CGA-2026-03 🕹️🐸🕌🔔 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls)
Introduction
Once upon a time, aboard a humble and perpetually cursed train, you unraveled its hidden mysteries and stumbled upon a battered yet magnificent vessel, the fabled Epoch, known to drift through the rivers of time.
With courage and a bit of chaos, you wrestled with its failing gears, tumbling through one strange era after another, from glittering ages of kings and heroes to worlds of shaky shapes and flickering lights. When at last the poor machine gave out, it left you stranded upon a world that shimmered with hope, one where humans could live once more.
But strength alone could not carry you through. Words held the power to wound anyone, and with a talking boat as your guide, you braved vast and endless seas. Along your travels, you witnessed wonders beyond counting: dazzling sunsets, curious creatures, and riddles that twisted like waves upon the ocean breeze.
One day, your voyage brought you to an island grander than imagination, crowned with towers of steel and roads that roared with life. Here, you discovered a new kind of magic: a gleaming machine called a car, and a city that pulsed with speed, shining light and the ability to snatch vehicle parts. Against all odds, you mastered the art of racing, earning cheers from strangers and respect from rivals.
And how did such triumph end? With celebration, of course! A raucous party full of laughter, music, and friends who toasted your name. Yet among the clinking cups and glowing lamps, one curious drink caught your eye; warm, green, and gleaming like liquid emerald. "Nothing to worry about!" you said with a grin, before the world began to swirl and fade...
When next you opened your eyes, you awoke in a quiet hospital filled with echoes of distant wars. Your reflection showed smooth, unblemished hands, your face untouched by time. Days passed before truth finally dawned, the doctor's wild tale was no fantasy.
"WHAAT?!"
You had been reborn as the Prince of Sablé, bound for the Millefeuille Kingdom in search of the boastful Prince Richard and the princess who vanished by his side. Ahead lay a land of talking frogs, slithering foes, glittering treasures, and tests of both heart and wit. So begins your tale, of friendship, rivalry, and a destiny spun from courage and wealth.
Welcome, noble traveler, to the world of wonder and whimsy of...
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls)
IN GAME BOYS 2026.03.01
switches to a much, much less dramatic music
Aaaaaand that's enough wacky storytelling for now. Time to jump into my personal experiences!
My first brush with Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru came back in 2008, when I randomly pulled a Sabure Prince sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. As years went by (and thanks to our good old broadband Internet), I started connecting the dots, especially after noticing all the interesting nods to this mysterious game hidden in Link's Awakening.
Remember that suave guy surrounded by frogs in a villa in the middle of nowhere? Yep, that's Prince Richard, and his appearance in Link's Awakening isn't just some random cameo.
In fact, Link's Awakening actually runs on a modified version of Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru's game engine. You can even see the connection in the way both games handle screen transitions between areas.
Fast-forward to October 2012: I imported a Japanese 3DS to get around the region lock and play Japan-only titles. The first thing I did? Jump onto the eShop and grab the original Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru.
I fumbled my way through the story with almost zero Japanese knowledge, relying on a GameFAQs guide to make sense of what was happening. It was charming and funny even then, though the language barrier definitely made me appreciate the idea of a second playthrough with a fan translation someday.
Around that time, I was also forcing myself to learn hiragana and katakana, mainly to understand what Gulliver (aka Johnny) was rambling about in the Japanese version of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Reading the low-res Japanese text on a tiny screen was another story, though, it made telling certain characters apart a real challenge.
Jumping ahead to 2025, one of my two CGA suggestions for the voting thread surprisingly made it through in a three-way tie! Naturally, I fired up the English patch using the bgb emulator and revisited the game, doing some extra reading online along the way.
I even gave Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls a try to see what inspired the title. Honestly, though, I couldn't stick with it; the dense descriptions and grim themes of war stories just drained me. Two hours of reading for ten pages and remembering nothing? Not the best time. Still, it helped me appreciate how The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls borrows the title, then hops off in a totally different, more lighthearted direction.
