TGS 2008: Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu DS+ Hands-On

TOKYO--Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Dungeon was released on the Wii earlier this year, and now it heads to Nintendo's handheld under the name of Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu DS+. In the game's trailer and intro, the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed chocobo is seen sitting shotgun while Cid speeds through the desert, heading straight for a tower. From what we gathered, this will be similar to the Wii version but with added content. At the Square Enix kiosk at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, we explored the tower, which acted as a tutorial level.

You play Chocobo and Cid follows you around obediently. We were able to kick enemies using the A button and dash using the B button. The game is an action role-playing game, so you'll have a health meter that indicates how many hits you can take. We had to maneuver around the cracks in the floor that would let off steam and damage our poor, oversized chicken. As we moved further into the dungeon, we picked up what looked like a saddle and the next room had something green on the ground that we can only assume was a gysahl green.

We walked into a portal and was suddenly transported into a room with a bat. After kicking the bat a few times, we headed toward the stairs. The next room had a lot more bats, so we had to fall back in the narrow hallway and take them one by one at the bottleneck. It was a bit difficult to maneuver around large groups of enemies since your chocobo can kick in only four directions and is unable to swing a sword in a wide arc to take out surrounding enemies. That may come later; we'll have to see. Another clue that this was a tutorial level was that Cid was healing us the entire time. Once we leveled, we were taken into a full motion video cutscene where a girl with pink pigtails was holding a crystal. All of a sudden, you get sucked into a ray of blue light and as you're flying, you'll listen to a lovely Japanese song and see another girl with pink hair but in a white mage outfit. She picks up a baby with green hair, and we see him grow up in an excellent-looking cutscene. Once it was all over, we landed in a town; when we came to, we bumped into a portly fellow who was probably the local mayor.

We'd like to see more of this version of Chocobo Dungeon--preferably in English--and see how the game progresses. The FMVs looked great and it's really hard to resist those big, blue chocobo eyes. Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu DS+ will be released on October 30 in Japan, so hopefully Square Enix can start working on a North American version soon.