A look back at: Chocobo's Dungeon 2

While I didn't really pay as much attention to the first Chocobo's dungeon, that is in part due to not being translated as well as this one. Here it's more of the same thing for those who are already familiar with the Mystery Dungeon games. And well, this and its predecessor incorporate Final Fantasy elements of course, all the creatures you know and love and the items too. I'd argue it's one of the cutest looking games ever, especially in its FMV sequences which are wonderful.

So again, randomized dungeons, wandering enemies, random traps and chests, losing all equipment if you die in a dungeon, and a partner that is used to help out whenever necessary. And of course the village is the hub, where you can do things on the side as needed. Music is very nice throughout, enemy ranks can get tough, but the items I think are the showstealers of this game. Refilling bottles in springs, finding out what they do upon consumption or kicking them. The same with cards and tags, all have varying effects. Spellbooks being the ONLY source of magic leads to a little bit of grinding in and around times, but these are easy to come by with bookshelves. Recycle boxes change items around for the price of two, stoves are great for refurbishing existing equipment, and it is quite annoying to have to lose your equipment in the middle of the game or if it breaks somehow. So the fun value is a total rollercoaster and that's all I can say about that. One minute you'd cruise through after doing some grinding of your own and the next the enemies show up to surround you with all sorts of problems. Oh, and there's technically a time limit, as Doom the reaper will come in to destroy if you take too long or if you're unlucky with chests or cards.

As cute as it is, plot-wise it can get sad since it revolves around Shiroma the white mage and her mysterious time-traveling or what not. It's quite interesting how a lowly enemy very early in the game ends up being a final boss since Mog the Moogle shoved him out of the way in the beginning, and having the dungeon being sentient is both dangerous and hilarious somehow. The FMVs are the real storytelling and I liked them even without the words (sorry Bahamut, I was bored with your speeches). Isn't it strange that a sequel game got a better translation? They could have renamed this one so that people don't get curious as to why the first one wasn't as well-translated.

A look back at: Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon

 Well, surprise! Guess I did play something Final Fantasy-related after all. Always gotta look out for those weird spinoffs as they might be hidden gems, and that's the case here. Now, when you think of Mystery Dungeon, you'll probably first think of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games perhaps, or if you're a real retro nut, actual roguelikes. Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon is the Final Fantasy variant of such a thing, and well, it's got Final Fantasy elements incorporated into a rather fun roguelike game.

It does the interesting thing by combining the already popular Active-Time Battle System with the real-time movement of roguelike battles. It's sort of reminiscent of certain action RPGs I've played, such as the Ys games, but with a little more interesting strategy with waiting for your bar to fill, in other words you don't have to to do an attack, but it's probably better if you could for best damage. Gameplay-wise, I hate how exploring seems to do the maximum drain to my stamina, yet the randomized dungeon really does emphasize this kinda playing style, cause you wanna see everything before moving into the next floor. You wanna get all the items you can, and get as much experience from monsters as you can. And those traps sure make things even harder.

It's a shame that with a randomized dungeon, there's not much you can really push for in plot, but Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon at least tries well enough. You do go through floors, get the help of a mysterious hooded figure, and fight a couple of bosses, but the whole thing is just a chocobo and a moogle adventuring together without much else in substance. What really sells this better than other games has to be the FMV cutscenes. Hey, it's Square doing this. Their FMVs for mainline Final Fantasy games are great enough!