In an IGN interview, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon producer Yuki Yokoyama described the game as a toned-down roguelike, made in such a way that "users who have never played a dungeon crawler can enjoy it as well." Item and experience loss after death, then, is gone to make the experience friendlier. Good for new players, but roguelike devotees may be put off!
Square Enix was motivated to return to the Chocobo's Dungeon RPG series, Yokoyama said, after the last Chocobo game on the DS. In Japan, the Chocobo Tales minigame collection was apparently popular, leading Yokoyama to believe it was a good time to make another game in the Chocobo's Dungeon series.
While you're reading about the cutest dungeon RPG this year, be sure to check out IGN's new screens as well.
Square Enix hasn't had their memories of Europe taken away by some enchanted bell yet. The company has just announced that their roguelike-ish Final Fantasy spinoff game, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, will be released "across Europe and PAL territories" in the fall of this year.
The game, a turn-based dungeon RPG about a cuddly Chocobo's adventures in random dungeons created from villagers' lost memories, came out in Japan in December. It is being released in North America on July 8.
Along with the new announcement, Square Enix has released new screens, which can be found in our gallery. And in addition to the totally sweet video above, two more videos of Chocobo in action -- as a black mage and dragoon -- are available after the break.
Posted Jun 24th 2008 8:00PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Surprise! Four brand new Chocobo games are available for your enjoyment right now -- exclusively to registrants at the Square Enix Members website. They are, of course, the four adorable web games released in May of last year to promote the Japanese release of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon.
Now you can read the instructions and understand the nuanced control schemes involved in keeping Jail Bird on top of a stick so he can catch apples in Chocobo's Balancing Act, deftly avoid ice in Chocobo's Snowboard Glide, fly on borrowed wings in Chocobo Flight, and goof off in class in Chocobo's Classmate. Not that you couldn't have figured out how to play those.
Perhaps the updates on Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon have been few and far between, but Square Enix has made up for it with a sudden blitz of media from the upcoming title. The screenshots are bright and beautiful, though for the most part, they seem embiggened versions of the DS's Final Fantasy Fables title. Of course, the two are similar -- they feature a largely similar cast, mini-game elements, and obviously, supercute Chocobo himself. But while the DS game was simply a blend of adventure, mini-games, and card battles, the Wii title is set to focus on more dungeon-crawling, with a heavy dose of RPG elements.
We're a little wary of the watered-down roguelike-lite gameplay in Chocobo's Dungeon, but when push comes to shove, we're suckers for Square Enix (and anything with a job system). Come July 8, any hesitation will probably disappear in a single squee of ultimate joy.
Posted May 21st 2008 7:00PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
There seems to be an inordinately low level of hype surrounding the July release of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. It's an original Final Fantasy RPG (of sorts) on the Wii! That's awesome, right? Roguelikes, as well, are relatively hot right now, so we think this is a noteworthy release.
The website has been updated with a short story introduction, descriptions of three of Chocobo's available jobs (Knight, White Mage, and Black Mage), and even gameplay information, which describes areas in the game's town and the weird "Romantic Phrases" sidequest. In this quest, you find hidden "Romantic Phrases" in letters and recite them to Romantic Hero X.
There are also two wallpapers, one of which was the source for the lovely art adorning this post. We've stared at it long enough that we're now convinced we like the game.
If you were wondering where you'd get your cuteness fix this summer, wonder no more. Square-Enix just announced that Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon would be hitting North American Wiis on July 8th of this year, confirming earlier rumors that were floating around the internets.
This game is mostly for the Squeenix fans who squeal at the thought of a Chocobo wearing various class outfits, but those of you who enjoy dungeon-crawling RPGs might consider it, too -- especially at the $39.99 price tag. The story revolves around Chocobo and Cid, who find themselves in a town where people have lost their memories. The only way to retrieve the memories of the townsfolk, of course, is to battle through dungeons. The game also offers Wi-Fi card battles against friends and arcade-style minigames that can be found at the Mog House.
The Wii can certainly use some more RPGs, in our opinion, and this is definitely a welcome one. Should this title interest you, you can also check out its official English website here (although there's nothing there, yet).
We love Gamefly. We hear they're okay for sending games to people, which is great. But more importantly, they love to reveal unannounced games to us. Case in point: their "Coming Soon" page includes a listing for Final Fantasy: Chocobo Dungeon. We've long suspected that Square Enix would decide to localize their adorable roguelike, Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu. There's really no reason not to believe Gamefly on this one. It's currently marked for a July 3rd release date on the website.
Also found on the "Coming Soon" page: oddities! Like Space Chimps! Well, that's not really that odd, since there's a CG movie coming out by the same name. Anything called Space Chimps qualifies as odd by default, though, we think. But much more unequivocally odd is Guinness Book of World Records ... the game! Look forward to that this October, according to Gamefly.
