Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales DS

FINAL FANTASY FABLES: CHOCOBO TALES

Developer: H.A.N.D
Publisher: Square-Enix
Released: April 2007
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Multiplayer: Yes & WiFi
Genre: Adventure


[Edit: After reading the review in the April edition of EGM they mention the lack of "download play" for multiplayer, so I'll have to check on that when my friend comes back in May, we'll try out the multiplayer option and see if it's true.]

[Edit: 06/05/07 Well, I tried to play multiplayer with my friend when we went to NYC and it didn't work.

Official Website - An interactive 2D website with information on all aspects of the game. Has movie clips of gameplay and shows how you interact with the game.

Hours played: Approx. 6 hours, reached the tree in the forest and unlocked all but a few of the challenges in two of the books and three of the minigames.

Synopsis: You play as a chocobo who must save your friends from an
evil book that imprisoned them. Through a series of card battles and mini-games you have to find and save all the chocobos in the chocobo farm. The books consist of common fairy tales like "The Admantoise and the Cactuar" in place of "The Tortoise and the Hare" or "Titan and the Beanstalk" instead of "Jack and the Beanstalk".

Tutorial: None, they have instructions integrated into the gameplay, which is a staple with most Final Fantasy games. The beginning of the mini-games also have instructions on how to play, although they can be misinterpreted at times resulting in frustration. The card battling is also explained with terms and examples and you're able to practice with other characters.

Story/Characters: The story is simple, and appropriate for this game, you have to save your friends from bad guys through playing mini-games in enchanted books. You also see familiar characters like Cid and Shirma the white mage.

Graphics/Cinematics: 3D top down view, I immediately thought of Final Fantasy III when I started playing. It even has the drop down menu on the right side of the screen. No cut scenes, the whole story is in-game.

Interface: Clean, simple, and similar to the "blue FF7" screens. What I liked about it was it wasn't overly crowded, everything was visible. My only gripe would be in the card screen, selecting and creating new decks were troublesome at first.

Sound/Audio/Voice Acting: If you are a fan of the series you'll recognize many of the songs in the game. Both sound effects and songs has been sampled from previous FF games. There was no voice acting in the game.

Gameplay/Controls: Very good, the game is entirely by stylus. I didn't have any trouble with sensitivity or accuracy. I find it interesting though with the level of difficulty, this should not be marketed towards a younger audience, some of the mini-games are hard to accomplish (they are more complicated than Wario Ware, I'll have to check if they're more difficult than Raving Rabbids for DS later). I've also seen a lot of reviews complaining about the difficulty which causes a dilemma because to get better cards you have to unlock them in the harder versions of the mini-games.

Replay value: Medium, depending on if you unlock everything first, it will make you want to go back and unlock everything to get all the cards. The multiplayer also encourages replay through playing with friends.

Learning Curve: Easy-Moderate

Pros:
+ Uses many great Final Fantasy songs
+ Many different mini-games and ranging difficulties
+ Great interface and use of top screen (for maps, in-game cinematics)
+ Great graphics identical to Final Fantasy III for DS

Cons:
- Some mini-games are pretty demanding for the casual gamer
- Confusing instructions for the games & takes multiple tries to figure out
- Card battling system can be hard to get used to
- The card battles can get tedious

Summary: Hardcore fans of Final Fantasy who like mini-games will love this, I know it sounds obvious but you really do have to love challenging mini-games because that and card battling make up the entire game.

Score: 7/10




Some screens from the website

FFVI and Yggdra Union

Today was the release of Pokemon Pearl and Diamond, but surprisingly it didn't seem that busy to me today (I was working today). The only Pokemon game I own is Leaf Green, but I'm interested in trying out the new Pokemons (if I ever get time!) to see what they have to offer, maybe I'll get the Wii version instead.

This weekend was pretty busy, and a lot of gaming happened! I was able to get in another hour of Chocobo Tales. I'm getting the hang of the battling system, this is the first time I've battled with cards though (aside from Triple Triad in FF8).

I played a bit of WoW with Choops, I think I logged about 4 hours or something. I'm not really excited or addicted to the game yet. People were surprised to hear that since I was horribly addicted to GW. I think it's because I'm not as interested in GW anymore and therefore maybe not as interested in another MMORPG, even if it is WoW.

In other news, as you can see by the title, I have recently purchased Yggdra Union (recommendation from a co-worker) and Final Fantasy 6 (because it's my 2nd favorite FF and I enjoy rebuying games that I already own in different formats, thanks Squenix *sigh*). Both are RPG's (if you didn't know), and Yggdra Union is a card based one (so more practice, yay).

On another note Square-Enix re-released Final Fantasy: Advent Children in a collectors edition. Now, I'm not only re-buying my ff games, but also my ff dvds. Yeeessh, lol.

Games night... again!

We had another Games Night at my friends place this past Saturday, it was a lot of fun! We tried the Japanese version of Taiko Drum Master. It concentrates on mini-games more, I guess it's because of the party game aspect of it (it still has a music selection, but way more than the North American version of course). Who knew a drum would be so much fun? For anyone who likes music games, definitely try this out, if you can't play Japanese games then there's a North American release (the one that I have) just called Taiko Drum Master. You will want to grab an extra drum if you can as it's not as fun if you're playing on your own.

We also did the usual Karaoke Revolution/Wii games deal. We wanted to try SingStar next, but I have to go out and buy that. Apparently, there's an 80's version, but it was only released in Europe. Boo. Oh, and I tried out Karaoke Revolution: American Idol, it was alright, but the song selection is weaker than the other ones imo. It follows the format of the TV show American Idol, where the player can go through the audition stages up to the grand finale. The reviews by Simon, Randy and Paula (I don't know if it is Paula because she looked and sounded different) are only good if you put it on a difficulty higher than Easy, otherwise they're just praising you.

For the Wii, we mostly played Rayman: Raving Rabbids, and Wii sports because my friend came back from Virginia and hasn't tried the Wii yet!

I have also been playing a lot of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales for DS. It's a really fun game, it incorporates RPG elements with many mini games. It's like FF3 with minigames and lots of chocobos (duh). It has various Final Fantasy songs mixed into it, which is a nice touch. I still have to check out the card battling system, I tried it out briefly, it reminded me of Yu-Gi-Oh, because you summon monsters with cards. Good use of the top screen too! More on this later... (read: I will probably review this next).

My friend Choops is getting slowly addicted to World of Warcraft, which means that I'll never see her again on Guild Wars. I'm slowly getting less addicted to Guild Wars, the third installment was really dragging in the beginning, and I'm finding that I don't like soloing as much anymore, and I was never into PvP. So, I'm probably going to hold off on GW until I get Choops back or my other friend RogueCRX or even until Guild Wars 2 (which was announced recently in the PC Gamer mag... I also got my free Mini-pet too). I suppose this is good because then I can review more and play more games.