The friends of Ringo Ishikawa

Great game. Lets you do a little bit of everything and play an everyday life with convos with other characters and even the possibility to date others. Overall good experience, have played it through 3 times now and still enjoying it.

The friends of Ringo Ishikawa is a stylish and melancholic pixel art game that blends beat 'em up action with a mature, character-driven story — you fight, study, and wander through a fading youth, searching for meaning as you realize that nothing lasts forever.

This game has gone above and beyond what I had hoped for it.
Despite its simply appearance and controls. The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa is a shockingly deep game. You'll bond with friends, get high grades, hold down a job, and train like crazy. This is a slice of life game that you cannot miss out on. 5 out of 5 this game right here shows why the Indie game scene should be supported.

Unbelievable amount of gas in this one. Starting out lost, bruised and confused. Getting your footing and finding yourself overwhelmed with how much you want to do with such finite time. Then settling into routine and finding every day exactly the same as you throw yourself into work and drift away from your friends. Cutscenes give direction, but the feeling is ultimately rooted in the gameplay, and it's tremendous. I read Ulysses and got an achievement.

I would recommend this game because the music, interactions, and story are very great!

The friends of Ringo Ishikawa is a game unlike many I've played before. It's a blend of a beat-em up and a slice of life take on mid 80's Japan. While I don't regret my time with the game, I came away with a less than stellar appreciation for the game. It's something that I won't regret playing, but it's a one time experience that I'll move on from.

The idea of delinquent students in their relatively final semester of secondary school is not new, but it's nice to take control of this group and tentatively lead them through their lives. My biggest problem is the disconnect between what the player can do with Ringo and what the game has in store with its story. Much of what you might sink time into will only payout in the form of an achievement. The most manifest example of this disconnect was when I found myself pretty regularly running into story sequences that pulled me out of a routine. Half annoying, and half a fun little way of the game throwing unexpected life curveballs at the player.

When I moved on from that, I was getting enjoyment out of this game. I began to get immersed in the dealings between the titular friends and took joy in picking up details from story sequences. Even if they were unexpected. My only critique in this area is that the ending came along rather rapidly. It lacks a little bit of emphasis, but I am impressed that all of this came together all the way back in 2018. As far as releases on Steam, this makes and made for an impressive first title for developer Yeo.

I also want to express my appreciation for Yeo in that they never left this game by the wayside. Around the middle of January 2025, Yeo released the EX update which added achievements, trading cards, and reworked systems for quite a lot. I was a bit disgruntled that it came two days into my first playthrough and replaced my progress, but I could have always have grabbed the beta files if I wanted to. Impressive work, Yeo.

At times this game is pretty rough around the edges, but I think that for a product that came out in 2018 and has had Yeo's continued support even now, 7 years later, this game is really good. I'll leave it as a one time playthrough for now, but I am glad this game came my way.

It was a vibe. A bit like Persona in the way you choose your activities every day, week for the protagonist. Completed the game without being close to getting 100% on all subject. I was around 70%, so some events happen when you show up in certain areas at specific times. It can be a bit random, slow, hard to figure out how to get into it. I usually do not have patience for this kind of thing bc I don’t want to research a game when it should explain what the objective is better. Somehow, the vibe, the music and art kept me hooked enough to overcome the “what am I doing?” first couple hrs and I felt I knew pretty much all of what you can do by the end.