The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa was and is a polarizing game. By virtue of its design decisions and lack of QOL its going to alienate a lot of people, fitting for a game in part about alienation.
If there is one word to describe the game it is ballsy. Only a ballsy game that 25% of its buyers will refund as per the devs own account would let you loose in this 80s Japanese town with basically no guidance. And whilst some parts of this feel intentional and help the mood of the game as you slowly learn how to get ahead in several ways, some just feel petty and/or dumb. Yeo himself could tell me that not telling me how to read books by sitting in any seat and pressing R or having to press B + A to jump to be able to do pull ups(which you have to do to join at least one club) is an intentional part of his design and I wouldnt believe him, and also I would flick his ear for being annoying.
The hunger mechanic is also not explained at all and I was pretty stressed at first losing fights and days trying to scrape enough cash from fights to buy food, but then I got 10k yen from good grades and basically had no money problems from then on, aided by the fact I somehow read a book which apparently doubles the knowledge you get from going to class.
Ringo is a game about roleplaying, not because of its stat elements that very assuredly non RPGs have these days, but because so much of the game revolves around ultimately mechanically inconsequential but nonetheless engrossing stuff. The quality of its writing really shines when you spend an entire sunday reading the Brothers Karamazov so Ringo can give it a good rating on Goodreads and have a 3 or 4 text box discussion about it with a classmate. Its a game where you smoke a limited amount of smokes for 440 yen a pack, which AFAIK has no effect on anything at a mechanical level whatsoever. But its about what Ringo wants to become, maybe you want him to quit smoking. Get straight As and go to the gym every day. Or you can have him play pool and beating up other thugs 24/7.
Ringo is a game that almost alienated me, and honestly I think reading up how to read books at home and do pushups, as inconsequential as they ended up being, increased my enjoyment of the game rather than spoil it. I didnt do many of the "quests" cause in a move that is definitely intentional there is no transcript or anything, if a friend says "Yuko is near the station tomorrow you should go" or something youre just meant to remember where that is in a game without a map and also to remember what day youre on and other such things. I suppose I could replay it but this game is definitely one that loses its luster by the end, maybe intentionally but it didnt seem that way to me and honestly Im tired of speculating on authorial intent, my experience dragged on a bit towards the conclusion even if that ending was...well it gave me something to think about certainly.
EDIT : Always the mark of good art, I have kept thinking about this game after I have finished it, it occupies my mind in a way I hadnt anticipated. Im bumping it up half a star cause I think for what flaws it might have its captured my imagination.
If there is one word to describe the game it is ballsy. Only a ballsy game that 25% of its buyers will refund as per the devs own account would let you loose in this 80s Japanese town with basically no guidance. And whilst some parts of this feel intentional and help the mood of the game as you slowly learn how to get ahead in several ways, some just feel petty and/or dumb. Yeo himself could tell me that not telling me how to read books by sitting in any seat and pressing R or having to press B + A to jump to be able to do pull ups(which you have to do to join at least one club) is an intentional part of his design and I wouldnt believe him, and also I would flick his ear for being annoying.
The hunger mechanic is also not explained at all and I was pretty stressed at first losing fights and days trying to scrape enough cash from fights to buy food, but then I got 10k yen from good grades and basically had no money problems from then on, aided by the fact I somehow read a book which apparently doubles the knowledge you get from going to class.
Ringo is a game about roleplaying, not because of its stat elements that very assuredly non RPGs have these days, but because so much of the game revolves around ultimately mechanically inconsequential but nonetheless engrossing stuff. The quality of its writing really shines when you spend an entire sunday reading the Brothers Karamazov so Ringo can give it a good rating on Goodreads and have a 3 or 4 text box discussion about it with a classmate. Its a game where you smoke a limited amount of smokes for 440 yen a pack, which AFAIK has no effect on anything at a mechanical level whatsoever. But its about what Ringo wants to become, maybe you want him to quit smoking. Get straight As and go to the gym every day. Or you can have him play pool and beating up other thugs 24/7.
