Rate That Reaver!: Frongel

[Buster Cannon]

HP: 56 (B), 56 (A), 120 (S)

Overview

(Man, it's been YEARS since the last one...)

Ribbit! Our hopping friend Frongel is the subject of this review!

First seen in the caverns of Manda Island, these amphibian-like reaverbots are found in various sub-ruins throughout Volnutt’s adventures in search of the Mother Lode, most notably in the same ruin that houses the first key. A characteristically unique “ribbit” sound can be heard as they hop through the ruins; often times you’ll get this audio clue before you’ve even made visual contact with them.

There are a few variations of Frongel activity that you’ll run into. The first will hop its way down a corridor in an effort to block your path, often working in pairs. You can’t zigzag past them because they’ll just match your position, and a jump will be met with one of their own. The second variation will sit at the end of a hallway and barricade your path by jumping in front of you if you try to progress past them. The 3rd will simply hop around a room at a slow-but-steady pace and try to ram itself into you. Lastly, if you fail to destroy every Frongel that gets sent out during Bola’s first encounter, he’ll modify the existing ones, causing them to speed after you in an endless chase.

In addition to these different behavior patterns, there are two types of this reaverbot. The regular Frongel come in the standard green color, while Fire Frongel features a red coloration along with a matching flame on top of its head. As one would guess, getting hit by this guy will leave you suffering fire damage, which is the last thing you want to deal with.

Dealing With It

Because the Frongel are often placed as a roadblock (toadblock?) of sorts, you aren’t always given the opportunity to simply slip by and ignore them. The most efficient way to deal with these guys is the trusty Lifter. Because these guys aren’t often alone, you can often take them out quickly by tossing one at another. If you’re looking at special weapons, something like the Homing Missile or Buster Cannon is a great way to knock them off of their feet. Since these guys don’t have much HP, it’s not too much of a chore to even use the buster if you so desire.

The ones that Bola powers up are a bit trickier due to the fact that you have knife-throwing ninja to focus on. Thankfully, you can quickly toss any remaining Frongel at Bola for a quick KO.

Fire Frongel is best dealt with from a distance, as you don’t want to get burned in an effort to pick one up. As a bit of trivia, you can use the Aqua Blaster to put the fire on their heads out, nullifying their ability to give you status. Why you’d have that equipped in Manda Ruins is beyond me (you poor soul), but it’s there. If you DO get burned, the Medicine Bottle is there to get you back on your feet.

Coming in For A Landing

Frongel is a creative design that works really well both visually and in gameplay. The frog theme fits the jungle atmosphere of Manda Ruins quite well, but the design is flexible enough that they don’t look out of place in other parts of the game. They work as an effective obstacle that forces the player to deal with them in a way that isn’t obnoxious; a good trait to have for an early game enemy. Frongel is a solid, all-around reaver that gets an 8/10!

[Fatman X. Jones]

Frongel is the most adorable doofy robot frog. If Capcom wanted to make merchandise of the DASH games, Frongel and Zakobon wouldn't be bad plushies to sell alongside Servbots.

[Dashe]

I was pretty disappointed with Frongel, since it looked like all the design team really did was say, "Let's put a frog in the ruins to really mush the jungle theme in your face!" I wish they'd abstracted them more, enough where you can't really tell so easily what the animal base was.

[UltraViolet64]

Frongel is one of the few Reaverbots I remember kind of distinctly...at least of those exclusive to Legends 2. Probably one of the more mascot-esque Reavers out there. I wouldn't mind having a figure of one - so long as other Reavers got them too.

[Haru]

Haa, I remember being bombarded by them one time and combo'ed. Barely escaped with my life with what little health I had left. xD

[Mikéy]

I personally wasn't expecting them to be able to jump as high as they do, even though that clearly goes against their animal design. It was probably the small hops that threw me off.

I don't think that the fire versions are a very good addition, and think that they probably should have just made a Suppression-status version instead of a Fire-status version. At one point in the ruins the fire-status versions just drop out of the ceiling when you walk too far into a certain room that has Golbesh on the other side, and I've always thought that was completely cheap. I'd probably give them like a 7/10. Undoubtedly, there's room for improvement.

[Buster Cannon]

Oct 9, 2016 14:46:26 GMT -5 Mikéy said:

I don't think that the fire versions are a very good addition, and think that they probably should have just made a Suppression-status version instead of a Fire-status version. At one point in the ruins the fire-status versions just drop out of the ceiling when you walk too far into a certain room that has Golbesh on the other side, and I've always thought that was completely cheap. I'd probably give them like a 7/10. Undoubtedly, there's room for improvement.

Yeah, I know exactly what moment you're talking about. You can kinda see them spawn at the top of the ceiling, but it's certainly a rude awakening if you're just trying to plow your way through. Come to think of it, Legends 2 does this a LOT compared to its predecessor; the game starts establishing the fact that you really have to watch your step in every ruin. It's fine when done in moderation, but there are moments where it comes off as overbearing or obnoxious (see: Shoebafun placement in Saul Kada/Elysium).

Also, completely agree that a suppression-status would work better for these guys. Not just for balance reasons, but it fits the design of the reaver a bit more. A poisonous 'frog' makes sense, but a burning one? Not so much.

[blayze16]

If you lift and then throw the Frongels on Manda Ruins, they will "snap" out of their trance and act like the 3rd (or what I consider normal) variant.