For those who dunno what I'm talking about may not be aware by many, especially me at the time of this. Final Fantasy VIII contained a mini game, this mini game can be accessed after first finding a chocobo forest (Kinda like final fantasy iv) and capturing a chocobo for the first time. This unlocks a... mini game called "Chocobo world" The problem is this game was released in 1999, and this mini game is exclusive to the pocket station which was only made available in japan. Pocket station, is basically common to dreamcast VMU (Visual memory unit) The dream cast memory cards with the screen and buttons on it, is similar in that pocket station and vmu both use data created by a game on the console and transferred to and from for various reason either for a extended mini game or just earning collectibles. This kinda reminds me of earlier concept of the "Giga pets" Or the common virtual pet by tiger electronics. (yeah during the time of the flood of tiger electronic hand held games, where some was hit or miss with people)
Anyway if you ignore the spoiler, is not really informative. But what is informative is that many people like myself never tried this before. at least playing originally on playstation. (For the record i did play final fantasy VIII on psx) The reason why i bought this up is cause i been playing the pc port of final fantasy VIII which is available on steam, in this port, the access to this game is available with emulation i guess fully functional. Is also a achievement requirement. I already finished the game, it wasn't bad for revisit (consider a review later), but i decided to try and 100% the game for all achievements.
The problem is this chocobo world has some achievements, but is also the most boring things i ever had done for a achievement, so i dunno how to handle it. If anyone is worried about spoilers, then just ignore the next part. It just explains the game from what i gathered., is nothing to mind blowing or story based, is just a mini game with almost no real purpose aside from main game.
Here is the launcher window for the game, as you can see the access to chocobo world is here, once again, you must unlock it with saved data after capturing a chocobo first time in game. After you do, go to the menu and access the save option, there will be the chocobo world management for the pocket station, here you have some options. One is HOME, this sends the chocobo to final fantasy VIII, any items or "LOOT" acquired is collect by the save data loaded. (REMEMBER TO SAVE) Next is WORLD. This sends the chocobo back to the chocobo world (Pocket station) to continue playing, in other words you basically transfer between both as if you would with sonic adventure 2 battle on dreamcast with vmu or gamecube with gba sonic advance games with tiny chao garden. Next option is to reset chcobo world save data, and one for help, a short description of the game and how to play, the in game help explains the story, the help from chocobo world option on the main menu launcher program explains how to progress and play.
Now that you start the actual game, you get to guide "Chicobo" or "Boko" I dunno, i guess in chcobo world, is chicobo, and final fantasy VIII is chocobo. Anyway, according to the guide, the idea is to explore, but is pretty basic and automated. The "Bird" walks automatically, you have 4 directional buttons and one button, for menu, or general use. You have to check the map for "Events" and constantly guide him there, you can set his walk cycle pattern and he will automatically do it. There is only four directions, North East South West. Manually guide him or set his automated walk pattern, and that is most of the game. During the events placed on the map, random things will happen.
So for the record, I only know three related to this mini game, Get the chocobo to level 100, fins mini mog and obtain loot from chocobo world. I'm not sure what the real goal behind why is part of the game in the first place, but according to some info, the chocobo should become a GF summon of some kind. Sound familiar yet? Well it should if you played final fantasy VII. There is a Red (Summon) Materia called Choco/Mog You get it first time by visiting the chcobo ranch... farm and talk to the chocobo in the fence, they dance and give you summon materia for choco/mog. (Finally the connection is there.)
I guess i got a bit off track with the topic, but i'm curious to know what you think of this chocobo world mini game? You wish maybe more psx games was ported with such pocket station emulation and achievement requirements? Honestly when i first saw this, it reminded me of VMU and giga pets, i said it already, why i didn't recognize this from 1999, is cause this was never a thing in USA, only japan, sega had VMU in america and a bit more useful for what it did, specially not just as a portable game to play but trading data between 2 vmu your own or friends, or just as some special function depending on games played.
Actual Playstation's pocketstation, only sold in japan.
Final Fantasy VIII Chocobo world running on pocket station. (Snapshot my me actually playing the game)
Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit (VMU)
Tiger Electronic's Giga pet
Final Fantasy VIII Chocobo world running on pocket station. (Snapshot my me actually playing the game)
Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit (VMU)
Tiger Electronic's Giga pet
Anyway if you ignore the spoiler, is not really informative. But what is informative is that many people like myself never tried this before. at least playing originally on playstation. (For the record i did play final fantasy VIII on psx) The reason why i bought this up is cause i been playing the pc port of final fantasy VIII which is available on steam, in this port, the access to this game is available with emulation i guess fully functional. Is also a achievement requirement. I already finished the game, it wasn't bad for revisit (consider a review later), but i decided to try and 100% the game for all achievements.
