Time on Frog Island (2022)

Time on Frog Island feels like a tech demo for a strong four out of five game. I love the silent storytelling. There is something elegant about cutting a game down into its most basic parts. It feels curated in a way AAA games and Indie darlings long to be. I think that makes this game sing. However, it never exits what feels like a tutorial for a much more interesting game. I fully expected to finish the opening quest and enter a whole world of frog-ly delights, but my hopes were dashed! I'd prefer the basic straight forward puzzle design in a longer more narratively rich world. Still, I'm happy with the slice of game I got.

Decided to rush through the main story (with the help of a guide) and leave the rest be.

The "Fetch Quest" Simulator. The "Aimlessly Walking" Simulator. The "Can't Proceed Because I Dropped An Important Item Somewhere I Will Never Find Again" Simulator. The "Am I Supposed To Care About The Death Of This Character While None Of The Characters In The Game Have Any Kind Of Backstory or Personality" Simulator. The "I'm Too Dumb For This Game" Simulator.

I normally avoid writing negative reviews for indie games, because it's a tough art and business and it doesn't make me feel good. I'm making an exception for this one because the negative reviews I read did not discourage me, so maybe there's room for some unique criticism.

I'm a big fan of chill, exploration-based games like A Short Hike and TOEM. That's the vibe that Time on Frog Island is going for, and a big reason why I ignored other negative reviews... complaints that it's too short or too shallow are common for this style of game.

The biggest surprise for me initially was its performance. I started the game on my PC, which can run Arkham Knight in 4K with high settings just fine, but even setting the game to 720p with "low" graphics didn't help (and looked really ugly). At that point I switched to my Steam Deck, which ran a lot better, but the characters are pretty small, so I wish I could have played at a higher resolution.

The next surprise was visual. In the game's promotional materials, Frog Island is presented as a sunny, pleasant little space to explore. There are shots that circle around landmarks and show some unique perspectives. In reality, the game has a completely fixed camera, at a high angle. There is no visible sky. And the game is only sunny at certain times of day in certain weather conditions: It is often rather dreary, de-saturated by rain or the night sky. Some games (like Animal Crossing: New Horizons) do a great job of making each time of day beautiful in its own unique way: This is not one of those. It's a shame that the game only does justice to its lovely character designs and key art for a few in-game hours each day.

Speaking of day/night cycles, they are aggressive here. This becomes an issue whenever the game's quests rely on characters who are only available during certain times of day. You have no inventory, and some quest items are creatures that won't sit still. If you try to wait out the night, you will be pestered by speech bubbles encouraging you to go to sleep.

That would be less of an issue if it were easy to manage your time. But the game's minimalist UI extends beyond the lack of inventory and fixed camera: There is no clock, no map, no compass, no quest markers, no words of any kind outside the pause menu. So if you happen to find a quest item, good luck finding your way back to whoever wanted it, assuming you have enough time to reach them and they're still in the same spot.

And dashing back to finish a quest might have still been fun, but the game's controls are slippery, and there is a very small window to take action when approaching a character... I lost count of how many times I pressed the button to talk, only to yeet the item I was holding over their shoulder instead.

Sure, the game is short. But complaining about that reminds me of an old joke... "The food here is terrible... and such small portions!"

Note: I played this on Stadia. I'm not sure if other releases are plagued by the same issues.

This title is currently free with a Stadia Pro subscription, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's a small adventure game where you fetch the locals of frog island some items in exchange for stuff to fix your stranded ship. The graphics were clearly inspired by the cutesy style of 'Animal Crossing", but it lacks the charm of said title. When you go off to search for a certain item, you're left with very little information (nor any map) which forces you to explore the island. On my first play through, this caused me to waste quite some time on getting to know how to get around.

Then, a bug occurred which also made me confused for a while. I'll describe what happened exactly below in spoiler tags. Turns out this bug prohibited me to progress the story altogether. With my knowledge of the game so far, I thought I could re-do everything quickly, so I gave it another shot and started a new game.

After about half an hour, I was at the point I was before and was getting more progress. Then, a different progress-prohibiting bug occurred. Again, since I figured I could all do this quite quickly again with some clues about how to avoid these bugs, I started a third play through... only to get stuck again. I really don't think the issues are my fault, and found it to just be a buggy mess. Luckily, I didn't pay for the 'privilege' of playing this game.

Playthrough 1: When trying to brew the frosty drink, I accidentally cleared the cauldron before filling the mug, which forced me to get some new blue fruit and 'icy stuff' from the mountain. After brewing this, the local who requested the beverage simply would not accept it. Tried this on multiple days and it would not work.

Playthrough 2: I think I might have done some things out of the intended order this time as I knew from the first play through what would be efficient. On day 3, the hermit was not at his location, and was nowhere to be found on the island. After progressing some days, I still could not find him, causing me not to get the lantern and got stuck... again.

Playthrough 3: I was carefully this time to play as the game intended and made sure the hermit was at his location on day 2. He was, and he was accompanied by the merchant. They quibbled about the lantern and the church bells. The same thing happened at day 3, and I removed the church bells... after which nothing happened and I again, I could not get the lantern. I gave up at this point.