While Chocobo Tales may be packed with music, characters and imagery that ties into the ultra popular Final Fantasy Universe, the gameplay is far removed from that universe, unique in its approach, and fun and accessible to all ages. The game mixes in a light storyline that helps explain to non-Final Fantasy players of all ages why they are jumping in and out of books as a giant yellow chicken. That chicken in question is the popular Chocobo from the Final Fantasy series, but there's no prerequisite to knowing anything about Final Fantasy to fully enjoy this game. The only real prerequisite is that you enjoy light card battling, mini-games of all stripes and micro-games that take advantage of the DS system's key features.
Chocobo Tales is the second game from Square Enix that focuses on supporting characters (the first was Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime) in popular franchises to create alternative adventures. So far Square Enix has really hit the mark with these special titles, and we hope that they'll continue to develop more properties like this. Now onto the actual game!
Chocobo Tales is the telling of a grand adventure that takes place in and outside of pop-up story books where your little yellow friend engages in a myriad of activities. The story begins at the Chocobo Farm during story time. During one of those wonderful moments a black mage named Croma shows off an exotic storybook that he bought during his travels. Curiosity piqued, everyone gathers round to hear the strange tale. But this book is just plain bad! As Croma reads the tale something bad begins to happen - the book, which holds an evil spirit named Bebuzza, comes to life and traps all of our Chocobo friends in books! All our new friends have to be freed and since this little yellow Chocobo is the only one that seems to be able to enter and exit these books he finds himself having to take on these stories in a real way to free his friends. Thus begins this tale, and while the story is far from epic, it sure is a lot of fun.
Chocobo Tales is broken up into three different types of activities along with some nice multiplayer enabled games that are fun to play. These include the actual mini-games within the storybooks you'll come across; card battles; and micro-games scattered throughout the world. The meat of it all is the story mode where you'll interact with the entire game world, enter into books and challenge their inhabitants to free friends.
During your adventures you'll collect cards that you use in "Pop-Up" battles, a simple but fun card battling system. Here you'll battle an opponent using different types of attack and defense cards with the goal of brining your opponent's hit points to 0. The challenge is furthered by adding a time limit to choosing your cards, so picking your card early and quickly has its advantages. While these battles, which can be considered mid-boss and boss battles, aren't all that complicated the real challenge in succeeding is a mix of speed, strategy and a bit of luck.
Micro-Games are another way to have fun in this DS title. Micro-Games are light short activities that utilize key functions of the Nintendo DS. The main focus of these activities scattered throughout the world is using th stylus or the microphone to succeed. In one micro-game you might have to tap the touch screen to match something on the upper screen, in another drawing with the stylus is the goal, and in yet another blowing into the microphone to manipulate an object on screen gets the job done. These little bite sized games aren't all that time consuming but they can be a bit of a challenge at times and winning them will earn you rewards that basically translate into more cards.
Beyond the actual gameplay Chocobo Tales mixes the graphic style of Final Fantasy III with an interesting pop-up paper story book presentation that looks wonderful. This style doesn't just apply to the story book worlds - all the environments, characters, and objects are also dressed in this style of art. The card battles are also interesting because the paper cut-out style characters will be there battling 3D Final Fantasy III style characters providing some visual stunning moments. It's an interesting blend that ends up working in the grand scheme of things. Finally it's should be pretty obvious that there's a lot of homage to Final Fantasy being paid in Chocobo Tales, but it doesn't get in the way if you don't know a tick about FF. There's the obvious like Black and White Wizards and Chocobos galore. But there's also Cid, magical crystals that protect the world, moogles and some familiar and powerful elemental creatures like Carbunkle. It's a cool mix that doesn't
At the end of the day Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is a wonderful experience that just about anyone can play - and knowledge of Final Fantasy isn't not a requirement. Final Fantasy fans that can live without actual RPG elements and can enjoy a myriad of mini-games and light card battles should also giving this game a look.
