Chocobo's Dungeon 2 Retrospective Review
By: Nik S
Developers: SquareSoft
Publisher: SquareSoft
Platform: PlayStation, PlayStation 3 (2010 PlayStation store re-release, Japan only)
Release Date: December 23, 1998 (Japan); November 30, 1999 (North America)
Back in the late 90's I had this cute little kart racer called Chocobo Racing (a game I should review sometime). On the menu there was an option to view a trailer for a game that was going to be released later that year called Chocobo's Dungeon 2 which included all the characters from the Racing's roster.
I always kept an eye out whenever I passed by the video game isle in stores, but sadly was never able to find it anywhere. It wasn't until my mid-twenties that I was able to stumble across it at a local used video game store. I'm pretty sure I frightened my wife (girlfriend at the time) when I finally gazed upon a physical copy of a game that long alluded me; because I'm sure I shrieked like a school girl who just saw the latest pop idol.
The game was released in Japan in December of 1998, and was a sequel to Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon (which was never released outside of Japan). The game was released roughly a year later for a North American audience, presumably to get in on the Christmas market. I sadly could not find much more about the development of the game. Any wiki of the game focused more on the gameplay aspect than anything else. Even the official SquareEnix website didn't bring up anything of interest.
I did, however, find out one thing of interest about the design of Chocobo: it is believed that its design is based on Kyoro-chan, a mascot for a chocolate malt ball candy.
"FINAL FANTASY's Chocobo stars in an all-new adventure! In search of treasure, Chocobo and Mog find more than they expect. Joined by other FINAL FANTASY characters, Chocobo must defeat foes and unveil a friend's secrets while exploring a series of mysterious dungeons."
The instruction manual is twenty-nine pages long and covers your standard contents (story, controls, characters, mechanics, etc.). On the character page is a few important character (coincidentally, it's all the characters on the Racing roster) with a small blurb about them.
After booting up your PlayStation you will be welcomed by an opening cinematic rather than the menu screen. The cinematic follows Chocobo as he's exploring, well, a dungeon filled with strong monsters. A behemoth, a large creature standard in the FINAL FANTASY universe, is following our hero down a narrow path. As Chocobo sees a light at the end of the tunnel he's met by Bahamut, a dragon. The behemoth and Bahamut have a stare down which allows Chocobo to sneak away. As the beasts battle, a spark from the dragon's flame burns Chocobo's tail. Turns out, it was actually a dream and Chocobo's tail was kindled by the campfire.
After the cinematic you're greeted by the game's title and a map of the overworld. Once you've pressed start you're brought to the menu screen. The options you can choose from are start a new game (this is the only option to choose from if you do not have a save file), load game, copy a game, or delete a game.
Selecting a new game drops you right into a conversation between Chocobo and Mog, both of which you can rename. Mog, a moogle treasure hunter, is trying to convince Chocobo to explore a dungeon they've stumbled upon to find rare treasures.
Once you're in the game starts with a very brief tutorial (you only get a few tips, the rest you learn from the manual).
To control Chocobo's movement you use the directional buttons, the analog sticks will not work on this game. Chocobo can go diagonally to maneuver through tight corners and some blockades. To attack, or interact with an NPC, you press the X button. The Circle button, while held, allows you to dash. Square, again while held down, allows you to turn Chocobo in any direction. Triangle brings up the character and command screens. The start button displays Chocobo's status, and holding the select button magnifies the mini-map. If you have an item equipped, like a stone or bottle, you can kick it with the L1 button. The L2 button is used to make dialogue text speed up, and the R2 makes the menu cursor faster.
Throughout the game, regardless if you're in a dungeon or not, you have a row of numbers on top of the screen. The top left number is the floor of the dungeon you're on (for example, 1F means first floor). The second number is Chocobo's current level, and to its right is his health. The top right number with the percentage symbol next to it is your energy, or stamina. If this number ever reaches zero, your health will start to diminish every turn you take. Once your health reaches zero, you are booted out of the dungeon and loose all of your items regardless if they were equipped or not.
