Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon may look like another cutesy game aimed at the younger demographic, but underneath its sugary exterior lies a rather devilish challenge. Not to say this is a very difficult game but it'll give you a good run for your money.

The controls are very simple with the remote held sideways, although you can choose various other options, and the general interface is easy to get to grips with.
The music throughout the game is one of it's high points, with some awesome remixes of past Final Fantasy tunes thrown into the mix. The voice acting is a mixed bag with some convincing while others will have you muting your TV (don't worry the game has subtitles). Graphics are just above average, although the CGI sections are truely gorgeous.

Chocobo as a character is adorable and wears corresponding costumes according to what job you currently have selected, jobs are unlocked as you progress through the game's story, and will often have you "Awwing" at his cuteness.

The dungeons are randomly generated each time you enter although they will all look rather samey with a limited amount of textures and backgrounds, which is rather dissappointing. Some are also very difficult with stringent criteria set, such as level restrictions and only have 1 HP throughout. Dying in a dungeon also means losing all your items (bar what you have equipped) and your gil, and although you can store items and money it can be a pain having to travel back and forth to collect/drop off stuff.

All in all Chocobo's Dungeon is an enjoyable little game that offers some geniune challenge but while looking like it's aimed at younger gamers they may find the difficulty rather unpleasant. Also if you can't stand playing as a cute a fluffy protanganist then this probably isnt for you either. Too bad this wasn't advertised more and will more than likely slip by without any notice.

If your a seasoned final fantasy player theres a number of reasons to buy this game, even though it doesnt have quite the same depth as you would come to expect from any other final fantasy game it has alot of old favourites, you will find cactuars and tonberries aplenty in this dungeon fest and the new take on old music from across the final fantasy range will leave you feeling quite nostalgic and probably as a result replaying old games.

The voice acting unfortunatly got a little on my nerves at times and the concept of recovering peoples memories becomes a little on the tedious side towards the end but it is an enjoyable game and the graphics are pretty cute.

If you've never played an RPG game before this is probably a good place to start the levelling up scheme is pretty easy to understand and theres not much in the way of stats to worry about so a gentle way to break you into this sort of genre of game, and certainly one for the kids