‘Chocobo’
Anyone who has played the Final Fantasy series has heard of it or will be with them even now. Overall, these creatures resembling chicks and ostriches in size have been with users in various forms since Final Fantasy 2, including monsters, NPCs, summoned animals, and mounts. And now, it has established itself as one of the mascots that come to mind when thinking of the Final Fantasy series, and has appeared as a character representing Final Fantasy in other games.
In addition, paying attention to the cuteness of Chocobo, several spin-off series featuring Chocobo were produced. One of them was ‘Chocobo Racing’, which was released for the PlayStation in 1999. This game features characters familiar to Final Fantasy users such as Mogri, Behemoth, Fat Chocobo, Black Mage, and White Mage, with Chocobo as the main character. The reinterpretation drew the attention of fans of the Final Fantasy series.
And on March 10, 2022, 23 years later, the ‘Chocobo GP’, newly refined to match the Nintendo Switch, will be released. Unlike the previous game, we would like to take a closer look at what kind of game ‘Chocobo GP’ is, which supports Korean, has confirmed its release in Korea, and is also distributing a trial version.
■ Woodangtangtang kart racing melted with original magic and character-specific skills
In addition to Final Fantasy 14, racing mini-games with Chocobo as the main material have appeared several times in the existing Final Fantasy series. As such, it is difficult to explain why it was released as a side story series simply because Chocobo and the characters from the original appeared cute. Also, it is difficult to challenge competitors that have already established themselves in the market with kart racing, where only skins are replaced with Final Fantasy knowledge.
Square Enix paid attention to the unique magic system of Final Fantasy from the time of Chocobo Racing to solve these problems. In the Final Fantasy series, there is a higher level magic for each magic like Fire-Pyra-Pyga-Pija, and this system is grafted onto items of a kart racing game.
Items in Kart Tracing are not strengthened even if they eat the same item, and they have it in reserve, or are set so that they cannot hold more than three items. However, Chocobo Racing can accumulate up to three Manastones during course driving. If you obtain the same manastone, it will be upgraded to a higher level magic, and it is possible to upgrade up to a higher level magic corresponding to -A in the maximum Final Fantasy series.
The magic of the Final Fantasy series that appeared in Chocobo Racing is Fire, Thunder, Aero, Blizzard, etc. Each magic is upgraded to a higher level magic, and performance is added or the enemy can be incapacitated for a longer period of time. For example, Fire is a type of magic that shoots a ball of fire at the enemy in front of it and blows it away. Upgrading to Pygar causes a fireball to circle the course once, incapacitating all enemies in its path once.
Thunder is a magic that makes lightning strikes on enemies on the course and makes them unable to drive for a while. It has a shorter time to tie up competitors than fire, but it has the advantage of being able to attack opponents who have not hit a barrier even in thunder state. Each time it is upgraded, the inability to drive becomes longer, and characters from all courses can be designated as targets. Blizzard is an attack like landmines or bananas in other kart racing games, but when you upgrade to Blizzard, all characters on the course except yourself are covered with ice crystals, interrupting driving for a while, and then putting them into airborne state.
In addition to reorganizing the original magic for kart racing, a rare item in other kart racing games was implemented with magic. For example, the magic of reducing the opponent’s running speed to slow them down for a certain period of time, or the death sentence that causes the opponent to leave the course after a few seconds after activation. saved the
In the previous Chocobo Racing, if the same Manastones were not acquired in succession, the upgrade was not possible. In accordance with this, some of the effects of the higher level magic have been changed. Unlike in Chocobo Racing, Pyga in Chocobo GP is changed to a magic that drops a huge fireball at the user running in first place, and when the fireball falls, all competitors running nearby become airborne.
■ The thrill of racing by adding different abilities, machines, drifts and tricks for each character
In Chocobo GP, each character was encouraged to formulate different racing strategies based on their appearance as well as their different driving characteristics and unique abilities. The straight course driving ability is good, but the cornering is good for flying abilities that avoid attacks coming from the ground such as Chocobo, Blizzard and Fire, which require careful cornering, but the cornering is excellent with Mogri, which has a slightly lower straight-line driving ability, and the rush ability that runs a short distance while pushing the enemy. Excluding the Mann abilities, the Behemoth has shown its distinct characteristics, such as the Behemoth with instantaneous acceleration, the slow speed but excellent cornering, and the Fat Chocobo, which can drive safely without brakes on some courses.
These unique elements of Chocobo Racing were transferred to the Chocobo GP as well, while some directing changes were made to further enhance the individuality of each character. The charge of Behemoth had previously changed the booster effect to an orange color, but in Chocobo GP, the Behemoth carried the tank it was riding on and sprinted forward, showing a more advanced direction. In addition, as the character lineup has been partially changed and technology has been developed, abilities that have not been shown before are added in Chocobo GP, or some character abilities have been replaced.
For example, Chocobo had a booster ability as standard during Chocobo Racing, but this time it has been changed to an ability that summons a ring that increases speed when passing at regular intervals. Shiroma and Vivi, on the other hand, retain the ability to block the enemy’s magic and upgrade their barriers and magic stones to counter counter. ‘Gilgamesh’, newly added to this Chocobo GP, has the ability to randomly install the sword he is holding on the course, and other characters are temporarily incapable of driving when they touch the sword. In addition, the new characters added to this work will be equipped with unique abilities, such as teleportation or sprinting in an instant invincible state, and show a different play aspect from the previous work.
In addition, by introducing drift and tricks that were not previously available, the fun as a racing game was further strengthened. In particular, if the drift is used when using the booster, the booster will last longer and the booster’s utilization, which was limitedly used only on the straight-line course in the existing Chocobo racing, will increase. Normal, grip, and speed type machines have been added for each character, making it possible to choose the right type according to the track and strategy.
■ Maps, various modes, and online GP, which are welcome for fans of Papan, provide an expanded experience
Chocobo Racing, released in 1999, mainly featured a story mode that deals with the adventures of Chocobos and their colleagues in search of a ‘box that grants any wish’. After Chocobo got a roller as a gift from Sid and test drove it before leaving for the trip, he drew the attention of Final Fantasy fans by presenting courses themed around various locations from each Final Fantasy series, such as Mogri’s Forest, Mysidia, and Mithril Mine. .
This Chocobo GP also has courses with themes of various locations in Final Fantasy. While Chocobo Racing centers around the towns and dungeons of the Final Fantasy series released before 1999, Chocobo GP also features several locations released since then. According to the TGS 2021 special broadcast, in addition to the test courses that appeared in Chocobo Racing, courses with themes such as Jojo Village from Final Fantasy 6, Alexandria from Final Fantasy 9, and Gold Saucer from Final Fantasy 7 will be introduced. In addition, the special characters ‘Cloud Stripe’ and ‘Squall Leon Heart’, which are unlocked when you play the story mode several times in Chocobo Racing, will also appear in this work.
The main modes of Chocobo GP include ‘Story Mode’, where you acquire characters and machines while scanning with Chocobo, ‘Time Attack Mode’, which competes for completion time by circling three laps of the chosen course. Single-player content prepared since Chocobo Racing, such as ‘series race mode’ and ‘custom race mode’, which competes for the first place, has been transplanted to Chocobo GP. In addition, it supports ‘multiplayer mode’ to enjoy online or local multiplayer, and ‘Chocobo GP mode’, an online tournament where up to 64 players can compete.
Chocobo GP will be released on the Nintendo Switch on March 10th, and you can download the story mode prologue and the free trial version ‘Chocobo GP Lite’ that can only be played locally or online from the Nintendo eShop.
