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Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is an adventure game composed of a collection of minigames developed by h.a.n.d. and published by Square Enix, released in 2006 Japan and 2007 in the rest of the world for the Nintendo DS. This game features single-player, multiplayer, and Nintendo Wi- Fi Connection modes.

This game belongs to the Chocobo series and is a Final Fantasy spin off as it features common elements and creatures of these series. It generally received positive reviews from the gaming press and was praised for its original and interesting gameplay and storyline.

Chocobo Tales features different minigames, with a mix of three gameplay role-playing, exploration and card battles.
The cast of characters includes Chocobo, a White Mage (Shirma), a Black Mage (Corma), Irma (leader of the villain who plan to free Darkmaster Bebuzzu), Greeble and Peekaboo (a pair consisting of a skinny blue Chocobo, and a fat pink Chocobo), Jail Birds (a group of black Chocobo acting and dresses as stereotypical crooks, and Volg a black Chocobo who works alongside Greeble and Peekaboo).

Chocobo Tales takes place in a medieval universe quite similar to Final Fantasy I and V; however you will see some airships as well. The story reveals that the Chocobo have to enter magical picture books which are taken from popular existing fairy tales (Aesop (ancient Greece)and Grimm s Fairy Tales) and folk stories, but adapted and often starring a Chocobo as the main character.
The main character, the Yellow Chocobo has just learned that one of his friends has been kidnapped by an evil book and turned into two dimensional card. So Yellow Chocobo decides to rescue his friend and put an end to the evil activities of the nightmare book.

You will have eight storybooks to discover, each composed of two volumes, and the separate volumes often reference separate stories. You will have to explore the several environments to find the picture books.
Once you managed to find one of them you be immediately transported into the book and there you will have to complete the minigames to be allowed to open the path to the next part of the game.
You will also have to complete several microgames that are scattered throughout the game s world. They are not located in the books so you do not have to achieve them to advance in the adventure.

While playing you will also have the possibility to participate in combat, called pop-up duels. These battles utilize a deck constructed from cards you have collected from story events, minigames, microgames, or other characters.
For each turn, both players start with three cards in their deck and must use one of these to battle the other. The player who chooses their card first will attack first, but players must also watch which which colored cards are in the opponent s immediate hand, to avoid a surprise attack.

These decks are used to defeat the game s bosses in either pop-up duels or minigames. Both modes can connect either through local wireless or Nintendo Wi-Fi and the mini-games are multi-card and single-card download multiplayer too. You can play 2 up to 4 players for battles or to participate mini-games.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales reviews