This month, I'm planning another playthrough, this time the old-school way. A genuine DMG-CPU-07 Game Boy, pea-green screen, four fresh AA batteries, and a good light source. A full run only takes about six hours, so battery life won't be an issue.
With that, it's time to ribbit our way into Millefeuille Kingdom!
Game Information
Year of the release: 1992
Platforms: Game Boy
Genre(s): Action role-playing
Where to find the game:
- eBay (Original Release): Prices fluctuate due to the game's uncommon status. A loose cartridge is usually much cheaper than a Complete-in-Box copy (which includes the game, manual, and box).
- Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Classics: Game Boy App: The Japanese version of the app currently includes this title. You can access it by setting your Nintendo account region to Japan and having an active Nintendo Switch Online membership.
- Nintendo 3DS - Virtual Console: The game used to be available here, but since the 3DS eShop shut down in March 2023, it’s no longer accessible. Still worth mentioning for the sake of completeness.
- Sailing the Seven Seas: If you're comfortable navigating the more questionable parts of the internet (and the legal risks that come with it), this is another way people have found the game, though obviously not the recommended route.
Patching the Game in English
If you manage to acquire the game's ROM file, make sure its CRC32 checksum matches with C18CD57A before applying any translation patch. Then, apply them in that order:
- ryanbgstl's English translation patch for the ROM
- Hamikon's Addendum if you want a more faithful title logo
Can't get any ROM-patching program running? Feel free to use Marc Robledo's Rom Patcher JS website!
Game Setup
The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:
- Share what hardware you're playing it on
- Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
- Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
- Ask questions if you need help
Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:
- Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
- What about its system or era?
- What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
- What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
- What are you expecting from this game in particular?
Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:
- Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
- Ask for help if you get stuck.
- Offer help to others.
It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.
IMPORTANT: Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.
IMPORTANT: Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.
<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>
Spoiler text goes here.
</details>
FAQ
What is CGA?
Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
Do I have to sign up?
No. Participation is open to all.
There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.
Are there restrictions on what/how to play?
Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!
This means:
- Choose whichever version of the game you want.
- You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.
- You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.
If you have already played a game and want a different experience:
- Play a different version of it.
- Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)
There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.
What is the schedule?
Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 20th.
Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).
Schedules are also posted then.
All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.
What do Insert and Remove Cartridge mean?
Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.
The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.
The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.
There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.
Without further ado, let's all pop the cartridge in, and power that chunky brick on!
> CONTINUE
(Credit to @Boojum for the splash screen. Can't dive deep into pixelated adventures without this masterpiece!)
CGA Announcement: We have officially inserted the cartridge for Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls). Use this topic to get set up for the month, help other people get set up for the month, and start playing!
Notification List
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@dotsforeyes
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If you would like to be added or removed from the Notification List, please PM u/kfwyre.
Wait, there’s a ballot for this topic too? 😉
Anyway, fantastic job hosting! I’m (as always) so thrilled that you’re playing this on original hardware.
Also, I love that this is only CGA’s seventh month and we’ve already been able to feature the frog emoji twice. Maybe we’ve got ourselves a CGA mascot? 🤔
Whoops! I indeed copy-pasted the wrong CGA Announcement comment template, which came from the CGA voting thread since it contained the most up-to-date Notification List thus far, hence the ballot mention. I should've relied on the one you've provided to me.
Retro gaming are probably the best source for finding frogs who occupy a prominent aspect of a game. I distinctly remember Frogger for being one of the most prolific IPs with a frog protagonist in it. In the 2010s and beyond, they seem to be much harder to find.
No worries! I always keep the Pastebin I send to hosts updated, but I don’t think that’s very clear in my hosting instructions. I’ll add that for this next round.
Also, frogs aren’t around in post-2010 gaming? Sounds like they’re the perfect CGA mascot then!
Polygon actually predicted that 2026 would be the year of the frog in gaming.
Need some pointers for Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls)?
Here are a few gameplay tips and tricks to help you up your game!
Tips and tricks
To make sure I'm understanding the diary correctly, after writing to it, if I want to return to that spot I should return to the title screen by holding START + SELECT + B + A and then loading the diary save?
You can only read the diary from within the game rather than being able to load from it like you can on the title screen?
The START + SELECT + B + A button combination is one way to perform a soft reset back to the title screen, which is relevant while playing on a hardware that doesn't have easy access to the reset button and command.
In-game, you can't load a save file, but you can read a quick recap of any chapter you went through.
To actually return to the main menu, you either have to perform the aforementioned button command or overwrite the save and then pick No. From there, you can reload a save file.
I just have to say: this is possibly my favorite CGA intro post to date. The recap of our adventures thus far, with the game's music in the background, is genuinely fantastic. Your personal history also rings of so much fond nostalgia, I'm feeling it too despite having no experience with this game. I was already looking forward to this game, and now I'm anticipating it even more!
I'll be loading it onto my 3DS in the near future. I am looking forward to a much easier setup compared to last month's Racing Lagoon (which I'll seriously need to revisit at some point... Probably with the easy save file added).
Heads up for anyone who also has a modded 3DS: it's very easy to find a QR code with the patch already applied! Gotta play this before Pokopia comes out, wheeee~
A brilliant intro, @J-Chiptunator! The background music added nicely to the reading experience.
I got the game running with the English patch on my Miyoo Mini Plus, so I'm all set. Now I just need to decide which colour theme to stick with, rather than switching between them constantly in search of the aesthetically most pleasing option.
Which actually reminds me: I never owned a Game Boy myself (or any Nintendo device for that matter), so I don't really know how things worked. Could someone educate me please: do I understand correctly that the original Game Boy of 1989 had a monochromatic pea soup green palette, the mid-90s Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Light offered a monochromatic grayscale palette with white, and the 1998 Game Boy Color was backwards compatible with the original Game Boy and allowed users to select from a list of 12 palettes for those games? The original Kaeru no tame in kane wa naru would have been designed with the green monochrome palette in mind?
Since the Game Boy Pocket (1996) came out four years after Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru, the game was clearly designed with the original, unlit green-screen Game Boy in mind.
You can see this in the art direction: the main character's body is mostly white, while his head is a darker shade, similar to Mario's design in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. This contrast helps the character stand out clearly on the low-contrast screen, which is crucial in a game centered around movement and exploration.
Thanks! The green palette it shall be for me, then.
I got a little side tracked (how untypical of me), thinking about the unofficial English translation.
I've been playing the beginning of the game in both the original Japanese and in English, just to see how they differ. Not that my Japanese is on a level where I could really say anything meaningful about the differences. So, I've been mainly pondering about the endless! use! of! exclamation! marks! in the English translation. Which actually more or less exist also in the Japanese, yet to me somehow come across as less exclamatory. I'm not sure why. Probably just because, like I said, my Japanese is not on a level that would allow me to say anything meaningful about the differences. Do we have any Japanese speakers in the club?
Also, I don't mean the above as any kind of criticism against the translation. I've liked the English version so far. I'm in awe that people do things like these.
You mentioned that you learnt some Japanese for Animal Crossing. Do you have plans to continue, and did you know that someone has made a full Anki vocabulary deck for Kaeru no tame ni kane wa naru? I don't know if it contains the whole script (2710 entries, so maybe?), but if it does, it looks like the game was very much targeted at a younger audience, as it seems to contain only 94 kanji. Which is very little. I briefly contemplated trying to learn the deck this month, but I think I better just concentrate on enjoying the game. Still, the idea of learning vocabulary this way fascinates me.
Beyond remembering nearly all the hiragana and katakana and a handful of words, I haven't made much progress in actually learning the language yet. I can get by navigating menus where reading isn't too important, but I'm still far from being conversational.
Since I'm planning a month-long trip to Japan this year, I really should start watching more Japanese-only content without subtitles and focus on grasping how the grammar works. My brain seems to naturally pick up patterns and vocabulary over time when I immerse myself, even passively, so I'm hoping that consistent exposure will help, much like how a child learns their first language.
