Chocobo racing (minigame)

Chocobo Racing is a recurring minigame in the Final Fantasy series introduced in Final Fantasy VII, where the series' mascot animals, chocobos, race for victory. Different versions of the minigame have appeared in different games, but the minigame is an optional feature apart from the one instance in Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy VII
Chocobo racing is played in Gold Saucer on a phantasmagorical race track that has two versions: a short and a long course. The player can bet on the other chocobos racing, but the highest classes are only accessed by entering the race with the player's own chocobo, obtained by capturing in the wild and raising them in the Chocobo Farm. Different colored chocobos have different attributes that can help them during the race. Feeding the chocobos special greens on the farm and breeding high-ranking racing chocobos together raises the player's chocobos' stats; speed, stamina and intelligence.

Chocobo racing is optional part of the game apart from the one instance where Cloud Strife is forced to enter a race to win a pardon from Corel Prison for himself and his friends, but some equipment and Materia can only be obtained as prizes from the races, and racing makes it much easier to raise the ultimate chocobo, as chocobos that have reached higher ranks in the races have better chances of producing colored offspring.

Final Fantasy X
The player can race chocobos in the Calm Lands and Remiem Temple.

The player can play four types of chocobo races on the Calm Lands, used as a method of taming and training wild chocobos. The player can find an NPC on the plains that lets Tidus race chocobos and after having tamed a chocobo, the player can take the chocobo for a ride around the Calm Lands. In the hardest race the racer must catch as many balloons on the track as possible while avoiding incoming birds. The racer with the better final time wins (a bird adds three seconds while a balloon removes three seconds from the racing time). In order to win the Sun Sigil for Tidus's Celestial Weapon a time of 00:00 is required.

In Remiem Temple the player rides a chocobo though the maze of platforms below the temple and has to reach the finish mark at the bottom before the opponent chocobo. The first time the player wins the challenge they will get the Cloudy Mirror, an item needed in making the Celestial Weapons. The chocobo race can be run numerous times for additional prizes, but each prize can only be won once for a total of five prizes.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
The inspiration for the chocobo racing in Final Fantasy XIII-2 may derive from Final Fantasy VII, as it has been confirmed that Serendipity is inspired by Gold Saucer. The racing is similar, with the player racing with chocobos hey have captured from the wild and then raised, chocobos running on a track and there being a choice of short or long course. The player can bet on the race's outcome, and race with their own chocobo. Similar to Final Fantasy VII chocobos have a boost gauge that slowly refills and is drained when the chocobo dashes. The chocobos' basic stats (speed and stamina) are shown before the race so the player can predict the outcome, but as in real world sports betting, chocobos with lower odds net more prize money if they happen to win, whereas in Final Fantasy VII the placement of prizes is just random.

There are five race tiers of varying difficulty and each yield different items upon succeeding, and the player must move up ranks by winning races. Secret races also exist, which can be entered after clearing specific conditions. The player can give their chocobo different skills that can be activated during race, and with the "Race Point" system a single chocobo can only enter a limited amount of races before forced to retire.

Chocobo racing is an entirely optional part of the game.