Final Fantasy is a game series that’s so unanimously popular that even the animals you ride on now have their own games. Add that to the ever expanding Mystery Dungeon series and you have the over-the-top cute fest that is Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon EVERYBUDDY!
Okay so first off, I know that this isn’t the first time these two franchises have crossed streams, with a long and storied history starting all the way back in 1997. I also know that technically this is a remastered port of the 2007 Wii game Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon (not to be confused with the 2008 enhanced Nintendo DS port Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyū DS+, because that would be ridiculous).
Now, the problem with remasters is it’s pretty much the same game and Everybuddy is no exception, taking the exact same gameplay and revamping the graphics. Well that isn’t exactly true here, as this port does add something different into the mix. The game is still all about the roguelike gameplay (‘roguelike’ games are those that incorporate elements of role-playing games with procedural generation) with you exploring randomly-generated locales and taking part in turn-based battles whilst all the time searching for elusive treasures. It does however add one new major gameplay element in the form of ‘Buddys’. The Buddy system isn’t anything new to RPGs but it allows you to unlock little buddies once you’ve picked up enough buddy points to unlock a specific monster type. A nice addition here though is that you can even share the game via couch co-op, with your partner taking the reigns of your selected buddy.
Story-wise it’s nice and simple with you playing as Chocobo, the companion of treasure hunter Cid, going on an adventure and finding a relic that transports you to the world of Memoria. Once in this world you carry on as a hobo, but now in a quest to escape back to your own world whilst simultaneously freeing people from an amnesia created by the powerful Bell of Oblivion. The reason you have to crawl dungeons and restore memories, instead of just looking for the door, is because you need key items to escape Memoria and you can only get those from wasting varying tiers of monsters… yeah, that makes sense.
Dungeons are the name of the game when it comes to gameplay and to be honest they’re way harder than something you’d expect from a cutesy game like this. Multiple times I fell to the fins of a powerful enemy after running out into the fray without planning and forethought. It’s a strategy game and you’ll need a lot of strategy if you want to get out alive, or maybe you can go grind and get Chocobo to the highest possible levels before walking your way through anything with a variety of very fancy hats.
So if you’re in the market for a decent dungeon crawler, or you love all things Final Fantasy then I’d definitely recommend this game for you.
Author: Hal, Plymouth store