Ringo is a game that almost alienated me, and honestly I think reading up how to read books at home and do pushups, as inconsequential as they ended up being, increased my enjoyment of the game rather than spoil it. I didnt do many of the "quests" cause in a move that is definitely intentional there is no transcript or anything, if a friend says "Yuko is near the station tomorrow you should go" or something youre just meant to remember where that is in a game without a map and also to remember what day youre on and other such things. I suppose I could replay it but this game is definitely one that loses its luster by the end, maybe intentionally but it didnt seem that way to me and honestly Im tired of speculating on authorial intent, my experience dragged on a bit towards the conclusion even if that ending was...well it gave me something to think about certainly.
EDIT : Always the mark of good art, I have kept thinking about this game after I have finished it, it occupies my mind in a way I hadnt anticipated. Im bumping it up half a star cause I think for what flaws it might have its captured my imagination.
10 Comments
@Lehuan There is actually an effect on starving but its one I wouldnt have known about if a friend hadnt told me about. Essentially you lose weight (which you can only measure at the gym) which makes your strength and a couple of stats go down. If you keep Ringo fed he gains weight and becomes a bit stronger. As for everything else you mentioned its just one of those things where I can only really say "that was kind of the point of the game" in all its obscurity and inconsequential nature of the stuff you do. Which you can obviously reply "well fuck that" and thats as far as the convo can really go. I do agree that the events are way too obscure, I got a couple of things but unless I did 3 playthroughs with outside info idk how id access half of it
And yeah I got the boxing stance and that makes your punches do like 80 damage each, absolutely trivialised most fights
This definitely sounds like an interesting concept for a game, but maybe not polished enough that I'd rush to play it. A while back I realized that I rather like games with "quests" that have no formal logging by the game. You just have to pay attention to the detail of the writing and game world to notice them.
Doesn't mean everything has to be eccentrically hard to find, either, though...
Doesn't mean everything has to be eccentrically hard to find, either, though...
@cdmcgwire I like those two but also Im too dumb for most of them. I also tend to overthink things
I don't even mean extra events. Just straight up story events have too specific triggers. You need to be at "some place" at "some hour". I actually paid attention to my stats when I decided to stop eating altogether and I didn't notice a difference, so it must be very minimal and only decrease once.
@Lehuan fair enough, I didnt know that but it definitely explains the game's odd pacing
i very much get the sense that yeo's games rely a fair bit on creating a mood. i don't want to suggest that they lack a message or gameplay, but instead i'd like to note that he seems willing to sacrifice things that might make a game "more accessible" if it fits the story a little better or creates a personal experience with the game - i even stumbled across a steam forum reply in which he seems reluctant to share the real-life books that are referenced in-game lest it ruin the joy of discovery for someone else. im a freak though so i find idiosyncrasies like that endearing
all this is to say that i definitely understand why some people might find the lack of reactivity disappointing but it's always struck me as a particularly silly complaint - the choices are meaningful because you made the choice, not because of its consequences. it's also to say that i think anyone who disagrees with me here probably will not enjoy Arrest of a Stone Buddha
in any case I'm happy you had a mostly positive experience with the game and i really appreciate your kind words re: my review, i think you've done a good job of capturing the actual experience of playing the game here
all this is to say that i definitely understand why some people might find the lack of reactivity disappointing but it's always struck me as a particularly silly complaint - the choices are meaningful because you made the choice, not because of its consequences. it's also to say that i think anyone who disagrees with me here probably will not enjoy Arrest of a Stone Buddha
in any case I'm happy you had a mostly positive experience with the game and i really appreciate your kind words re: my review, i think you've done a good job of capturing the actual experience of playing the game here
@jobosno interesting, that definitely tracks with what little activity Ive seen of yeo online. In fairness I am curious what the other books were other than the obvious Brothers and Ulysses.
I definitely agree, maybe it wasnt clear from my review but I quite liked that so many choices did not have a mechanical consequence or reaction from the game.
Thank you.
I definitely agree, maybe it wasnt clear from my review but I quite liked that so many choices did not have a mechanical consequence or reaction from the game.
Thank you.
This game sounds completely bananas. Never heard of it but it's going on my steam wish list no question lol.
Lehuan
9 months ago
Biggest problem is definitely the way events trigger though. I spent like 2 in-game weeks trying to get the last ones to happen with nothing else to do in the game because I had already done everything.