements he has here into an enticing adventure in the future. The Pro's [quote]+Great music +Great sprite work +Chill ambience[/quote] The Con's [quote]-Bad mini games -No worthwhile content at several points -Filler that stretches out a simple story for way too long -Simplistic combat -Boring[/quote]