"Warning: Prolonged Exposure to Cuteness is Illegal in Most States!"

Warning: Prolonged Exposure to Cuteness is Illegal in Most States!

(Note: I like Final Fantasy and cute games, so I just MIGHT be a smige biased. But I digress-to the review!!!)

The Final Fantasy series...ah, what a cash cow. Mind you, its a good cow, having produced many great games such as Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy, and that one with Cloud. What was it? Final Fantasy. One of its oldest and most beloved characters, the cute, yellow chicken-of-a-bird, the Chocobo, is back in another game. The cute poultry was in 3 (as far as I know) previous game: a racing game and 2 RPG's, who's names allude me.

Your tale begins in a quaint little village, filled with chocobos of various shapes and personalities, where a white mage, Shirma, is about to read a book, much to the delight of the chocobos, "The Adamantoise and the Cactuar." Before the girl can get far, a black mage, Croma, runs in, waving a new book he just bought in the desert. However, Croma cannot open it, and enlists you, the chocobo, to open it. This is your first of many microgames. More on those later. But, having opened the strange looking tome, the words are all...weird, talking about "destruction brought by Chocobo..." and such. Soon, the book comes to life, and turns out to be the soul of a demon. This demon, who shall remain nameless, thanks Chocobo by forming a vortex that promptly sucks up all of the townsfolk, excluding you, Shirma and Croma. And so the adventure begins!!!

The story has two main points: one is to find the cards that you come to find your friends are trapped in, and save them, and...ahem..."do something with the 4 Crystals of Final Fantasy cliche-ness." The saving part ends up taking a bit of a sidestep for the other main story, but it doesn't matter, as both parts are involving, interesting, and written with an adorable and cute script. I have to make this point-this game is too cute. People are known to die from so much cuteness, but Chocobo Tales is just enough cute to be a really cute game that anybody would love.

But, what is any game without gameplay, without substance? Well, much like the story, the gameplay is cleanly divided into two parts again, think "Mario Party meets Yu-Gi-Oh (or a better card game)." Don't stop reading, let me explain! The first take place in various mini and microgames that populate the universe. These take place in various environmental pieces, such as a shell or a computer, while most take place in books. When the nameless demon sucked up all of town, his magic passed on to Croma and Shirma's books, and transformed them into a world unto themselves. These books are all common childs' stories, like "The Ugly Duckling" and "Jack and the Beanstalk," all mixed in with a little Square-Enix flair.

The mini and microgames are are simple enough-do this before your opponents do, get to this mark, ect, with different rewards and levels of difficulty to challenge people. Each book has 3 different endings, some of which are good, amazing, or just strange or downright bad. Other rewards are "pop-up cards," but just wait for those. The only downside is this: these games are mandatory, and must be played often to solve various puzzles, get better cards, or just get 100%. This isn't so bad, but a game where the difference between winning and losing is playing minigames-in a NON-Mario Party game-is out of place.

Now to the other part of the game, the card battles! Just mentioned, the game uses a "pop-up card" which is just that. When popped up with a upward flick of the stylus, the card comes to life in a very "Paper Mario" type of design (whats with all the Mario references!?). You and your opponent are delt a 3-card-hand, and when each one is used, a new card takes its place. So far, standard fair. But what is quite different is the combat system that is used. Each card has 4 "zones" - fire, earth, wind, and water. Each of those zones can have one of three marks: a sword for attacking, a shield for defending, or just nothing. Each card can have one attack, and some have multiple or all defences. Whoever pops up their card first attacks-or defends?- first. You use the attack color, like red. If the opponent has a "red shield" they block the attack entirely, or halves the damage with another sword. If they have nothing, its a full hit. Your opponent attacks-or defends?- next, and the cycle begins anew.

This is a fun, "easy to learn, tough to master" system that breaths life into the game. Some cards can cause effects, like burning the foe, making them take more fire damage next turn, or make you attack first no matter what next turn. Another point to be made is the crystal attacks. When an elemental card is used (there are non-elemental cards as well), they add a crystal of that color to a bar. If enough crystals are obtained, cards can use powerful "crystal abilities" that often do tons of damage or add fun effects-even heal according to the crystals you have! This adds another layer to the card game, and allows for many strategies. Defensive attacker? Offensive rusher? Ability freak? The choice is your own, and with 122 cards, you will have a lot of options.

A few final points. The games control setup is good, allowing for D-Pad use on the field, and stylus use everywhere. So, make sure you have a good stylus (like a preorder Pearl stylus :P ) before getting the game. Another thing is the crushing...easyness? Really, this game doesn't do much of anything for loosing a big fight, or failing a minigame for the 1,000th time. This can be undone either, so, for those looking for a big challenge, look for a less cute game, like Elite Beat Agents or Castlevaina.

All in all, this is a very fun, cute game that is bound to draw in a lot of people with its adorable charm and...SEMI-serious RPG setting. I'd recommend getting this game if you are a cute-aholic or Final Fantasy geek, and a rental if you can't stomach either. It'd be a shame to let this one go. KEWH!!! And the chocobos would cry...you wouldn't want to see that...would you...whould you!?

Overall Score: 8 - A- , B+
-fun story, mini/microgames, good card battles
-mini/microgame driven, a little too cute

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/11/07