I recently re-subscribed to Gamefly because of all the great single player games that would be coming out. One of the games, de Blob is on its way after a short waiting period. During this time, I’ve had time to play one of my ‘filler’ spots on my Gamefly GameQ, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon. Little did I know this filler game would be one that I’d come to appreciate these past few days.

Let me preface this impression/review by saying that Chocobo’s Dungeon is definitely not a game for everyone. If you can look past its shortcomings, you’ll find a fun, and entertaining story to get involved in.

How Can You Not Try A Game Starring The Huggable Chocobo?

If you’ve played games like Pokemon Dungeon Mystery or others similar, then you’ll know about what to expect with Final Fantasy Fables. To me the gameplay aspect of Fables is all about preference. In this writer’s humble opinion, the random dungeon, and turn based aspect breathes new life into the RPG genre. Traditional RPG games have always been bogged down with turn-by-turn attack/waiting mechanics. These can lead to some epic boss fights, but leave the rest of the game flat. A sub-genre of RPG’s; the ‘Strategy’ RPG (SRPG) adds a certain flavor to the gameplay. Instead of having party vs. party battles, the battlefield is spread out, and the fights come out more like chess matches. The problem with SRPGs is that the battles, even the smaller ones can take a good amount of time to complete.

In Chocobo’s Dungeon the best way to describe it, is that it’s a bit of a mixture of traditional RPG and SRPG elements. I guess you could call it a Mini SRPG. When you enter a dungeon, where all of your gameplay will occur (barring the mini-games), you’ll notice everything is turn based. Every dungeon is setup with multiple floors to explore. The object is to find the stairs that leads you to the next floor, then eventually the dungeon boss. How fast you complete the dungeons is completely up to you. You can speed your way through, only searching for the stairs to the next floor. Or you can explore, picking up items and gil, and leveling your character. It’s this option of letting the gamer choose his/her pace that I really like about Chocobo’s Dungeon.

You’ll be controlling Chocobo during the entire game, and for the most part he/her handles well. Each dungeon you enter is setup on a ‘grid system’. For every square that you take a step, the dungeon enemies take their turn and make a move. Unlike other SRPGs though, all of the enemies move simultaneously. So when you make a move, the enemies move together, and then it’s back to you nearly instantly. One factor that can mire the experience is keeping up with Chocobo’s hunger. As you move through a dungeon Chocobo will become hungry. If you ignore his hunger, and don’t have adequate means to feed him, he’ll begin to lose HP. This wouldn’t be a major concern if item space wasn’t important as you’ll have to allocate some space to store his food. In my experience it’s never been a huge problem, but is a minor annoyance.

Attacking is made simple by allocating your basic strike to the ‘2′ button (that’s if you use the Wii remote sideways, which I recommend), instead of having to go to a menu. For items, and special abilities you will have to open up a menu. Special abilities require SP points. Unlike most RPGs, your SP regenerates by walking, so you can use your Special Abilities a little more liberally. In most dungeons, unless you are a speed demon, you’ll be using Chocobo’s basic attack. Some of the harder dungeons, and bosses is where items, and special abilities are a major factor. There are certain dungeons that have special conditions like 1 HP, or 0% hunger, that really require smart thinking and decisive navigation. They definitely add a steeper difficulty curve to the experience.

Chocobo’s dungeon relies heavily on the treasure that is found. You’ll be able to forge weapons, and fuse different weapon combos together, which really open up the options that are made available. For a game that’s based on simplicity, there are a good amount of options when customizing your Chocobo. Like in other Final Fantasy games, Chocobo has a good amount of Jobs to undertake. Ranging from Natural, Dragoon, and different Mage classes (Black, White), as well as other classics. Each Job has a unique play style, even if you aren’t using the special abilities in abundance.

Black Mage Showing Off His Thunder Spell

When you’re outside the dungeon is when things fall apart gameplay wise. You will find places for item storage, and stores, but that’s about it. There is the Pop-Up Duel Card game, which is a bastardized version of Magic. There are no puzzles, and nothing really to do other than the mini-games at the Mog’s house. If you like Magic card type games, you might find something to enjoy there. Other than that, it’s pretty much an on-rails experience as the story progressing areas are represented by check marks on your mini-map.

The story found in Chocobo’s Dungeon is definitely a mixed bag. In terms of plot, and plot development this is one great Final Fantasy story. It’s all about the importance of memories, and how they’re the very thing that makes us human. For a story based around a cute, cuddly yellow feathered bird it’s very mature, and fleshed out. Where it falls short is the way it portrays its characters. Most of the main characters, particulary Rafaello, and Shirma are very annoying. Their voice acting is atrocious and really slow down the progression, and maturity of the story. Chocobo himself is very appealing, and none of his noises ever irk the ear drums.

Graphically the game is impressive in some areas, and lacks in others. Running on 16:9, and 480p the game actually looks impressive. There are times that the camera zooms out, and shows a larger area and it becomes grainy. Some characters look better than others, there is one minor character name Volg who is a black-red fully grown Chocobo. He looks amazing, and it looks like they took more time detailing him then some of the major characters. Very odd.

There’s not much to be said about the music, and sound aspect of the game. I’ve already expressed my disliking of the voice acting, and the music is mediocre. Most of the tunes have been found in past Final Fantasy games. For the most part this is a good thing, as FF music is a standard most games strive for. It would have been nice to hear more original tracks though.

I haven’t 100% finished the game yet, but hope to complete it tonight. I had played enough that I wanted to let everyone know my thoughts on it. If you’ve read the impression/review, and are into games like Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon, then you should know it pulls the gameplay style off very well.