LTTP: For The Frog the Bell Tolls

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Platform: Game Boy (Original)
Year of release: 1992
Genre: RPG/Platformer/Puzzler-ish(?)

No doubt those of you that have played Link's Awakening remember Prince Richard:

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That fella in the top right. Locked out of his castle, your job was to get him back in. He's a reference to this game and I was always curious about the game he actually came out of, Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK had a small bit about For the Frog the Bell Tolls when I was growing up (or it could've been any other myriad of magazines that I was reading - honestly I have memory problems in general, so this might be a bit patchy in places), so when I was in Japan in August I came across a boxed copy of the cart in a Book Off for about 2000Y and figured I'd give it a shot.

Except my Japanese is awful and whilst I could fuddle through the game so far I struggled, so I just used the fan translation instead ultimately. It reminded that the game existed though!

So the game is about Richard right? I mean he's the character they chose to bring up again - nope. Prince Richard is an ancillary character, our true Hero is Prince [Your Name here] of Sable.

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Prince Sable is an awesome character in my eyes, he's a complete cliché but he works fantastic in the universe. The game starts off with Richard and Sable dueling, with Sable getting his arse utterly handed to him before they're both told that Princess Tiramasu of the Mille-Feuille Kingdom, is in danger from King Delarin. So taking all his money with him, he runs off after Richard so that one of them can be the first to save the Princess.

Except he gets left behind, because Richard is a dick. Sable gives chase and shows his love for fixing problems with money left and right giving everyone who gives him information money, as well as being slowed down by the villagers at the request of Richard, that dick. He's constantly trying to catch up with Richard, grabbing weapons and armour as he goes along, until eventually for some reason everyone starts to think he's a Croakian - the games antagonists army. Beats the living crap out of him, his money is stolen and he wakes up in a hospital. Running off to find his thief, you make your way through a forest to eventually find a Witch. She convinces you to drink a potion and you get turned into a frog after falling into cold water at the bottom of a well.

This is where the games main mechanic comes into play, transformations, Sable gets a two transformations over the game, a Frog and a Snake. The Frog lets you jump higher, prevents you from being attacked by Croakians (who love frogs despite working for a giant snake) and eat small insects to regain health but you can't fight. The snake lets you crawl into small gaps, turn weak enemies into blocks (or whip them out the way) but cannot jump. Where as Sable's normal form can use tools like saws, pickaxes and swords.

Combat is kinda pointless in all honesty and the weakest part of the game, it doesn't act as actual combat so much as a way to farm money to buy items or as an alternative to a dungeon key. Throughout the game you'll need to search areas for items to increase Sable's strength, attack speed and life. You can also buy shields, to reduce the damage you take, at shops throughout the game. Fights are decided by this information (Power, speed etc) and deciding if you press A or B (B escaping the battle or using an item). There's no real input otherwise and it can sometimes be irritating since the hitboxes on enemies are a lot larger than you'd expect - often you end up hitting the wrong thing in an area where you're supposed to be avoiding fights, and boom back to the hospital of the nearest town you go.

Second thing that happens is a mixture of platforming and puzzle solving, puzzles in this game are super simple - nothing will ever confuse you or set you back for greater than a few minutes. Most puzzles are making blocks as a snake, or finding the right way to transform and slip through areas. If you've played Link's Awakening think the 2D areas from there, which isn't too shocking since this game is somewhat an engine test for Link's Awakening (as far as I know).

You go between dungeon, to town, to dungeon via the world map which has one of the best overworld themes I've ever heard, infact I really enjoyed the games music overall.
Listen to this majesty. That's not to say it's all greatmusic, some of it just hilariously bad with random pitch spikes but at least they tried.

The real selling point of this game is the writing though, the fan translation is of astonishing quality with lines that just remind me perfectly of Nintendo games from that era. The game guides you from area to area used a sequence of vignettes that tie together the overarching plot perfectly, knowing how simple the idea behind the plot is the game never takes itself too seriously. One area in particular raised a smile for me with you needing to go to "Nantendo" to acquire an item. The writing is strongest in quick one shot jokes that only really work in the setting.

To the credit of the translation it makes some things that would work mainly in Japanese work in English in an interesting way - one character named Jinbee is a Japanese salesman who speaks in broken English. You can guess how this went in the original.