Gametrailers has posted a surprisingly comprehensive preview of Square Enix's new roguelike-lite, Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu (Dungeon of Forgotten Time). It does a good job of introducing the basics of the turn-based system, the methods of upgrading your character, and, of course, the storyline.
We were amused by the major fakeout involved in the story: Chocobo and a treasure hunter named Cid head to a big tower, which we think is going to be the basis for the game, like The Tower of Druaga or something. They've got this perfectly serviceable roguelike setting, a tower made up of many floors, full of treasure, and then -- nope! The tower gets hit with some kind of beam that sends Chocobo and Cid into a vortex, landing them in the Land of Forgotten Time. Okay, we thought, so they'll explore this land, then, like Shiren the Wanderer.
Then a space-baby shows up and lets Chocobo go into people's minds to recover their memories.And those are the dungeons.
This glimpse of the opening for Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu makes us long for the game to retain the Japanese voice acting come the inevitable English-language release. It just looks and sounds so good! Of course, we'll probably love it as much in English, but it's hard to argue with this video, which is why we've decided to drop it into our weekly spotlight.
This seems to be becominga trend, but the handful of Wii games that were released this week in Japan are reported to have had poor first day sales. They were all third-party titles, which is also somewhat worrisome. Here's a look at the numbers:
Chocobo's Dungeon (Square Enix) - 30,000 (30% sell through of initial amount shipped)
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Sega) - 7,000 (10% sell through)
Granted, these are only rumored first day sales, and we'll have to wait until later in the week to get a better grip on the situation, but as of now it doesn't look good.
So, what do we make of these numbers? If they're correct, is it bad news for the Wii and third-party developers, or just more evidence that Japan is shying away from console gaming? While the latter is certainly a factor, third parties certainly can't be happy to see low numbers. However, it's way too early to ring a death knell for any of these games, even if these numbers are correct. We'll just have to wait and see how these games perform in the next few weeks.
Square Enix has updated their Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu homepage with two versions of a really cute commercial. We know it's Square Enix and everything, but we're still a bit taken aback by the high production values on display in this ad (accessible from the homepage via the "movie" link). It's a Wii sequel to a spinoff series that we thought was a low-budget, low-key affair. The FMVs are actually really nice!
But mostly we just wanted to post about the commercials so we could post this picture. We totally cheated by snapping the screenshot mid-blink, but we think the resemblance is uncanny.
We were trying to resist showing you screens of Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu. Then, the cuteness of it all overpowered us, turning us into sniveling piles of mush with a one-word vocabulary of "awwwwwwww!"
Then again, for us cynical folks at Nintendo Wii Fanboy, cuteness is like kryptonite. You know, since we can't resist it. Bad metaphor or not, the newest entry in the Chocobo series is being released in Japan this December.
We don't know what's cuter: this game, or chocobo baby. You decide.
In the showdown of Wii Mysterious Dungeon games, Chocobo's Dungeon has one major advantage over Shiren the Wanderer 3: the awwwwww factor. The adorableness of the Chocobo protagonist and pretty much everything else in the game may help sway roguelike fans who are on the fence about which title to buy.
As if the game didn't already overload on the cute, these new screenshots reveal a new character named Dungeon Hero X. Where did he come from? Is he friend, enemy, or both? No one knows (although we doubt he's firing the "Mog Beam" at the poor Chocobo out of friendship). It is a mystery of the Mystery Dungeon. A cute mystery.
Perhaps the updates on Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon have been few and far between, but Square Enix has made up for it with a sudden blitz of media from the upcoming title. The screenshots are bright and beautiful, though for the most part, they seem embiggened versions of the DS's Final Fantasy Fables title. Of course, the two are similar -- they feature a largely similar cast, mini-game elements, and obviously, supercute Chocobo himself. But while the DS game was simply a blend of adventure, mini-games, and card battles, the Wii title is set to focus on more dungeon-crawling, with a heavy dose of RPG elements.
We love Gamefly. We hear they're okay for sending games to people, which is great. But more importantly, they love to reveal unannounced games to us. Case in point: their "Coming Soon" page includes a listing for Final Fantasy: Chocobo Dungeon. We've long suspected that Square Enix would decide to localize their adorable roguelike, Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu. There's really no reason not to believe Gamefly on this one. It's currently marked for a July 3rd release date on the website.
This seems to be becoming a trend, but the handful of Wii games that were released this week in Japan are reported to have had poor first day sales. They were all third-party titles, which is also somewhat worrisome. Here's a look at the numbers:
We were trying to resist showing you screens of Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu. Then, the cuteness of it all overpowered us, turning us into sniveling piles of mush with a one-word vocabulary of "awwwwwwww!"
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