Chocobo's Dungeon 2
Score: 78% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix Media: CD/1 Players: 1 Genre: RPG/ Action
Graphics & Sound: Chocobo's Dungeon 2 won't blow you away with the graphics. The prerendered 3D characters moving around in the usually-drab dungeons aren't particularly appealing, and they don't mesh very well. The characters themselves are pixilated and ugly, and the dungeons are generally a shade or two of brown/gray/whatever. The spell effects are a little cooler, and the summons even moreso, but as a general rule, the graphics in Chocobo's Dungeon 2 fail to impress. The FMV, on the other hand, is typical Square -- high quality, beautiful, and well-done. The characters are all SD-style, reminding me of the new Final Fantasy IX, which is a Good Thing. Watching an SD Cid goof around in a tank is always amusing. Unfortunately, the sound fails to impress as well. Unmemorable music, the occasional 'wark!' from Chocobo, and annoying sounds for the various people that talk (the Bomb lady drives me up the wall, for example) make for a soundly unimpressive experience. The boss music is a little better, but you don't hear it often enough for it to be worth fighting for. With such a mediocre showing in the graphics and sound departments, one would hope that Chocobo's Dungeon 2's gameplay would redeem the game.
Gameplay: Alas, it does not. CD2 is a watered-down Roguelike, much like Azure Dreams, but it's nowhere near as complex or enjoyable as most free Roguelikes out there. The use of Final Fantasy characters does not make a good game, and while CD2 may be a good introductory Roguelike for kids, it's not the sort of game you'd want to play over and over. You take the role of Chocobo, the yellow bird-thing we all know and love. He, along with his friend Mog and new friends like the omnipresent Cid and a cute white mage, are off to save the world and get some treasure. Plot comes at you in tiny snippets between dungeons, and 95% of the game is spent running around the dungeons themselves. As the dungeons are randomly generated every time you play, there is supposedly 'infinite replayability.' Well, if you enjoy seeing room-corridor-room in a limitless number of combinations, then perhaps CD2 will give you said replayability. But the dungeons are dull and lifeless, with enemies spawning out of nowhere to attack you, repeating textures, and the occasional trap to screw you up. Most of the Roguelike trappings are in Chocobo's Dungeon 2. The game is turn-based, meaning that no one moves until you do. You move 'first,' however, allowing you to get a hit in on a fleeing monster before they move a square away. Careful consideration of timing is important in Roguelikes, and it stays important in CD2. You also have the items with random adjectives (Bubbly Potion, Scorched Card, etc.), and you've got to Identify or use one of a type before you know what it is (perhaps a Haste Potion, or a Sleep Card). Of course, many of the items have a negative effect, so you should make sure that you're all alone before you use an item. You can also do some neat things like combine your weapons (claws) and armor (saddles) into bigger and better items. There's actually quite a bit of tweakability here, which is nice, but at times, it feels like such complexity is lost on the game. So you're going down through endless dungeon levels, fighting enemies. You generally have a helper, who can heal you or steal items from the enemies or whatever. You can cast spells (all classic Final Fantasy types, like Fire and Blizzard and Aero). And you can summon monsters to fight as well. Unfortunately, that's just about all there is to the game. The game is geared towards children, at least graphically, and as such, the lack of some complexity is understandable. But it seems that there's just not enough here.
Difficulty: Many of the bosses are quite difficult, and the game boots you out of the dungeon if you die. Ugh. Careful management of healing items and attack spells will see you through the game, however. Don't be shy about using your Teleport Tags -- you usually get a few in each dungeon, so it's worth jumping out to heal and save. You keep your levels, so going back in will be even easier. However, as it seems that the game is aimed at the younger market, I can imagine them getting frustrated at some of the battles. While it's not a real difficult game, it could be hard for the younger set.
Game Mechanics: The controls take a bit to get used to, and it's still a pain in the butt to cast a spell after you know what you're doing. Attacking and moving precisely on the diagonal is also an irritant, and as a few battles require you to do precise diagonal attacks, it can be quite frustrating. Not to mention, the font used in the game is quite ugly. Once you know what you're doing, it's easy enough to move Chocobo around and attack and whatnot to your liking, but it's more like accepting the issues with the control than learning more precise ways of doing things. PS2: Make sure that the graphical Smoothing option is off. Since Chocobo's Dungeon 2 is absolutely loaded with sprites, you get the unseemly sprite borders on just about everything in the game. The Fast disc speed option works fine, however. There's not much of an improvement -- the game didn't have real long load times to begin with -- but it certainly doesn't hurt. In the end, Chocobo's Dungeon 2 is one of Square's weakest offerings in the United States RPG market. With lackluster gameplay, lackluster graphics, and a lackluster plot, it's hard to find much to enjoy with the game. You're better off downloading one of the many free Roguelikes off the internet (check out The Roguelike News Page for a scad of links) than playing this. Unless you have a burning desire to play a simplified, Chocobo-themed Roguelike, chances are you'll find more game for your buck with most of the other RPGs released this year.
-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon
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