The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

When I bought The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa, I was expecting a River City Ransom style beat em up with more of a story.  What happened was one of the strangest video game experiences I've played.


The game started with Ringo and his friends beating up a rival gang.  Punches, kicks, and grabs were similar to River City Ransom if the characters were taller.  A tutorial gave the basic fighting controls, but not much more.  Trying to find Ringo's house and make sense of the class schedule felt as if I were possessing the main character of a story rather than playing as him.  Of course Ringo should know where he lives!


If Ringo intended to graduate from high schools and earn scholarships, he would need to study like Hermione Granger.  His grades were straight Fs!  Fortunately, there was a way out of his predicament.  Attending classes and holding down the A button increased his percentage for each of the five classes:  Literature, Physics, Chemistry, History, and Mathematics.  Ringo also spent hours doing homework which involved the same shallow gameplay mechanics.  I've only played for about 1 in-game week, so Ringo has taken one test on Saturday.


Ringo ran away from any gangsters with the wrong color-coded jackets.  He was too busy thinking of his future for that.  Besides studying, Ringo was obsessed with reading the entire school library.  Its selection of books was questionable:


TAP INTO THE SOURCE OF POWER

INCAS SECRET KNOWLEDGE

5-MIN ROUTINES TO BLOW YOUR MIND

THE DOOM OF ATLANTIS UNCOVERED

THE 10 DAO PRINCIPLES

DONT BE A CHUMP!

MANTRAS FOR EVERY DAY

ASTRAL PROJECTION


But all that New Age propaganda may have been good for something, since Ringo learned "the secret of speed reading".  The librarian was unhelpful when asked about how to find better literature:  "Nobody shows the lab rats a way out of the labyrinth, Ringo-kun".


Ringo already had a book called "Ohio" by "S.A." in his house at the beginning of the game, but I had no idea how to use it.  Some of the bookstore's merchandise will be familiar to Realms Beyond users, particularly one the one that Ringo bought for 1050 yen:  L.T.'s "Anna".  For some reason J.J.'s novel is "Odysseus" instead of "Ulysses".


I had to look up how to read books that you own.  The trick is to go to somewhere you can sit down, like the cafe, then hit the R button.  Ringo sat down and read Anna in one 8 hour sitting, while dismissing the concerned waitress who asked him what he wanted to eat.  Some music in Friends of Ringo Ishikawa seemed like it came from a nonexistent Peanuts special, so why not read Tolstoy while away from school like Charlie Brown? 


The cashier's book report on Anna:  "It's about this crazy whore.  She hooked up with an officer and went wild.  And when he fell off his horse, she goes to her husband like, that's my lover right there, and he's like WTF?"


EDIT:  The school in The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa looks similar enough to the final area in River City Ransom that I wonder if it's a reference.  Or do Japanese high schools really look like that?

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa Part 2:  Godwin's Law


Ringo began this episode by reading "Ohio" by S.A in the cafe.  Please tell me in the comments if you know what this book is.  When he was about to attend class, another student told Ringo:  "Some chump called Ken out!  Hurry up, everyone's in the schoolyard already".  The challenger was Hattori Kenichi from Northern High, and Ken punched him out in a short cutscene.


Ringo studied some more and saw the results on the school report card bulletin:  straight As at around Day 9!  He must be impressive to achieve those results:  I was more of an A/B student.  Math was always tough when the textbooks were badly written. 


Machida, the teacher in the office from the beginning, wasn't as surprised by the improvements as Ringo.  He praised his own "far-sightedness and teacher's intuition", but warned Ringo not to "revert to your old ways".  Machida offered a proposal to Ringo:  complete science research in his office and receive a scholarship as a reward.  The scholarships from passing the Saturday test already gave 10,000 yen to Ringo, much more profitable than pickpocketing.


At the bookstore, the cashier had this to say about "Brothers" by F.D.:  "It's a detective story.  A very boring one. . .if you toss out all the trash, the real plot would be about 30 pages give or take".  I once tried to read Crime and Punishment, and thought the murder scene was well-written.  Most of the rest of the book was dull, so I dropped it.


Ringo didn't sit down for a marathon reading session at the cafe this time, but instead spaced them out over a few days.  In one surreal incident, he sat across from a girl wearing glasses in the cafe, sat down to read Brothers Karamazov for a while, ate, lit a cigarette and then immediately put it out, and then left without comment.


