When you played Link's Awakening on your black and white Gameboy (Don't tell me you didn't – I'll cry.) you may have wandered into a house with a bunch of frogs and a man named Richard inside. Did that make no sense to you? Were you wondering why the music changed to a track that was only found in that house? Well Richard, the frogs and that song are all from a little game never released in the West which is known as For the Frog the Bell Tolls. And it's coming to the eShop in Japan on September 5.

Released twenty years and a day prior to its upcoming eShop debut, For the Frog the Bell Tolls is essentially the predecessor to Link's Awakening. The main difference is the game plays more like a platforming RPG with (slightly) Ys style bump and fight automated turn based battles. Not exactly Zelda gameplay but taking a look at it makes it easy to see how one led to the other. Plus, it explains those side scrolling segments in Link's Awakening which were much more expansive than we had seen in top down Zelda games prior.

The story tells of a young Prince Sabure who is trying to rescue Princess Tiramisu before his rival, the aforementioned Prince Richard, does. As the prince traverses Mille-Feuille Kingdom he'll have to deal with being turned into a frog and a snake and use the unique characteristics of each form to proceed through his quest.

Interested? If you own a Japanese 3DS (and have some Japanese language ability) this is an absolute must play. It will release September 5th for ¥400 along with Blaster Master at ¥500.

Here's Nintendo's page (in Japanese) for the Gameboy game. Don't you just love the art?

(via Siliconera)