The gameplay is a rougelike turn-based dungeon crawler, which is a mouthful but it's pretty easy to comprehend. Everything action Chocobo takes one turn, allowing every enemy on the map to take their turn all at once. This means any time you move, attack, use an item, or pick one up your turn is over. Though explaining it this way makes it sound slow, it can actually be fast paced. Each turn your enemies take is immediate and never slows down the flow of battle or your own tactics. At most you might have to wait ten seconds for your enemy to show off their special skill, or however big their Active Time Battle bar goes down. Each enemy, and your partner, has a bar which counts down to when they can next attack. While Chocobo can attack once per turn, some enemies can take a few turns until they do a regular or special attack. The only time the flow of combat might remotely slow down on your end is by using your command screen.
The command screen has five options to choose from: item, examine, feathers, settings, and spell level. In the item menu you can use tonics, cards and tags (items used to give various status effects, save at stairs, escape a dungeon, or add more inventory room), equip weapons and armor, kick items at companions and enemies, drop, empty, and name your inventory.
There are certain stations in the dungeon where you can combine two items to create something new. Once such area is a recycling bin, which you choose any two items to get one new item. There are also stoves which allow you to combine claws (Chocobo's weapon of choice) or saddles (armor) to create newer, more powerful versions.
Examine checks out your surroundings and displays what it is Chocobo is looking at. You can also use this option to understand what a trap does (there are various traps, each with their own effect scattered throughout each dungeon).
Feathers are equips that can alter Chocobo's abilities. With them you can increase your magic, tame beasts, get new abilities, and more. These can only be gained if Chocobo's special equipment breaks or found in special areas. there are three categories of feathers, and are dependent upon the type. There's magic which effects magic abilities, summon which affects how you handle creatures, and status which allows various abilities for Chocobo to have.
Spell level displays the the status of each type of magic and the number of points necessary for the next level up. To work the magic system to your advantage, you need to collect books scattered throughout the dungeon. Each book has a spell that coordinates to its color/element, and you have Chocobo "read" them to use it on an enemy.
Along with spellbooks, Chocobo can collect special stones that are used to summon original FINAL FANTASY summons, like Ifrit or Shiva.
Settings allows you to display both the ATB bar and map to be displayed, allow Chocobo's companion to be controlled by a second player, change the command screen's color or opaqueness, and to adjust the screen's position.
If the multiplayer option is turned on, your friend can take control of Chocobo's partner. They can move about the map without diminishing their ATB bar. They are only able to attack or do a special once per turn, which makes their ATB bar go down. The camera will not follow the second player and will only follow Chocobo so it is easy for them to get lost.
While the game hasn't aged all too well in the past nineteen years it's still a fun game with a lot of challenges to go up against. The graphics are hit and miss, as sometimes Chocobo's outline sticks out like a sore thumb in some areas. The one thing that saves the dated graphics are the designs of the characters, backdrops, and some enemies. It's not a game you should really go out of your way to get, as there is a slightly improved version of the series on the Wii (which, again, is another game I should cover). If you do decide to pick up this classic, you'll certainly be in for a good time from start to finish.
Want to read more retrospective reviews? We got you covered:
Okage: Shadow King
Guardian's Crusade
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Publisher: SquareSoft
Platform: PlayStation, PlayStation 3 (2010 PlayStation store re-release, Japan only)
Release Date: December 23, 1998 (Japan); November 30, 1999 (North America)
Back in the late 90's I had this cute little kart racer called Chocobo Racing (a game I should review sometime). On the menu there was an option to view a trailer for a game that was going to be released later that year called Chocobo's Dungeon 2 which included all the characters from the Racing's roster.
I always kept an eye out whenever I passed by the video game isle in stores, but sadly was never able to find it anywhere. It wasn't until my mid-twenties that I was able to stumble across it at a local used video game store. I'm pretty sure I frightened my wife (girlfriend at the time) when I finally gazed upon a physical copy of a game that long alluded me; because I'm sure I shrieked like a school girl who just saw the latest pop idol.
The game was released in Japan in December of 1998, and was a sequel to Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon (which was never released outside of Japan). The game was released roughly a year later for a North American audience, presumably to get in on the Christmas market. I sadly could not find much more about the development of the game. Any wiki of the game focused more on the gameplay aspect than anything else. Even the official SquareEnix website didn't bring up anything of interest.
