Frank and Drake: A Beautiful World Full Of Mystery

 *Note: I received a game code for the Nintendo Switch for the game for my honest review. Thank you to Stride PR and Chorus Worldwide for the game code!

Frank and Drake is an interesting experience. It's a point and click rotoscoped mystery. From the start, I was impressed with the beautiful art style as the story introduces Frank. Just walking down the street, the art really stands out and I was curious to know more about Frank and waiting for Drake to make his appearance.

The rotoscope art looks stunning. 

The game itself lets you know right away that each decision you make doesn't just affect the story's ending, it can also affect what layers of the story you uncover and the relationship between the two characters. It's a unique and complex choose your own adventure visual novel with six different endings. We meet Frank in the story first who is the super in an old apartment building and Frank has amnesia. The building's owner has helped Frank just live a quiet life with his cute two legged dog and helping the neighbors where he can. 

Frank and his cute dog in their apartment.

Things change a bit when Frank gets a note from the building's owner letting him know he's going to be getting a new roommate, Drake. This gives a cool introduction into the puzzle aspects of the game with a puzzle as Frank gets Drake's room ready before he moves in. There's no rush and you can take your time with it. The first one I felt was nice and simple to ease you into things which I like so I wasn't overwhelmed. 

Trying out this puzzle. 

I was already invested in the story with the interesting beginning, but then it added another fascinating layer with how Frank and Drake communicate with post it notes on the fridge. Frank is the daytime character doing things during the day while Drake is nighttime and figuring things out at night. I genuinely loved them both and wanted to know more about them. How did they get there? What were these strange things happening around them? They each offered a unique perspective with their viewpoints as they worked together the best they could with their circumstances. 

Drake walks by a really cool art mural. 

Every time I thought I had the story figured out, it would surprise me with something new and the mystery deepened. The choices you make in the story really matter because they not only affect which ending you get, they can also affect how Frank and Drake interact with the world around them and with each other. The music is great and changes with the characters and the mood of each location they explore. There are various items you can interact with that add more details to their story. The artwork and music complement each other really well which added to the overall story and gameplay.

Some of the puzzles are hit or miss where some took a few minutes for me, a couple were a bit frustrating and took a little longer because it wasn't quite obvious what to do. It didn't sour my like of the game, but I do feel that perhaps there didn't need to be that many because I wanted to keep going with the story. 

Drake was mad at this puzzle. This one was a challenge for me.

The game itself isn't very long. I finished the first playthrough in about four to six hours. The whole point is it's meant to be played multiple times so you can get those six endings and get more answers to the mystery you're exploring. Frank and Drake is a beautiful world full of mystery and I didn't mind playing through again to unlock those secrets. Besides, Frank and Drake are pretty good company. If you appreciate beautiful art, music, interesting stories, and puzzles in a visual novel format then Frank and Drake is worth your time. 

Drake and Frank slowly getting to know each other.

*Frank And Drake are available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, Steam, Playstation, and Xbox

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Nova Lands: Building Fun With Robots

 *Note: I received a free game code for the Nintendo Switch for my honest review of the game. Thank you to Stride PR!

Nova Lands is a cute builder and exploration game. If you liked the game Forager you will like Nova Lands. It definitely gives off Forager vibes, but it also has its own unique style. Nova Lands has a minimal story, but it gives you the gist of what you're supposed to do. You're an explorer on a new planet island and you must expand your base, build machines and factories to craft, and unlock new resources and other islands. You're not alone however, as other capsules with people land who can help you upgrade your inventory space and various other items you use. 

Meeting Armando. 

Unlocking the islands isn't so simple. You have to build a machine that requires certain resources to unlock them. This is beneficial to you as each island has a variety of resources. You also can build robots to help you gather resources. This is an interesting way of integrating automation into your factories and building. You can designate a robot to collect a specific source and have them add it to storage areas. Other robots you can assign to constantly keep the factories running. Each robot has their own job and it definitely helps to make things a bit easier with gathering and building. 

Just keep building with the help of robots. 

The game itself is a bit of grinding, but I didn't really mind because there was always something to do and before I knew it my character had leveled up. With each level up you unlock skill points that you can use to improve abilities, upgrade the machines to work faster, or improve your robots. Some require multiple skill points so at times I found myself waiting until I had enough points to upgrade specific things.

Upgrading skills. 

You can also unlock more things in the research menu if you have the resources to unlock it. There's a ton of things to unlock ranging from better armor to solar panels to add more energy to your factories to having a farm for growing crops. This is where the automation with the robots really shines because it gives you a chance to explore and come back to all the resources you need. It's convenient and helps to get towards end game things a lot quicker. 

All the research things! 

There is also a museum where you can add the various items you find on each island to complete the collection. This is on the encampment island where you can get upgrades for your armor, new outfits, or upgrade your weapons. The museum is great and it also gives you a hint about what resources you might find on the other islands. There are also monster bosses you have to fight and if you're not prepared they can really hurt you. I died pretty badly to one that caught me by surprise, but once I had upgraded some things I was able to come back and take it out pretty quickly. Without giving too much away, you also meet some aliens and they help you on your journey. It adds a really cool twist to things that help move the story along. 

Checking out the museum. 

Nova Lands is a blast to play. I enjoyed puttering around in this bright colorful world with a relaxing music soundtrack. It's easy to lose track of time as you're just building, exploring, and having a good time seeing what each island holds. My only issue is the aiming system with the rifle and the extractor. Sometimes, I would be targeting one thing and then accidentally hit a wild animal and then I would have to run and avoid the other animals coming after me. It's a small thing, but it is definitely something that should be improved so that doesn't happen. Other than that, the game is a good time and having fun building with robots is great. I also love that the game itself leaves things open ended for more updates and additions which I am looking forward to. If you want a fun builder time sink, definitely check out Nova Lands. It's very much worth your time. 

Getting some upgrades. 

*Nova Lands is available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer