High school. For lots of us, it was a time of awkward changes, fumbled feelings, acne, and statements of telling our parents that things "aren't a phase". At the end of the day though, it was a pretty normal experience for most of us. But what if (and hear me out here), high school was akin to your favorite tournament arc from a shonen anime? Well, if that is something that you longed to do, look no further than Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang.

Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang was initially released to Steam in 2023. It was one of the earlier titles from Gamecom Team, an Indonesia-based studio. Gamecom Team started as a Developer Team while in high school in 2014 and became an official company in 2020. The initial launch of Troublemaker was published by indie.io. The game saw a July 2025 launch to Nintendo Switch with publishing accredited to Soft Source.

I was able to pick up a copy from the lovely folks over at Soft Source a short while ago (shout-out to Natalyn on their Community & PR Team). The pitch: an Indonesian-grown, Yakuza-like game, filled to the brim with exaggeration, jankiness (their words), and internet humor.

With that level of intrigue, let's dig into Gamer Social Club’s review of Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang.

The World and Story

In Troublemaker, you'll be taking on the role of Budi, a high school student in Jakarta. Budi, a delinquent with a penchant for getting into fights, has run into the wrong side of the law after a recent fight with some of the troublemakers (see what I did there?) in his neighborhood. After being bailed out by his mother, she insists that Budi go to Jayapura with his stepfather. She tells him to find a better life and get himself free of the fighting.

Reluctantly, Budi follows his mother's wishes and enrolls in SMK Cipta Wijaya, a technical high school in Jayapura. But SMK Cipta Wijaya is not all that it seems. This school...has a fighting tournament...because of course it does! So, what is the history behind a high school with a fighting tournament? What Budi learns from his new friend, Bobby, is that the tournament was formed by alumni to protest their headmaster. Now, it's just tradition and a way to become a member of the elite: the Student Council. Despite Budi's efforts to stay away, he is, as they say, "pulled back into it" as a classroom lead in the Raise Your Gang tournament.

What ensues is truly something right out of a shonen anime. Think of the Dark Tournament from Yu Yu Hakusho, but with high schoolers. Budi, along with his fellow classmates, must climb their way through the ranks to take on the Student Council president: Ricco.

The Characters

Speaking of the classmates, I mentioned that Budi is aided by some fellow peers in his navigation of the tournament:

• Buddy – He's a loveable dork who befriends Budi and, honestly, has no business being in a school where fights are the norm.
• Rani – The reason why Budi is even in the Raise Your Gang tournament after posting a video of Budi fighting.
• Zaenal – A monument of a young man, Zaenal's size is a force to be reckoned with.
• Sophia – Rico's girlfriend...who may be more interested in Budi than her current beau

I won't delve too much more into the story, because let's be honest – don't you want to be surprised with the twists and turns that the story can take?

The Gameplay

Much of Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang focuses on the fights with various school members, whether there be one hulking leader of one of the gangs, or six of their goons trying to teach you a lesson.

The fighting mechanics provide Budi with a light and heavy attack (surprising), as well as the ability to dodge or parry incoming attacks. Budi also can unleash one of his Special Attacks after reaching a level of combo points within the fight. Some are practical and make sense. Others...are absolutely ridiculous (Budi can T-Pose to damage his enemies – I cannot).

While in combat, Budi can eat various food items that he either finds around his school campus or purchases from Richard (we'll talk about Richard shortly). These various food and drink items can heal Budi, raise his attack power, or increase his energy regeneration (because after all, fighting can use up your body's energy).

Upgrades and Items

OK. So, Richard. Do you all remember The Merchant from Resident Evil 4? Yeah, Richard is basically him but more steeped in internet humor and very self-aware of the role he is playing. Richard can sell you food and drinks. He can also sell you upgrades to your fighting abilities, which doesn't make a ton of sense, but we're gonna run with it. You earn money in-game the old-fashioned way: beating people up for their lunch money (don't worry – they deserve it).

Beyond the fighting, you're free to explore the high school campus. Doing so will let you find secret collectibles, mini-games, hidden areas, and unique conversations with other students. You can also, obviously, challenge other students to fight too (if you haven't had your fill of fighting already). However, in my playthrough, I did not spend too much time really exploring the environs of the game, which is something I do kind of regret.

The Good

One of the first things that I have to talk about is the art style in the cutscenes. It feels so very reminiscent of Scott Pilgrim versus The World and I love it. It's over the top and, again, gives those shonen vibes that I was talking about earlier (think some of the older Dragonball Z episodes).

The story was fun, albeit a little too silly at points, but definitely something that felt like a "turn off your brain and enjoy" kind of vibe. Which at the end of the day is something that I will reach for after a long day of work. In conjunction with the story were the cast of characters (and villains) that we were presented with. Again, while very silly and filling those anime tropes, they still felt very believable and likeable.

Lastly, the internet humor and cultural references were great. If you don't get all of them, you don't actually lose anything in terms of story. But when you do find those references...they just make you smile. Seriously, there is a reference to the famous showdown sequence between Jotaro and Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Sadly, I didn't manage to snag a screenshot of this, but it's there – trust.

The Bad

One of the biggest matters in the game that I need to point out is the localization of the game. The translations of text within the game frequently had typos, or were almost direct translations from Indonesian to English (regardless of whether it made sense or not). Additionally, there seemed to be a lot of Indonesian slang that was used throughout the game. I do understand that sometimes, certain words in other languages simply don't have a translation into English (I'm from a German family – I completely get having words that just don't translate directly into something in English). Regardless, these hiccups pulled me out of the game from time to time. Not enough to make it unplayable, but enough for me to pause while reading.

Another matter that got tedious after a while was the fighting. Nearly all your enemies, outside of the other Gang leaders you face off against, have the same attack patterns. Eventually, it just became a slog of button-mashing until everyone in front of me was reeling in pain on the ground.

The Unneeded Mechanics

The last matter that I will raise were certain gameplay sections. There are two specific moments in the game that require gameplay elements outside of what we have already been taught. Without giving away spoilers was a stealth section late in the game. It is the only time we ever have a stealth section. It’s clumsy and not conducive to control mechanics that we have already been introduced to. Additionally, the camera angles and line of sight for the enemies around you make it even more frustrating when you fail.

The other section was a random time in the game where we were asked to do word scrambles as part of the student's homework (it makes sense for when it happens in the game). However, the game just lets us skip completing these with no consequences. So it begs the question, why does it even need to be included.

The Overall

Is Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang something that breaks the genre and redefines what gameplay should be? No. Was it a silly game that lasted a few hours and let you fight your classmates in a world steeped with internet references? It was. That being said, however, it is a game that I would probably never return to. It's not to take away all the work that went into the game – it's simply a game that's like junk food: fun in the moment, but something that you wouldn't subsist on.

Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang is available on both PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch today.

Gamer Social Club was provided a key for the purposes of this review. This review was played on Nintendo Switch.