Honestly, I couldn't recommend this enough to someone looking for a quick enjoyable game. You can find the translation here. I played through the game on my GBA Everdrive on my Micro. Furthermore there's a DX patch in the works since the GBC remake was cancelled.

Anyone else play through this? Oh and any recommendations like this?
 
I've been planning to pick up a copy of this eventually.

It's the first part of a 3 game trilogy on Game Boy including Link's Awakening and James Bond 007!

I'm joking a bit. There are spiritual connections there... but I don't know how literal they are.
 
It's the first part of a 3 game trilogy on Game Boy including Link's Awakening and James Bond 007!


OH. I forgot about this one! I've been considering looking at this too, a friend had it when I was growing up and I remember it being fairly solid.
 
Played through this some months ago. What a fun ride it was ! I loved the absurd progression of the story, that makes you make more and more detours to perform silly quests.

This game reminded me of the GB titles I spent afternoons on, when I was a child. I'm sure it would have been one of my favorite games if I had played it back then.
 
Frog and Link's Awakening aren't directly connected beyond the cameo; it's often said that one is a direct descendant of the other but the two teams were almost entirely different--Frog was by the guys who did Metroid, Wario, Kid Icarus, etc whereas LA was by Takashi Tezuka and many of Miyamoto's usual cohorts at R&D4 (EAD).

Either way, Frog's a simple, charming game that doesn't overstay its welcome. It was reasonably popular in Japan in its day so I'm surprised it never got a sequel.
 
Frog and Link's Awakening aren't directly connected beyond the cameo; it's often said that one is a direct descendant of the other but the two teams were almost entirely different--Frog was by the guys who did Metroid, Wario, Kid Icarus, etc whereas LA was by Takashi Tezuka and many of Miyamoto's usual cohorts at R&D4 (EAD).

Oh really? That's neat. I knew there was a shared engine but other than that. I loved Wario Land 1 so hey.
 
Actually I liked the combat system a lot. It was a nice turn over the standard RPG battle system. Simple yet effective and quite original.
Overall this is an incredible charming game and one of the most special titles in the Game Boy catalogue.

Fun fact: The old archaeologist from the bonus levels of Wario Land 4 is also a character from this game.

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I wasn't too crazy about this game when I played it for the first time, but once the translation patch hit, I was sold. It's a short and pretty simple game, but it works in its favour. The way all of its systems and mechanics are streamlined, give it a very pleasant pacing. This allowed it to focus on its storytelling and zany ideas, which is absolutely its biggest strength.

For those that are interested, the game's available on the Japanese Virtual Console. A physical copy shouldn't set you back too much either, unless you want a full boxed copy.

I've been planning to pick up a copy of this eventually.

It's the first part of a 3 game trilogy on Game Boy including Link's Awakening and James Bond 007!

I'm joking a bit. There are spiritual connections there... but I don't know how literal they are.
I don't quite know what you mean by spiritual connections, but I'm half-tempted to look up the price of James Bond 007 given how much I enjoyed Link's Awakening and Froggy Bells.
 
I don't quite know what you mean by spiritual connections, but I'm half-tempted to look up the price of James Bond 007 given how much I enjoyed Link's Awakening and Froggy Bells.

James Bond 007 for Game Boy is another top-down Zelda-esque action-adventure game published by Nintendo, that's the extent of the connection--Nintendo didn't make it, there are no character cameos or other links, it's just another game in the same genre (and a pretty decent one too, IIRC).
 
It really is amazing. It's a platformer/adventure game, which makes for such a novel experience that works perfectly and in my opinion, it might be GB's finest game.

I think you're undermining the "combat" elements here. What the game does is offer a completely different take on the adventure genre, which instead of it being the classic Portopia style point and click, it is reimagined as a more hands on Zelda style bird view. Combat is then just road blocks in which the player needs to have found the necessary items to progress, incorporating narrative/world building into Prince Sable's adventure.

Of course the real stars are the frog and snake transformations, fun adventure-platforming and a wonderful sense of humor. I really want to see the DX restoration hack get finished, since it looks incredible. Everyone should most definately dive in with one of Nintendo's best unsung classic, it's top notch.

Surprised you're so down on the audio considering it's quintessential Totaka.
 
Surprised you're so down on the audio considering it's quintessential Totaka.

