Frog Holm

[b]Frog Holm[/b] is marketed as a "cozy mystery," but it's more like a semi-satirical neo-noir starring frogs and a plot so outrageous that you never know whether the next twist will involve generational schizophrenia or zombies. There are no spoilers in this review. [h3]Story + Gameplay[/h3] Filip, a dimwitted frog with what I can only describe as a [i]Disco Elysium[/i]-inspired inner monologue, inherits an island pub and learns that his late uncle's partner has gone [strike]on an alcoholic bender[/strike] missing. There's some light platforming, some exploring, some slot-based inventory management, and you'll also play Tetris to mix drinks for a chain-smoking teenage delinquent. [b]Controls. [/b]Works on X-Box Controller and Keyboard/Mouse. [b]Playtime. [/b]~2-4 hours. [b]Settings/Options. [/b]Fullscreen or windowed, sound sliders, FPS cap. [h3]What Works For Me[/h3] ✅ Does not shy away from dark or adult themes. ✅ Genuinely funny dialogue. I laughed out loud. ✅ Lovely character and level designs. ✅ Noir-inspired cinematography and music! ✅ Bartending is tricky but fun. (Would love an endless mode!) ✅ Read the character journal entries! ✅ I never guessed where the story was going. ✅ Seriously, what even was this plot. [h3]What Doesn't Work For Me[/h3] 🟥 No way to exit inventory if you can't make an item fit. 🟥 Game only saves at the end of levels. 🟥 Shaking a glass should shake ingredients more. 🟥 I did not need a long conversation about wiping. [h3]Final Thoughts + Recommendation[/h3] When I finished the Next Fest demo, I asked out loud, "What did I just play?" Hilariously, I had the exact same reaction upon completing the full game. This isn't a bad thing. I truly enjoyed the ride and want more of whatever this was. [b]Frog Holm[/b] isn't "cozy" in the traditional sense. It ends happily enough and with a poignant message about found family, but the journey there doesn’t just flirt with dark themes -- it actively courts them. Filip struggles with the "call of the void," everyone drinks alcohol (some demo reviewers complained about underage drinking, so please note that 16 is the legal age in the devs' country), and there's… other stuff… but what really got me was Uncle Max. If you or a loved one has ever struggled with substance abuse, there's a short moment that hits [i]hard[/i]. It's also not really a mystery. Filip isn't smart enough to collect clues, and see above notes about the twisty plot. I played it all in one sitting because I needed to know what was happening, but also, I was having so much fun exploring, finding fishing spots, collecting ingredients, and making dragonfly cocktails. I don't recommend this if you're looking for something gentle to sit back and relax with for a long time. However, I [b]loved[/b] this in a strange "WTF is going on" way, and recommend it to anyone else who likes weird self-contained stories, experimental gameplay, and dark jokes. [i]IndieGems and I thank Ostend Games for the review key.[/i] [quote][b]Follow [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45365863/]Eekz Today[/url][/u] for more crafting, life sim, management, strategy, and story-rich recommendations.[/b][/quote] [quote][b]Check out [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url][/u] for more detailed reviews and the best of indie gaming, or subscribe on [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2]YouTube[/url]![/b][/quote]

[quote][b] Frog Holm [/b] is a little odd and quirky but sits comfortably in that cosy zone with a nice story and interesting characters. The experience is very linear, even though you are given some conversation choices sometimes, they don't change anything and you are always driven in one direction. There are small opportunities to explore the few locations you visit, but again these are mostly to pick up ingredients or fishing spots that are achievement based and include using simple platforming mechanics. The main draw of the game is the story and characters so if you enjoy narrative based linear stories and don't mind that the game is about three hours long then you should enjoy your time with this one. [/quote] Filip is a young frog who travels home to take over his Uncle's old family pub and cocktail bar. When he arrives his Uncle is nowhere to be seen and the pub is in a bad state of disrepair. It becomes apparent that your Uncle has gone missing, and although residents were expecting him to return, usually from a drinking binge, this time he has been away for a long time and Filip is worried. Teaming up with the Uncle's daughter you go off in search of your wayward Uncle. I don't know why but I was expecting some managerial game play in this game but there is very little of that. You will need to dust the floor, light the fire, and make drinks, but that is it, and the first two just require a button press to achieve. Making drinks is a bit more complicated and could possibly have you stuck in the game because I didn't see any way of skipping these cocktail making sequences and they weren't particularly easy and required quite a few attempts. You get a grid of coloured shapes as your drink template and you must follow that template to successfully make the drink. You can choose between different shaped and sized objects and can rotate them if needed so that they match the template, and when you're ready you can drop them in the glass. Sometimes, the glass is blocked and you can't drop it in the right place, but you can drop it elsewhere and shake the glass to move pieces. Then some of the pieces are alive and will jump around the glass uncontrollably so sometimes it is a case of waiting for the shapes to bounce in the right positions. It takes a little practice but it doesn't have to be perfect because there is a small allowance for wrongly placed shapes so hopefully you'll be okay but a skip option might have been sensible to include. Other than the mild managerial aspects of running the pub, the rest is purely narrative based with a little exploration and platforming thrown in for good measure, but imagine the game is mostly like a visual novel. There is a lot of dialogue to read but it is very well written and it is done in short bursts as to not fatigue you, plus the previous dialogue still appears on the screen so it is easy to re-read sections if you forget, which I thought was a neat idea. There's quite a lot of comedy in the game and some of the themes are a bit strange which makes it quite unusual and unique but I don't think that's a bad thing. I did lose track of what was going on now and again because you don't always see the characters when dialogues are happening so you have to pay particular attention to who is named before the dialogue starts. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] [quote][h2][b]Frog Holm [/b] is an unusual narrative experience with some whacky characters and a story you're unlikely to have seen before. The game is very linear though so I would treat it like a visual novel or walking sim for an idea of what sort of game play to expect. Three hours is not long to develop characters and create plot lines, and this does tell a little, but the game is very well presented and charming in nature so should satisfy most people. [/h2][/quote] [quote]Thank you for reading my review. If you enjoyed it, please leave a like and follow[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. We also have a [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2][b]YouTube channel[/b][/url] if you would rather see game play footage with reviews. [/quote]

