Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales

9.0
Excellent

Gameplay	8.5	"A surprisingly enjoyable game that warms the heart."
Graphics	10
Sound	10
Value	8.0

By Liam O'Connor

I have a small confession to make: when I stuck up my hand to review Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (here on forth Chocobo Tales), I was actually thinking about getting it so that my girlfriend could enjoy it. However, she showed no interest in it and it was left to me to review the game.

Naturally, being the kind of burly man who likes action heroes and hates RPG minigames, I figured that I was going to hate the crap out of this game. It was very much to my surprise, then, that I absolutely love Chocobo Tales. Indeed, it’s the most fun I’ve had with a DS game since Meteos and Sonic Rush.

The game itself is a spin-off of Final Fantasy where you control a chocobo, those yellow bird things from the Final Fantasy series. The game starts off with your chocobo being told a story by the rather cute white mage Shirma. However, the black mage bookworm Croma, who has just purchased a new book, interrupts the story.

After a quick minigame to open the book, it quickly becomes apparent that the book is actually an evil entity called Bebuzzu, who promptly swallows the entire chocobo population, bar you. It’s during this prelude that Chocobo Tales demonstrates one of the reasons it’s so good: clever, witty dialogue that can be enjoyed by all ages.

I rarely laugh out loud, and this game had me riding on the lollercoaster a few times and even took me for a trip on the roflcopter. The game never takes itself too seriously, and that’s one of the best things about it. The game is charming and witty throughout, and is always self-referencing without being obnoxious about it. It truly is a delight, especially given Square-Enix’s passion for convoluted melodramatic dialogue.

The game itself, however, is not an RPG at all. Indeed, players will find themselves diving into magic books to compete in a series of minigames to progress the story. All of these stories are based on real-life fables, but are twisted to fit the Final Fantasy universe. For example, the first minigame is The Adamantoise and the Cactur, a twist on The Tortoise and the Hare.

These minigames aren’t terribly complicated, but they are fun and they do make excellent use of the touch screen. You’ll have to play each one a couple of times before you can move on, but they are never used to the point of becoming stale. You can even play your favourite ones independently of the story mode.

In addition to minigames, you will also find a collection of microgames scattered around the environment. The difference here is that these games are utterly simplistic – sometimes as simple as stopping a sliding Adamantoise as close to a cliff face as possible – but are addictive in that they offer specific challenges to beat. When you beat these challenges, you are awarded cards.

Cards are used for yet another element of Chocobo Tales – and I can understand if this is becoming confusing. Once you have progressed to certain points in the story, you will engage in boss battles that take the form of card battles – similar to Magic the Gathering.

Each card will be one of four colours and will also have four coloured circles on it. If they are not blank, in these circles will either be a sword or a shield, which represent attack and defence, respectively. Essentially, if you attack with a green orb against a defence green orb, you’re attack will be useless. If you attack with a green orb against an attack green orb, you will attack with half power. If you attack with a green orb against a green orb that is blank, you will deal damage.

The colour of your card essentially represents the kind of gem you will be awarded at the end of each turn. These gems are used for special attacks, but can also be used against you by your enemy. Consequently, planning attacks and planning how your gems will be collected adds quite a bit of depth to the game, and it ends up being a lot of fun.

Although it sounds like Chocobo Tales has too many different gameplay elements, they all gel together really well. It helps that the game has impeccable presentation. The graphics are a combination between traditional polygons – some of the best seen on the DS – and Yoshi’s Island-style colouring-book cut-outs. Both work really well and add a lot of charm to the game.

The music is also excellent, naturally, as it is a collection of classic Final Fantasy songs. So you’ve got the chocobo theme in there, obviously, as well as the Final Fantasy battle music and the classic victory tune, to name a few.

Both the graphics and the sound compliment the gameplay and the witty dialogue. The story isn’t going to please diehard (and often too-serious) RPG nuts, but it will put a smile on the face of most people. However, it is with the minigames and the card battles that the game truly shines as being one of the best games available for the Nintendo DS. Yes, the system has plenty of minigame collections, but Chocobo Tales is easily one of the best.

Slick in its presentation, charming in its dialogue, captivating in its gameplay, and generally enjoyable for anyone who isn’t trying to hard to be all staunch and manly, Chocobo Tales comes easily recommended to anyone with a DS. Do yourself a favour and purchase it immediately.

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