The problem is this chocobo world has some achievements, but is also the most boring things i ever had done for a achievement, so i dunno how to handle it. If anyone is worried about spoilers, then just ignore the next part. It just explains the game from what i gathered., is nothing to mind blowing or story based, is just a mini game with almost no real purpose aside from main game.
Here is the launcher window for the game, as you can see the access to chocobo world is here, once again, you must unlock it with saved data after capturing a chocobo first time in game. After you do, go to the menu and access the save option, there will be the chocobo world management for the pocket station, here you have some options. One is HOME, this sends the chocobo to final fantasy VIII, any items or "LOOT" acquired is collect by the save data loaded. (REMEMBER TO SAVE) Next is WORLD. This sends the chocobo back to the chocobo world (Pocket station) to continue playing, in other words you basically transfer between both as if you would with sonic adventure 2 battle on dreamcast with vmu or gamecube with gba sonic advance games with tiny chao garden. Next option is to reset chcobo world save data, and one for help, a short description of the game and how to play, the in game help explains the story, the help from chocobo world option on the main menu launcher program explains how to progress and play.
Now that you start the actual game, you get to guide "Chicobo" or "Boko" I dunno, i guess in chcobo world, is chicobo, and final fantasy VIII is chocobo. Anyway, according to the guide, the idea is to explore, but is pretty basic and automated. The "Bird" walks automatically, you have 4 directional buttons and one button, for menu, or general use. You have to check the map for "Events" and constantly guide him there, you can set his walk cycle pattern and he will automatically do it. There is only four directions, North East South West. Manually guide him or set his automated walk pattern, and that is most of the game. During the events placed on the map, random things will happen.
- Find mini mog the moogle, or "MOG" (Who knows, is probably the same mog from that Final fantasy VII mini game at gold saucer) If you find him, he can help in battles.
- Chocobo training, by using the chocobo's naturally favorite food gyshal greens, you can increase his level, increasing HP and i guess some other stuff.
- Moombas, they will provide you with new weapons, is random so some are strong or weak.
- Encounter, what is a final fantasy game without random encounters, obviously here you do battle, by watching and waiting for it to end.
- Distractions, longer chocobo walks around without experiencing a event, he gets distracted, basically all progress is halt and i guess he heals lost hp, but is complete random. (Is not a event marked on the map, it probably happens simply from not finding one soon enough and boredom, he sometimes go to sleep. I did twice, i was bored with him and wake up to sleeping chocobo at camp fire and such. Pressing a button wakes him to continue.)
So for the record, I only know three related to this mini game, Get the chocobo to level 100, fins mini mog and obtain loot from chocobo world. I'm not sure what the real goal behind why is part of the game in the first place, but according to some info, the chocobo should become a GF summon of some kind. Sound familiar yet? Well it should if you played final fantasy VII. There is a Red (Summon) Materia called Choco/Mog You get it first time by visiting the chcobo ranch... farm and talk to the chocobo in the fence, they dance and give you summon materia for choco/mog. (Finally the connection is there.)
I guess i got a bit off track with the topic, but i'm curious to know what you think of this chocobo world mini game? You wish maybe more psx games was ported with such pocket station emulation and achievement requirements? Honestly when i first saw this, it reminded me of VMU and giga pets, i said it already, why i didn't recognize this from 1999, is cause this was never a thing in USA, only japan, sega had VMU in america and a bit more useful for what it did, specially not just as a portable game to play but trading data between 2 vmu your own or friends, or just as some special function depending on games played.
For example in skies of arcadia on dreamcast, there is a character that has a side kick companion that helps locate items, when connected to the controller during gameplay, it beeps to indicate item near by, or some games like sonic adventure 2 you can take chao with you to help boost stats when not playing the actual game, or just having fun with something to do. I think nintendo tried to retain such a idea when gamecube was released and sonic adventure 2 battle was one of the games for it. Instead of the VMU, Nintendo had the Gameboy advance portable game system as well made, and sega had sonic advance made for the system. Is a sonic game that has a second game as well, Tiny chao garden. The idea was the same, you transfer chao from sonic adventure 2 battle to sonic advance's chao garden and vice versa, it kept the general idea but expanded a bit more with more stuff and ways to care for chao similar to the console title. Special link cables for gba and game cube was made for games like this, and some other games used it for various reasons, Wind waker had tingle tuner, which required the gba link, legend of zelda 4 swords was another, final fantasy crystal chronicles... never mind, that enough chatter.
