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While Chocobo Racing was a neat little spinoff with some great designs and fanservice, it lacked precision in its controls. The game mechanics are also largely improved in more ways than one. All of this makes for a pleasant surprise given how kart racers as of late are often devoid of more single-player-focused content leaving them feeling barebones in comparison. With the course and roster unlocks all tied to the story, there’s plenty of callbacks to older titles along with character cameos that longtime Final Fantasy fans are sure to enjoy. While the rest of the game is far more enticing, this aspect of Chocobo GP continued to leave a poor taste in my mouth.Ī quick tutorial puts you into the meat of the game, with Chocobo GP opening up and quickly situating you with a fleshed-out story mode with classic kart racing progression.
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It’s also distasteful to think that upon booting up the game you’re immediately greeted with a “login bonus” despite the cost of buying the game outright already, especially when the currency they give you expires after a few months locking further content behind yet another paywall. Square Enix is asking for a premium price yet monetizing Chocobo GP as if it’s a mobile game. It’s not an exaggeration to say this drastically affected my overall experience. I knew with Chocobo GP being a “live service game” it likely included this sort of monetization, I just didn’t expect it to feel so emphasized given the dichotomy of its cutesy exterior with the greedy nature of its downloadable material. It’s strange seeing iconic characters like Cloud or Squall being monetized in this fashion.
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On the flip side, however, Chocobo GP also features a premium currency and seasonal unlocks resembling that of a battle pass in other multiplayer games. The more you progress within the game itself the more items become available which is a nice way of rewarding progression. On the surface, it’s a simple way of offering more customization in the form of utilizing in-game currency to purchase new colors and stickers for racers. Simply put, the game features an in-game shop that’s a rather head-scratching inclusion given the target audience. Given the hot-button nature of that topic, I wanted to talk about that before diving into the rest of the review. However, while I wasn’t able to try out multiplayer due to it not being available during the review period, most of my contention with this title lies with modern trappings that have wormed their way into a lot of recent multiplayer outings.
Kart racer chocobo gp series#
Unlike its predecessor, Chocobo GP boasts a variety of modes and features such as the 64-player mode “Chocobo GP”, multiplayer, time attack, custom mode, series mode, and most importantly a story mode along with split-screen support for most everything available. Nearly 23 years later, Chocobo GP has fixed most of the issues found in the original and introduced some great additions to the racing formula. Granted it’s been years since its predecessor released in 1999, and the constant attempts at its revival punctuated over the years with a sequel intended to come out in 2010 on the Nintendo 3DS. That said, Chocobo GP is a strange title. This year marks the 35th anniversary of Final Fantasy and despite all the potential spinoff revivals, the one I never expected to see was a brand new Chocobo Racing.