Time on Frog Island

by Aethyna Jul 18, 2022 | 1 Votes | 62 Played | 0 Reviews

9 rate

Genres:

Action , Adventure

Graphics:

Labels:

Adventure , Fantasy Setting , Exploration

Platforms:

Publishers:

Merge Games Time on Frog Island is a fun adventure game where you play as a ship captain who was shipwrecked on a remote island filled with frog people! Your goal is to fix up your ship and be on your way, but this is definitely easier said than done. Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Time on Frog Island is a fun adventure game where you play as a ship captain who was shipwrecked on a remote island filled with frog people! Your goal is to fix up your ship and be on your way, but this is definitely easier said than done. Many of the parts you need can be obtained from the locals but you’ll need to help them first. There are many places for you to explore and secrets to find as you traverse Frog Island to obtain the items you need.

Plotline

Besides the fact that you’ve shipwrecked on Frog Island, the game doesn’t really go into detail as to what happened before. That being said, every night, by resting at the campfire, you’ll be treated with a little cutscene showing a little backstory of your character. You’ll then need to assemble those short snippets to fully understand your character and how he ended up shipwrecked on the island.

Gameplay

Being shipwrecked on an island, the goal here is to fix up your ship just so you could leave, but before you can do so, you’ll need the parts that the local frog people of the island have already salvaged from your ship. There are some broken parts too that will need to be replaced.

However, as friendly as the locals are, they don’t give away anything for free. To get the items you need, you’ll need to get the frog people the stuff they desire first. It may sound like a typical fetch quest, but the catch here is that it’s not all that straightforward.

You see, whenever you “talk” to a frog person, they will then let you know what they want. Usually, it’s something that you can’t just pick up from the ground. The first step you need to do is to decipher what is needed before finding out the “ingredients” and sometimes specific circumstances you need to make it happen.

For instance, one of the “quest items” you need is a blue-colored larva. However, if you explore the island during a sunny day, the most you’ll find are white-colored larvae that just love eating fruit. Interestingly though, they will change into the color of said fruit when they eat it, but there just doesn’t seem to be any fruit about that’s blue in color… that is until you rest at the campfire enough times to get a rainy day instead.

This is because on a rainy day, the crows that plague a local fruit farm will be gone and the bushes will actually bear fruit. One of those fruits include the blueberry. Unfortunately, the larvae will hide underground if it’s rainy. Now, can you see how all of these links up perfectly… once you explore the place, and find these bits of info yourself? There are also some “simple puzzles” like planting mushrooms in the designated spots to reveal a frog idol.

Every “quest” in this game works in a similar fashion. You’ll need to first figure out what might go with what, sometimes by using your powers of observation but other times, by using some good old trial and error, in order to eventually produce the final item/s you’ll need. It’s a surprisingly taxing endeavor here mainly because the game also lacks three quality-of-life features that we point-and-click/RPG players might have taken for granted for oh so long… a quest log/tracker, a map and an inventory.

That’s right! In this game, you’re expected to remember which frog person asked for what item, just so you know who to go back to once you finally have the item. The frog people also move about in this game, though they do have their frequently-visited spots around the island. Some will sometimes stay home during rainy days, so there are times when you won’t be able to find someone only to spot him or her once the rain clouds cleared up.

Frog Island is a pretty big place and there are many landmark locations, each offering a part of quest item that you may need. There are even places that are locked by some sort of locking mechanism, like the ancient-looking gate up in the snowy mountains, and you’ll need to figure out what sort of key you’ll need to open it.

Being a more complicated version of typical fetch quests, the quests in this game also require a lot of legwork, forcing you to go running all around the island, trying to find things to combine and assemble into the one you need. On the bright side though, after running about for quite some time, I eventually developed a sense – or a general idea - of where something might be on the island.

Lastly, inventory. The game doesn’t have an inventory so you can only carry one item, using both hands, at a time. You can’t throw certain items too because they will break if they fall from a great height. This also includes you jumping from a great height. You see, although you won’t die by jumping off a cliff and landing on the ground, but the item you carried may be broken and rendered useless as a result. This means no shortcuts – you really have to put in the legwork and run all the way down from the mountaintop with the item you are carrying if you don’t want to risk breaking it.

Time of Frog Island doesn’t seem to have autosave or a Save Game option in the menu. Instead, I think by resting at the campfire, you’ll not only be able to move on to the next day; you’ll also save the game. Note that this isn’t explained in the game since the game itself doesn’t really offer a tutorial nor is it indicated clearly with a “saving game” icon so I can’t really be sure. However, I should point out that if you load a save, you’ll notice that the stuff you’ve hoarded by dumping them near to your campfire will disappear. You can always get them back though… it just takes more legwork.

Last but not least, the game has plenty of interesting achievements for you to unlock and collect. Many of them require some work being put in and figuring out what you need to do in order to unlock the achievement. For example, the “What?!” achievement can be unlocked after you ask the same frog about the same item 3 times in a row. The game doesn’t provide you with any clues as to what to do, so if you really want to have all achievements, you might want to refer to a guide to save yourself a lot of headache and time.

Just wanted to point out as well - Although the game is best played with a gamepad, I’ve been playing the game using my keyboard and mouse and they work perfectly.

Graphics/ Sound

The graphics in this game looks great, especially during a non-rainy day, with all the bright colors. Naturally, during the night or during rainy days, the colors are muted to properly reflect the time of day or the weather. In terms of sound, the music is fairly pleasant to listen to and I really like the ambiance. The game also uses sound to indicate time, or more specifically time limits as opposed to having a stopwatch on screen. By jumping about on the lily pads, you’ll notice that you can make some music too, which is fun.

Conclusion

All in all, Time on Frog Island is a charming kid-friendly adventure game that’s set on an island filled with frog people. With minimal hand-holding, the game expects you to figure things out on your own and get the items the frog people need just so you can get the stuff you need to fix your ship. It also rewards its players for trying stuff out and exploring. After all, the island has plenty of secrets to reveal, if you know where to look and what to do.