PixlBit

Rpg's are about as rare to find on the Nintendo Wii as horror titles. Sure there were a few such as Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World or even wiiware titles like Final Fantasy IV : The After Years, but for the most part they were more miss than hit. And when we did get a RPG it was more of a hybrid style. Super Paper Mario became more of a traditional 2D platformer, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time was a DS port. And that brings us to today's game. Today we have a mystery dungeon roguelike that came to the Wii. This week's wii review-Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon- A game I bought for $15.

First and foremost, do not be misled by Chocobo’s Dungeon’s seemingly ‘kiddie’ style presentation. Take a look at that box art, the adorable main character you play as, the colorful palette of the town, etc. This game will kick your ass if you aren't careful or experienced in rogue-like style mystery dungeon crawlers.

Chocobo's Dungeon is a challenging, old-school randomized dungeon-crawler in every sense of the word and it seems the Wii was a rather popular system for these. Other titles such as Shiren the Wanderer and Baroque were other such mainstream titles that hit the system with a mystery dungeon motif. Despite this, Chocobo's Dungeon is sprinkled with numerous neat little details, side-quests, and mini-games.

Chocobo’s Dungeon tells the tale of an ambitious young treasure hunter named Cid (because hey it's a Final Fantasy game of course!) and his little adorable, huggable chocobo. Cid and his faithful chocobo, imaginatively named ‘Chocobo’ begin the game literally plunged into a long lost town also imaginatively named ‘Lostime’. It’s a strange place where Lostime’s inhabitants continually lose their memories every time the Bell of Oblivion chimes ominously from the town’s clock tower.

After a meteor comes out from the sky, landing near the town, a green-haired infant named Raffaello pops out. Turns out this baby is somehow able to make dungeons to explore out of the townfolk’s missing memories. Chocobo luckily, is able able to venture into these dungeons, run around in them for a bit and come out with people’s precious lost memories. He can even end up with a few equippable or consumable items and ‘Gil’ (gold-pieces). This doesn't make a lot of sense, but  it also doesn't make sense in that there are monster Flan inside of people's memories either. Mmmm...monster flan *drools*

So if you aren't familiar with the genre, a mystery dungeon crawler will consist of the following. First off, the dungeons are generated randomly each game; this means that each time you power up or load the game, the dungeons floors will be different each time. Same goes if you leave or fail a dungeon. The second aspect is that the monsters in said dungeons all get to move each time you do (usually gravitating toward your position). There is some strategy involved here as you'll have to calculate your movement if low on health or food power. (yes your chocobo gets hungry, yes it's annoying). Not only is the dungeon itself a mystery, but the nature of items you may find in said dungeons is often a mystery as well until you ‘evaluate’ them later (safely outside the dungeon) or by using them immediately, in desperation. By doing this you hope and pray to the RNG Gods that they’re not cursed or something (which more often than not they are). Finally if that wasn't enough to turn you away, dying even once in any dungeon instantly sends you back to the beginning, stripping you of all leveling, items, and experience. Chocobo’s Dungeon alleviates some of the difficulty by allowing you to at least hang onto the items you equipped, as well as job levels.

No true ‘roguelike’ game is easy, forgiving, or even particularly fair. Such games like these are by their very nature, vicious. Most times in this game, you'll be within sight of the exit of the final level of the dungeon… and then you step on an unseen trap, a mere grid move away from escape, finishing you instantly. 

Therein lies the strategy. You now have a decision to make: Should you ‘bank’ some of your items in storage, against the possibility of losing them or should you arm yourself knowing you’ll need every available weapon at your disposal? No sense mindlessly hoarding the good stuff if you’re never going to use it, right?

You will usually spend your time crawling through randomized dungeons, exploring the town, improving weapons and armor at the local blacksmith, dabbling in other side-activities, and leveling up chocobo’s various possible Jobs. These Jobs are akin to those of Final Fantasy lore; Chocobo can make himself a Knight, a Mage, Thief or whatever other Job is suitable to the current situation.

Among the side-activities fleshing out the game are  fishing, the video arcade games Bat Shooter and Kick Darts, Pop-Up Duel, and speaking ‘Romantic Phrases’ to Superhero X (a moogle who dresses like a superhero, and ends every sentence with the word ‘kupo’). For the most part, the mini-games are fun and some of the phrases you can get unlock secret, but incredibly cruel and difficult dungeons (play the blind dungeon for funsies kids! Oh and you have 1 hp! Good luck! TROLLOL)

Pop-Up Duel is the main highlight of the side activities though not as fun nowadays as it once was (If you could find someone online to play of course) Pop-Up Duel is luck induced to be sure, but whether you played solo vs. the computer a.i. or via Nintendo Wi-Fi, it was all too easy to lose a few hours to this alone, I built up my card decks for three hours. And then after those three hours, I suddenly snapped back and thought, “Oh, yeah... wasn’t I supposed to be helping some townspeople or something?”

The controls are fairly simple. You hold only the wii remote either pointed at the screen or sideways. I recommend sideways for that classic NES feel and the movement seems to work better. The voice acting is okay for the most part. It's not cringe worthy and it's pretty okay. Nothing to write home about or particularly stand out, but it does it's job. The music is fantastic. mixing the old tunes you know or remember and love to a modern console is great. The final boss battle is terrific as it remixes Battle on the Big Bridge into one epic piano piece. And while I did touch on the cutesy graphics...I really did like the look and presentation of the town of LostTime and the characters. While the dungeons are a bit to be desired in terms of design (such as standard volcano/lava themed dungeon with very narrow mystery style dungeon corridors and walkways) overall it's colorful and unique.

Chocobo's Dungeon is not for your typical RPG beginner or for anyone who is used to typical rpg style games (though it has the typical level grinding of one). It's a challenging roguelike mystery dungeon crawler with lots of detail, distractions, and depth. It's fairly enjoyable and will keep you busy going for that 100% completion rate (there's a special 100 floor dungeon for you sadists out there). It may not be traditional, but you could do a lot worse.

Critical Opinion- 7.8/10- Not for everyone. If you're expecting a typical rpg, this game will sure change your mentality quick. It's rough, tough, and challenging which may sway gamers away from it's positive aspects.

Personal Opinion- 8.5/10- I put over 100 hours into this game to beat it 100%...Heck yes I loved it.

Overall Determination- 8.2/10- What a Bargain!