I've had this game for AGES because it looked cool. It's a Chocobo-themed kart racer by Square. What could be cooler? This month's Together Retro seemed like a perfect opportunity to try it out! However, playing it as soon as I'd bought it would not have even saved my opinion of this train-wreck. It's a beautiful game, but there are key components that absolutely kill it. For the record, I played through the story mode once and it took me about two hours.
The presentation of this game is freaking awesome. All the characters are cute and chibi. There are 8 default characters (Chocobo, Moogle, Black Mage, White Mage, Golem, Behemoth, Fat Chocobo, and Goblin) and then several more like Bahamut and Squall whom you can unlock by going through story mode repeatedly. The music on the tracks (there are 8, one for each character, by default and more you can unlock just like the characters) are all cool remixes of tracks in other Final Fantasy games. The graphics are pretty, and pop-in isn't really a problem either, despite that it's noticeable. The story is also funny and light-hearted, and a very pleasant parody of a grander, typical Final Fantasy plot line. It's a fantastic localization job, and probably one of the best I've seen in the era that I can remember off the top of my head. The controls are also totally customizable and I thought they were very tight and responsive.
Where this game really falls apart into an unrecommendable level for me is the power-up system. There are little item balls scattered around the stages just like in Mario Kart, and you can bump into them to pick them up. They each correspond to different spells from Final Fantasy like fire, ice, thunder, doom, mini, and even ultima. They'll drag behind you, and you can have several at once (I never had more than two, but maybe you can have more. I'd guess three). You can even steal ones from opponents by bumping into the item trail behind them (though that is VERY hard).
However, you can also combine all of these spells (save doom, I believe) into a combo of up to three stages (like Fire, Fira, and Firaga) with increasing effectiveness. The first stage is very localized and almost useless, the second one is usually a far better chance to hit, and the third one is a guaranteed hit on EVERY OTHER RACER. This means that ANY power up can be a Mario Kart-esque blue shell on EVERY racer, not just the guy in first place. Ultima also ALWAYS affects every other racer, just with varying degrees of badness with each level. Add to this how your characters have special ability bars and a selectable pre-race ability, once of which is "mug" that allows you to steal a random rival's item whenever it fills up (it fills on a standard timer that cannot be increased), and you have a system that not only makes the game insanely dependant on your luck of your enemies not getting good items and nuking you from halfway across the map, but also a system that can be heavily stacked in one player's favor.
The game even knows how stupidly broken mug is. The fourth level in the story mode (of nine) is where it's introduced along with the ice item. At this point, there are only four racers in these races (out of a possible six) and only the first three items (boost, fire, and ice). Unlike any other new character's skill, the game explicitly tells you what Goblin's ability mug does because it is SO fucking broken and they know it. Due to how few items and how few racers there are, Goblin will get an item for one he's already dragging just about every single time he uses mug. With so few racers, this makes it so he'll ALWAYS be stealing from you as well before you can get up a level three power to fight back with, so he has a total monopoly on those ultra power ups. That level is such an ungodly difficulty cliff that I nearly stopped playing the game right there after some seven tries where he stole victory from me right at the last 5 meters of the race by getting a last second third level ice attack that not only completely stops you but spins you around (usually into a wall). You can't race better. You just need to get lucky to win that stage. The story mode took me 2 hours to beat. 45 minutes for stage 4, 45 minutes for stage 9, and 30 minutes for the other 7 stages.
Verdict: Not Recommended. This is almost a great game, which is why I hate to crap on it so much, but the power-up system is so damn broken that the only real appeal this game has is its presentation. If you can live with a 2-player kart racer where the 4 AI opponents will thrash the shit out of you with their cheap power-ups, then feel free to check this one out, but with SO many fantastic racers, kart racers or otherwise, on both PS1 and N64, this is a very easy game to skip.
The presentation of this game is freaking awesome. All the characters are cute and chibi. There are 8 default characters (Chocobo, Moogle, Black Mage, White Mage, Golem, Behemoth, Fat Chocobo, and Goblin) and then several more like Bahamut and Squall whom you can unlock by going through story mode repeatedly. The music on the tracks (there are 8, one for each character, by default and more you can unlock just like the characters) are all cool remixes of tracks in other Final Fantasy games. The graphics are pretty, and pop-in isn't really a problem either, despite that it's noticeable. The story is also funny and light-hearted, and a very pleasant parody of a grander, typical Final Fantasy plot line. It's a fantastic localization job, and probably one of the best I've seen in the era that I can remember off the top of my head. The controls are also totally customizable and I thought they were very tight and responsive.
Where this game really falls apart into an unrecommendable level for me is the power-up system. There are little item balls scattered around the stages just like in Mario Kart, and you can bump into them to pick them up. They each correspond to different spells from Final Fantasy like fire, ice, thunder, doom, mini, and even ultima. They'll drag behind you, and you can have several at once (I never had more than two, but maybe you can have more. I'd guess three). You can even steal ones from opponents by bumping into the item trail behind them (though that is VERY hard).
However, you can also combine all of these spells (save doom, I believe) into a combo of up to three stages (like Fire, Fira, and Firaga) with increasing effectiveness. The first stage is very localized and almost useless, the second one is usually a far better chance to hit, and the third one is a guaranteed hit on EVERY OTHER RACER. This means that ANY power up can be a Mario Kart-esque blue shell on EVERY racer, not just the guy in first place. Ultima also ALWAYS affects every other racer, just with varying degrees of badness with each level. Add to this how your characters have special ability bars and a selectable pre-race ability, once of which is "mug" that allows you to steal a random rival's item whenever it fills up (it fills on a standard timer that cannot be increased), and you have a system that not only makes the game insanely dependant on your luck of your enemies not getting good items and nuking you from halfway across the map, but also a system that can be heavily stacked in one player's favor.
The game even knows how stupidly broken mug is. The fourth level in the story mode (of nine) is where it's introduced along with the ice item. At this point, there are only four racers in these races (out of a possible six) and only the first three items (boost, fire, and ice). Unlike any other new character's skill, the game explicitly tells you what Goblin's ability mug does because it is SO fucking broken and they know it. Due to how few items and how few racers there are, Goblin will get an item for one he's already dragging just about every single time he uses mug. With so few racers, this makes it so he'll ALWAYS be stealing from you as well before you can get up a level three power to fight back with, so he has a total monopoly on those ultra power ups. That level is such an ungodly difficulty cliff that I nearly stopped playing the game right there after some seven tries where he stole victory from me right at the last 5 meters of the race by getting a last second third level ice attack that not only completely stops you but spins you around (usually into a wall). You can't race better. You just need to get lucky to win that stage. The story mode took me 2 hours to beat. 45 minutes for stage 4, 45 minutes for stage 9, and 30 minutes for the other 7 stages.
Verdict: Not Recommended. This is almost a great game, which is why I hate to crap on it so much, but the power-up system is so damn broken that the only real appeal this game has is its presentation. If you can live with a 2-player kart racer where the 4 AI opponents will thrash the shit out of you with their cheap power-ups, then feel free to check this one out, but with SO many fantastic racers, kart racers or otherwise, on both PS1 and N64, this is a very easy game to skip.