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The Tall Tale About A Wizard, A Frog And His Magical Conch

Addit
06/03/2013 08:35 AM
1845 views

A Game Made By: Tompa & feedchicken
Created Using: Multimedia Fusion 2
It's A: ADVENTURE Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 5 Minutes To Complete
And It's A... DEMO VERSION!!!
(As of February 27th, 2012)

What the…“A short technical demo that’s about a frog and his magical conch!?” Well, there’s a reason why this event is called May Media MADNESS Month for a reason! (Wait a second *looks at his calendar* - IT’S FREAKIN’ JUNE! WHY DO I HAVE TO DO THIS ANYMORE, WHY!?!?!? Ah…I guess it’s not that important; I guess it’s just part of the everyday sacrifice of playing some strange stuff on a strange night.) Anyway, let’s get back on topic, shall we? The year…is last year. The time? Sometime early in the morning. The culprits? Two guys…which we never hear from again (at least not since last year since they’re last post). That’s right. It would appear that Froglight (which is the game I’m trying to review today) was a small tech demo to show off Mr. Tompa & feedchicken’s amazing new adventure game staring a frog who must confront an evil wizard in some sort of epical showdown for all the ages. From the trailer, the game looks like it could be quite amusing and worthwhile. But sadly, not much has been heard about this project in quite some time. It would appear that the project might be officially abandoned and left on RMN's database as a vaporware title for all of eternity, while the full version (maybe?) is locked in a vault somewhere at the bottom of the sea. Well, at least we have something to try out in the long haul… I guess that’s a win-win, right…right?

Anyways, I got some free time on my hands. Let’s go bag us a wizard!!!

The Story

The Kingdom Of Zeal (how that get there)?

From the demo version, not much about the story and characters are known at this particular point. Apparently, as soon as you access the game, you are first dropped into a very bizarre, if not fully completed, title / character select screen where you can select…the sprite of the guy from Harvest Moon? Don’t worry, regardless of what you do, you’ll always play as the Frog. Afterwards you'll be dropped off into the main world where the game officially begins. I understand that this demo was to showcase the game’s overall battle engine and not the plot aspects but I would have liked an introduction screen to explain what the hell is going on…maybe even a tutorial mode about how to play the game would be nice? Anyways, you’ll meet a bunch of random NPC’s along the way - including three Link’s from the Legend Of Zelda games (seems like everybody is coming over to this strange place lately). Attempting to talk to these characters will result in nothing (believe me, I tried every single key and I couldn’t get a peep out of these guys). In full, there isn’t any story, so no hanging your head down and hopping away if you’re looking for one.

The Gameplay

DIE, YOU INVISIBLE MONSTERS, DIE!!!

You’re typical adventure / minor puzzle solving styled flair. You start off the game without any equipment or items to speak of, but that all soon changes once you start running into some handy new toys along the way to play with. During your brief journey, you will pick up 4 different items to help you get to the Wizard’s Keep: Number one, an Axe, which can be used to chop down various trees along the way; number two, a Bow, which allows you to shoot things from far away, like switches and junk; number three – and perhaps the coolest item of the bunch, THE MAGICAL CONCH, a strange flute like instrument that, when blown, can create a minor earthquake that can destroy icy rocks from blocking your path; and four, a strange pendant like thing, that can let you enter an alternate universe and find hidden bridges and pathways in the other dimension to help you in this dimension (you’ll also find some enemies along the way, but they won’t bother you since nothing can hurt you). That’s right; throughout this entire demo, YOU CANNOT DIE, nor can your enemies. I know, I can feel your pain. I kind of was expecting SOME form of combat once I started getting the axe and bow but was gravely disappointed when I soon found out that nothing could hurt them. Oh well, this is still an adventure game and it’s bound to have some clever puzzles hidden within, right? Wrong. All the puzzles and contraptions are really one sided and even a borderline chimp could solve these without too much trouble. I’m guessing that, since it’s a demo that they just wanted to show you a few things to play around with, not the whole package.