Game is rough still. some features are frustrating and it did not say it was a platformer. I usually steer clear of them because I am bad at it. Drink mixing is very fiddly and not fun. Gathering is not good because you can't exit the backpack unless the item u picked up can fit. If it doesn't, you have to restart the level. Not a fan of that. Gameplay is super linear with not much exploration to be had. 4/10 for me. Thank you for your response, Devs. The platformer tag did not show up for me when I was browsing the game. The issue of the backpack still makes the game a no go for me. Having to restart the level if you try to pick up a plant that doesn't fit is not good. Gathering is a big part of the game. You may want to rethink that mechanic.

Ever dreamed of being a frog running your own pub? Yes? No? Either way, now you actually can. You'll spend your days gathering ingredients, fixing up an old boat, questioning the locals, exchanging words with the narrator, and mixing up drinks at the pub. It's cosy, cute, humorous, the platforming is easy, and the Tetris-like minigames are enjoyable. My favourite thing about the game was hands down the dynamic between Filip and the narrator. Rating: "do you still feel attracted to your mother?" out of 10.

Honestly this was kind of a let down. A cute concept, but it doesn't ever get a chance to go beyond surface level. The tone shifts wildly over the course of the game, from comedy to conspiracy to cosmic horror and back again. It's basically an extremely short walking sim with a couple of platforming sections and some tetris-style puzzles that don't have any narrative relevance lobbed for good measure. Wasn't a massive fan of the toilet humour either tbh.

This game is a little bit like a fever dream and I don't really know what I experienced, but it made me laugh and nearly made me cry! The dialogue makes this game worth it... just meet the captain and you'll understand!

Frogholm is a short, story-driven game about a frog who inherits a pub and has to untangle the happenings of his home islands. Your day consists of following up on events in the story, visiting places, collecting ingredients there, and returning to your place in the evening to open up shop. This is when various characters will visit and order a drink. While the game still has some early-release bugs (some wonky camera angles, here and there a bit of missing polish, and please make the jumping a bit more predictable) I was really blown away by how creative Frog Holm is. I loved the drink-making minigame so much - which is a puzzle where you have to clear a bunch of absurd levels in which you have to stack bees, bugs, flowers and mushrooms in correct, tetris-like orders, while having to deal with the moving parts (the bees and the bugs, namely). Some of the controls are a bit finnicky, but the game tries to do a surpring amount of things for such a small team of developers. The soundtrack and atmosphere give From Holm a really cool feel, the dialogue is really good and the game has such a well-placed sense of humour! I really enjoyed the characters and was curious to see where the game would lead. My one point of criticism here would be that the game was a bit shorter than I thought (though, the game costs as much as a fancy drink at Starbucks, so like, this isn't a criticism in terms of getting my money's worth) but some parts of the story felt resolved rather quickly, where I would have wished for some more breathing room for the characters to act and develop. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun with Frog Holm and it's characters!

Very cute game! I really like the dialogues, I laughed out many times during the intro and I am looking forward to many more funny moments. I love the characters, the artstyle, and the overall indie charme of this gem!

Cozy Vibe, Cozy and beautiful Artstyle, Loveable atmosphere and characters with a lot to explore. I was suprised by the contrast of the fully 3d world and and the 2d Style for the brewing Minigame but everything fits nicely together imo. The Interaction Controls were a little confusing at first but got used to it fairly quickly. Overall a really nice game, especially for those who love frogs (:

Kurzum: Lustiger Humor, bisschen weird, cozy Atmosphäre und Grafik, sehr tolle Musik! Und: niedliche Schnecken zum Looten (ich mag einfach Schnecken 😆) Ich wusste nicht, was mich erwartet. Ich habe die Story noch nicht durch, bin aber gehypet und werde noch weiter erkunden. Der Humor hat mich überrascht, jedoch positiv. Ebenso die erste Wendung der Story. Das Mixen der froschigen Cocktails fühlt sich befriedigend an, manchmal aber auch etwas kompliziert. Dennoch mag ich das Pseudo-Tetris-Setup. Sehr originell und mal etwas Neues. Ein cozy Titel, den ich empfehlen kann!