(The B button is used to light cigarettes and put them out when outside of school.  In school, the B button makes Ringo flip a coin in his hand.  I was trying to get out of the chair and accidentally made Ringo start smoking.)


One night before Day 12, Goro asked Ringo to look at the lights at the waterfront. . .at 3 AM.  Goro mentioned he was afraid of owls, and wondered if the town across the water was any different from their neighborhood.  Ringo didn't think so.


Ringo did so well in literature class that the teacher asked him to read parts of his essay to the other students.  I didn't get to see most of it, but talking to Yuna after class revealed the game was taking my choices into account.  Yuna disagreed with Ringo's interpretation of "Yoko's character" and asked if he only read Japanese authors.  Ringo pointed out that he was reading "Russian classics", and said "I think it's the ultimate in literature, yet to be surpassed".


On the school's roof (another River City Ransom reference?), Masaru asked why Ringo "put up with that four-eyed weirdo" Noboru.  Ringo said that he and Noboru went to kindergarten together.  Masaru's reply:  "It's a good thing you didn't go to kindergarten with Hitler".  Who in the comments expected to see Godwin's Law in this game?! 


Perhaps it's a good thing Masaru didn't go to kindergarten with Arle Nadje.  She would have cast Braindumbed on him.  Anyway, the reason Masaru was suspicious of Noboru was because he "keeps sounding off about his games all the time".  It could be a programmed reaction to me seeing his line about "Segga" creating a 16 bit console.  (It also places The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa just before the release of the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1989.)


After finishing Brothers, Ringo wanted a shorter book.  He purchased "Fish" by S.H.  This time, the cashier loved it:  "It's about school rivalries.  Friggin' awesome. . .Yeah, it's the real deal.  Coppola based a movie on this".  I suspected S.H. was S.E. Hinton, but had only heard of The Outsiders by that author.  Only after a search did I learn that the book was Rumble Fish.  This game is educational.


It is now Day 14 according to the last screenshot.  Will Ringo Ishikawa graduate from high school and read all the classics in the bookstore?

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa Part 3:  East of Edem [sic]


After reading "Fish" in the cafe, Ringo said to himself "didn't think that a woman could write such a manly book".  He then purchased "Sybarite" by I.G. at the bookstore next door. 


Guy the cashier said "That's a sweet read.  About these two guys.  One's like a boxer, and the other's a dud. . .So, the chump decides to quit his job and stays home, real hikki-like."  Ringo wondered if that was the whole plot of "Sybarite", so Guy continued to speak:  "No, there are some twists in the plot.  He fell in love with this one chick, but the boxer stole her from him.  You'll see, there's other cool stuff in there.  You're gonna like it, trust me".


Kumi the cafe waitress asked if Ringo had found a treasure, since he spent so much time at the diner at the same table.  She thought it was "almost like you're waiting for a date, but she keeps standing you up, huh?". 


Around Day 15, Ringo was talking to one of his male friends about Aiko and Mariko.  Mariko seemed to prefer older men, even if they were married.  Aiko was nice, but not the friend's "type".  The friend followed Ringo home, and smoked as he watched Ringo do homework until midnight.  At least he wasn't Edward Cullen, and had the decency to go home once Ringo went to bed rather than watch him sleep.


Ringo bought "Mask" by Y.M. at the bookstore, and I won't repeat the beginning of what Guy said then because it would probably offend my readers.  (Though it was certainly accurate to what most boys would say at the time!)  About the gay scenes, Guy said "Yeah, they lay it out as it is.  Don't bother unless you're into this kind of stuff".


Masaru, the "good thing you didn't go to kindergarten with Hitler" guy, had an innovative method of winning poker games according to one conversation outside the school:  distract the other boys with cards featuring pictures of "naked chicks".  Ringo said it was "a genius plan".


Ringo completed Machida's first research project, and was asked to start on a second project involving "nuclear physics".  He hasn't completed it as of the end of this episode, since a difficult topic like this required much more ingame time.


Goro, the friend who was afraid of owls, took up his new hobby of acting.  Ringo watched him perform the "STELLA!" scream from A Streetcar Named Desire, and the boys in the audience taunted Goro.  They thought he was only acting in order to impress Hanako.  The other friend got "a kick out of seeing fools go soft over broads", as if he were in a noir novel.


