Toads of the Bayou Review

A stranger had arrived in the bayou, no one spoke to him, and he quietly bought the old shack on Lwas Hill. Suddenly, frogs in the area started going missing and the counsel decided to confront this mysterious stranger. All the toads that went to the shack were greeted with extreme violence and they say the only thing surviving is this story. This mysterious toad is Baron Samedi, an evil spirit of the dead, who has tricked the toads that were looking for a place to live, trapping them in the cursed bayou. The area is overrun with occult forces that drive these amphibians to work together, fighting against the waves of enemies to try to rid the bayou of the corruption that has taken over these lands.

Toads of the Bayou is a tactical deckbuilder game featuring a to-die-for-pixel aesthetic. When you control the camera with the right thumbstick or by moving your mouse, everything that looked flat on the screen almost looks like it is in a shadowbox giving it a really cool layered look. The music channels the feeling of New Orleans Mardi Gras vibes, a combination of jazz mixed with some banjo music. It really is unique and fits in with the overarching feel of the game.

When you start playing the game, you see that there are three different characters; though you can only select The Leader to play as. The others won’t be unlocked until you complete runs. Finish a run with the first toad to unlock The Sister, then when you finish a playthrough with her you can select The Seer. Each of these toads has their own backstory and different abilities. The Leader belongs to an aristocratic family and is the last heir. He gave up his posh lifestyle to rally against Baron Samedi. For his stats, The Leader has four hearts, will gain one barricade for every two enemies that you kill during this turn, and when shooting adjacent enemies will also apply one stun.

Toads in the Bayou starts off at the headquarters for the rebellion located in the Tavern, where the bravest toads in the Bayou make plans to work together and push back against the corruption of Baron Samedi. Here you will also purchase new cards and items to use in your attack against the enemy when you return from battle with important supplies you exchange for assets to use in this roguelike deckbuilder, with tactical turn-based combat.

Baron Samedi is going to battle with Generals: Baron Cimetiere, the guardian of the cemetery, Baronne La Croix, a spirit of the dead and sexuality; and finally Baron Kriminel, known as the first murderer and was sentenced to death. These three spirits will need to be taken down before you gain access to Baron Samedi. These different characters are actually known as other incarnations of our main villain. There are three key islands, each housing one of these three barons to battle against before moving on to the next.

The starting point for each mission begins by viewing the Bayou Map. Your run will begin at Crocodile Bay and you have two tasks: to protect the oil and to kill eight enemies. To take back your home swamp, you will need to engage in tactical fights against the enemy. You will need to complete these objectives to successfully finish your missions and gain your rewards. There are eight locations map for this island that you will need to battle in: Crocodile Bay, Malaria Post, The Mossy Alleys, Mosquito Mansion, Crayfish Rills, The Smelly Shore, Polluted Delta, and the Muddy Banks.

Starting the stage you will see your mission listed in the top right corner, hover over it to see the exact area where you need to go to complete this. Failing to protect objectives will give you curse cards that will be added to your deck. The first thing you will need to do is select a starting position. Make sure to keep your mission objectives in mind when selecting, it won’t be advantageous to be across the stage if you are supposed to guard a special item on the other side. Fighting is turn-based, you get three actions before your turn is over and you have a hand of four cards to select your moves from. Having only four cards kind of sucks, especially if one is a movement card, another is a stat booster for you, and then you only have two attack cards to take down multiple enemies. If your health goes down to zero, you will die and your run is over. Once you complete your objectives in this stage, you can click on Finish Mission to receive your rewards and head back to the tavern to prepare for your next objective.

One of the rewards you receive when the mission is complete is oil, which can be traded to add new cards to your deck. Each card has a different ability and costs a different amount of action points to use. The one I opted for baits the enemy pulling them close to you, allowing you to stab them if they end up adjacent. The best part is that it doesn’t cost anything to use! If you find gold on your journey, it can be used to expand the tavern and the shop so that it offers more than two cards to purchase at a time, or the fold can be used to unlock a traps shop, get more recruits, and unlock a veve shop, all which can be bought individually for the cost of one gold pile.

If you pause the game, you have the option to save and continue, or save and quit. When I tried to do this it didn’t seem to work and wouldn’t let me back out of the game. I ended up using force quit to exit the game, figuring I would just start over again from the beginning. The problem is that I go into the game like normal and select The Leader character but the stage that loads is blank and doesn’t load properly. On the left-hand side where your toad’s profile picture is usually shown, we see a well-dressed amphibian with a suit, bow tie, and moustache displayed five times down that side of the screen. On the top right are three boxes that say “New Text” and you can’t click on anything. To get out of the game, you need to force quit. I figured I would try to uninstall and reinstall but this didn’t help, I went offline so it wouldn’t be able to access the cloud save, but still no luck. I even tried to find a save file on the hard drive for the game and I have nothing, so I guess it never did save in the first place.

At this point, I couldn’t go any further than the fifth stage on the first island on my PC. So I installed the game on the Steam Deck and continued to play handheld. So now I can experience seeing the Game Over screen with its stats telling me how many enemies I killed, how many missions I completed, and the number of cards played, leading to my death.

I am hoping that my experience is just a weird occurrence because I think this title is a lot of fun, especially if you enjoy challenging, tactical deckbuilding games with a unique story. Hopefully there is a patch coming soon that will fix the issues before the game releases. If you are planning on checking it out, be sure to check the patch notes to make sure these issues have been addressed.