I'm jealous. My brain seems actively hostile against letting any kind of foreign vocabulary move in and enrich my communicative abilities. While I speak and read a handful of languages to various degrees of proficiency, it's always been incredibly difficult for me to build up vocabulary.
Speaking of vocabulary though, I have progressed to a point in the game where the title is starting to make sense. Or at least I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about it.
Once you learn about the bell in the game, the official translation of カエルの為に鐘は鳴る (Kaeru no tame ni kane wa naru), The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls, makes a lot of sense. It is also worth noting that Japanese nouns don't have separate singular and plural forms, so the title could also be translated as The Frogs for Whom the Bell Tolls. Which, again, makes perfect sense in the context of the game.
A note on の為に (no tame ni). While the phrase has been rendered in English as just "for", there is perhaps a little bit more nuance to it in the original Japanese, as no tame ni carries with it a sense of purpose, goal or benefit. So, I think a more literal translation could be something like The Bell Rings Because of the Frog or The Bell Rings for the Benefit of the Frog(s), which would make perfect sense in the context of the game.
Then there is the word kaeru. It means "frog", and the fact that it is spelled with katakana (カエル) marks it with that meaning. However, there are other Japanese words that are pronounced the same and carry meanings relevant to the game. You can find a list here, but in a nutshell, there is a group of words that has the connotation of return, particularly return home, and another group that carries the meaning of alteration or replacing something with something else. So, we could in theory entertain possibilities such as The Bell Rings for the Sake of Going Back Home or The Bell Rings to Bring About an Alteration. Which, again, would make sense to me based on what I have seen of the game.
I also find it interesting that we are talking about frogs and a spring bell. In Japanese poetry, frogs are often used as markers of spring. In fact, in one of the most famous haikus of all time, the frog elegantly works as its seasonal reference, marking it as a spring poem:
An ancient pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water
(Matsuo Basho, 1686)
Frogs also have the connotation of money and prosperity in Japan. There would be quite a lot to unpack there as well (not least because kane ("bell") happens to be homonymous with the word for "money"), but I've been mainly thinking about how in the game, a considerable amount of progress works through money and the things that the player purchases, and how large amounts of money are additionally used as a plot devices in a couple of places, as well as being something about the protagonist that Richard comments on disapprovingly here and there.
"Select from a list" isn't how I'd phrase it, you'd have to hold a particular button combo for a given palette on boot. Some gameboy games defined their own palette, like pokemon blue had a more blue palette versus pokemon red. It doesn't have a mode for the original Gameboy green monochrome palette though.
Great write up @J-Chiptunator. I appreciate the tips as well. I've been so bad about playing games to completion recently. I've only beaten three games in the past six months. But this post has me excited, and I think a smaller, handheld game will be good for me.
Loading this up on an Analogue Pocket with the display mode set to Original GB DMG. It looks absolutely beautiful!
The game was great! I started playing Link's Awakening right afterwards and have already gotten to the reference. Really fun experience.
Just finished Link's Awakening DX with the redux rom hack. I'd highly recommend playing it as a follow up if you have an itch for another game. It has clear roots in The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls while improving on it in almost every way. It's really fun to see the evolution of capabilities as well as the references to the former game. Definitely my favorite GBC game I've played. There's also a recent remake for Switch, but that obviously loses out on being a good comparison against this month's game.
I needed to figure out how to actually get the Japanese Nintendo account I set up to be able to download the Japanese only NSO games. In case anyone else needs help, it is very easy to create a new Nintendo account and set the region as Japan. Once you have that, add the account to your switch. Then go to the Switch Online menu and go to the NSO games. Once there, you need to download the consoles themselves. (I kept trying to play the games, but the new Japanese account did not have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Even if you already downloaded the Gameboy console in your region, download it again from the Japanese store. Once it's downloaded, you can go back to your NSO membership account and open the Japanese version of the console. Some like NES -> Famicom are clearly differentiated, but Game Boy, as far as I can tell, looks the same visually.