On Day 18, Ringo completed "Mask" and said "Strange" to himself.  Ringo bought "Edem" by J.S. at the bookstore.  The proofreading in this game can be as bad as a self-published ebook at times.  I figured out it was John Steinbeck's East of Eden, and Guy had this to say about it:  "It's about these two bros.  An evil one and a goodie-goodie type.  Then the do-good bro had two sons, one evil and the other one good.  It's all about the conflict between good and evil, Ying-Yang, that sort of thing".  By Day 19, Ringo's knowledge of all school subjects had grown to at least 50%.


Around Day 20, Ringo talked to Yuna about "Anna".  She loved the romance and thought it was a pity that Anna was married to a man she didn't love.  Ringo didn't appreciate her "betrayal" of him.  Yuna replied "It was a whole different era, remember that".  Ringo was most interested in "the other main character, the one who moved to the countryside".  Yuna didn't read those parts.  (Maybe they're like the Fortinbras scenes in Hamlet that everyone skips when performing the play?)


Ringo's reaction to "Edem" was "I'm glad I don't have any brothers".  The only book remaining was the 913 page "Odysseus" by J.J.  Guy thought the entire shipment had defective copies of Ulysses, since "There are no commas and periods for about 50 pages straight in there.  Get a headache trying to read it".  What would his reaction be to Finnegans Wake?  And how would that even be translated into Japanese?


On Day 21, Ringo tackled "Odysseus" the same way he did "Anna":  stay at the cafe for hours at a time until it was done.  Unless there are any other books in the game, Ringo has read them all!  No statistical benefits other than the speed reading ability from the school library exist as far as I know.


Ringo went on a double date with Shiro, and walked Fumiko home.  They mainly talked about pool, snowboarding, and the meaninglessness of life once you become a champion at a sport.  It's now Day 24.  Perhaps Ringo will spend more time on Machida's projects now that he no longer has any novels to read.


(My posts are probably more interesting than the actual gameplay.  Reading and doing homework mainly involves waiting without much player interaction.  The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa is both a boring and an intriguing game if you're focusing on the academic route.  Maybe the "delinquent" path is closer to River City Ransom.)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa Part 4:  Ringo Needs Better Friends


Ringo attended Goro's play, and learned that he was going to act in a Eugene O'Neill production.  Masura preferred to spend his time gambling and getting into debt with the yakuza.  Some foreshadowing occurred in a scene with the evil eye patch man Murakawa, who said "You still have a couple of days".  Ringo ran back home, though his route took him through the slums this time.


On Day 26, Ringo told Aiko in the hall that he didn't have any siblings.  The way he phrased it suggested he didn't have any other relatives either.  No one else ever appears in Ringo's house except for his friends.


Ken practiced with Ringo's punching bag and gave him his favorite manga, "Tiger in Winter", because "I have no use for it anymore".  Ringo was so eager to take the next test and get more scholarship money that he practiced his coin flipping outside the 3rd floor classroom.


(Note:  Friends of Ringo Ishikawa uses the Spanish floor numbering system where the "ground floor" (planta baja) is separate from the "first floor" (primer piso) of the school.)  On the following Sunday, two uniformed gangas were beating each other up outside the school gates.  Masaru was ashamed to admit he needed Ringo's help to pay off his debt to the mobsters. 


On Day 29, Aiko told Ringo that a girl from a "lower grade" had a crush on him.  Ringo was indifferent:  "it happens".  Ken was interested in Nami the librarian, but thought the books were "all trash now".  His romantic ambitions were "a lost cause" because it "must be something wrong with her".


Goro talked to Ringo on Day 30 about acting and the possibilities of art.  Noboru mentioned "Tiger in Winter" in class on Day 31.


By Day 33, Shiro's girlfriend had cheated on him.  Ringo and Shiro took revenge in the cafe and in school while sad music was playing in the background.  Ringo hadn't leveled up at all since the beginning of the game, and took heavy damage throughout the fights he could win.  His friends were needed for backup, at least until they were knocked out at school.  Fortunately, Ringo had an infinite Willpower stat, to steal an analogy from River City Ransom.  Every time he was defeated, Shiro rose again and fought. 


But the gangsters kept coming in the hallway leading to the gym.  Eventually their knockback sent Ringo out of the area and forced the next cutscene to play.  The friends were excited about the action, but decided they needed to "lie low" for a few days.  While they were talking on the roof in the cutscene before the school battle begun, Ken stated his opinion that "women are evil. . .and fools like you keep running after them, are the glue".  The others thought Ken was a misogynist because he was never in love.


