Chocobo World

Chocobo World is a PocketStation game compatible with Final Fantasy VIII. In this game, the player controls Boko the Chicobo, who embarks on a quest to find MiniMog, and is assisted by Moomba and Cactuar. As no PocketStations were ever released outside of Japan, international PlayStation owners could not play this game. Yet its connection to the main game was still programmed into every localization of Final Fantasy VIII, leaving part of the game impossible for many players to take part in. Remedying the problem, Chocobo World was ported and included in the PC version of Final Fantasy VIII.

Gameplay
Chocobo World comprised of black and white pixel graphics. The game can be played exclusively, but is intended as a minigame to Final Fantasy VIII. To play in conjunction with Final Fantasy VIII, the player must find Boko in the world of Final Fantasy VIII. This accomplished, the player is permanently given a user interface for communicating between the two virtual worlds. Here the player may send Boko into Chocobo World to gain experience and collect items, which are transferred back to Final Fantasy VIII.

Exploration
In Chocobo World, Boko perpetually wanders around a nondescript landscape in search of "events" to interact with, such as enemy battles, friendly encounters with Moomba and Cactuar, and "special" events. Depending on how the player sets the "Move" option, Boko may break from his path to navigate to the nearest event perpendicular to his direction of travel. Players can also turn off the "Event Wait" option, eliminating the need for player input to advance, although choosing this option prevents Boko from encountering special events. At any time, players can intervene and halt Boko's movement in favor of manually controlling him.

Events are shown on the map as black dots, while Boko's location is represented by a flickering black dot. When an event is cleared, it vanishes on the map, only to be replaced by another in a random location. When Boko gains a level of experience through battling enemies, the map resets and randomly redistributes events across the world.

Battle system
Battles are the most common event the player encounters in Chocobo World. Upon confronting an enemy, the player is thrust into the battle screen. Once engaged in battle, the player's only option is to fight until either the enemy or Boko is defeated. Combatant health is represented by numerical hit points (HP) displayed on the far sides of the playing screen; whoever's count of hit points reaches zero first loses the battle. Combat relies on a variant of the Active Time Battle (ATB) system featured in Final Fantasy VIII. In battle, Boko and his opponent each have a time counter; the first combatant's counter to reach zero is allowed to attack, upon which both time counters reset and the process repeats itself. By alternately pressing the left and right buttons, players can speed up Boko's time counter, reducing the time required for him to attack. Upon winning a battle, Boko receives a magic stone which is randomly placed on a tic-tac-toe-style board. If three stones line up in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row, Boko gains a "level" of experience, which increases his hit point count in Chocobo World and his strength in Final Fantasy VIII. If the player finds Mog within Chocobo World, he will assist Boko in battle as a last resort, i.e., if Boko himself is defeated, Mog will attack the enemy with an attack similar to the Limit Break in Final Fantasy games). If Mog's attack fails to defeat the enemy, he leaves his partner and Boko loses the battle. After losing any battle, Boko must rest to restore his hit points, but the player is allowed to continue the game without penalty for defeat.

In some events, Boko is approached by Moomba, who gives his friend a weapon. A weapon is simply a series of four numbers that determines Boko's attacking power. During battle, the computer randomly chooses one of the four digits on the weapon number to determine the damage Boko inflicts, or the number his attack subtracts from the enemy's hit point count. If, for example, the weapon is 8531, then Boko's damage dealt to the enemy will be randomly chosen from the digits "8," "5," "3," and "1".

Players can have their chicobos battle each other using the PocketStation's optical communication function.

Collecting items
Another event in Chocobo World involves Cactuar finding items for Boko. Cactuar appears on the event screen and gives Boko one of four items, labeled A, B, C, and D. Although these items are useless in Chocobo World, they can be "imported" to the world of Final Fantasy VIII to be accessed in the player's item inventory. Depending on the player's rank, the probability of Cactuar finding "D" rank items is greatest, but they are among the most common items in Final Fantasy VIII (e.g., basic status recovery items). Conversely, the probability of Cactuar finding "A" rank items is lowest, but they are very rare items.

Plot
In the game, there are four friends: Boko, MiniMog, Moomba and Cactuar. One day, MiniMog decided to find a treasure in "Scary Mountain", and leaves for it alone. When MiniMog failed to return, the three friends decided to rescue MiniMog. While Boko leads the quest, Moomba went out to search for weapons while Cactuar searches for items.

Controls
The game uses directional keys to move Boko north (up), south (down) respectively. Another button on the Pocketstation opens the Menu Screen, while the PC version uses the CTRL button.

Events
In the world map accessible in the menu screen, there are black dots strewn around, representing Events. These events include: