I remember Chocobo’s Dungeon 2 on PlayStation. It was a Rogue-inspired dungeon crawler that knew what it was: a strong exploration game. It could kick your butt; however, that all depended on how you played. It also made fun of itself, aware of the type of game it is. Plus, persistence was necessary for it all to pay off. Now, several years later, its spiritual successor is now available for the Wii: Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon.
Chocobo’s Dungeon follows Chocobo, a yellow bird that looks sort of like a cross between a chicken and an ostrich, and his companion Cid. The two are explorers and begin the game exploring a dungeon in the middle of a desert. From there, they quickly find themselves in an odd town known as Lost Time. All people who visit lose their memories due to the Oblivion Bell. Eventually, a little baby falls from the sky with the power to recover the townspeople’s lost memories. So here’s the question: What is really going on here?
To say the least, it is a cute little tale. A chocobo wanders around, talking to animals and helping people. However, this much has become apparent: When did one of my favorite series become pretentious? The story takes itself far too seriously with voice acting that is over the top. Have some of the games I loved always been this way, or have I just realized it?
Music is connected to this. All of the music in the game is remixed versions from previous installments in the Final Fantasy series. There’s the “mysterious” music from Final Fantasy V that has its drum beats revamped. The city of Midgar somehow lends its dark world as sturdy exploration music. And of course, the victory fanfare returns. There is a danger with all of this: What is Chocobo’s Dungeon‘s identity? There is always a constant push for a series to have a sense of history. But the danger is that other games dwarf it because the music is too similar. To gamers who have rarely touched the series, it may not matter. To a veteran gamer, it is paramount. My mind instantly goes back to those games, to the locales and characters. Part of Chocobo’s Dunegon‘s identity is lost.
What is not lost is its gameplay. Just like its older predecessor, this incarnation keeps the Rogue-like exploration. Each floor is randomized, complete with different ratios of monsters, items and traps. Unlike Rogue, some of the traps are useful. For example, there are cure rings and spots that will decrease hunger (if Chocobo’s stomach is empty, he will lose health).
Another item that Chocobo’s Dungeon uses to differentiate itself is its class system. This is nothing new to the genre, but in each dungeon, you can change Chocobo’s Job Class (provided you have found the proper item). There are magic, fighting and support classes to master. Each job can make the current situation easier or more difficult. The black mage class is well-known for damaging monsters with elemental damage, white mage class makes it easier to survive longer in the dungeon and knights take less physical damage from monsters. Here’s the challenge: You need job points to improve each class. The problem is this: Not every monster drops them, and just using doesn’t improve the class.
Graphically, the game is downright charming. Its cartoony graphics creates a world that feels like a storybook. Translucent puzzle pieces float around the memory dungeons. Fire and lava move around the fire temple, and the water temple takes place, literally, under the sea. It’s even complete with coral. Monsters come in various shapes and sizes from various games in the series. And thankfully, they move around well.
Overall, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon is solid Wii game to play at the end of a long day. There’s joy in exploring a dungeon, taking down monsters and collecting items. Adding the job class system adds another layer to the complexity. This is one of the best Rogue-inspired games available on a console system. For about $20, it isn’t a bad deal at all. So anyone up for some old-school exploration?
