Frebbventure is a 2D action platformer solo-published by Chris "AlmygrianHero" P, which came out in February of 2023. The game is currently available on Steam
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In the distant future, Earth was invaded by the Empire of Ulcethot... and to be honest, it ain't that bad! Though humanity has been mostly turned into a race of beastmen, Ulcethot has raised a fairly awesome little metropolis, given the residents of Earth a good amount of freedom, and is using all the resources available to him for partying like crazy. One hundred years since the start of his reign, Ulcethot throws an all-nighter party and invites the whole city of Cosmopolis, giving everyone free supplies of his addictive BOOST Fuel soft drink. Everyone loves it.
Almost everyone.
Enter Frebb, our protagonist. A surly, cynical, and sardonic cat-man living in the far-off archipelago of Breezy Heights. When Ulcethot's partying gets too much, Frebb retaliates by interrupting the party with a loud broadcast. Annoyed with Frebb's antics for the last time, Ulcethot sends his right-hand henchwoman Rose Akai to dispose of Frebb once and for all. Narrowly evading a carpet bombing (and with his home in ruins), Frebb sets out to take revenge on Ulcethot and settle the score. Along the way, Frebb gets a few allies, unconvers a vast conspiracy, and ends up going up against powers far worse than "just" an intergalatic overlord.
Gameplay takes the form of a 2D platformer with a simple goal of getting to the end of the stage. The game takes heavy inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, and saturday morning cartoons. Notable is the level of variety on offer. While you can play as base moveset Frebb, he can equip a number of items that radically alter his moveset. Frebb can also be swapped out for one of his companions- Drinn, Roxy, or Dr. Mindstein. Each character has their own completely unique moveset with their own unique items, giving the game a huge amount of variety. Though stages usually last no longer than a few minutes, the game has over fourty levels and almost as many bosses, giving the game a huge amount of content. Also available is a Challenge Mode that allows you to run through multiple stages back to back, and a boss rush unlocked after completing the game.
Frebbventure contains the following tropes:
- Animesque: While initially leaning towards more inspiration from Western Animation, Frebbventure begins to slide hard towards this trope towards the end. Once Demorga and Brunner take the spotlight and the characters start throwing around Kamehame Hadokens, all bets are off.
- Big Bad: Ulcethot begins as this, but by the endgame Rose goes all Dragon Ascendant and starts jockeying for the position. The reveal of her being the Greater-Scope Villain (and eventually, the True Final Boss) cements her as the true main antagonist of the game. She even makes a heavily-corrupted Ulcethot her dragon.
- Big Good: Brunner, the alien warrior, serves as Frebb's strongest ally. He's been locked away by Rose, but if Frebb proves himself to Brunner by completing enough optional challenges, he reveals himself and unlocks a new level in that hub. Once Frebb beats that level, becomes Mr. Exposition for the backstory and promises to help Frebb if he can escape. Unlocking all four of Brunner's levels reveals the final chapter, where he promptly breaks loose from his prison and tears Demorga a new one.
- Bittersweet Ending: The true ending. Rose and Ulcethot are defeated, but at the cost of Dr. Mindstein's life. Frebb, Roxy and Drinn quietly split off from each other, and Roxy in particular is last seen crying at Mindstein's grave. Frebb retires to the Yonderlands with Anabelle, explaining that he simply wants to live out the rest of his days at peace.
- Cerebus Syndrome:
- Things get pretty dire by the endgame. What starts as a personal vendetta with comedic leanings slowly grows more and more serious as Frebb's adventure continues. By the time Frebb and Drinn have reached Ulcethot's base in the Dormant Kingdom, Frebb has even resolved to kill Ulcethot, having decided that he's too evil to let live.
- Things get even more dire in the final chapter, where Frebb has to stop, in order: Rose from devouring an entire city with her Minus Prison, Ulcethot from blowing up Breezy Heights with a Wave-Motion Gun, Rose again from devouring the planet, and then Rose one final time from ascending into a full-blown Eldritch Abomination.
- Character Development: Two major characters develop over the course of the game- Frebb and Rose.
