Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon

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It's fair to say that Chocobo's Dungeon, at first glance, seems to be a game suffering from an identity crisis. On the one hand you have its rather twee pastoral setting, its squeaky-voiced characters and its cute-as-a-button protagonist. On the other you have core gameplay which is loosely based on an ancient PC game called Rogue, which was renowned for its punishing difficulty.

The 'roguelike' genre still has a cult following, but its games are generally extremely niche, attracting only the hardest of the hardcore. The sort of people who are happy to put up with often infuriating difficulty curves and dull, featureless random dungeons for the satisfaction of simply getting through alive. Yet the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, essentially hugely simplified roguelikes, have achieved plenty of success, so perhaps Square-Enix still feels that there's an audience out there for such a game. Fortunately for the publisher, that audience includes us, because Chocobo's Dungeon - despite plenty of hair-tearing moments - is a superior example
of the genre.

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As you'd probably anticipate for a game with such an unusual mix of presentation and gameplay, the story is fittingly strange. The titular bird and his treasure-hunting comrade Cid are magically transported to a curious village named Lostime, where all the residents seem to be suffering from amnesia. It turns out that their memories are wiped whenever the town's clock tower bell chimes.

Handily, Chocobo's arrival coincides with the appearance of a green-haired infant named Raffaello, who, as luck would have it, carries the power to transport Chocobo into the minds of the afflicted townsfolk, which form the dungeons you'll have to traverse to complete your quest. Reach the bottom and beat the boss within and you'll discover a jigsaw piece representing the missing part of their fractured mind. Collect this, and the villager will magically recover his or her memory, and then you can move onto the next.

Loveable Rogue
The randomised labyrinths are generally far more interesting than those in your average dungeon-crawler, mainly thanks to the introduction of some delightful graphical effects, and the extremely well-designed denizens from the mind of Crystal Chronicles' Toshiyuki Itahana. Battling monsters is remarkably simple, almost worryingly so to begin with, as for the most part it's just a case of pressing the attack button repeatedly.

Yet this hybrid of turn-based fighting and the immediacy of real-time combat works beautifully. For tougher foes you'll appreciate the time to consider your options, and decide whether you want to use more powerful attacks - which deplete Chocobo's SP gauge - or to use certain items, or simply to flee. While the fact that you can grind through the earlier dungeons simply by tapping the attack button rapidly, as Chocobo and his opponent take it in turns to whack each other rather swiftly is a godsend.

And believe us, you will need to return to earlier sections to level up, because Chocobo's Dungeon, after lulling you into a false sense of security with a couple of easy openers, can be as brutal as the likes of DS rage-inducer Shiren The Wanderer. Yet the hard edge is softened slightly by the game allowing you to keep all equipped items and experience when you die. Sure, you might have to start the dungeon again with no money and very few of your items, but then that's the risk you take when you're battling away with a full wallet and a bag crammed with items.

The option is there to escape from any floor if you so choose, and so if you do fall, there's no-one to blame but yourself. Well, maybe setting off the occasional hidden floor trap is annoying, but then if you're really playing properly, and inching your way through each dungeon step-by-step like any good Chocobo should, you can uncover those pesky traps by kicking thin air when standing next to them. In other words, careful players are well-rewarded for their patience.

Tweaked To Perfection
Yet while the core gameplay is solid enough, it's the areas where Square-Enix has tinkered with the formula that make Chocobo's Dungeon so enjoyable. The job system works particularly well. After a few hours' play, you'll be able to take on the role of a knight or a mage, which affect your stats in different ways. As you'd expect, a knight is a more powerful fighter, but it also has more stamina than a white mage, while the latter benefits from being able to heal itself (assuming you have the points to do so).

Later on, slightly more unusual roles become available - Ninja Chocobo is probably our favourite - and this creates real variety in the way you approach each dungeon. In the larger, story-based dungeons, you can change classes at certain points, while each job class levels up separately from your Chocobo's own stat increases, unlocking further powers.

It's particularly useful for the special dungeons - quests which aren't essential to advance the plot, but which provide various other benefits. In here you'll usually be stripped of all items, and unusual conditions prevail. One early dungeon sees you, and all enemies, reduced to a single Hit Point, with the only crumb of comfort coming in the form of occasional Phoenix Downs (revive item)as you descend through the floors.

Outside the dungeons, the game feels more like a traditional RPG, albeit one with just a single, central town hub rather than villages dotted about the world map. There are shops to buy and sell items, waterside areas where you can use a lure to catch fish or the occasional potion, a forge which allows you to combine defensive saddles or attacking talons to increase their power, and the Mog House, containing a number of mini-games.

Lostime is a beautifully bucolic setting,
realised with the skill you'd expect from Square-Enix's artists. Perhaps more surprising
is the soundtrack, which is stunning. It features some brilliant remixes of classic Final Fantasy themes, and you'll have the option to listen to them on a jukebox if you complete one of the bonus dungeons. And while there's very little here that couldn't be done on the GameCube, it's nice to see the Remote speaker used throughout. Sorting your items with a quick flick of the controller emits a satisfying rustle, while various thwacks and chirps add to the atmosphere.

And if you get into the game's mindset, then you'll find an absolute ton of content which will genuinely keep you going for months. Finish the game and you'll unlock one dungeon which is bigger than any in the main story, and a host of other post-game challenges to take on. It goes without saying that these are unbelievably tough, but by that stage you'll be up for anything.

So if you fancy yourself as a hardcore gamer, and you've got the constitution to stomach the occasional bit of nauseating cuteness as well as a serious challenge, then Chocobo's Dungeon is waiting for you. Just don't say we didn't warn you when you have your feathered rump handed to you for the umpteenth time.