Tabikaeru: Travel Frog vs The Endless Forest
Tabikaeru: Travel Frog
Tabikaeru: Travel Frog is a Japanese simulation game that, in some way, depicts the journeys of an adorable little frog as it travels around Japan. The interesting thing about this game is that you have absolutely no control over what assumingly is your pet frog. It may decide to go on a trip any time it likes, disappearing for hours or even days. It sometimes sends you postcards or photos of the places it went to and the animals it meets, and bring home some gifts when it returns, but sometimes, it does none of those. In some way, you can learn more about your frog through its travels.The game also has a clover garden where you can collect clovers, the virtual currency of the game. You can collect 30 clovers every 3 hours or you can buy more clovers using real cash. Sometimes, your frog will bring home some clovers for you too.
As simple as the game is, it blew up in terms of its popularity at least among East Asian countries mainly because slowly makes the players, especially the 20-somethings, realize that they are actually the wandering frog in this story and that their elderly parents are at home eagerly waiting for their return. After all, in this game, you are put into the role of a parent to some extent - the person who prepares food, tools, and amulets for the travel-obsessed frog whenever it returns home. Also, the game brings the "idle game" genre to a whole new level.
Tabikaeru: Travel Frog is a game that's perfect for players who just don't have a lot of time to play and yet still like to have a very undemanding and interesting virtual pet of sorts... and for any young adults who are working away from home, be sure to visit your parents often! They miss you as much as you miss the frog when it's on its travels.
The Endless Forest
The Endless Forest isn't exactly a game but more of a playable screensaver. When your computer goes to sleep, this program will run and your deer character will then appear in a seemingly endless forest. There's no objective or quests for you to complete here. Instead, you are given total freedom to explore the forest and if you're lucky, you may discover something special along the way.However, this is about to change because the developer behind this screensaver program decided to turn it into a full-blown MMO, allowing players from all over the world interact and play together as deers. There's no chat box in the game and instead, you'll need to learn to communicate as deers do, that is through sound and body movement. There will also be more places for you to explore, besides the endless forest, as well as fun and relaxing activities to do.
You can still download the screensaver version of The Endless Forest is you want to get an idea of what the game would be about - It's completely free, after all, but if you want to play the actual game, you might need to wait a bit since the game's still under development.