A decade ago, Neko Atsume took the mobile game community by storm. Significantly more relaxing than Pokémon GO and simpler than Bugsnax, this title served as an adorable creature collector where players could attract and collect a variety of cats. The mechanics are simple: offer food, buy toys and furniture, then wait for cats to come over so you can take snapshots of them and receive mementos!
Now, as of June 2024, creature collecting fans (and more specifically frog lovers) can turn their attention towards Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge. Developed by Humble Reeds and published by Armor Game Studios, Kamaeru gives players a cozy experience of decorating and developing a frog sanctuary to attract all sorts of froggies . . . and of course, feed them and take pictures of them!
This game can be played on Steam, PC, the Nintendo Switch, and the Xbox Series X/S.
A cozy creature collector
A young woman named Cleo reunites with her childhood best friend, Axel, after learning that Axel is on a mission to restore the wetlands the two used to visit and play in. Now, the wetlands are barren and lacking biodiversity, harmed by a changing climate. Axel wants to restore the area to its former glory. Simultaneously, the two protagonists decide to develop a frog sanctuary based on their mutual love of frogs. They will be able to retrieve necessary materials from the wetlands in order to foster the growth of the sanctuary.
The story will progress as players complete main objectives and level up their sanctuary. As the plot moves along, new blueprints and abilities will be unlocked and a unique cast of characters will join Axel and Cleo on their mission. Characters include the frog breeder Annabelle, the bug catcher Dylan, the craftswoman Djena, among others. Each person is quite unique in appearance and even personality-wise, which makes the added aid fun and interesting!
Kamaeru is not very deep story-wise, but it does bring necessary attention to wetland conservation and restoration. As someone who lives near wetlands myself, I continuously notice the withering ecosystem around me. Props to the developers for this hands-on advocacy approach!
Gotta catch ’em all
The process of paludiculture is used to restore the wetlands in the game. Players will need to add ponds, reeds, berry bushes, cattails, and more flora to increase the wetlands’ biodiversity and carbon capture. You can harvest these resources to produce foodstuff, like berry jam and lollypops. Sell these goods to receive funds so you can buy more resources as well as furniture and decor for the frog sanctuary.
Players can also catch flies, caterpillars, dragonflies, and other insects from the wetlands. These bugs are used to feed and tame potential frogs that visit your sanctuary. There are over 500 species of frogs in the game for you to befriend! Take snapshots of each new frog and add them to the Frogdex for record keeping.
The more decorations you add to the sanctuary, the greater the chance that frogs will appear. These froggies will quickly blip in and out of view so players have to move quickly to feed and take pictures of them. If you feed a frog four times with their insect of choice, they become “tamed.” Players can manually breed tamed frogs for new color and pattern combinations. You can also name each tamed frog whatever you please!
Fast and furious frogs
The frogs themselves are absolutely adorable, but a huge downside is that they all look the same. Each species has the same body model but may come in pink, green, blue, yellow, or multicolored. There are several different patterns as well, but it all starts blurring together quickly. I wish that there was more diversity with frog appearances, and perhaps more clearly-defined varying species of frog. Due to the repetitiveness, each new frog find was not that exciting.
As stated, the frogs just blip in and out of existence. While this method is quick and efficient for logging new data in the Frogdex, it is a bit too fast. Before I could whip out my camera to take pictures, the new frog was often already gone. Kamaeru could benefit if the frogs lingered just a tad longer. The game is supposed to be cozy and slow-paced, but it becomes overwhelming trying to account for each new frog.
The breeding mechanic of Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is strange. You unlock this ability once an older woman named Anabelle joins the team. The breeding “minigame” operates like a tic-tac-toe Punnett square. Regardless of how methodical you are, Annabelle’s trait placements are so random it is insanely difficult to produce what you want, or produce something new. Most often you will only breed one desired trait, and there will be lots of repeated frog combinations.
Saving the wetlands
Despite being called Kamaeru: A Frog Sanctuary, the biggest focus seems to be on wetland restoration. This is where players will spend most of their time planting and harvesting resources, pulling nettles, catching bugs, making edible goods, and frogs will indeed show up there too lounging around. While the focus is meaningful, it can take away from the actual frog sanctuary aspect of the game. It will take a good amount of time before players can accrue loads of funds and resources to just sit back and casually decorate their sanctuary with furniture, plants, pathways, and fencing. Talking to Djena will allow you to paint certain items different colors as well, so there is room for customization!
Overall, the game operates at a steady, personalized pace. While there is a day and night cycle, in which players can choose to rest overnight, there are no deadlines or cutoffs. You do not have to sleep, and you can do whatever you want when you want. I am unsure of why the day to night cycle even exists–perhaps to give the game a more realistic feel–but I can appreciate the flexibility.
Click for conservation
The game’s UI is rather clunky. To do anything and everything, players have to click, click, click. This can feel a bit unnatural with the computer mouse or with console controls, because it is noticeably less efficient than touchscreen. It feels slow to toggle between the camera, the journal, the editing screen, and the Frogdex. I am compelled to just touch these buttons to move things along faster.
While Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is meant to be simple and cozy, a lot of the time players are just waiting for things to happen. There is also a lot of traveling back and forth between the frog sanctuary and the wetlands, which adds lots of unnecessary loading screen time. Why can’t the two locations be right next to each other? Some events are so quick and random too, like bug and frog spawning, so attempting to achieve certain captures can be tedious and irritating. I am not always quick enough at taking pictures or collecting rarer bugs.
Final thoughts
A huge positive for Kamaeru is its art style. The game has dreamy, sketch-like visuals with anime-ish elements. The characters and the frogs are incredibly cute and charming; the visuals alone are one of the biggest factors that encouraged me to keep playing the game.
Overall, Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is cute, simple, and kind of addicting, though it comes with a poor UI, a plot that becomes stagnated, and ironically . . . a lack of frog diversity.
If you enjoy games like Neko Atsume, are a lover of frogs, or are interested in wetland conservation, Kamaeru offers an enjoyable, adorable, and meaningful experience. One can appreciate the diversity of the characters and the way they interact with each other, as well as learn more about the mechanics of paludiculture and how to raise carbon capture. While there are some features that can be expanded upon, Kamaeru is without a doubt a worthy creature collector title.
