Cute, cute,
cute. This game is just SO cute. It’s the gaming incarnation of cuteness,
period. But cuteness is only skin-deep, so they say; and this game seems to
somehow know that. Not only is it cute to a fault, but it’s also clever, and
much deeper than one could think at first. Let’s take a look at it.
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales, developed by h.a.n.d. and
published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS in 2006(jp) and 2007(na, aus, eu),
is a game which I would describe as “cleverly casual”. It features the
well-known mascot from the Final Fantasy
series, the bright yellow bird Chocobo, in a collection of mini-games creatively
glued together into a whimsical story, all peppered with a healthy dose of
fan-service for good measure.
Chocobo Tales brilliantly showcases the expertise and talent
of Square Enix. This is indeed a developer that can create amazing games when
they put their mind to it, even though their last home console offerings made
many a gamer ponder whether or not they had lost their mojo. Chocobo Tales is
masterfully refined from beginning to end, offering splendid graphics,
beautiful musical themes and rock-solid gameplay. Casual it may be, but it’s so
polished you can see yourself in it.
Let’s dive
into the gameplay. The core of the game is the Story Mode, which feature a
simple yet fanciful story involving a set of sixteen picture books scattered
around the world by a malevolent spirit which you have—of course—to defeat. The
minigames come into the picture by being contained in the pictures books, and
each minigame boasts a handful of requirements which must be cleared to
advance the story. Boss battles feature a card-based fighting system straight
from the 90’s, using cards that can be collected in various ways through the
game world. To complete the picture, the game also contains some so-called
“microgames”, which are side dishes of sorts with the sole purpose of letting
you earn cards. It would be tedious and pointless to expose every single detail
of the gameplay, but suffice it to say that the game bristles with interesting
features that all interconnect in a very imaginative way. The game also offers
a more casual mode which allows you to jump straight to the minigames and
microgames, but only after you uncover them in the Story Mode.
The minigames
are ingenious, original, and as a whole incredibly amusing and entertaining.
They are also incredibly picturesque, featuring a beautiful hand-drawn style that
makes for pure eye-candy and an even more delightful experience. I tend to disregard
and disdain all things casual, and yet I enjoyed myself immensely while playing
Chocobo Tales and its glorious cohort
of minigames. It’s worth exposing the raw nature of the said cohort, though,
for the sake of any potential player: these minigames are virtually all based
on a merciless combination of speed, good timing and precision, and they all
require good motor skills and sharp reflexes; all that peppered with a luck
factor too important to be overlooked. Prepare so for multiples tries, should
you tackle that game, especially if your reflexes and motor skills are poor.
Still, the challenges posed by these minigames are by no means impossible to
meet: this is a game primarily aimed at children, after all, and they wouldn’t
make it too brutally hard. I’m far from being brilliant when it comes to motor
skills and reflexes, and yet I managed to clear the game without any major
difficulty. (I was only seriously stuck once, but I suspect it had more to do
with the nature of the minigame involved: it was a race game, and I’ve not played
a race game since Sonic Drift Racing 2
on the Game Gear. So I’m quite, herm,
out of practice.) In fact, I came to consider Chocobo Tales as some kind of welcomed brain-training which allowed
me to dust off my rusted reflexes—and boy, was it funnier than Dr Kawashima’s.
The
microgames are much simpler affairs, and unlike the minigames, they remain
entirely optional. They feature stripped-down graphics, on par with what a
Gameboy Advance could offer, and basic gameplay based on poking, collecting
items and other simple, one-dimensional ideas. Still, they are no less
entertaining and can actually be quite challenging despite their apparent
simplicity. Depending on your score, you can earn two different cards; but the “gold”
ranking, required to get the most precious card of the pair, is just insanely
hard to attain. I managed to get it only once, and that was in a microgame
based on sheer luck, so no kudos deserved here. Interestingly, some microgames emulate
the 16-bit era gaming style, both in visuals and audio; these are absolute Proust’s
madeleines for older gamers, delicious treats for veterans to enjoy.
The card
battles, which go under the name of “Pop-up Duels”, are a completely different
affair, and a thrilling change in style and mechanics. They are a brilliant mix
of strategy and luck unfolding as follows: you first have to choose a limited
number of cards to bring into a duel (first 8, then 15 later in the game);
then, at every turn, three of these cards are randomly selected and you have to
choose which one you want to use. You don’t get to see your opponent’s cards,
and that’s where the luck factor comes into the picture: good or bad matching
of the cards can dramatically alter the outcome of a turn—and even of a duel,
for that matter—may it be in your favour or not. There are also a lot of
strategies involved, and the whole system is much deeper than it may seem at
first sight. Once again, there is a timing notion there: the first to select a
card get to attack first in the upcoming turn, which can also change the said turn’s
outcome completely. This keeps you on your toes and forces you to think fast,
adding some sense of thrill and excitement to the picture. Top this with dynamic
animations showcasing a gorgeous hand-drawn style similar to the one used in
the minigames, and you have a total winner of a game feature. These card battles
were definitely my favourite part of the game, and I just couldn’t wait to face
bosses to play them. I loved the sense of urgency and the fast, relentless
pace, all the while rejoicing in the absence of any high motor skill
requirement. And the satisfaction of picking up the card best fitted for one
turn, when strategy met luck in a perfect matching, was just priceless. I have
to admit that I performed fist pumps more than once during these phases, not
least when a particularly intense duel finally came to an end after many a
twist.
As you may
expect from this kind of game, there is a strong emphasis on completion in
various fields: Cards collection, minigames requirements, and other points I
didn’t mention here. Since I’m not a completist at heart, I just went on with
the flow and focused mostly on clearing the game, but there is definitely
plenty of material here for the pleasure of the dedicated completist. Out of
curiosity, I tried browsing the internet to find out if there were any rewards
tied to a 100% completion in one field or in all of them, but I couldn’t find
any relevant information. Oh, well. I guess the pleasure of achieving 100%
completion is a reward in itself for the hardcore completist.
All in all,
this is a great game, heavy in content and deeply entertaining. I clocked only
ten hours at the end of my playthrough, but those were ten dense and busy
hours, full of delight and enjoyment. Coming from a person who shies away from
anything casual, this is testimony to the sheer quality of Chocobo Tales. Cherry on the cake, it can be purchased for a very
cheap price nowadays.
That’s all
for Chocobo Tales, folks. A fine game
it is, indeed, and top-class in its field. Thanks for reading, and be my guest
anytime!
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