Friendships are very important in a person’s life. Although it is a must for a human being to feel social, friendships can also backfire if not taken care of properly. Ups and downs do occur but people just cannot feel right if there is something that needs to be done about the part where friendships do not work at all. With Frank and Drake, you will be understanding how friendships are seen through people with mental issues and try to empathize with both of these characters.

The story starts with Frank who is just coming back from the chores he had done outside. He lives alone in Oriole City; however, he is expecting a new flatmate to move in soon. He arranges everything in the apartment he lives in, such as taking care of the vandalism, checking if the flats are doing okay, and helping other residents with chores. In some way, he is the errand boy of the apartment. He lives with an amputee dog and takes care of his flat too, albeit the problems with his mental stability cause him to not focus well on basic tasks sometimes.

Frank is an interesting and dynamic character because even if you feel like you do not relate to him, you will understand what he goes through during his daily life. The backstory of Frank is quite a tremendous one, he is trying to remember his true identity after he lost his memory in a tragic accident that happened in the same alleyway he is currently residing in. Through the story, we are trying to uncover what is exactly going on behind the mist of uncertainty. Personality-wise, he is rather calm and understanding as he feels hopeless while trying to uncover his true identity and generally does not want to hurt anybody.

The day his new flatmate was coming, he was doing the usual check-up of the building and surrounding areas of it, and he found a strange letter dropped just for him in the mailbox. Not interested, he decides to check it out later as the work of the apartment is more important. Now that we have control over Frank, we have to talk about the gameplay. In terms of actions, or controllability, a mouse and keyboard are recommended. It plays like a point-and-click game, but what you are supposed to do next is usually hinted at you with distinctive marks on the screen.

When an action can be taken, the line around it shimmers. While this might seem like an odd attempt to make things easier for people who are getting the grasp, it is more convenient as other point-and-click games usually strip everything down to bare-bones and make it frustrating to find the next step. Clicking on the next action does not stop the flow of the game, which is nice because most of the game continues with a monologue that is explanative, in some way, relatable. For example, clicking on the faucet does not play a minute of an unskippable cutscene of the character observing the faucet; we can hear or understand the thoughts of the character.

Now let’s move to the sort of polar opposite of Frank, his new roommate, Drake. Compared to Frank, Drake is more cautious and vulnerable due to the recent passing of his mother and trying to get a hold on of his new life by working, exploring, and trying to move away from his past life, which he ultimately hasn’t spent much time with his mother. Despite the cold relationship between Drake and his mother, his mother cared about him through and through with her pieces of advice on his life. He is an all-around swell guy with lots of nerdy and geeky stuff surrounding his thoughts, and at the same time, he is emotional and still yearns for the emptiness in his newly adopted life.

The game does not exactly tell you why Drake is moving into Frank’s flat, though you are tasked to take the steering wheel to make both of them close friends. That’s right, you control both Frank and Drake, at the same time, make crucial decisions for both of them. According to your choices, their friendship can go from close to distant. Ultimately, the task is to choose the close friends option, but if you are interested in an evil playthrough, you can also have choices that would absolutely make them cross each other. Unfortunately, my first playthrough was trying to understand the current situation with both Frank and Drake, and I made their friendship lower down to the bottom of the ocean.

You might ask if they can sort out their problems face to face if they ever get unreasonable with each other, and that is completely understandable. However, while Frank is up during the mornings and evenings, Drake is up during midnight and early morning. The way this friendship grows better or worse is the sticky notes both Frank and Drake leave on the refrigerator every night and day. You, the player, have to choose a suitable reply for Frank or Drake about what happened during the day or night, and according to your choice, they can either act positively or negatively.

At the end of their day, both Frank and Drake take notes accordingly to what has happened to them or what their actions were. It also acts as a diary to showcase their feelings towards each other and it allows you to prepare your next move or set of actions to make the friendship for better. The notebook is usually where we set our next day’s plan, and that’s when the “choices matter” comes along. Both Frank and Drake set to do some tasks for the next day, but at the same time, they can deviate from their main course and help each other out in a certain way.

For example, at the beginning of the game, Frank gets the letter, and as it turns out, it is an “evil prank”, made by someone unknown. The joke is an orange gas that puts people to sleep and when Drake arrives, he thinks it was a prank made by Frank instead. Of course, depending on your sticky note, you can make Drake believe it was totally an outer source that did it, or by acting nasty, you can make him believe otherwise.

The evil prank is actually a turning point in the story as it makes them hallucinate out-of-this-world experiences that turn out to be true signs of their life. Such as Frank’s memories kicking in, seeing some animals talking back to him- which I think is a side effect of his illness- and so forth. And for Drake, it is mostly seeing strange occurrences and mythical events appearing around him, although we can expect the setting in the Oriole City, something is going extraordinary for them.

Your best buddy while playing the game is obviously going to be a mouse since it is focused on mostly clicking on stuff to find out vital information or choices. A keyboard, however, can sometimes be used to move either Frank or Drake in a certain direction or when they are acquired to do certain, continuous actions. The title includes high amounts of puzzles, though they are only forwarded to you at the end of the day. When choosing one of the two tasks available, its always three distinct drawings appear, showing you what to expect from your day. The third one is always a puzzle that will keep you busy for a while as you are trying to understand what exactly is needed from you.

As we stated earlier, the game has up to 16 different endings, and getting all of them is a bit time-consuming, although this title is very well suited for completionists who tend to finish a title in every possible way. The progression is shown to the player once they make a crucial turn in their playthrough, and it is called a “Tree”, by clicking the pulsating tree, you can see your current roadmap. It basically shows which routes you have taken and whether if it affects Frank and Drake’s outcome at the end of the story.

Frank and Drake, aside from the complex story, has a different art style to offer to players. While most of the backgrounds are hand-drawn, the people are completely traced with some reference points. You might think it is an easy way to settle in with the art style, but in reality, it actually fits well with the overall atmosphere of the game. They move naturally, and their facial responses are actually realistic to the situations they are in, making it more of a life-like experience for the characters.

While we are talking about the art style, we also want to mention how the soundtrack is suited well for the gameplay too. It never gets boring or irritating despite the fact that the songs are on a constant loop. One small detail to note is the songs- and fonts as well- are different when we play either as Frank or Drake. It is obviously to showcase how different their personalities are, and you are reminded of that during your gameplay all the time.

Although it might seem hard to get used to at first sight, Frank and Drake is actually full of story-rich elements and likable characters that encapsulate the player into a flowing story and critical forward-thinking. With important choices, it is totally up to us to bring the story to an end. With more than 16 different endings, Frank and Drake emphasize how a small bit of wrongdoing can cause a lot of trouble or a tiny work of help can turn the world around.

Atilla Turan
Editor, NoobFeed (@burningarrow)