3. Final Fantasy VIII Chocobo World

Now, even though Chocobo World is a separate mini-game, I highly recommend playing it first as the items you get here can then be transferred to your Final Fantasy VIII. So, what IS Chocobo World? Well, originally, it was a game for the handheld Sony Pocketstation, which doubled-up as a handheld console and a memory card peripheral accessory that also allowed players to transfer items from Chocobo World to their Final Fantasy VIII main game save on the PS1. However, the Pocketstation was never released outside of Japan. Now, with the release of Final Fantasy VIII, gamers outside of Japan now have access to this simple but fun mini-game. In it, you control Boko the Chocobo, and you wander around a map fighting monsters, finding items, etc. Numerous items within Chocobo World can only be found within Chocobo World, but not the main game of Final Fantasy VIII, meaning Chocobo World is the only way to obtain these items for your main game save. The controls and game mechanics are extremely simple.

The arrow keys control Boko's movements, Ctrl brings up the menu, and Esc closes the game. It's not very complicated. The game menu has six screens to navigate through: the map, items, status, move settings, event wait toggle, and Mog settings. The map is exactly what you would expect it to be; a map, with black dots representing 'events'. Boko's location is the flashing black dot. The items screen shows how many items of each rank Boko has. The stats screen shows Boko's weapon statistics, level, HP, and his ID number. The move setting screen adjusts the 'move' settings, which basically determines how long it takes for Boko to reach an event with no player input. The event wait toggle screen allows you to choose whether you want to initiate an event automatically, or if the game should wait for you to press the Ctrl key to initiate it. The Mog screen is only accessible once you have found Mog and determines Mog's status. If he is set to 'standby' he will assist Boko in random battles.

Now, the battles in Chocobo World work based on a timer system. Both Boko and the enemy he is facing will have separate time counters, with Boko's being the number on the right, and the monster's being the number on the left. The first one to reach 0 determines who goes first. Now, this might seem luck based, but you can use the arrow keys to manipulate the numbers. As Boko progresses through Chocobo World, leveling up and all that, he will acquire higher tier weapons. Each weapon will have four numbers, with one number being chosen at random. Whichever number is selected determines the damage dealt to the enemy.

In order to level Boko up, you will, of course, need to fight monsters and win through random encounters. However, there is no experience. Rather, for every enemy Boko defeats, he acquires a magic stone which is randomly assigned to one of nine points on a 3x3 grid. Every time he gets 3 in a row, he gains a level, with the grid obviously being reset. So, basically, kind of like tic-tac-toe. There are four different enemies that Boko can encounter, and one boss fight. The regular enemies Boko runs into is determined by his level. The first enemy type are Creeps, which you will encounter from the beginning of the game. Red Bats will start appearing once Boko is level 10 and higher. Blobras will appear once Boko is level 30 and higher, and Wendigos will appear once Boko is level 70. The boss fight, Demon King, can only be accessed once Boko is level 100, and only after Boko's girlfriend, Koko, is kidnapped.

Events occur once Boko reaches one of the black dots located on the map. There are a variety of recurring events, as well as a couple of unique special events. There are four types of events, including special events: you will either enter a random battle, you will encounter Moomba, you will encounter Cactuar, or it will be a special event. Moomba will offer new weapons for Boko, and Cactuar will give Boko a random item. The special events are as follows: Boko will meet Koko (needs to be level 20 or higher), Boko will meet Mog (needs to be level 25 or higher), Boko will either rescue Koko and gain a power up or (if event wait is turned OFF)l fall into a hole (needs to be level 50 or higher), watch fireworks with Moomba and Cactuar (needs to be level 75 or higher), Koko will be kidnapped (needs to be level 100), Boko will encounter and fight Demon King in order to rescue Koko (needs to be level 100 and Koko will have to have been kidnapped already).

Now, meeting Koko will give Boko a power-up, and you can meet Koko numerous times, each time getting a new power-up. Boko's default attack is called ChocoFire. The power-ups are as follows: ChocoFlare, ChocoMeteor, and ChocoBuckle. Items, which you obtain from Cactuar, will have a rank, with each rank determining the tier of item you receive. A rank is the best, with B, C, and D representing decreasing levels of quality respectively. Some of these items can only be obtained in Chocobo World, such as Ribbon. You will get an achievement after getting your first item:

• Choco loot

  Acquired an item from Chocobo World

  
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The second achievement you will get will be for getting to level 100 with Boko:

• Top Level Boko

  Reach level 100 with Boko

  
  

Once you're done, transfer all the items to your main game save, and you will have a ton of loot.