Topic: Chocobo's Dungeon Wii

[that Baby guy]

New trailer on Kotaku.

Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Wii was recently announced, and now a trailer has emerged!

Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon is a turn-based strategy/dungeon crawler hybrid.  It will feature several randomized dungeons, along with various different monsters to fight.  The game is a member of the widely known Mystery Dungeon line, one that has spanned several franchises, from Pokemon to the Tales series.

The game seems to be a direct sequel to Chocobo's Dungeon 2, the only game in the series to be released in North America.  While CB2 allowed co-op play, allowing a second character to control supporting characters such as Shiroma the White Mage, Cid the Mechanic, and Mog the Moogle, there isn't any evidence in the new trailer that suggests that co-op play will be implemented in Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Wii.

The trailer portrays our silent hero, the Chocobo, with just as much characteristic charm as he or she had in CD2, so expect extra cute to mesh with the likely very high difficulty level of the previous title.  This time, Chocobo seems to be working with a Clavat-like partner in regards to some kind of black heart and possibly teleportation/dimension crossing, which isn't too difficult to imagine, as a theme of the previous game was time travel, albeit it, this wasn't too strong of a theme.

The gameplay will consist of a mostly invisible ATB, where every step you take, every attack you make, and every item you intake is one turn, and simultaneously, the enemies and partners in the dungeons will take one turn too, though previously, partners could step an unlimited amount of times in between Chocobo's turns for convenience in moving.  While this may sound complicated, it feels very much like an action RPG in the sense that you control Chocobo directly, without menus or scripts.  Imagine a title like Dark Cloud, with its random dungeons, and you'll find gameplay similar to this, except when you stop moving, everyone else does too.

I don't know what sort of length to expect from the game, as it's predecessor was only five dungeons long, but allowed you to reply all five dungeons in a much more difficult after-mode that puts the first player in direct control of the partners.  It featured cameo from Ultros, as well.

Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Wii is a tentative title, but it is possible that it could be released in North America as Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, only dropping the Wii from its name, as the only other American title in the series is Chocobo's Dungeon 2, so there wouldn't be name conflictions here.  In Japan, however, the first title is Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, and the second is Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon 2, so unless the game is a remake, the title won't remain Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon for release.

[Kairon]

But MAN... why? Square Why?!?!?!?!?!?!

... Those Mystery Dungeon games are HARDCORE man. The entire genre is hardcore. And not good hardcore, but hardcore hardcore. As in just hard. If Chocobo's Dungeon Wii is just a Wii form of that same basic, niche, hair-pulling gameplay, I can't get very excited at all. Geez...

Oh, and where did you get this news of co-op? I've never seen any of that anywhere!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[that Baby guy]

I didn't.  I'm hoping that it maintains the same element of co-op the second one had, which was the only one I played.  I was trying to describe the co-op that was featured in the second, in an attempt to cover what we can look for in the sequel.

I will say this: I bought the game and started playing it with a friend.  Then, we had to stop, and he liked it so much, he bought it for himself, and proceeded to beat the game without me, it's that good.  Then, after you beat the game, it unlocked a super-hard mode, where you play each dungeon as a buddy alone, no Chocobo, level one, and can't bring in any items.  Trust me when I say that this was a game you wanted to level on too.

Oh, a nice feature was spell books.  In the game, you could collect one-time-use spell books, which, in using, you'd eventually level up the spell the book was for, which increased damage and range of the spell.  It was a very nice system that encouraged both using and saving books to level up your spells.  The spells followed the same path as they do in the Final Fantasy series.

[that Baby guy]

I've edited the first post with a lot of new information.

It also seems like puzzle pieces have some function or relevance to the game.

Also, it takes place in an entirely different setting than the Chocobo's Dungeon 2 does.  The town area is much more sophisticated, too.

[Kairon]

The Chocobo is friggin' awesome. I don't see why Square wants to send their cute, personable, and charismatic icon to its death in a hardcore rogue-like game. What they should be doing instead is building a nice, fun, relaxing, casual action-RPG around the character ala Dragon Quest's Rocket Slime.

[Mashiro]

New screenshots =)

Kinda interesting new tidbit:

Quote
The game will have a new job system, in which Chocobo can assume various jobs like White Mage, Black Mage and Knight.

[that Baby guy]

Thanks, Mashiro!  The hopes of a returning 2 player mode are gradually decreasing

Let us know anything else you find about it!

[Mashiro]

No problemo and will do =)

You weren't being sarcastic I hope lol.

[Kairon]

I like the idea that levels will not just be wander-for-the-stair-fests that Myserious Dungeon games make them out to be. Jobs? Bosses? ... I'm cautiously optimistic...

[GoldenPhoenix]

I have never played a Chocobo game, I hope this one turns out good and isn't a quick N dirty money grabbing game.

[Kairon]

It's a roguelike dressed up pretty. Be assured that it's a quickie cash-in.

[that Baby guy]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mashiro
No problemo and will do =)

You weren't being sarcastic I hope lol.

Not one bit.  I have been dying to hear more about this game, since there's only a tiny little bit out there, it seems.  It also makes it easier on me when someone else finds the info and posts it here.  Less work!

[Mashiro]

Ok awesome.

Oh lol @ the new avatar I thought you were Shyguy for a second haha.

[NWR_insanolord]

This game sounds really cool. But what exactly is the turn-based strategy part mentioned in the original post?

[that Baby guy]

It's a difficult concept to explain, but it isn't very tough to figure out when you can see it.

Each floor of the dungeon is actually a grid, you move one step at a time.  Every time you take a step, use an item, or attack, it is considered one turn, and in response, the enemies scattered throughout the dungeon move, attack, or charge a special attack simultaneously.  Ideally, it means that every movement and attack should be the result of strategic planning, but because the monsters in the dungeon move when you do, it doesn't feel very turn-based, because menus are only involved for items.  I believe the game plays like any other Mystery Dungeon game, though I am not sure, as I haven't played any other Mystery Dungeon games.

[Ceric]

I hope the job system is like FF3.  Especially being able to level the job through number of actions instead of experience points.

[Terranigma Freak]

The Shiren The Wanderer series of Mystery Dungeon games are MUCH MUCH better. The SNES remake is coming to DS, hopefully, we'll see the N64 remake come out as well.

[Caliban]

Quote
Originally posted by: thatguy
Each floor of the dungeon is actually a grid, you move one step at a time.  Every time you take a step, use an item, or attack, it is considered one turn, and in response, the enemies scattered throughout the dungeon move, attack, or charge a special attack simultaneously.  Ideally, it means that every movement and attack should be the result of strategic planning, but because the monsters in the dungeon move when you do, it doesn't feel very turn-based, because menus are only involved for items.  I believe the game plays like any other Mystery Dungeon game, though I am not sure, as I haven't played any other Mystery Dungeon games.

Exactly like in Izuna Legend of the Unemployed Ninja for the DS.
Either the Chocobo Mystery Dungeon series is harder than Izuna is or Kairon exaggerated, I didn't think Izuna was that tough.

[that Baby guy]

Well, Chocobo's Dungeon 2 was very difficult, albeit short.  Once you beat the game, you're allowed to replay all the dungeons, except you aren't allowed to bring in any items, and you play as the helpers that followed you around.  The only problem is that they all start at level one rather than the level Chocobo was at.  That's an incredibly difficult challenge, itself.

In the normal game, to be successful, it almost seems like you have to grind a lot of the time, in order to level up spells, your levels, and get strong equipment, too, but if you are a great econimizer, it might not be necessary.  It was, all-in-all, a very difficult game.