Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon

"A heartwarming dungeon-crawler that is just waiting to be discovered"

If you're familiar with dungeon-crawlers, then you're no stranger to dark dungeons, narrow passageways, hidden traps, tenacious enemies, and treasures. This is what to expect from Square Enix's latest entry in the roguelike genre. If you've played the PSX's Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon(s), then you'll feel at home with this new title, though not directly part of the series. Although not a traditional RPG per se, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon is a welcomed addition to the Wii's meager RPG library. This is not Square Enix's best work either, but regardless, it's a good appetizer in between other bigger games.

Lost in time...

Chocobo's Dungeon's cute and cuddly presentation is rather misleading. It's not an overly difficult game, in fact it's very easy for a roguelike, but it can be very challenging for players who are not used to the genre. Experienced players will breeze through it, but the game is a tad too frustrating for young players, even though the game's style seems to be aimed at kids. Everything, from the bubbly characters, themes of friendship and forgiveness, Chocobo's adorable chirps and facial expressions, the colorful environments, cheerful music and heartwarming interactions, seems to be intended for fans of cute games. If you think you can handle all this cuteness, then Chocobo's Dungeon is a fun, lighthearted game.

The story starts with Cid and Chocobo, treasure hunters. While looking for a precious object in the middle of the desert, they are transported to a mysteriously peaceful town known as LosTime. At the sound of the town's clock, the villagers slowly lose their memories. That's where the duo meets White Mage Shirma, who rescues them from the bell. That night, they find an egg from the sky, and a mysterious boy emerges from it. For some reason, they know his name is Raffaello, but they cannot remember why they do, and who he is. With his help, Chocobo can enter people's mind to retrieve their lost memories. The mystery still remains, however - who is the boy, what happened to the town, and why don't the villagers want to remember the past?

Dungeon-crawling 101

That's where the dungeon-crawling comes into play. Borrowing from the DS game Chocobo Tales, you'll recognize the characters, environments, and overall atmosphere. Going around town, your goal as Chocobo is to find villagers to help, enter their minds, and recover their memories. Their "minds" are presented under the shape of dungeons, all ranging from as little as 5 Floors to as much as 40 Floors, and even 100 Floors. As in other games of the genre, you'll need to trek through each floor looking for the stairs to the next, battling enemies and picking up items on the way. The fighting is very basic - everything works on a grid, so if you take one step, the enemy will too. Enemies won't move if you don't move. Seen that way, you could say it's turn-based as you and the enemies take turns, but the presentation is more real-time, with a simple press of the A button to attack. Since all you do is press A over and over to fight, it does get kind of repetitive after a while, but most battles are quick and never really hinder the exploration.

Technically, it'd be easy to see Chocobo's Dungeon as very monotonous as a whole, but that's the whole point of a dungeon-crawler, and those who are used to the genre won't mind the lack of variety in the action. Others might unfortunately get bored of it. What doesn't help is that the game's 30 dungeons all look the same. The dungeons all offer the same background, which comes in three different shades of color. The floors are randomly generated, so the layouts will never be the same, but the fact that all the dungeons use the same pattern is very redundant. The only dungeons that fortunately look different are the four main dungeons of the game, which are themed based on the fire, water, light and darkness elements. Those are a nice change of sceneries, but it's too bad the game doesn't have more of these.

The only other thing that makes the dungeons different from one another is that some of the optional ones are dungeons with special rules. In these, you cannot bring any of your equipment, and don't earn any EXP. They all have different rules such as being at Level 1, having only 1 HP, being afflicted with blindness, or being surrounded by bosses, and many others. Although some of these dungeons are incredibly hard, they add much needed challenge to the game and are actually the ones that feel the most rewarding once you succeed. Since all you do in the other dungeons is walk around over and over, the special dungeons are nice to do in between. Even though Chocobo's Dungeon is more like a children version of a roguelike, the game is still unforgiving. If you die in a dungeon (and this will happen a lot), you lose everything you were carrying on you, money and items. However, you do get to keep EXP, level, equipped gear and whatever you have stored at the town's storage place.

