Action · May 17, 2018
The friends of Ringo Ishikawa (2018)
A highschool gang leader Ringo Ishikawa trying to live through his last autumn before graduation. With his best friends. You should play it if: 1) You're fond of good stories with strong dialogues (especially about growing up) 2) You're a fight games enthusiast (you'll get your hands on some unique brawl mechanic and I promise you'll be satisfied) 3) 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, npc on their schedule, battle grinding, school grinding, mini-games (ping-pong, billiard, video-poker, video-game console with one game...) 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.
Action releases from 2018
175 Action titles launched in 2018 — top 6 by review volume.
Peer Action titles
Comparable titles in the same genre and review-volume band — ranked by Steam positive percentage.
Community Tag Signals
Tag weights reflect how many Steam users voted each descriptor — larger pills = stronger consensus.
- Action · 189
- Pixel Graphics · 185
- RPG · 184
- Beat 'em up · 179
- Retro · 155
- Adventure · 153
- Story Rich · 149
- Open World · 145
- 2D · 134
- Atmospheric · 134
- Drama · 126
- Anime · 118
- Action RPG · 115
- Side Scroller · 114
- Martial Arts · 114
Position in Action
| Metric | This title | Genre position |
|---|---|---|
| Review volume | 2.8k Steam reviews | Top 82% in Action |
| Positive rating | 89% positive | Genre average: 83% — this title sits in top 41% |
| Metacritic | 64/100 | Genre average 77 — top 92% of Action titles |
| Engagement hours | 9 h average | Top 50% for session depth among Action |
Features & Capabilities
Multiplayer
- Multi-player
- Co-op
- Shared/Split Screen Co-op
- Shared/Split Screen
Community
- Steam Achievements
- Steam Trading Cards
- Steam Cloud
- Remote Play Together
Input & Comfort
- Full controller support
Other
- Single-player
- Family Sharing
Reception Metrics
Steam community
89%Very Positive · 2.8k reviews
2.5k positive · 313 negative
Metacritic
64/100 critic aggregate
Metacritic user score
6.6/10
Curator recommendations
2.8k
Localization Coverage
Interface / Subtitles (9)
- English
- Russian
- Simplified Chinese
- French
- Japanese
- Spanish - Spain
- Spanish - Latin America
- Korean
- Portuguese - Brazil
Press Quotes
“不良の美学とノスタルジー” IGN Japan “There's a certain amount of existentialism in this game, and it feels very intentional and morose.” 9/10 – Bonus Stage “...the fact that Ringo Ishikawa is subtle, reflective, and directionless, makes it a brilliant bit of subversion. It also means it's the most surprisingly thoughtful game I have played in quite some time.” 9/10 – Digitally Downloaded
Release & Availability
| Release date | May 17, 2018 |
|---|---|
| Developer | yeo |
| Base price | $5.84 |
| DLC / Add-ons | 1 released |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS |
| Estimated owners | 100k–1M |
| External links | Official site · [email protected] |
Engagement Profile
All-time avg
9h
short (5–15 hours)
Median
3h
Typical completion time
Achievements
20
Steam unlocks available
Editions & Packages
Buy The friends of Ringo Ishikawa