This "Frog-Accurate" RPG Pays Tribute To Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, And More

Welcome back to Remastered. This week, I interviewed the developer of an upcoming retro-inspired indie RPG that proudly calls itself “frog-accurate” and takes a surprising amount of inspiration from Fire Emblem for the Game Boy Advance. 

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Amphibian Aims To Be More Than A Simple Retro Throwback

An indie RPG simply having nice pixel art visuals and taking inspiration from genre classics isn’t quite enough to break out anymore. Nowadays, those kinds of indies need some sort of “it factor” to stand out from the crowd and a sea of similar titles. What is Amphibian from Jarcorp Interactive’s secret weapon? Well, according to developer Greg Alexandropoulos, the upcoming retro-inspired RPG is “frog-centric” and “frog-accurate.”

Debuting last month during the Future Games Show at Gamescom, Amphibian immediately caught my eye when its trailer played. There is a surprisingly rich history of frogs and toads in video games, and Amphibian looks poised to add to that by delivering an entirely frog-driven RPG inspired by series like Final Fantasy, Golden Sun, and Fire Emblem.

During our conversation, I came to understand that Amphibian’s frog-focus isn’t just a gimmick to make an otherwise standard indie RPG distinguishable from its peers. It’s connected to a more grounded, human narrative and serves as the backdrop for bold experiments that break from the standard formula many retro-inspired indie RPGs follow. After speaking to Alexandropoulos, Amphibian is now my most retro-inspired RPG.

Alexandropoulos recalled first getting the idea for Amphibian’s narrative sometime in 2024, when he discovered the French word for frog (grenouille) while speaking with his girlfriend. He then started googling what frogs and toads were called in different languages, like Sapo, Rana, and Kaeru. The names were all so different and distinct-sounding, exactly what you’d want from a party of RPG characters. 

Then, the project became a reality about a year ago following a chance conversation before Alexandropoulos' band Western Education performed at a concert. Amphibian’s technical director, James Roumeliotis, spoke with Alexandropoulos and learned he was interested in working on a video game soundtrack. Thankfully, Alexandropoulos had this frog-based RPG ready to go.

“All of my characters just got named for me,” he recalled thinking. “I just thought to myself, ‘Has there ever been a game where it’s all frogs and toads?’ And the answer is no. And so when you put it all together – the soundtrack, every character’s name is frog, and James and I having that conversation at the concert – we just had to make it. Like, it was all coming together.”

While Frog from Chrono Trigger might be the first amphibian that comes to mind when you think about frogs in video games, Alexandropoulos more immediately name-dropped Jean from Breath of Fire 2 and Slippy Toad from Star Fox. Instead of the toad or frogs being the quirky side character or party member, Jarcorp wants to put them front and center in their RPG. And they want to be respectful to frogs while doing so:

“I think what makes Amphibian unique from a lore perspective is the game is entirely frog-accurate. Every character's name is ‘frog’. All the status ailments are frog illnesses in real life. All the religious elements of the game are frog religions from real life that the characters would pray to or understand as deities. I've taken it all from frog culture of real life. If you look at Amphibian on the surface, it looks like a JRPG, but we're pulling a little bit from puzzles or survival horror games. We're pulling a little bit of math from tactical games, and everything is frog-accurate.”

Alexandropoulos touches on some of Amphibian’s inspirations there. Aesthetically, its most immediate and notable inspirations are the JRPGs of the 90s and 2000s, like the Final Fantasy series. Amphibian is a self-described “Super2D” game, technically built in 3D in the Unity game engine to better support the game’s approach to physics and light platforming, but shown to players as a 2D pixel art game.

Outside of the obvious budget constraints that would direct an indie team toward pixel art, Alexandropoulos still took plenty of inspiration from his memories of retro favorites when designing the look and feel of Amphibian. He recalled being very into the hand-drawn art of Yoshitaka Amano and others from classic Final Fantasy games and their advertisements, as well as the surprisingly detailed facial animation of Fire Emblem for the Game Boy Advance.

He loved how these games blended detailed drawings, pixel art, audio gibberish, and good writing to create something that was not only artistically fulfilling, but allowed players to fill in some of the blanks on their own. 

“A lot of the games that informed my gaming taste were sprite games, pixel art games, but the advertisements for the game were hand-drawn pen and ink. When I think about that stuff, there’s a little bit of whimsy or a little bit of fantasy when the characters are not voiced, and there’s only little chirps or little gibberish, and you almost have to imagine what they would sound like. I feel like pixel art, and this hand-drawn concept kind of lends itself to that art style.”

That leads into Amphibian’s voice-acting, or ribbit-acting. Alexandropoulos and some of his actor friends voiced the ribbits for many of the frogs in-game, which you can briefly hear at the start of the trailer. Alexandropoulos recalled one particularly hilarious session where two of his engaged friends convincingly acted out a ribbit argument between a frog couple in-game. It seems weird yet charming in the style of retro RPGs, so I’m glad Amphibian seems intent on capturing that vibe.

That said, the game will also take those moments of ridiculousness and whimsy and pir them with a surprisingly grounded story. This game doesn’t just have a silly story featuring frogs; it’s about frogs and toads going to war against each other when the pond they live in is affected by a drought. Once again, Alexandropoulos was inspired by Fire Emblem for the Game Boy Advance when writing this story, as that game is a bit more grounded and political than you might think.

