Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (カエルの為に鐘は鳴る) is a Japanese-only Game Boy title published in 1992 by Nintendo and developed by Intelligent Systems. The title’s official English translation is “The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls”. For brevity, I’ll be using the title “Frog Game” in this article.
After I finished Link’s Awakening, the Frog Game started popping up everywhere in my digital life. The first occurrence was without my knowledge: some of the characters in Link’s Awakening, Prince Richard and his frogs, are originally from the Frog Game and use the same sprites and music.
While researching what game to play after Link’s Awakening I watched a video by AntDude detailing the history of hand-held Legend of Zelda games. The video starts by mentioning “Frog Game” instead of the actual first Zelda game on the Game Boy: Link’s Awakening. Very intriguing...
After further research I stumbled across a project by Iván Delgado (Bluesky, YouTube) to create a colorization patch for “Frog Game” that appears to still be in progress. I was already a subscriber to Iván’s blog and had previously read their series of posts about colorizing Game Boy games.
Everything I read about the game made me want to play: the game was affordable, short (7 hours to beat), with a light and funny narrative, and had ties to some of my favorite games. I’ve since played Frog Game and I recommend the game as a quick and fun “pocket-sized” adventure.
Playing with English translations
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru was never released outside of Japan and despite multiple re-releases to the 3DS eShop and now Nintendo Classics, there is no official English translation.
I can’t read Japanese, but to experience the dialogue. Luckily for me, there is a fan-created English translation patch from 2011. I would need the actual game ROM to apply the patch.
Japanese title screen for “Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru”
Title screen with the English translation patch applied
I purchased the game cartridge for $10 on eBay and dumped the
ROM using GB Operator. Next I applied the English translation patch (.ips)
using ROM Patcher JS by Marco Bledo.
I loaded the resulting ROM into the Delta Emulator and played exclusively
on this platform (with RetroAchievements enabled).
Beware: There are minor spoilers beyond this point!
References
While game’s title is a reference to “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway, the game’s story definitely isn’t. One of the goals of the protagonists is to repair and ring the “Spring Bell” to break the curse on the princes and their army: transforming them from frogs back into humans.
The developers of Frog Game, Intelligent Systems, also developed my favorite game of all time: “Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door”. Chapter 4 of Paper Mario is titled “For Pigs the Bell Tolls” which is another reference to Hemingway and potentially Frog Game? Chapter 4’s story in Paper Mario has the villain “Doo*liss” ringing the Creepy Steeple bell which transforms the Twilight Town inhabitants one-by-one into pigs.
Frog Game references Nintendo very directly multiple times. During your adventure you visit “Nantendo Inc.” (not a typo!) to talk to the scientists there. One of the “products” you end up needing from Nantendo is a “Mamicon”, likely a reference to the Nintendo Famicom. From just the name alone you will never guess what the Mamicom does, you’ll have to play the game to find out!
Frog Game is referenced in a few other Nintendo games beyond Link’s Awakening, including an Assist Trophy and Single-Player Challenge in Super Smash Bros. Mad Scienstein from Nantendo Inc. cameos in Wario Land 3, Wario Land 4, and Dr. Mario 64.
Gameplay
The rumors about Link’s Awakening sharing an engine with Frog Game likely come from using a mix of top-down and side-scrolling platformer perspectives. Frog Game uses the top-down perspective when exploring the world map or different towns and then switches to side-scrolling when in dungeons or the castle. Folks who have dug into the assembly of both games are fairly sure the two games don’t share an engine, meaning the rumors are unlikely to be true. Still a fun story :)
Despite appearing to be a traditional RPG with stats like Health, Attack, Speed, and the ability to upgrade your equipment, this game does not play like many RPGs. There are no tactics in combat beyond being able to run away from a battle or use an item, which for most of the story is only to heal using Wine. Battles proceed automatically in a cloud of dust and will consistently resolve as either a victory or defeat.
Combat and stats are used to limit progression with difficult “boss enemies” until you’ve discovered or unlocked every new stat upgrade in an area. Stat upgrades are given out similar to any other item: hidden in chests or as a reward for defeating an enemy. You can’t increase your stats on your own using “experience points” or “leveling up” meaning the game is in control of how strong you are.
The “illusion of control” is my favorite design choice of Frog Game, and it goes beyond just combat and items, too. There are many points in the game where, without you even noticing, the game has set you on a “one-way track” where your combat ability, health, and resources are exactly managed to produce an outcome later in the story. It’s fun trying to break the flow and seeing how the game responds!
Factions
The universe of Frog Game has multiple kingdoms and three factions: humans, frogs and snakes.
Frogs are afraid of snakes, as snakes will actively pursue frogs as prey, but frogs and humans are either neutral or friendly towards each other. The antagonist, Lord Delarin, leads the “Croakian Army”, an army of soldiers who are friendly towards frogs but hostile towards humans of other kingdoms and snakes. Humans, frogs, and snakes can only converse with members of their group and this “information asymmetry” is used throughout the story.
Prince Richard, Prince Sablé, and the Custard Kingdom army are all “cursed” by Mandola the witch, transforming them into frogs. Prince Sablé eventually gains the ability to transform into a frog, snake, and human somewhat at-will from Mandola through additional “curses”. These curses end up being instrumental to your success, similar to the “curses” from Black Chests in Paper Mario or Li’l Devils from Link’s Awakening.
Story
The story of Frog Game after the initial few chapters is quite light. You’re trying to accomplish the main goal which is to defeat Delarin and find Princess Tiramisu, but a lot of that happens in the background. The bulk of the story is solving your minute-to-minute troubles caused either by your short-sightedness or the Croakian army. You don’t meet Delarin until the very end and despite a few twists at the end: the Princess does not escape her fate. At the end of the day it’s a Game Boy game, so the expectations of the story are not high.
Wow, you made it to the end!