So far this game has turned into a story where Ringo tries to become a better student, but his friends keep dragging him into their problems.  Maybe he should spend more time with Goro and the female characters and less time with Masaru, Ken, and Shiro!   


As of Day 36, Ringo has mastered Mathematics and Chemistry, so they are now absent from the homework menu.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa:  Depressing Finale


Remember the cafe and school fights from the previous episode?  Those happened to take place on Day 35.  Since Ringo didn't take any of the tests, he was horrified when he saw his straight F report card after talking to Machida. 


Noboru told Ringo that the first person who found the diamond crown in "Goblins & Princesses" earned a "real crown".  According to him, the winner was a "four-eyed zit face from Nebraska".  In the hallway, Aiko said that the coach was "running around the gym like a headless chicken".  Ringo thought he was practicing "some secret kata", but Aiko "quit just in time to avoid these secret techniques".  I'm not sure whether this happens in all playthroughs, or whether the coach went mad because I didn't pay to build up the gym.


Ringo finished the nuclear physics project.  Machida said it was a "pity you wasted all those years", and it was unlikely for any university to accept Ringo regardless of his dramatic senior year improvements.  When Machida said "one of life's greatest tragedies is a talent gone to waste", Ringo became philosophical and wondered if less gifted peoples' lives were "wasted from the beginning".  After handing out the 15,000 yen scholarship, Machida had no more dialogue or projects for Ringo.


Yuna, ever the romantic, thought the main character of "Sybarite" had sunk low enough for his love to "slip away".  Ringo had a different opinion:  "Well, if she left him for someone else, maybe it wasn't love after all?"  Yuna would probably have dated Ringo by now if there were romance options.  Noboru built a robot who was "a monster at the Robot Wars".  Ringo wanted to "make sure he doesn't go to war on people".


The last homework to reach 100% was History.  Sitting down at the table again made Ringo say "I know it by heart already".  Ringo still attended class after that, but there were no benefits.  What was Ringo to do now that the academic route was complete?  Run around town and explore, of course!  


Ken and Ringo talked about a Valentine's Day card that "Shizuka from middle school" sent to the latter.  Ringo suspected it was a prank.


Ringo entered a sort of take out diner and talked to Kondo.  Kondo refused to attend high school because "It's no more than a conformity factory, Ringo.  Knowledge is available at the public library for a couple hundred Yen".  I'm increasingly cynical about the education system myself, much more so than in my actual (mostly pleasant) time at school.  If people actually cared about your performance in school and gave jobs accordingly, there wouldn't be such a student debt problem!


Talking to Watanabe at the boxing gym revealed "he stopped coming here, Ringo.  I got you to thank for it.  You've ruined it for the guy".  There was a subplot involving one of Ringo's friends (Ken?) being a boxer, and since I completely ignored it, he said he was hanging up his gloves.


Day 38, without warning, was the end of the game.  Goro was in the hospital after Nakazawa's gang put him in a coma.  Ringo was still naive enough to think Masaru was good for something, and told his other friends to find him.  Ringo would avenge Goro at the train station at 6 P.M. 


But none of the "friends" came to help Ringo.  Shiro and Madoka reconciled in spite of the fighting at the school and cafe that caused Ringo to fail the final exam.  "She?  Forgave?  Him?", Ringo asked in disbelief.  After all, he was told that Madoka cheated on Ringo.  Ken's reply:  "You haven't grown up yet, have you?"  Masaru came to Ken and Shiro to borrow money to pay off the yakuza, but both refused.


About the delinquent lifestyle, Ken said "Nobody cares for this shit anymore".  Ringo ran to the train station on cue, and fought an endless amount of brown-shirted gangsters until the credits rolled.  The implication was that his friends had abandoned him at last, and even when he tried to change, his mistakes over the past few years had caught up to him.


Does Ringo get a happier ending if he plays hooky for the whole game?  I may have to find out. . .


EDIT:  Forgot to mention a funny mistake in the credits:  "Proofreaded by"

[RefSteel]

Ringo began this episode by reading "Ohio" by S.A in the cafe.  Please tell me in the comments if you know what this book is.

Has to be "Winesburg, Ohio," by Sherwood Anderson. Ray Bradbury said it helped inspire "The Martian Chronicles," which at one time (when I was much younger) was my favorite "novel." (It's a series of independent but connected short stories that kindasorta comprise a cohesive story together.) Winesburg, Ohio is quite good, and legitimately a classic, but it's nowhere close to the same level of fame as "Anna by L.T." or "Odysseus by J.J."

