One last high school autumn, a few friends, some brawls, and all the empty space in between.

The gut verdict is harsh: on pure instinct, The friends of Ringo Ishikawa only edges ahead of 15% of games. The detail drives it home. Attachment sits at the very bottom, ahead of 1% of titles. Fun, almost as low. The desert island pick, down there too. Controller feel and soundtrack barely better. Except one line refuses to follow: the wish to rediscover it for the first time puts it ahead of 62% of games, above the middle of the pack. That is the real tension here, and it says plenty: few people keep it close, but those who lived it would love to live it again. Few votes so far, so treat it as a first read, but the gap is too sharp to be noise.

It is a schoolyard brawler that does not play like a brawler. Where the genre runs on instant release, this one bets on drifting, on time passing, on melancholy. Naturally, it loses on the questions about raw pleasure.

So, who is it for? For you if you love games that let you wander, be a little bored, and then catch you off guard right when you stopped waiting. Much less so if you want immediate fun with a controller in hand.