- While Frebb never really loses his edge, he does become a lot kinder and more empathetic. He also gains a sense of responsibility, as he realizes that Ulcethot cannot be left to reign unchecked, and changes his quest from flattening the emperor for kicks to stopping him for good. During the finale, Frebb comes to freely admit that the reason he hates Rose so much is that she denies responsibility for what she really wants, and that for all her posturing of higher purpose, she's really just a power-hungry brat.
- Rose begins the game a snooty and self-obsessed celebrity, but slowly gains a genuine hatred of Frebb as he evades capture. She comes to see him as a Worthy Opponent who she can test her power against, but also comes to be envious of his strength. With the reveal of her being an ancient sorceress, she casts aside her dignity and desperately begins looking for ways to regain her old power. Continual losses against Frebb, even after consuming her sisters and powering up beyond all compare drive her to the brink of sanity, and she goes careening into the abyss once she gets her hands on Ulcethot's Xell stronghold on the moon. She throws aside her pride and consumes the Xell, mutating into a horrific abomination that Frebb must put down before she consumes the Earth.
- The Dragon: Rose Akai, who serves as Frebb's most consistent opponent. The two of them build a rivalry that extends throughout the entire game, with the two growing to mutually hate each other. Rose is eventually revealed to be the reason Ulcethot even found the planet, having called him down in an attempt absorb him and grow even stronger. She tries to pull a Dragon Ascendant, but is struck down, and from then on goes completely insane and feeds her lust for power. Then she finds a huge supply of Xell, absorbs it all, transforms into a horrific abomination, and becomes the True Final Boss.
- Foreshadowing: A ton.
- It's mentioned multiple times that Frebb is unusually resilient, and at one point he is even blown up with an explosion point-blank. A scan of Frebb's body by Dr. Doomkompf reveals that he has no bones, a muscle layer made of sand-like tissue, and a nucleus for a brain covered in an ultra-dense material that is functionally unbreakable.
- While Frebb seems to really dislike Ulcethot, he outright hates Rose for reasons that are unclear. Later, it's revealed that this is because while Ulcethot is an evil jerk, he doesn't pretend to be anything less and is determined to get his way, which Frebb can respect. Meanwhile, Rose says that she's the hero of Ulcethot's empire, but is smart enough to realize that isn't the case and is clearly in it for her own pride. This animosity is eventually revealed to be the source of Frebb's power- his Xell powers increase in response righteous indignation, which hypocrites like Rose set off in spades.
- While travelling through the bowels of the Akai Castle, Frebb travels through an odd dimension of strange, multicoloured beings. These beings are also summoned by Majo Akai during her boss battle. During the endgame, these are revealed to be interdimensional monsters attracted to negative Xell.
- Funny Animals: Pretty much the entire population of Earth has been transformed into beastmen, a form of animal-human hybrid. This includes catmen, deermen, possummen, and even anteatermen. Late game story cutscenes reveal this is the doing of Ulcethot, with the implication he mostly did so for a laugh. The reveal that he was splicing his own DNA into the population does raise the implication this may have been done for experimentation with Xell. As well, Rose was around as a kitsune before Ulcethot even came to Earth, raising further questions as to whether or not this was due to genetic experimentation after all.
- Sequel Hook:
- While most of Ulcethot's empire is destroyed, Dr. Doomkompf is still out there somewhere. Similarly, Ulcethot's death means the imminent collapse of his empire, setting up for a potential power struggle in the future.
- During the finale, one of Ulcethot's goons mentions that "Xell entities" exist out in space, and have been known to force back the empire's advance single-handedly. This means that space is quite literally roaming with Eldritch Abominations, of which Rose very nearly becomes.
- While we get a pretty good idea of who the genetic donors are, Frebb's parentage is still left unknown. The narrative heavily hints that Ulcethot is his genetic father, but the reasons behind Ulcethot donating his DNA to a seemingly random cat woman are left unsaid.
- The story ends with Frebb going off to meet Anabelle and assist in the reinforcement of the Yonderlands since Cosmopolis is sure to degrade into urban chaos with no leaders. Frebb resolves to stop this if it happens. Similarly, Brunner stays behind to train the Raindeer in the art of Xell martial arts, which includes Drinn.
