Quick Review: Fred3ric

Chopin, my beloved! It’s been far too long! ...That came out wrong.

Made by Forever Entertainment S.A. and released on September 21st, 2020, Fred3ric is the third chapter of the zany adventures of Frederic Chopin, brought back from the dead to, uh, save the world or something with his incredible piano skills?

This quirky music game does not diverge from the concept its previous two entries had: You play your keyboard like a piano, using seven keys. This is a Guitar Hero simile, you play along to the notes that come down. They’re helpfully split into four white keys and three black keys, alternating, and the notes come down white or black depending on where they’re falling, which can help a player recognize them and press them in time. Added to this are some “battle” mechanics where you can beat the opponent by outperforming them musically, and extra elements to use during play to rack up higher scores and get more of a edge.

That's not a lot of notes... yet.

"And drop the anime hair, it's not serious on a composer.
Get a powdered wig or something."

Once more, the plot is silly; after he defeated the final boss from the previous game, Frederic Chopin was ready to move on and keep being musically awesome, but the machine his enemy was using turned out to be a time-traveling robot named Zeitgeist with the ability to “cyberize” people. It steals Chopin’s heart (again), taking away most of his newfound powers and forcing him to look for it once more. Worse even, the Timelord Robot realized it can only defeat Chopin by pitting him against opponents of similar skill; and therefore, it travels back in time to pluck famous composers from their time, cyberize them (ridiculously so, of course), then send them to duel Chopin, with only our hero’s skill able to return them to normal upon defeat.

Johann Sebastian Bachctopus

Why, yes, that IS Ludwig Van Beethoven.
The ear things gave that away, didn't they?

The first game revisited famous pieces of Chopin’s repertoire in new genres (shout-out to the Funeral March as a peppy country-like tune). The second focused on parodies of popular artists of the past few decades, like Freddie Mercury or KISS, with original “style parody”-type songs. The levels in Fred3ric are medleys of pieces from the composers we fight, as well as being modern arrangements of these tracks. These are once more highlights; the soundtrack here kicks ass. Unfortunately, those songs aren’t available for purchase. I'd buy the Hell outta that. (The game's songs being handed out for free with the Director’s Cut of “Resurrection of Music” was a highlight.)

The background animation is occasionally distracting.
At least it's fun to look at.

All fine and good, but. For one, this game is very short; you can beat it easily in under an hour, even if you fail once or twice on the way. In Normal Mode, the levels overall felt very easy, simplistic even, barely a struggle; I finished something like 8 out of 9 levels on my first try. (Yes, the Harder difficulty is a lot trickier.) Also, yeah – 9, that’s not much. It’s eight famous composers (Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig von Beethoven, Edvard Grieg, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Prokofiev, Erik Satie, Johann Strauss II and Antonio Vivaldi), topped by a final battle with Zeitgeist. That’s not me listing them in alphabetical order for simplicity; their levels are also played in that exact order in the game. I personally think it would have been more interesting to battle them starting with those that fewer people know (Grieg, Satie, etc.) and rise to the big hitters (Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven).

I mean, Moonlight Sonata Third Movement? That's final boss music right there. That was speed metal before speed metal existed.

Now playing against Mozart, who's not really used
to his newfound height, courtesy of robotic legs.

Y'know, I'm glad Forever Entertainment went for the more
famous songs from each composer, and not their most
intense moments, like the ones in this video. Or this game
would be really, really tough.

We once again get little scenes before each level, but they’re cut very short, only showing the composer of the day get cyberized. The previous games were criticized for their use of stereotype comedy, and there may have been an attempt at avoiding that by keeping cutscenes minimal. (There are still references to each composer’s land of origin in their levels, though.) The lack of focus on a story does show. The lack of any extra modes to take on, as well. On the plus side, we still do have Normal and Hard difficulties, but there doesn’t seem to be anything beyond that; we’re even missing the “harder than hard” Chopin difficulty from its predecessors! Fred3ric suffers greatly from its lack of content.

I’ll admit that I love the idea behind this one, but it’s much weaker than “Resurrection of Music” or “Evil Strikes Back”. Only get at full price if you already greatly enjoy the first two, otherwise wait for a sale or skip it.

If there’s ever a 4th? Here’s my idea: Famous modern-day pianists/keyboardists. Not necessarily ones still alive in 2024, but any that are well-known on their own (Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles) or from being in famous bands (Richard Wright, Rick Wakeman, Jordan Rudess, Tony Banks, Jon Lord, etc.)

Fred3ric is available on Steam currently for 0.99$ USD, at 90% off due to the Steam Summer Sale - best time to get it!