“Existential open-world beat ’em up” The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa is coming to Switch, publisher Circle Entertainment and developer Yeo has announced. A release date was not mentioned. The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa first launched for PC via Steam in May.
Here is an overview of the game from its Steam page:
High school gang leader Ringo Ishikawa is trying to live through his last autumn before graduation. With his best friends.
You should play it if:
- You’re fond of good stories with strong dialogues (especially about growing up).
- You’re a fighting games enthusiast (you’ll get your hands on some unique brawl mechanics and I promise you’ll be satisfied).
- You’re into some yakuza-delinquent aesthetics.
Basically, the game is an existential open-world beat’em up with some school sim elements. It has a little of everything: a town to explore, day-night cycle, NPCs on their own schedules, battle grinding, school grinding, mini-games (ping-pong, billiards, video-poker, video-game console with one game, etc.) and so on.
But the main thing is the story I’m trying to tell. And I designed the game to make you feel this story. So it’s not about rival gangs, or taking over turfs, or anything. You just live there and feel. And that’s all.