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Has to be "Winesburg, Ohio," by Sherwood Anderson.  Ray Bradbury said it helped inspire "The Martian Chronicles," which at one time (when I was much younger) was my favorite "novel."  (It's a series of independent but connected short stories that kindasorta comprise a cohesive story together.)  Winesburg, Ohio is quite good, and legitimately a classic, but it's nowhere close to the same level of fame as "Anna by L.T." or "Odysseus by J.J."

Wow, someone actually replied to my topic about a low budget combination of Shenmue and River City Ransom.  And it's the user known for writing parodies of bad Choose Your Own Adventure books. 


Your post makes me want to read Winesburg, Ohio now.  Hadn't heard of it before, because it's not famous enough to be part of the "canon", yet not obscure enough for me to hunt it down on Project Gutenberg and discover that the only reviews on Goodreads are in Russian and Turkish.


Now if I can only find out what "Sybarite" is referring to, other than Mary Elizabeth Braddon's favorite word in her sensation novels. . .

[RefSteel]

I last read Winesburg, Ohio years ago -- I think about two decades -- but I retain a good impression of it. As for "Sybarite," I've never read the real book, but after looking at the information you posted about it above, a bit of research (I work the reference desk at my local library; this stuff is fun for me) suggests "Oblomov," a Russian classic by Ivan Goncharov. It looks like it was translated into English a little over a century ago -- no idea if it's still in print anywhere [EDIT: it probably is; there have been new translations within the past decade or so, and a TV movie made within the past five years!] -- and was influential/important/something in Russian literature at the time it was written (possibly as a parody). This is from only very cursory research though.

I'm glad you remember my silly Choose Your Own Parodies! They were fun to write.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I tried playing the "no school" lifestyle for a bit, and it isn't as entertaining.  The nightlife in this town is dull, and there's not much to do during the day either.  It turns out school is an effective way to pass time in The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa.  Some notes, as well as details I've missed in the playthrough:


-Aside from scholarships, you can earn money by gambling in the yakuza den, or taking the part-time job from midday to 8 PM on Monday/Wednesday/Friday at the video store.  The video store sign is confusing because it says it opens 12 AM when it really means noon.  Then again, its Help Wanted sign says "Holywood" instead of "Hollywood", so maybe the owner never had his writing "proofreaded".


-Machida calls Masura "a fool" after he says Ringo has academic potential.  Masura's gambling debt subplot is foreshadowed from the beginning of the game, as well as Ken's boxing woes.


-You can work out at a gym, but the membership fee is 30,000.  The game even makes fun of the high price, but the logic is that if you pay that much you'll show up every day.  The gym doesn't use machines because the "ancient Greeks" didn't need them.


-Ringo is weak at the beginning of the game, even with companions.  If you're knocked out in a fight that isn't part of the story, you wake up the next day in bed.


-You're forced into a History class when Aiko walks Ringo to school near the beginning.  If you press the D pad in a particular direction, you can make Ringo slack off in various ways and avoid gaining % for a subject.  My favorite pose is the one where he slouches in the chair.  (I think you get that by pressing left)


-The video store cashier loves a movie called "My Life With Bruce Lee" that won a "Golden Bear" at the Berlin Film Festival.  "It's the story of an elderly British lady who married an unemployed Chinese immigrant".  On the topic of action movies, he says "There are plenty of second-rate movies on TV.  I understand that appreciating high art requires one to reach a certain level of awareness, but such is my mission, my burden - to bring culture to the masses".  For a potential employer with that much dialogue, he's only called "Man".


-Apparently Ringo can play video games and watch movies, but this requires the 19,990 yen "TV/VCR combo" and the "Family Computer" (i.e. NES) for 14,800 yen.  There's also a "Golden Chain" for 9000 yen, but I have no idea what it does.


-If Ringo looks at the cigarette vending machine, he says "Need to finish smoking these".  He has an infinite supply of cigarettes! 


-Ringo weighs 59 kilograms according to the scale in the gym.


-I had to exit the game and reload my save when Ringo got stuck in his punching pose and couldn't leave the house because he could only move horizontally.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I'll be posting about Winesburg Ohio on Goodreads, under the same username.  It's the only book Ringo is guaranteed to have in the game, and it has RefSteel's recommendation, so it must be good. . .