“I kind of get made fun of on the development team because I talk about Fire Emblem 7 a lot,” he revealed. “What I love about that game is that there are no mythical creatures. The entire conflict is human-on-human. It also takes place in Europe, but they just don't tell you that. Amphibian doesn't take place in Europe, but I just thought that was so cool about that game…it fascinated me as a kid.” 

The Fire Emblem inspiration doesn’t end there, as remnants of its influence will apparently show up in Amphibian’s gameplay. On the surface, Amphibian looks and functions like your standard Final Fantasy-inspired RPG. You have four party members that can be equipped with different classes, a “four dudes in a line JRPG,” as Alexandropoulos called it. There’s an overworld, but the game plays out in a mostly linear fashion, with Alexandropoulos likening it to the original Golden Sun. Character progression will feel pulled out of a Fire Emblem game, though.

“If I were to get super nerdy with you, Fire Emblem games do something called growth rates. Your speedy character, when they level up, they have a higher percent chance to get a speed stat. That doesn't mean they're going to get it,”  Alexandropoulos explained before revealing how that kind of system was implemented into Amphibian. “And so, what happens is, if a thousand players play Amphibian – I hope for more than that – but if a thousand players play Amphibian, their characters' final stats are all going to be a little bit different because there's a little bit of chance in there.”

Alexandropoulos also reiterated some elements of the game already on its Steam page, like the fact that there will be no buying or selling of items, currency, or grinding in Amphibian. “We want exploration to be valuable, right? Everything you find is an upgrade. Everything you find is a piece of gear, something that is useful...Everything's gonna feel very worthwhile when you explore the levels.” Amphibian intentionally has some built-in friction, as it will only let players save at certain points and won’t let them respec character classes. 

While eschewing genre conventions might seem like it would be very risky or challenging for Jarcorp, Alexandropoulos was very confident about it. He claims that the team hasn’t run into any problems because “we didn’t design the game and then eliminate the grinding.” It was simply “a design pillar of the game” from the start. In fact, he remembers that kind of friction in retro games, the kind where he’d have to bring out pen and paper to jot down notes quite fondly. 

“We don't want it to look dated or feel dated. However, learning stuff is cool, and having to figure things out for yourself is cool,” he added, pointing to the camera as he said it. “And I think it's also the era I grew up in, right? It’s how I learned about games." Alexandropoulos then referenced a recent interaction with his brother that reminded him what kind of RPG Amphibian should be:

"There was a relatively recent RPG – I don't remember what the name of it is – but there was a negative review about the game, and the review said, ‘I played the whole game, and I don't understand what some of the stats do.’ And my brother and I said, ‘Hell yeah! Like, that rocks.’ I want to make sure people understand Amphibian, but it's that kind of stuff. Having to learn it is cool. Figuring it out is cool. Doing a little bit of puzzle and riddle-solving on your own is cool, and that's what we're pulling from.”

While it is still a long ways from release, Amphibian is ribbiting all the right notes. It’s harder than ever for games to stand out, and once they do, it’s harder to hold attention beyond the initial hook or gimmick. A commitment to frog-accuracy might be what gets players in the door to try Amphibian, but if it can also pull off the delicate balancing act of respecting and defying retro RPG genre conventions, we can have something really special here. 

Amphibian is in development for PC and consoles, and its Steam page is already live. 

What's Old Is News

BlizzCon, Rayman Legends Retold's delay, and James Pond

• System 3 has had quite the week. It backtracked on some comments previously made about the lack of generative AI use in its James Pond collection, telling GameSpot that developer Anstream used, “ algorithm-assisted depth and form translation.” 
  • Meanwhile, the company also announced Putty World, a new game in the Putty series, coming to Nintendo Switch 2 next year. 
• Rayman Legends Retold got delayed to December 3.
• Sega revealed Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Edition, a remaster of the fan-favorite strategy game that will launch on October 13.
• The Triple-i Initiative showcase will return on October 8 and will feature reveals related to Dave the Diver, Vampire Survivors, Graveyard Keeper 2, and Katana Zero’s DLC.
• The previously announced remaster of Terranigma received a January 14, 2027 release date.
• Richard Garriott reiterated his intent to reacquire the rights to Ultima, but Time Extension reports that his pro-AI comments have made some Ultima fans uneasy.
• Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection got a Steam demo.
• Square Enix announced that the Dragon Quest franchise has sold over 100 million copies.

No game recommendations or reviews this week, as I spent the weekend attending and covering BlizzCon for Polygon. These are the biggest highlights from that:

• Heroes of the Storm is making a comeback later this month with a new character, Xal’atath. Check out my interview with its lead producer to learn more about how the game returned.
• Diablo 5 was announced for Spring 2029, and an open-world StarCraft shooter was announced for 2030.
  • I participated in a group Q&A for Diablo 5, and learned more about its Dragon Age connection and how it will correct some of Diablo 4’s mistakes.
• Battle.net is adding The Witcher 3 Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077, and crossovers for both those franchises are coming to Blizzard games. I interviewed both CD Projekt Red and Blizzard about those announcements. 
• World of Warcraft Forever was announced and offers an alternative take on World of Warcraft Classic. It’s out on November 4.
• Warcraft 3: Reforged got a massive update to fix many of its issues, and a brand-new World of Warcraft prequel campaign titled Forsaken Kingdom was released for it.

That’s all for Remastered this week. Next week, the plan is to offer you a deeper look at Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection. Subscribe so you don’t miss that, and consider supporting independent games media by contributing to my Ko-fi!