One major gripe I found while playing this game was the overall controls. Now, I don’t really PLAY a lot of PC games that use the A, S, D, W keys to move around (as I prefer the good old fashion keyboard with the arrow keys or, better yet - a controller) but I found it a bit odd to move around this way. Also, for attacking and using your items you have to hit the numeral keys up above to perform any actions correspondent to that slot. However, you can use the left and right mouse buttons to use the axe or bow as another option (which I found a bit easier to control). I found a lot of times that walking around, using my items…it just got a bit frustrating for me. And a lot of time I was playing this game, I was battling the control scheme like a wounded mule trying to escape from getting a cold shower. I just hope that if – IF - they decide to finish this game that they could provide an alternate control function to go along with the game, or just switch over to using the arrow keys for better mobility, which I would preferably like more. The gameplay isn’t too bad. And it can be KINDA fun once you get the conch (seriously – THAT F***IN’ COUNCH)! But the frustrating controls, no hit detection or any enemies to fight, and unresponsive NPC’s make this game feel…empty, and not a sexy way.

The Soundtrack

“Hmmm…just think how many innocent civilians I could skin with that axe.”

Froglight’s demo only contains a grand, GRAND total of exactly three songs. And, for the most part, they’re not too bad, actually. The title theme (even though it’s really weird and not fully completed yet and…kind of scares a little) has that nice calming sort of feeling giving you the impression that this adventure is going to be a grand one. It kind of reminds me a lot from The Never Ending Story; it just sounds so good and extremely heroic! The overworld theme is almost like a MIDI version of a somewhat familiar popular pop song I used to listen to years ago but can’t quite remember its name. I do like it, but it can get a bit annoying considering the song loops throughout the overall world after it originally ends. Finally, the Wizard’s Keep; it has that portentous feeling of danger that is about to lurk around the corner; it really is pretty cool and sinister sounding! I like the music choices in Froglight, actually; it really suites the general style for the game. I’m not sure if the tracks were custom made or not, but the music gets a pass from me. The sound effects are nothing noteworthy. In fact, acquiring an item sound is the exact same one when you find something in The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (no wonder there are so many Link’s in this game).

The Aesthetics

Day of Lavos? Or 2300 A.D.?

One of the biggest problems about Froglight that I’ve heard in the brief comments on its gamepage is that the mapping is too empty and I have to agree on the masses on that one. A lot of the maps just feel barren and lifeless within the world. And it also seems a bit too big for my part. Also, beside the H.U.D. on the bottom of the screen there are no other menu graphics to speak of in the game (even the title page doesn’t have the traditional new game / load game options). All the sprites and tilesets seemed to be ripped off Chrono Trigger, Charas Resources and Seiken Densetsu 3, which isn’t necessary a bad thing, and it works all right here. Perhaps these graphics are just place holders, but the overall look doesn’t look too unkempt and seems to work in its favor. I just think that the mapping doesn’t need to be so large or so barren like. Either one of the two have to go in the final version, that’s for damn sure!

The End Result

*gasp* “It’s not very effective against Maguses…”

Froglight kind of reminds me as if I was playing a fangame of The Wind In The Willows just mixed in with some The Legend Of Zelda elements to make more mature for an older audience. By no means is this is a good game, but of one that could, with a little bit more tweaking and polish thrown in, be a pretty fun romp throughout the countryside. Although the frustrating control scheme and empty maps need some work, not to mention a suitable story, this was a pretty, somewhat enjoyable five minutes of my time, even if the coolest parts of the game were cutting down trees and using that conch! I suggest that if you guys have ten minutes or so to spare that you should give this a game a try and see for yourself. Overall, I’m going to give this game a 2 because the potential is there but needs a lot more work in my opinion. It is unknown if Froglight will ever be completed, but for a small tech like demo it has shades of what could be something. Here’s hoping for a full version someday.