Since this sounds like a relatively quick play through (and also because I plan on replaying Link's Awakening some time soon and the ties between that and this game sound interesting) I'll be giving the translation a go, probably swapping between a Batocera mini PC plugged into my TV and a TrimUI Brick Hammer that share save states over SyncThing.
Yesterday, I beat The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls for the third time, this time entirely on an original Game Boy with the DMG‑CPU‑07 motherboard for the most authentic experience possible. The Play It Loud! model I used has a punchier sound than earlier revisions and avoids the WAV playback glitch found on DMG‑CPU‑03 and earlier boards, a bug that's easy to hear when using the chiptune tool LSDJ.
The stronger audio helped the game's dramatic fantasy soundtrack stand out more. However, I noticed more popping noises during certain sound effects. That might be because I wasn't using the original cartridge that consumes the least amount of power. Instead of relying on the ironically very quiet stock speaker, I used a cheap pair of Skullcandy earbuds so I could hear the audio clearly.
The unlit screen was another challenge. Compared with something like the Playdate, a normal light source isn't enough to play comfortably. I had to rely on either broad daylight or a very bright ceiling lamp, and even then I needed to hold the system at the right angle.
The DMG screen also uses four shades of green on a layer, which can create a shadowy effect and sometimes makes detailed sprites harder to see. On top of that, the display is recessed quite deeply into the shell, so the bezel itself can cast shadows over the screen and obstruct the view.
I'll be dropping my full impressions on the upcoming Remove Cartridge topic on March 28th. In the meantime, here are some fun facts about The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls!
Dr. Arewo Shitain (also known as Dr. Ivan Knit) made his debut in this game. He was later redesigned as Mad Scienstein for Wario Land 3 and Dr. Mario 64, before returning with his original look in Wario Land 4, where he helps out as a throwable character in puzzle rooms.
In Spring Hill town, if you stand inside Alfred Jinbee's boat shack for about three and a half minutes, a familiar hidden tune will play.
The game's soundtrack was composed by Kazumi Totaka, the same composer behind music for Mario Paint, Yoshi's Story, Luigi's Mansion, several Wii channels, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. She's famous for sneaking her "Totaka's Song" into many of the games she's worked on!
The Nantendo Fun Center bit reminded me of the kind of self-referential left turns that many Ultima games took, and on which some of the Wizardry games were built, both series that I understand were quite influential on the development of Japanese RPGs. While this kind of whimsy continues in a lot of indie titles today, it feels like major games no longer do it, unless developed by someone like Hideo Kojima.
Incredible opening post, J-Chip. I love how you flowed between games we've already played, and added so much context to this intriguing little title. Also, as a huge Link's Awakening fan, I loved the backstory about Richard. I always wondered what was up with that guy.
My gaming ability has been severely diminished as of late, but I've been so inspired by this post that I'd like to at least try getting the game set up. Thanks for including all the relevant instructions, and links to the translation patch and relevant tools. That patching web app looks phenomenal.
I've been thinking about what the target audience for Kaeru no tame ni kane wa naru might have been at the time of release. Would I be far off thinking that this was a game primarily targeted at 10-to-12-year-olds?
This is what I gather based on the trailer, the target audience for Game Boy at least in North America at launch apparently having been 9 to 14 year old boys, and the general straightforwardness of the game and its story.
Would anyone here happen to know more about the development background and designers' intentions?
According to Yoshio Sakamoto's 2000 developer interview and Yasuhiko Fujii in 2007, the game originally began as more of an RPG in the style of The Legend of Zelda, but with a stronger focus on parody and subversion.
However, after receiving harsh feedback from the debugging team, Super Mario Club, and because of its heavy similarities to Nintendo's well-known franchise, the formerly titled Paraparesu (Parody Palace), had its battle system revised three different times.
I quite enjoy the battle system as it turns many screens into light puzzles. If I have already encountered an enemy, I more or less know how many hearts it will take from me, so I can plan how much I want to engage. It's basically a game of resource management. And even when I die, death itself is a non-issue, just a small inconvenience.
It was interesting to read in the Yasuhiko Fujii interview that even he considered the game's title weird.