Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic, known as Frogger Kodai Bunmei no Nazo (フロッガー 古代文明のなぞ, lit. "Frogger: The Mystery of the Ancient Civilization") is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Konami for the Game Boy Advance handheld system. It was released on October 28, 2003.
Plot[]
Frogger is resting lazily in front of his house in Firefly Swamp, bored out of his mind. Wishing for an adventure, a plane comes crashing down, destroying his lawn and nearly killing him. The pilot, an eagle named Griffith, hands Frogger a memo from his grandpa, Dr. Finnius, asking him for help uncovering the last piece of his amazing discovery. Frogger flies with Griffith to the island of Kabohti.
After looking around the town, Frogger meets a fox named Leona. She gives him a keystone and a memo that Dr. Finnius wanted Leona to give to Frogger if he was not there when he got to Kabohti. After reading the memo, it seems that Grandpa is at a Dig Site and that he wanted to give Frogger the keystone for safekeeping. Apparently, the keystone has great powers and is linked to something called an OPART. After reading the memo, Leona tells Frogger that Finnius has been at the Dig Site for two days, and she is worried for him. She gives Frogger the site pass to go look for Finnius.
Once at the Dig Site, Frogger approaches a gate with two one-eyed statues in front. Frogger thinks this is why Grandpa was so excited. Frogger wonders where Grandpa is. Suddenly, an elegantly dressed weasel named Eric Von Viesel arrives with two bodyguards following him. Eric comes up to Frogger already knowing who he is. He knows that he is Finnius's grandson and mocks him for looking like Finnius. Eric elaborates on how this is going to be his discovery and he does not want Frogger to bother him. The bodyguards ask what to do with the statues, but Eric just says to ignore them. The weasel then says that Finnius is probably dead and that he should have cooperated. Eric warns Frogger and leaves. Suddenly, the keystone comes away from Frogger and breaks one of the statues. Its eyeball comes out and goes to Frogger. Frogger goes to Leona to find out what this Round Relic is.
Once at Leona's, she tells Frogger that he found what his Grandpa was looking for. Leona says it must be the OPART. She says go to Dusty's to get it fixed.
(no OPART yet)
Once at Dusty's, Dusty fixes the OPART and charges him for it, but Frogger has no Curio (the game's currency) to pay him. Dusty then has Frogger go in his basement and get his toolbox to repay him for fixing the OPART. Once he gets the toolbox back to Dusty, Frogger goes back to Leona. Leona is so shocked to see a real OPART. She says it has many magical powers. Leona says this OPART can let Frogger jump far. She says Frogger should go to the cave and look for Finnius.
After going through the caves. Frogger finds another memo. Needing a flashlight to go any further, Frogger heads back to Leona. The memo is written in an ancient script and Leona will need time to decode it. She says to go around town to find out a little more about where Finnius might be. After talking to Mohan, the shop merchant (who currently is out of stock) says that he sent Finnius to find some sort of crest at the river. With this in mind, Frogger goes back to Leona to find out what the memo said. It said something about a relic by the river. Leona suggests to ask Atiniui if he can take Frogger to the river on his boat. After going to the river Frogger finds another relic.
Leona tells Frogger to take the relic to Dusty. Once at Dusty's, Dusty adds a new power to the OPART, a flashlight. Going back to the dark part of the cave, Frogger finds another memo. Suddenly a series of earthquakes starts to happen. Frogger goes back to Leona to let her decode the memo. After talking to the town people, Leona gives Frogger the memo. It states that there is another relic in the cave but that he can't get it because of the big, hibernating bear. That's what's causing the earthquakes. The bear is pounding the ground furiously. Once Frogger gets to the cave, he must defeat the giant, mad, bear.
After defeating the bear, Frogger gets another relic. Going to Dusty to get it fixed, Frogger's OPART gets and new part. The Mega Claw. He can pull switches or grab items out of reach.
Going back to Leona to tell her about the Mega Claw, Leona says that she unlocked Finnius's house and that she found another memo, although she first needs time to decode it. After talking to Mohan and learning about a crest deep in the river that maybe Frogger can get for him, Leona has finished decoding the memo. It says something about a desert and having to push many blocks in a pyramid (with the Mega Claw). However, in order to get to the desert, Frogger will need a camel. The only person with a camel is Mohan, he will lend Frogger the camel if Frogger gets the crest at the river. Going to Atiniui to take Frogger to the other part of the river, Frogger finds the Poseidon's Crest and gives it to Mohan. Mohan, using his camel, takes Frogger to the Pyramid.
