Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales

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Platform: DS Release Date: 2007 Players: 1-4 Wifi Connection Game

The chocobo has been a staple in the Final Fantasy series. Every Final Fantasy game has to have 3 things: Cid in some way shape or form, an airship (usually associated with Cid), and a fluffy yellow chocobo to ride. The chocobo spin offs come out sparingly to little awareness, but deserve at least a look from any gamer.

Chocobo tales begins with all the chocobos of the small village gathered to hear a story from the white mage, Shirma. The chocobos of all shapes, colors, and sizes listen in to "The Adamantoise and the Cactuar", essentially a spruced up version of the old Hare and the Tortoise. Just as it was about to begin Croma, the black mage, interrupts to show off a new book he found. Turns out the book isn't so much of great discovery as it starts to come alive and capture all the chocobos, except the main character of course. The book, Bebuzzu, then takes off to find the four crystals to restore his former power.

Chocobo Tales is a minigame collection when boiled down to the very bottom. The 4 crystals that must be collected in vintage Final Fantasy fashion are hidden in areas initially unreachable. By discovering pop-up books around the area and completing the challenges inside the path will open up. The pop-up books are all Square Enix styled version of fables such as "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and "Little Red Riding Hood". Throughout the game enemies will block the way and can be engaged in card battles. Just the thought of card battles brings up bad images of memorizing complicated rules, but the card battles in Chocobo Tales are surprisingly simple. Each card has four colors on them with an attack, defend, or blank icon on them. By setting down a card that can attack your opponent's weak spot, then they lose part of their health. For example, if the red quadrant on your card has an attack icon and your opponent's card has nothing there then you get a free swipe at them. But if there is a shield there then no damage is done, and only half damage is done if there is an attack icon blocking that spot.

An example of when your opponent defends.

The card battles at first are amazing but at the end tend to stretch out their welcoming. There is almost no reason to edit the deck after a while, and all the new cards obtained from doing the minigames seem to just be repeating themselves. The card battles also bring up issues that were complained about in Final Fantasy VIII, summons that cannot be skipped! The elaborate attacks and flashy animations look amazing, but there is no way to skip them and go on with the battle. Thankfully the card battles aren't as often as random battles and only about a dozen matches are fought throughout the game. That said the card battles' frantic pace and random draws add some excitement and depth to a game that would other wise only be a bunch of minigames.

Back to the minigames, the pop-up books are usually simple games using the stylus to drag/poke/draw something on the screen. There are 16 minigames and are a bit of a hit/miss scenario. The leaf leaping titan and the beanstalk makes great use of the touch screen as you draw leaves to bounce higher and higher. Shiva and Ifrit star in their own minigame and you have to drag your chocobo out of the way of fire and ice to collect fruit. The boy who cried leviathan, however, is an example of one of the most infuriating minigames on the cartridge. In it, a huge leviathan is trying to eat the chocobos and in order to escape you must slide the stylus to swim up and release to fall down. There is a noticeable delay in the reaction to your sliding and failure after failure results from this. There are also microgames that are shorter and optional for unlocking the hidden cards. These aren't really that noteworthy and are just simple games like memory and chicken but with a Final Fantasy twist.

The strange thing about Chocobo Tales is that as mediocre of a concept the game has (yet another minigame collection on the DS!), the presentation and personality makes the game fun and worthwhile. The crayola style graphics in the pop-up books and card battles are outstanding and unbelievable on the seemingly weak DS. The game uses the framework of the Final Fantasy III remake to produce 3d visuals that fit in with Square's standards. The music in the game is filled with remixes of classic Final Fantasy tunes throughout the series's history. The chocobo theme, although the theme of the game, has a little too much play time and starts to become somewhat annoying near the end. Fans of the Final Fantasy games will be pleased with all the service this game caters out to them.

Closing Comments

Chocobo Tales is an odd game to summarize. The game is clearly something that DS owners suffered through during the minigame filled first year of the system, yet the card battles and personality of the game seperates it from those lowly games. The biggest issue with Chocobo Tales is that if it was shortened up and ended around the 7-8 hour mark instead of 10-15 hours, it would have been so much better. The minigames, card battles, and exploring are all fun at first but the game just repeats the basic gameplay too much. The Final Fantasy fan service makes the game worthwhile for the fans, but anyone who doesn't know a chocobo from a cactuar should think before picking this game up.

Gameplay: 7/10 Graphics: 9/10 Audio: 8/10 Replay Value: 6/10 Overall: 7/10

Pros: -Loads of fan service -Classic FF music -Great art style -Card battles

Cons: -Stretched too thin -Uneven difficulty -No need to edit your deck -Minigame collection