I did, however, find out one thing of interest about the design of Chocobo: it is believed that its design is based on Kyoro-chan, a mascot for a chocolate malt ball candy.
"FINAL FANTASY's Chocobo stars in an all-new adventure! In search of treasure, Chocobo and Mog find more than they expect. Joined by other FINAL FANTASY characters, Chocobo must defeat foes and unveil a friend's secrets while exploring a series of mysterious dungeons."
The instruction manual is twenty-nine pages long and covers your standard contents (story, controls, characters, mechanics, etc.). On the character page is a few important character (coincidentally, it's all the characters on the Racing roster) with a small blurb about them.
Selecting a new game drops you right into a conversation between Chocobo and Mog, both of which you can rename. Mog, a moogle treasure hunter, is trying to convince Chocobo to explore a dungeon they've stumbled upon to find rare treasures.
Once you're in the game starts with a very brief tutorial (you only get a few tips, the rest you learn from the manual).
To control Chocobo's movement you use the directional buttons, the analog sticks will not work on this game. Chocobo can go diagonally to maneuver through tight corners and some blockades. To attack, or interact with an NPC, you press the X button. The Circle button, while held, allows you to dash. Square, again while held down, allows you to turn Chocobo in any direction. Triangle brings up the character and command screens. The start button displays Chocobo's status, and holding the select button magnifies the mini-map. If you have an item equipped, like a stone or bottle, you can kick it with the L1 button. The L2 button is used to make dialogue text speed up, and the R2 makes the menu cursor faster.
The gameplay is a rougelike turn-based dungeon crawler, which is a mouthful but it's pretty easy to comprehend. Everything action Chocobo takes one turn, allowing every enemy on the map to take their turn all at once. This means any time you move, attack, use an item, or pick one up your turn is over. Though explaining it this way makes it sound slow, it can actually be fast paced. Each turn your enemies take is immediate and never slows down the flow of battle or your own tactics. At most you might have to wait ten seconds for your enemy to show off their special skill, or however big their Active Time Battle bar goes down. Each enemy, and your partner, has a bar which counts down to when they can next attack. While Chocobo can attack once per turn, some enemies can take a few turns until they do a regular or special attack. The only time the flow of combat might remotely slow down on your end is by using your command screen.
The command screen has five options to choose from: item, examine, feathers, settings, and spell level. In the item menu you can use tonics, cards and tags (items used to give various status effects, save at stairs, escape a dungeon, or add more inventory room), equip weapons and armor, kick items at companions and enemies, drop, empty, and name your inventory.
There are certain stations in the dungeon where you can combine two items to create something new. Once such area is a recycling bin, which you choose any two items to get one new item. There are also stoves which allow you to combine claws (Chocobo's weapon of choice) or saddles (armor) to create newer, more powerful versions.
Examine checks out your surroundings and displays what it is Chocobo is looking at. You can also use this option to understand what a trap does (there are various traps, each with their own effect scattered throughout each dungeon).
Feathers are equips that can alter Chocobo's abilities. With them you can increase your magic, tame beasts, get new abilities, and more. These can only be gained if Chocobo's special equipment breaks or found in special areas. there are three categories of feathers, and are dependent upon the type. There's magic which effects magic abilities, summon which affects how you handle creatures, and status which allows various abilities for Chocobo to have.
Spell level displays the the status of each type of magic and the number of points necessary for the next level up. To work the magic system to your advantage, you need to collect books scattered throughout the dungeon. Each book has a spell that coordinates to its color/element, and you have Chocobo "read" them to use it on an enemy.
Along with spellbooks, Chocobo can collect special stones that are used to summon original FINAL FANTASY summons, like Ifrit or Shiva.
Settings allows you to display both the ATB bar and map to be displayed, allow Chocobo's companion to be controlled by a second player, change the command screen's color or opaqueness, and to adjust the screen's position.
If the multiplayer option is turned on, your friend can take control of Chocobo's partner. They can move about the map without diminishing their ATB bar. They are only able to attack or do a special once per turn, which makes their ATB bar go down. The camera will not follow the second player and will only follow Chocobo so it is easy for them to get lost.
Want to read more retrospective reviews? We got you covered:
Okage: Shadow King
Guardian's Crusade
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