Truant from School of Ragnarok

Tokyo’s arcades are neat and orderly. So, like in perfect snow, everyone leaves their footprints.

This is School of Ragnarok, an original fighter IP from Square Enix in 2015. It has a custom cab, with an absurd 8-button-2-joystick panel, finished in faux red leather.

Those fancy controls are asking a lot. You’re then asked to control two characters. And to manage six onscreen gauges.

All of that for some IP you’ve never heard of? And instead of playing Tekken or Street Fighter? Ragnarok had mostly disappeared by 2017.

But *somebody* played it: look at the snow. The pristine line of stools is crushed at one end – the right-most position has had a visitor.

And if that stool’s out of line, you wouldn’t sit there, would you? You’d use a fresh one. But no one has, so there’s only been one player all day.

School of Ragnarok is perfect like fresh snow. No snowmen, no snowballs, no one playing. No wonder it didn’t last.