At PAX East 2024, I sat down with some folks at Armor Games Studios to give their upcoming cozy farming sim, Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge, a try. I love frogs, and I was very excited when I saw the press release. It was the first game I signed up to play. From different biomes to different frog types, I think the game has a lot of potential. That said, while there are a lot of pros to say about the game, there are also cons as well.
A look into the world of Kamaeru
There were a lot of things about Kamaeru I was really impressed with. Let’s start off with some of my favorite things about Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge.
Fantastic Frog Furniture
The game is adorable, the graphics are cozy and fitting of the genre, and the furniture was squee-worthy. The frog chair, clearly inspired from the Froggy Chair of Animal Crossing fame (infamy), as well as other frog-themed and biome appropriate furniture, are especially cute.
Many Biomes to Explore
I loved the different biomes, to which there are three of. I liked that each biome had varying humans and different plants that you could use for crafting too. The main menus were also well-designed and fit into the world of Kamaeru seamlessly.
Minigame Mishaps
One small note is that the minigames to make the recipes could have been better. I didn’t find them very fun, as it was often not clear where to click. Also, the game defaulted to using all of your resources to make as many of said item as you could, rather than starting with one and choosing to make more if you wanted. I made the wrong amount several times during my brief playthrough.
But with help from the Armor Games Studios staff, I was able to figure it out. For the minigames, with a few small tweaks to the interface (like number scale so you can decide how many of that item you want to create, and highlighting the different parts of the machine to use next) those issues would be fixed, and the minigames would probably be just as nice as the aforementioned elements.
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The Frog Dilemma
Seeing the frogs play in different biomes and breeding my first frog were both wonderful experiences. I liked mixing and matching the patterns, and the little game you play to pass on certain genes. I loved getting nice colors on my frog and naming him. At this point, I was having a lot of fun.
But that fun felt short-lived when I began to ask questions. Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is impressive when it comes to its biomes, people, dialogue, landscapes, and world-building, but it falls short on what should be the hero of the game: the frogs.
All Around Me Are Familiar Faces
If you make a game about frogs, but every frog has the same face, shape, and personality, you aren’t really collecting frogs in the game, you’re collecting colors. Which, may be fine for some people, but that wasn’t what I was expecting going in.
Every frog having the exact same face, body, and personality left them feeling like an underserved aspect of the game, and they’re supposed to be the namesake. I would have rather had diverse personalities, shapes, faces, sizes, etc. of frog than more than one biome, or more than one minigame, or a plethora of furniture. The frog is very, very cute, but at the end of the day, it’s just one frog reskinned over and over again.
Compare and Contrast
The team there told me that they were inspired by games like Neko Atsume. While I’m not saying that Kamaeru has to be the same game, I would have loved for the frogs to be as unique as the cats in Neko Atsume were.
Where are our rare frogs? Tiny frogs? Chubby frogs? Sleepy frogs? Bashful frogs? Mischievous frogs? I would be playing this game day one if they had given the frogs more personality.
I talked to another person after PAX East who had taken a look at the game as well, and they said the same thing I did. They were drawn to the game at first, but disappointed that all of the frogs were the same.
Final Thoughts on Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge
Overall, Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge has a lot of potential. If they ever update the game to make the frogs more interesting, I will absolutely be playing, and I hope they do. In fact, if they do, I could see myself becoming one of the game’s biggest cheerleaders. But until then, while I enjoyed my little trip to the pond, it was more of a day trip than an extended stay.
Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is currently featured in Steam Farming Fest, which is going on until until May 6. The game will release later this year.