As you walk through the dungeons, you'll need to keep an eye on your food level, which will slowly decrease. You can restore it with items, otherwise your HP will slowly be sapped if you fail to. Many other traps will also get in your way, some bad, some good. So far, standard. There isn't really anything special that stands out in the game as a roguelike, aside from the cuteness, the only interesting aspect being the job system. Final Fantasy fans should be familiar with this system, which allows you to choose from ten different classes, namely White Mage, Black Mage, Ninja, Thief, Dancer, Knight, Dragoon, Scholar and Dark Knight. Each has different stats and spells, and level-up separately. It's up to you to level-up the jobs you like the best. The job system really adds a little touch to the game as Chocobo dresses differently depending on its class.

Harvesting spare time

Outside the dungeons, and here and there during the quest, you'll be watching a good number of cutscenes, which are always a welcomed distraction from the dungeon-crawling. Even though the storyline is a bit cheesy and some characters annoyingly sweet, it actually helps the game a lot by keeping a goal in mind that keeps you going and coming back everytime. Sure it's cheesy, but some of the scenes are pretty good for such an innocent game and the turns it sometimes takes are surprising. There isn't that much to do outside the dungeons when you're not following the storyline, but the game does a great job of balancing out the time you spend in dungeons and the time you spend in town so it never gets too claustrophobic.

Some of the things to do in town include fishing and gardening, though neither of the two go as far as something like Harvest Moon. They are simply there as little side extras to do when you're bored or need some items to sell for money. There's also some exploration to do around town to find hidden secret letters and a place where you can play a few mini-games using the Wiimote. One of them is the Pop-Up Duel, which fans of Chocobo Tales will immediately recognize as it was kept intact and plays out just like in the DS game. The card game can be played online via WiFi or you can play alone against the computer. There is a total of 133 cards to find during your playthrough, from enemy drops and other requirements. Since the Pop-Up Duel isn't part of the main quest but simply a side mini-game, it doesn't really feel as compelling as on DS, but it's still something nice to have there when you're tired of the dungeons.

Unfortunately, the town is rather small once you're doing looking around, and could have been a lot more interactive. There aren't enough villagers to make it feel lively, so it feels like a barren place. The town has a few buildings, houses and shops, a church and a forge, but that's about it. Fishing and gardening is only a matter of a few seconds between each dungeon. You'll spend more time managing your items in the storage and trying to get the best equipment possible. At the forge, you'll be able to fuse gear together to obtain more powerful ones, hone them, and assign seals which have various effects, like increasing elemental attributes, protecting from some afflictions, or boosting your stats. Since most equipment only have a limited number of slots available for seals, you'll need to choose the best to keep so you can get rid of less important ones.

A forgetful fantasy

Chocobo's Dungeon isn't Square Enix's prettiest work, but it does feature a few beautifully animated CGI scenes and summons. The in-game graphics are quite so-so for a SE title, however. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on Gamecube was not quite as crisp and sharp, but it looked a lot better and had more awe. Not that Chocobo's Dungeon doesn't look good, but Square has accustomed its fans with more flashy visuals than this. Nevertheless, it works and the game still looks decent, relying moreso on its charming appearance. The music in the game is a mix of various Final Fantasy tunes that will bring nostalgia to your ears. The theme from Chocobo Tales was remixed and sounds even better than it did. The game also features voice-acting, though it's sometimes overdone in a ridiculous manner, especially during sentimental scenes, which are irritating to listen at. However the characters were fairly well casted and most of the time the acting is good enough.

In a nutshell, the Wii's new Chocobo game is a cute and entertaining dungeon-crawler that should please fans of the genre looking for something good that is not too complicated. There's hours of leveling-up and item fetching to be found here, and the Pop-Up Duel cards are a nice addition to the replay value. It's a shame not more substance went into a 2008 roguelike, but it does the job. It's a bit stale at moments and is missing a little spice of variety, but it's definitely not a bad game; just a bit above decent. There is a lot to like and enjoy in the package, especially for Final Fantasy fans.

Pros:
-Charming presentation with lots of Final Fantasy references
-Excellent musical tracks from numerous FF games
-Surprisingly driving storyline that ties dungeons together, though a bit simple
-Classic roguelike dungeon-crawling

Cons:
-Graphics are pretty subpar for a FF spin-off, despite nice FMVs
-Almost all dungeons look the same, not much variety
-Sometimes too easy, sometimes too hard
-Voice-acting is alright, but over the edge
-Gets a bit tedious, not a lot to do outside of dungeons

Presentation: 7/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Music: 8.5/10
Replay Value: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/08

Game Release: Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon (US, 07/08/08)