After going through the Pyramid, Frogger gets another relic. On his way back to Kabohti, Frogger notices a big storm. Leona thinks Mohan is hiding something. After talking to the townsfolk and learning that this is the work of Leviathan, and also that its only weak point is its head, Mohan admits that the crest, while at the river, calmed a giant sea beast. After asking for the crest to go calm Leviathan (at the river), Mohan says he already sold it. Frogger will have to somehow calm it down by other means. Atiniui gives Frogger another ride to another part of the River where Frogger must defeat Leviathan... without the Poseidon's Crest.
After defeating Leviathan with the help of his OPART, Frogger gets a memo that Leviathan ate. Going to Leona, she once again needs time to decode it. Once going to Dusty's to get the OPART upgraded with a Rockbuster, Leona says that Finnius is in Atlantis. She thinks it's just a legend but Frogger thinks otherwise. Atiniui gives Frogger a ride to Atlantis.
Going through Atlantis, Frogger finds another relic by an area of water that has a staircase descending downward. This is what Grandpa must have been talking about in the memo. Frogger wishes he could swim so he could go down (Frogger can't swim).
The next relic gives Frogger the ability to momentarily stop time. Now, Frogger is stuck on his quest. He does not know where he should now look for more clues. Soon enough, Frogger goes to the Pyramid entrance where he notices a sand current leading somewhere toward the east. The current is too fast to travel over, but Frogger uses his OPART to freeze the time to stop the sand from flowing. Frogger quickly crosses the sand and discovers another part of the Pyramid.
Going through the Pyramid, Frogger gets another relic. Dusty installs it and now Frogger's OPART can push blocks. Once outside Dusty's, some ninja squirrels steal Frogger's OPART. Dusty says they are members of the Black Lotus Society. Frogger must go get it back.
After learning that the Black Lotus Society has a hideout in the mountains, Griffith flies to the Northern Ridge where Frogger enters the hideout, desperate to get OPART back.
Frogger enters Eric Von Viesel's mansion, where he finds out Leona and Dr. Finnius have been captured by Eric, thanks to Dusty who reveals he was hoping they would just finish each other off, so then he could collect the OPART data for Eric. Eric then collect the other OPARTS to make the ultimate weapon, and both him and Dusty leave.
Gameplay[]
Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic is an action-adventure game composed of a series of action stages the player has to traverse. The game is structured in a role-playing style (similar to the classic The Legend of Zelda games), where the player first has to carry out a series of simple errands (e.g.: talk to a character, bring an item to a character, use a key item in a specific location, etc.) to further progress the story until the next action stage is unlocked on the World Map.
In the town sections, Frogger can freely move by pressing and holding the directional pad in any of the four cardinal directions (Up, Down, Left, Right, but not diagonally), whereas in the action stages, he can move only one space at at time (much like in the classic games). Action stages are somewhat styled like the earlier games in the series (a recurring aspect seen in other recent Frogger games), where the player has to guide Frogger through a series of paths and platforms full of hazards like pitfalls, hostile fauna and flora, bodies of water and other hazardous materials, etc. Collectible items are frequently found scattered through these levels like Curio coins or bags (the game's currency), health-replenishing fruits, extra Lives (increases one Heart to the HP bar), etc.
A series of key items are collected during the course of the game; of these, the most important ones are the OPARTS, which are ancient relics that when equipped allow Frogger to perform new abilities, many of which are required to make it through certain sections of the action stages, giving these areas a puzzle-like element. OPARTS can be assigned to either the A or B buttons in the Pause Menu, and can be reassigned at anytime as the player requires them. Already completed action stages can be revisited to collect previously unreachable items with the use of advanced OPARTS that were acquired afterward.
Characters[]
- Frogger - Main protagonist.
- Griffith - Kabohti's local pilot.
- Atiniui - Local river guide.
- Mohan - The town's vendor.
- Leona - Dr. Finnius's assistant, aids Frogger during his quest.
- OPART - Mysterious ancient artifact, gives Frogger new abilities.
- Dr. Finnius - Frogger's grandfather.
- Dusty - Tool genius.
- Rudy - Barkeeper, allows to save the game.
- Namdev - The town's librarian.
- Eric Von Viesel - Main antagonist.
- Black Lotus Society Master - Headmaster of the Black Lotus Society.
Bosses[]
Dialogue[]
- Main article: Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic/Script
Gallery[]
Characters[]
References[]
- ↑ Backward compatibility.