Posted on December 15th, 2008 in Axel Night, Video Games by Axel Night
Da da da daaaaa! Have no fear, Dungeon Hero X is here, kupo!
I never touched the original Chocobo’s Dungeon titles. The general consensus seemed to be that they were overly simple, childish and repetitive. I thusly ignored them like a good little sheep. I’ve since taken on the task of challenging such notions, and so when the Wii sequel followed, I dove in with my ears covered from nay-sayers.
You play the part of Chocobo, the world’s most marketable hero, out to save a town lost from time (adequately dubbed Losttime) where everyone is losing their memories. Chocobo, with the help of a boy born out of a meteor-egg upon his arrival, enters the dungeon-like minds of the town folk, looking for the shards of their past. Lost? Good.
If you are the sort who says, "I don’t like me them thar ‘Japanese Animations’," then back up slightly before you get some on you, because Chocobo Dungeon gushes with a style distinctly Japanese. Chocobo is small, squeaky, big eyed, fuzzy, and down right adorable. He begs for a plushy toy. In fact:
He has several. Cute little bastard.
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While the story gets increasingly dark as things progress, the cute-factor stays as a strengthening contrast throughout. There isn’t a lot of surprises to be had. It’s more of a piecing together of tiny clues as you slowly unveil the horrid past of Losttime. As such, you’ll often guess what is coming before it happens. It still has an interesting tale to tell, but if you can’t stomach the cute, you’d best steer clear.
At its core, the Chocobo’s Dungeon series has been a run of Rogue clones. You enter a randomly generated dungeon and move square by square trying to find the stairs to the next floor. Things that think Chocobo (Chocobos? Chocobi?) taste delicious will wander the floors to impede your progress. For each move or action you take, the enemies will then take one. Some efficiency and strategy is involved. There is, of course, good old fashion power-grinding for levels, but it won’t always save you. Many dungeons have special rules. For example, one sends you in at level 1 with only 1HP, and you have to find the end without getting hit. I wouldn’t call it really challenging, but I wouldn’t call it a kid’s game either.
Soon into the game, Chocobo also gets to choose between a small selection of job classes (10 in all). Rather than go it fuzzy and o’natural, he can don such classic attires as that of the Knight, White Mage, Black Mage, or Dragoon. Most are available early, though a few, like the Ninja, don’t enter your wardrobe until late in. Each class adjusts your stats slightly and can learn a few special attacks and abilities via job points dropped by enemies. It was nothing as complex as the job system in Final Fantasy Tactics. While each class encourages different strategies and play styles, I didn’t find a huge advantage most of the time in my choice. Rather, they were unique experiences, adding their own spice to the mix. The exception might be the White Mage, who’s ready supply of healing and devastating holy attacks more than offset its slightly weaker physical stats, and made most dungeons my bitch.
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Audibly, this is a tribute to the Final Fantasy series. Rather than having a new soundtrack, every song is a rearranged version of a track from throughout the series. The mostly Nobuo Uematsu composed works stay as great as ever, so I have no quarrels with the rehashing. The voice acting is mostly your standard game fare of bad, and if you’re not used to that by now, you haven’t played enough games to numb your mind to it yet.
I’ve enjoyed Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon. Perhaps it’s my ability to enjoy cuteness in a deeply cynical sort of way, and so the mental image of sweet, innocent Chocobo pouncing and viciously gutting his foes tickles me. I didn’t get into the simple but diverse item customization or splattering of minigames and side events, but suffice to say that there’s enough to do and play with at least one time through. It’s not very long; at least not compared to the 60 hour epics we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. I don’t feel an overpowering urge to play through again, so I think it does good not to overstay its welcome.