Well that was a cute little adventure.

It was different than I was expecting. I knew The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls was a shorter title, but I think I was expecting a more traditional RPG. Instead, it was a quirky, almost deconstructive game, where it felt like the developers were largely just having fun with it. I'm fine with that! The levity really shined through in all aspects of the design, and made for a light-hearted adventure.

Mostly, I really enjoyed the dialogue. I'd obviously have been completely lost if it wasn't translated, but the writing was hilarious and kept defying my expectations. That's actually pretty impressive for a Game Boy game from 1992.

One of the biggest departures from other RPGS of the era is the combat system. It was largely deterministic, and entirely stat-based. This put most of the game's progression on exploration and discovery rather than player skill. Definitely a unique system, and I enjoyed hunting for and opening chests. If I couldn't beat a boss, I knew immediately I was missing something. It never felt unfair, like having a hidden chest three towns back that would prevent your progress.

I really enjoyed the final boss sequence. My favourite moment was when Richard employed the "Zapp Brannigan" strategy of sending all of his frogs at the enemy, one by one, to be eaten. That kind of forward-thinking strategy is why he's the commander.

The game's puzzles were not heavy-handed, and mostly served as minor road bumps. For example, the famous "Lost Woods" trope was there, but with a literal sign post that told you where to go. The jungle also had a maze-based design, though as far as I could tell, was just trial by error.

I did enjoy a number of the transformation-based puzzles, where swapping between the three forms was required to progress through a room. At times though, it could get a little repetitive, with the solution sometimes being obvious but the game still requiring you to go through the motions. This was especially annoying when running through an area for the second or third time.

On that note, some of the instant deaths felt a little unfair. While a lot of the enemy interactions were obvious or explained, like frogs being able to eat bugs, there were times that it was not so obvious. You'd need to learn by doing, then remember next time that if a frog so much as grazes a bat, it's game over for you. That could be particularly rough when deep into a dungeon, and for that reason I started using save states about midway through the game.

I was glad that the transformation items were so cheap. It made it feels less punishing to lose progress. Money was actually a bit silly in this game, and another way that the developers had fun with the player. Those billions of coins nuts were easy-come, easy-go. Even during regular gameplay, it seemed like I was only ever notoriously rich or in the poor house, with no in-between.

I enjoyed the game! It feels like a cult classic that I didn't know existed. That makes it an excellent CGA pick in my book.

I also didn't realize just how nostalgic I was for the Nantendo Game Boy. The big pixels, limited colour palette, and chirpy sound effects all took me back. The only thing missing was a contrast slider! It made for a cozy experience, and had me wanting to dust off Pokemon Blue or Link's Awakening again.

I really enjoyed this game! It was simple in the best ways, and I imagine a lot of the ideas were great in the era. It's really cool to see a game that so many legends at Nintendo touched. The looney tunes battle mechanics were interesting. Probably could have used a bit more depth, but it worked. The music was great, as was the world design. I also enjoyed the platforming between human, frog, and snake forms. Finally, I loved the expressiveness of the game ("WHAAAAT?").

Playing Link's Awakening right after this really made me appreciate The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls. Suddenly there's color, you can and have to manually attack, there are deeper item pick ups that require learning them rather than allowing you to progress by simply holding them. It clearly built off of this game and did it so well. Besides Prince Richard's cameo, you get the switch from top down to side scrolling once again. Link's Awakening is probably my favorite Game Boy game, so it was really fun to visit its roots and see the context of how that game didn't appear out of thin air.

This was a fun game. Maybe also the first Game Boy game that I have ever completed.

"Interactive storybook" is a good way to describe the game. There wasn't much challenge, even if there were some interesting game mechanics. Midway through I thought that the various mechanics were going to be put together into a puzzle-heavy second half, but that never materialised. With the final boss, I again thought that I would need to put everything I knew together and puzzle my way into victory, but in the end it was basically just a long cutscene with a simple quicktime sequence.

The ending was subversive also in another way. The final, post-credits bit of dialogue puzzled me in its English translation, so I checked out the Japanese original. If I understand correctly, the Prince seeks clarification to the question whether it was Princess Tiramisu who transformed into Mandora, and not Mandora who has actually transformed into Princess Tiramisu. The answer he gets is that there is probably no difference, as the two are the same.

It raises interesting questions about identity, trust, romantic love and sexual interest. Can the Prince live happily ever after, as should be the convention, if he is simultaneously both attracted and repulsed by the woman he is to marry? Can he trust her, knowing now that she has manipulated him through his adventure for her own needs? And, most interestingly, does it indeed actually matter if she is Mandora who transformed into the Princess or the Princess who transformed into Mandora?

It’s a creative little game with plenty of attention to detail both in design and narration. Lots of quirky little jokes and nudges. My main criticism would probably be that the last third of the game felt a little samey and repetitive. It never quite evolved or ramped up to reach a “next level”, whatever that could have been. Still, it absolutely was a fun experience and something that I had never even heard of before CGA. Thank you everyone who voted for this one and huge thanks to @J-Chiptunator for being such a great host (just like everyone else who has hosted CGA — those are some big shoes for me to fill)!

How charming! This was a delight.

The whole ending sequence was surprisingly bold and cinematic for a Game Boy game. I was impressed. I also thought the game had a lot of neat ideas as it progressed, delivered with a lot of character. I can pretty much co-sign on what everybody else has said here about all the game's good parts (especially the music -- it was great!).

I used save states to make the game less punishing (one wrong move and you're back at the hospital), but I also didn't realize that you could actually heal at the hospitals as well. Instead, for most of the game, I was buying wine to heal a few hearts, but because you can only carry one wine, I had to buy->use->buy->use->buy->etc. to get myself to full hearts.

Suffice it to say that this might have entirely negated the frustration I avoided through save states? I was mad when I stumbled into a doctor and he offered to heal me fully more quickly and way cheaper than multiple bottles of wine.

Similar to with Racing Lagoon, I was very impressed with the quality of the translation. I didn't feel like I was playing a fan-translated romhack -- it felt like I was playing the official English release of the game. This might be me waxing too poetic about things, but it feels like fan translations are a beautiful, selfless way of bringing meaningful experiences to more people.

Whoever made this isn't making money off of it (I assume?). They purely did it for the love of the game, and that means that someone like me (who had never even heard of this game before and definitely wouldn't ever have had it not been translated) has the chance to play it and love it.

I often say "we're living in the future" because of stuff like this. It feels especially odd to say that about a 34-year-old monochromatic game with ultra chunky pixels, but it's undeniably the truth! Our future is one where old games can reach audiences even their own developers never could have intended, all because people still care enough about them to not just keep them alive but bring new life to them entirely.

EDIT: I forgot to mention: FROGS FROGS 🐸 FROGS 🐸🐸🐸 FROGS 🐸🐸 FROGS