Posts with tag ChocoboTales
Posted Jun 8th 2007 5:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Sales
Chocobo Tales, Square Enix's
Final Fantasy spinoff, made for a great release to pass the Spring months with, but it can be hard for a
minigame-filled RPG to elbow its way to the front of a crowd filled with must-have DS titles. If you haven't had a chance to pick up
Chocobo Tales yet, maybe Amazon's latest sale will be what finally motivates you. The online shop has slashed $10 off of the game's usual cost, bringing it down to a budget price of $19.99. This bargain ends today though, so quit being lazy about buying it!
See also: DS Fanboy Review: Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
[Via CAG]
Posted May 16th 2007 6:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Fan stuff
If you're planning to drink some of Suntory's execrable
Final Fantasy Potion, you may as well do it in style, by pouring it into an adorable
Chocobo-head mug. Or you could skip the Potion and fill the mug with something that you may actually enjoy. It really depends on what's more important to you: flavor or
Square Enix product synergy.
Now when you sit down on your Chocobo cushion to play some
Chocobo Tales, you can have up to 15 ounces of, uh ... if not Potion, how about "choco-late" milk? It's less thematically appropriate, but it's phonetically appropriate, and has the added benefit of being delicious.
NCSX is taking preorders for this $18 mug, to ship in July. While you're shopping, check out the other Square Enix preorder of the day: cool
Dragon Quest Monsters toys.
Posted Apr 27th 2007 4:05PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Interviews, Imports
In a recent interview with 1UP,
Square Enix's marketing communications manager gave us some insight on the process behind adapting
Chocobo Tales' packaging for the US. We happen to prefer the Japanese version's modest artwork over North America's chaotic cover, but we understand that the company had a younger audience to appeal to and a different message it needed to convey.
We've collected DS covers from Square Enix's Japanese and US releases after the post break for you to compare and decide which one you like best. To its credit, the company hasn't completely mangled its DS
boxarts so far (The same can't be said about
Nintendo's bastardization of Hotel Dusk's cover). How do you feel about
Children of Mana's simplified design? Does
Final Fantasy 3's stripped packaging appeal to your western tastes? And do you agree with 1UP that publishers have been doing a better job with dressing their products?
Continue reading Comparing Square Enix's Japanese and US boxart
Posted Apr 12th 2007 11:00AM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Reviews
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is a lot like most modern cartoons that seem to be aimed at the younger set -- you know, Disney and Pixar and Cartoon Network in the after-school hours. Like these cartoons,
Chocobo Tales is colorful and simple, with a solid storyline that isn't really anything special. It's fun, but not deep. But also like those cartoons,
Chocobo Tales is peppered with hilarious one-liners and jokes that do show off some depth and appeal for an older set of fans. It's definitely cliché to talk about something that appeals to gamers of all ages, but that may well be the best possible description for the latest
Final Fantasy spinoff.
Also, it's just about the cutest thing
ever.
Continue reading DS Fanboy Review: Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
Posted Apr 5th 2007 7:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Reviews, Metareview
We've had our eye on
Chocobo Tales for quite some time now, watching with fevered anticipation that the spin-off game would provide us with some more entertainment on our handheld system already populated by other highly-entertaining games. Now that the game has hit retail and been reviewed, we can finally see if the full NTSC version is for us. Not that
imports aren't our thing, mind you, just we usually steer clear of the
Square-Enix titles (lots of text, don'tchaknow).
So, what did the critics have to say? Let's check it out:
- IGN (83/100) doesn't want the presentation to fool you, the game is fun for older gamers: "The game might feel a bit "kiddy" in its focus, what with those great, big, cute Chocobo eyes peeking at you from the box art. But even though the idea might skew young, the product is surprisingly enjoyable for the older crowd."
- GamePro (80/100) finds the game to be a melting pot of good ideas: "Chocobo Tales is about quick and easy fun. The Crayola art style, pop-up book style graphics and fable stories may make it seem like a kiddie title and technically, it is. However, the game is fun enough that and packed with enough nods to diehard fans that Final Fantasy fans of all ages should give it a look."
- New York Times (75/100) has issues with the card system: "Tales has a ridiculously cumbersome system in which you can't easily swap one card for another or compare two cards; even finding a particular card in your collection requires a tedious search. The designers would find it challenging to come up with a worse system. This flaw is surprising in a game that is otherwise beautifully designed."
The other remaining reviews come from Japanese import copies of the game, so as soon as more reviews of the English NTSC version come in, we'll update the post. In the meantime, discuss!
Update: Added the New York Times review.
Posted Apr 2nd 2007 2:25PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News
What a week! At this rate, we could almost
use a DS drought, just to give us time to save up some cash! But we shouldn't complain, since our counterparts in the UK and Australia aren't having much of a week as far as releases go. Isn't that always the way of it? One week, we get a ton of games and they get none, and the next week it's reversed. The only thing we can
ever count on is that Japan is going to debut a veritable
truckload of new titles. No matter what's going in the rest of the world, the Japanese must have their new DS games.
US releases
- Cake Mania
- Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
- Honeycomb Beat
- Konami Classics: Arcade Hits
Continue reading DS releases for the week of April 2nd
Posted Feb 21st 2007 4:45PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Screens
Oh, that little scamp of a Chocobo -- what will he get into next? If these screens are any indication, it looks like he's getting into a giant beanstalk. Considering the upcoming
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is peppered with references from children's stories, that's probably exactly what it is ... but really, how many times do we need to
see the beanstalk here? It's all over this latest batch of screens!
Check after the jump for
selected screens -- only one beanstalk included.
Continue reading Kweh! Or, fresh new Chocobo screens
Posted Feb 21st 2007 10:00AM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News
This year's contender for Most Precious Game finally has a release date stateside:
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is slated to hit shelves April 3. Since we are suckers for everything
Final Fantasy-related, it's a sure bet that we've already got the date circles in our calendars ... and if you saw all these
trailers, you probably want to borrow our marker.
Posted Jan 10th 2007 5:10PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News, Video
Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book is coming to the US in April, just not under that name. For the American release, the game will be retitled
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales. The minisite is pretty bare at the moment, but we'll be keeping an eye out. For now, you'll just have to content yourself with the
gameplay video embedded after the jump.
Continue reading Wark! Chocobo gets updates
By the time 
