Stay Cool, Kobayashi-san!: A River City Ransom Story is a beat-em-up developed and published by Arc System Works, starring the titular Masao Kobayashi from the Kunio-kun series, one of the Reiho Big Four who fought Kunio back in River City Ransom. One day, he's approached by a mysterious person named Kouki Mizoguchi, a boy who claims to come from the future in pursuit of some evil corporation. Things get complicated from then on...
The game was released on November 7th, 2019 for Xbox ONE, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows. The official English website can be viewed here
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This game provides examples of:
- Call-Back: Much like in River City Rival Showdown, the latest remake of River City Ransom/Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, Kobayashi and Kunio are able to awaken an 11th-Hour Superpower under specific cirumstances. Unlike Kunio though, it's implied Kobayashi's latent power isn't Nekketsu Power, but something else entirely.
- Denser and Wackier: This is by far the wackiest game in the series yet, containing themes like superpowers, time travel and UFOs.
- Market-Based Title: The English version was given a subtitle "A River City Ransom Story", likely because it's the most well known game outside of Japan.
- Prequel: The game's events are set shortly after the aforementioned River City Ransom/Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, since Kobayashi had recently been defeated by Kunio while under Yamada's orders.
- Spiritual Antithesis: To River City Girls. While that game dealt with gang violence, it didn't take itself very seriously for the most part. Here, the stakes are higher and the mood is overall more serious, but this game has far more fantastical elements than the former does, so it's not quite as grounded as River City Girls Zero.
- You Are Number 6: The main antagonizing corporation you're fighting against has agents named like No. 12 or No. 35.