I think you've misread my tone, I think it was only a few tracks that I disliked mainly Eskimo Village but that's because it was a bit of a shock on the ears through head phones at that pitch for me haha. For the most part I loved the music. Admittedly I was not so fond of the idea of the combat but your assessment was pretty on about the combat.
 
Still meaning to play through this at some point

Wondering about the length tho, how long did it take you to finish it OP?
 
I helped write/rewrite the fan translation and not to toot our own horns but I think it's pretty great! We really tried to write in the style of what an actual Nintendo localization circa the early 90s would sound like, and localized in the spirit of all the actual jokes while trying to capture their essence instead of treating things either really loosely or really liberally. It went through months of editing and strategy and was a real passion project for all of us.

The game is a lot of fun and really wild, I would recommend it to anyone. Never gets too impossible and there's lots of fun in-jokes.
 
I freaking love this game! I own a fan-translated cartridge of this!

We need a revival for this franchise tbh. I personally think it has more potential than other retro IPs Nintendo has.

I helped write/rewrite the fan translation and not to toot our own horns but I think it's pretty great! We really tried to write in the style of what an actual Nintendo localization circa the early 90s would sound like, and localized in the spirit of all the actual jokes while trying to capture their essence instead of treating things either really loosely or really liberally. It went through months of editing and strategy and was a real passion project for all of us.

The game is a lot of fun and really wild, I would recommend it to anyone. Never gets too impossible and there's lots of fun in-jokes.
HOLY COW I LOVE YOU!
 
I freaking love this game! I own a fan-translated cartridge of this!

We need a revival for this franchise tbh. I personally think it has more potential than other retro IPs Nintendo has.


HOLY COW I LOVE YOU!

Sometimes I see fan translated carts on forums and think I should pick one up--but at least I do own an original Japanese copy. Honestly it's really cool to me that people are still finding and playing this game five (!!!) years after we did the writing. It's the only one I've ever worked on and it was a real blast. Working within the space constraints and the amount of characters per line being very small was a very unique challenge. We spent lots of time working on stuff down to internal consistency in ellipses and the sounds animals make and how maniacal laughter was formatted.

Anyway everyone play it!
 
I helped write/rewrite the fan translation and not to toot our own horns but I think it's pretty great! We really tried to write in the style of what an actual Nintendo localization circa the early 90s would sound like, and localized in the spirit of all the actual jokes while trying to capture their essence instead of treating things either really loosely or really liberally. It went through months of editing and strategy and was a real passion project for all of us.

The game is a lot of fun and really wild, I would recommend it to anyone. Never gets too impossible and there's lots of fun in-jokes.

Thank you for your work. I really loved it and it genuinely made me laugh at times.
 
I haven't played this yet, but it's on the list, if only due to its Link's Awakening connection. I know I'll love it already though, I've seen some the humour in this game and it was wonderful.

I helped write/rewrite the fan translation and not to toot our own horns but I think it's pretty great! We really tried to write in the style of what an actual Nintendo localization circa the early 90s would sound like, and localized in the spirit of all the actual jokes while trying to capture their essence instead of treating things either really loosely or really liberally. It went through months of editing and strategy and was a real passion project for all of us.

The game is a lot of fun and really wild, I would recommend it to anyone. Never gets too impossible and there's lots of fun in-jokes.

Thanks for your hard work <3
 
I had to skip the review to avoid spoilers. I'm starting the game this week and playing on a cheap portable emulator that I'm also testing out. I bought a genuine copy of this game for 30 cents just a couple weeks ago!

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I really liked what I played, but I was a bit put off at first. Its reputation made me expect something more in line with Link's Awakening, but it's really more of a strange puzzle/adventure game. From what I remember, you more or less had to get every upgrade in order to beat bosses. I think I stopped playing at the jungle section for that reason. Couldn't find what shield or health upgrade I missed, and as a result the fight was unwinnable (unless I missed some mechanic along the lines).

Neat game though, would like to give it another go sometime with a different set of expectations.
 
I helped write/rewrite the fan translation and not to toot our own horns but I think it's pretty great! We really tried to write in the style of what an actual Nintendo localization circa the early 90s would sound like, and localized in the spirit of all the actual jokes while trying to capture their essence instead of treating things either really loosely or really liberally. It went through months of editing and strategy and was a real passion project for all of us.

The game is a lot of fun and really wild, I would recommend it to anyone. Never gets too impossible and there's lots of fun in-jokes.
I love you~
 
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