Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is a Nintendo DS adventure game by Square Enix. The game features a card-based combat system, as well as multiplayer support. Using the Nintendo WiFi Connection, two to four players may team up for battles, or to participate in mini-games.

The actual gameplay consists of exploring the environment, finding different picture books. The player is transported into the pop-up worlds of the book an has to master different minigames to unlock the next part of the story new cards, chocobos and books.

The stories in the books are mostly based on classical fairy tales, but are slightly changed and adapted to suit the Final Fantasy universe. The protagonists of the stories are chocobos and other Final Fantasy creatures.

Throughout the world of Chocobo Tales are hidden microgames, which are more simplistic minigames. These are not located in pop-up books and are not required for the progress of the game.

Characters
A yellow Chocobo is the main protagonist of the game. You can name him as you wish.

Shirma the white mage, a friend of Chocobo and the player's guide in-game. She also appeared in Chocobo's Dungeon 2 for the PSX, as a playable character. Her name's origin is from the two Japanese words "Shiro" and "Mahou", which literally mean White Magic.

Croma, a black mage. He likes to go on journeys and upon his return from his latest one, he brought a mysterious book. Without thinking, he opened it and inadvertently invited misfortune to the island. His name's origin is Japanese: "Kuro" and "Mahou",literally means Black Magic.


 * Irma.jpg, a secondary antagonist of the game, who also raises Chocobos, and who is trying to beat Chocobo and friends to the book. Snippy and cruel, she actually has a rather tragic past and is not as mean as she initially seems.

Cid, a trustworthy, questionably genius inventor. Though he moved away before the events of the game, this inventor returns to the Island mid way through the story to help Chocobo and friends in their quest to recover the mysterious book.
 * Chocobotales-Cid.jpg

Mog, a moogle, he, or more accurately his alter ego, teaches Chocobo how to pop-up duel and otherwise assists him throughout the story.

Darkmaster Bebuzzu, the antagonist of the story. He once laid waste to nearly the entire world and had been sealed inside the book, but the seal was broken when Croma prompted Chocobo to open it, and Bebuzzu sucked all nearby chocobos into the book. The seal seemed to have weakened his powers considerably. This form of Bebuzzu acts like a dog,with barking and a bookmark-tongue lolling out of its mouth.

Pop-up Cards
Pop-up Cards are earned from minigames and by completing secrets in picture books. Minigames award you with two cards for clearing silver and gold level scores. These cards can be added to one of six decks you can use in pop-up duels. For your first pop-up duel you will only be able to use a three-card deck, which you are unable to revise, but after that Dueler X (Mog) will give you a trainer deck, which can hold one deck of eight cards. Eventually you will obtain another deck which can hold up to six different decks with 15 cards each.

There is only one of each card. A card may be red, blue, yellow, green, or gray. Most cards also have an effect that is triggered after a successful attack or defense. For example, Lamia can use Song, which will inflict Silence on your opponent if your attack connects. Certain cards have a shine to them, these cards have the potential to be stronger than their counterpart card, and end in a "+". For example, Iron Giant can use Overhead Smash, which deals 3 damage, but if your HP is lower than your opponents it will deal double damage. Iron Giant can also use Overhead Smash+, which deals 4 damage, but if your HP is lower than 5 it will deal double damage.

Each card also has red, blue, yellow, and green zones used for determining if an attack is successful. Each of these zones contains a picture of a sword, shield, or is left blank. If a card had a picture of a sword in its yellow zone, then it would check what picture was in the yellow zone on the opposing card. If there is a shield in the opposing card's yellow zone, then the attack has failed. If there is a sword in the opposing card's yellow zone, then the attack connects but only deals half the normal damage.

If the opposing card's yellow zone is blank then the attack is successful and will deal normal damage. Some cards have no sword icon in any of their zones. This means that these cards cannot attack, but most of these have multiple shield icons and an effect that is triggered when they successfully defend against an attack.

Pop-up Duels
In pop-up duels, each player draws three cards on the first turn. During the first phase of each turn, you have 15 seconds to choose which card you are going to play. There is no way to know what cards your opponent has, but during this phase you will be able to see the colors of all the cards in your opponents hand.

You select a card by sliding it onto the top screen with the stylus. The card that is selected first will always move first unless Slow or Haste is in play. If Slow is in play, the affected player will move second, and if Haste is in play then the affected player will move first.

Each player has a health gauge and a CP gauge. CP stands for crystal points, and the gauge can be filled by playing colored cards. For example, at the beginning of a duel one player used a card that is red in color. During the End Phase of the turn that player will add one red CP to their gauge. CP will be added to the gauge even if a card's attack fails. Gray cards will add no CP to the gauge. This gauge is only able to hold 10 crystals, and the oldest crystals will be replaced after the gauge fills up completely. Many cards use moves that are called crystal abilities. These abilities require you to have at least a specific amount of CP of certain colors.

For example, Bahamut's Tera Flare+ requires you to have at least one red CP and two yellow CP in your gauge to be able to use the attack. Using a crystal ability does not get rid of CP you have stored in your gauge, so if a player had three red CP and three yellow CP before using Bahamut's Tera Flare+, then if their attack hit they would still have three red CP and three yellow CP (Bahamut is a gray card and does not add any CP to your gauge).

After each card has had it's chance to attack then each player will draw one new card to replace the one they just used. It is possible to draw the same card that you just played.

The duel ends when one player's HP has been reduced to 0.

It can become very easy for a player to defeat the computer after many duels, because all of your opponents throughout the game use the same cards in the same order. This never changes, so it is possible to memorize the order of the cards your opponent will use.

Promo Cards
Starting in June 2007, three rare cards, used in the pop-up duel game could be downloaded from DS Download Stations. The cards feature Chocobo, the Ragnarok, and Shinryu. Download station locations can be found here.

Alternatively, do the following:

Bonus Cards (EU/AU/NZ versions only!)

Go to the main menu, go to "send" then "Download Pop-Up Card" and enter the following codes while it says "Looking for available Downloads".

Code/Effect

R, Y, Right, Down, L, A	Chocobo

Right, L, Y, Right, Down, Up Omega

A, L, Left, Up, R, R Ragnarok

Down, X, R, Right, A, B	Shinryu

L, Up, Right, B, A, B Ultima Weapon

For Japanese version

Code/Effect

L, Y, R, X, A, B/Chocobo

Right, Left, Right, Left, Y, A/Omega

X, B, R, L, A, Y/Ragnarok

Down, Y, Right, B, Up, A/Shinryu

Up, A, B, R, L, X/Ultima Weapon

Music
As with all Chocobo series, the soundtrack uses music from other Final Fantasy series. These are all included as Disc 1 of the Chocobo to Mahou Ehon Series Original Soundtrack.

Sequel
A sequel to the game has been released for the Nintendo DS, チョコボと魔法の絵本 - 魔女と少女と五人の勇者 Chocobo to Mahō no Ehon - Majo to Shōjo to Gonin no Yūsha, literally "Chocobo's Magical Book - The Witch, The Girl and the Five Heroes".