Seems that “cosy” is an actual genre these days, and Time on Frog Island pretty much fits in that box – there’s no chance of death, no real time limits (a couple of A-B time trials aside), and seemingly no way to fail.
The story follows you, a sailor who, having lost his wife (her having turned into a plant or something?) has shipwrecked on Frog Island. So called, because of all the frogs wot live there. And a toad. And an axolotl. But mostly frogs.
Your boat is trashed, and in order to repair it you needs parts. However, in order to get parts you need to complete simple tasks for the local residents. Most of these tasks are essentially fetch quests, although because the only dialogue is via icons and images rather than actual text or voice, it’s not always completely clear what is being asked, and some of the “missions” are multi-step. Things are complicated a little by the fact you can only carry one item at a time, some areas of the island are inaccessible until you do certain tasks, and you need to rest each night by building a campfire.
I say complicated but actually, there’s not much in the way of complication here at all. Even the trickiest of puzzles, such that they are, are trivial to “solve”. Really, it’s all about the events and the interactions rather than the quests. Cosy, see.
Once completed, in terms of rebuilding my boat and setting sail, I returned to see if I missed anything. Which, of course, I had. Turns out there’s a whole bit where you can brew potions and gain “frog powers”, like a huge licking tongue (hilariously, if you lick the toad you pass out), a pointless frog jump, and a not very frog-like short-term speed boost. The latter is handy for those timed sections I mentioned earlier, but I’d already finished them by then. Tch. Oh yeah, and you can ask one of the frogs to build you a house, providing you slip him some money. Which you get from selling things, or from planting a money tree.
I think I’m done with it now, as I can’t find anything else to do, and I don’t see myself playing it again, but that isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it or it isn’t worth playing – just don’t expect any challenge or depth.
