Frogue [Review]
Frogue offers refreshingly unique gameplay, but not without issues.
Frogue. Credit: QUByte Interactive.
In a crowded market for roguelites, Frogue achieves something that’s at this point very difficult: it stands out. It mixes gameplay mechanics from several genres to create something unique. While the gameplay isn’t very varied, it does what it sets out to do in a compelling and addictive way.
In Frogue, you are a frog knight making your way through a series of dungeons. You stick to walls and can jump in a straight line to other walls within range. You kill enemies by jumping through them to slash them with your sword. You can also throw your sword to kill, but of course that leaves you without a weapon until you can retrieve it. This is the platforming piece of the game and what interested me most. Frogue has more tricks up its sleeve.
Frogue. Credit: QUByte Interactive.
Frogue is also a turn-based strategy game. As you stick to a wall, time stops while you consider your next move. Every time you leap or throw your sword, a little bit of time will pass. This brings us to the bullet hell aspect of the game. Enemy projectiles also freeze when time stops, so your leap every turn has you dodging and weaving through them to avoid damage. It takes some practice to learn how far the bullets or blasts will travel, and once you get it down you’ll feel like a badass when you leap across the level and cut monsters down without getting a scratch.
One last ability that you have is your chronosphere, which allows you to stop time for a limited number of turns as long as you’ve gathered enough energy to do so. It’s helpful to get yourself out of sticky situations, but you have to use it with care because it takes some work to find enough energy drops to refill the gauge.
Health pickups are even more rare; get a long enough kill combo and some enemies will get a green outline, meaning they’ll drop a fly when they die. The problem is that your combo runs down in real time, even when everything else is stopped. It’s easy to get careless in an effort to rack up the kills to get health, which makes it even more likely you’ll misjudge your next move and get hurt. This is an aspect of the game that feels like it could use some more balance.
I also felt that the the game’s controls needed a little more polish. Aiming your jump with the thumbstick on a controller is a bit fiddly. I’d often end up on a wall space next to the one I intended, especially if I was rushing to maintain a combo. Being able to lock onto a spot and then use the d-pad to adjust my landing position before leaping would have been nice.
Frogue. Credit: QUByte Interactive.
As the title would imply, this game is also a roguelite. Die and get taken back to the beginning. By completing rare puzzle rooms, you can collect items that will do things like permanently increase your life. Otherwise, you’ll be collecting upgrades to your abilities that will only last for the current run. This structural aspect of the game is the only bit that’s run-of-the-mill, with no unique spin.
Frogue is a small game, but it also comes with a small price tag, though the Steam version costs more than twice as much. It’s a unique game worth picking up.
Frogue is available now on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, Xbox One / Series X|S, and PlayStation 4/5.
Overall Score: 7/10
Played on: Xbox Series X
