A Dagger-Throwing Roguelite with a Froggy Twist
It has been a while since I last lost myself in a cheap game from Eastasiasoft, but my dry spell has now come to an end with the release of Dagger Froggy. I wonder if you can guess what the game is about?
Well, if you said that it is bound to be a top down survival game where our hero is a frog, you’d be bang on the money and even possibly a little bit psychic!
The question is, can we keep our little amphibian alive as he attempts to fend off a plethora of foes, or is he likely to pop his little froggy clogs before we know it? Well, the answer is in your hands.
Simple Story, Basic Presentation
Following on from the success of games like Vampire Survivors, the story of the game is somewhat slim. So slim, in fact, that it is completely non-existent: we are a frog, we have a dagger, and we are surrounded by enemies. Can we bring those three things together in some way?
Moving on to the presentation, and as is common in the games from the Eastasiasoft stable, the word to describe how Dagger Froggy looks would be “basic”. Other words would be “simplistic”, “unimaginitive” and finally “workable”. You see, the action is viewed from above, and as we move our frog around the screen, there is barely any animation to be seen, as froggy glides about the place like he’s on roller skates. The enemies that close in on froggy are a pretty strange bunch, ranging from green blobs to one eyed bats that shoot bullets at us.
And frankly, the stages that we fight are also pretty small, only the size of the screen (no scrolling here), delivered via a few biomes, from a grassy field to a desert, with each new biome locked away behind progression through the game.
The dagger that froggy throws is more of a sword, by comparison to the size of the frog, but the title says it is a dagger, so dagger it is.
Sound? There’s a bit, but not much. No tunes to write home about, and the only real sound effects are a bang as the dagger hits home, and a weird noise when we pick the dagger up again. Other than that, there is literally nothing of interest happening in this department. The long and short of it is that the presentation of Dagger Froggy is functional, and nothing more. And this is despite the game being billed as optimised for the X|S series of consoles…
Throw, Retrieve, Survive
Can things get better with the gameplay? Well, we’d best hope so given the showing so far, and here the news is a little bit better. The basic gameplay loop of Dagger Froggy focuses on throwing our dagger, killing an enemy, picking it up again, and then going on a full-out rinse and repeat.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a survival game without upgrades, and luckily they are all present and correct. In fact, there are two basic types of upgrade: the permanent ones that we can unlock with coins picked up in runs, and the ones that we can choose during the run. Starting with the latter, each run has a certain time to survive, which as a default is set at 10 minutes.
There are waves of enemies to take care of, and when you have defeated a complete wave, you can get to choose one of a selection of upgrades. These range from extra hit points to piercing ability, which allows your dagger to pass through more enemies before coming to a stop. There is a good selection of things to choose from, and you can, with a little luck, build your run towards a certain goal, whether that be getting more coins or staying alive for longer.
Permanent Progression and Unlockable Frogs
The second set of upgrades is likewise two fold, and features not only new frogs to unlock (by performing various feats in the game) through to spending the coins we have picked up to get more permanent upgrades, such as more health or speed, even more damage. There are a lot of extra frogs to unlock in Dagger Froggy, and the amount of permanent upgrades means that it will be a long time before you have unlocked everything. You know, very much for the genre…
A Simple Survival Game with a Certain Charm
What you’ll probably want to know though is whether or not the gameplay is strong enough to keep us playing for any decent length of time. And well, it’s complicated. Dagger Froggy is no Vampire Survivors, let’s get that clear right now, but it does have a certain charm. The gameplay loop, while simple, has a nice hook to it; enough to keep you coming back. And it helps that the game doesn’t throw achievements at you willy-nilly, making you actually work for them, which is a nice change.
Simply put, if you are in the mood for a game that doesn’t outstay its welcome and can be picked up and put down easily, you may just have found it in Dagger Froggy.
Important Links
Dagger Froggy is the Latest Vampire Survivors-Like on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch – https://www.thexboxhub.com/dagger-froggy-is-the-latest-vampire-survivors-like-on-xbox-playstation-and-switch/
Buy Dagger Froggy on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/dagger-froggy/9p6qgmxkpw83
