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A Chocobo (チョコボ, Chokobo^?) is a fictional large, normally flightless galliforme/ratite bird capable of being ridden and is a staple of the Final Fantasy series. While ordinary Chocobos are yellow, certain rare breeds are of different colors and have special abilities, such as crossing mountains or flight. An even rarer, more extreme variant is the Fat Chocobo (or Chubby Chocobo), which resembles a morbidly obese yellow or white chocobo and can humorously stock the party's items in its stomach or appear randomly when summoning a chocobo in battle. Chocobos have occasionally been sighted as lightly armored war mounts in which case they can assist their riders with beak and claw. Overall, the species is a very versatile and useful bird, which comes in handy as horses are untamed or non-existent in Final Fantasy games. The onomatopoeia for a chocobo's call is "Kweh" (クエ, Kue^?) and is sometimes replaced with "Wark" in the English translation.

Chocobos first appeared in Final Fantasy II, and have been featured in almost all subsequent Final Fantasy games, as well as making cameo appearances in numerous non-Final Fantasy Square Enix games. Chocobos also have a spin-off series dedicated to them.

Contents 1 Creation and influence 2 Final Fantasy series 3 Chocobo series 3.1 Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon 3.2 Chocobo's Dungeon 2 3.3 Chocobo World 3.4 Chocobo Collection 3.5 Hataraku Chocobo 3.6 Chocobo Land 3.7 Choco-Mate 3.8 Chocobo de Mobile 3.9 Final Fantasy Fables 3.10 Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu 4 Other appearances 5 Reception and legacy 6 References 7 External links

The chocobo was created by Koichi Ishii, a video game director who worked on various Final Fantasy titles. A basis for Chocobos was Kyoro-chan, a character in TV advertisements for Morinaga & Company's chocolate candy (who also has its own anime series), Chocoball (チョコボール, chokobōru^?), having in common with the Chocobo that it is a bird with the call of "Kweh". Morinaga has also released a tie-in product Chocobo no Chocoball (Chocobo's Chocoball). The Chocobo design is said to be based off of Hayao Miyazaki's Horseclaws, which appear in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.^[1]

The Chocobo signature theme is an immediately recognizable upbeat ditty that is present in one form or another in all Final Fantasy games since Final Fantasy II, frequently as variants or remixes: for instance, the Final Fantasy VII Chocobo races have a frantic version, while the futuristic and relatively realistic Final Fantasy VIII has a more modern one. It is titled with the suffix "de Chocobo," and is prefixed by the name of the style it is played in. For example "Techno de Chocobo" from Final Fantasy VI features a dance remix, while "Cinco de Chocobo" from Final Fantasy VII features a jazz remix (in 5/4 time, 'Cinco' being Spanish for the number 5). A new version of the theme titled "Swing de Chocobo" was created by Nobuo Uematsu for the concerts titled VOICES and Play! and was performed by a number of different orchestras between 2005 and 2007.

Most Chocobos dwell in forests (although those from Final Fantasy VII quite conspicuously live in grasslands). While timid in the wild, and vicious if threatened, they tame rather easily and make good transports. In this role they tend to be capable of crossing shallow water and are noted for their high speeds. Most often they can be caught in the wild and ridden without fear of random encounters, escaping after the player dismounts. A frequently occurring food for Chocobos, Gysahl Greens, are named after a town in Final Fantasy III and go on to feature in subsequent titles, although occasionally incorrectly translated as "Gishal". Final Fantasy V was the first installment to have Chocobos play a role in the plot. Boco (sometimes translated as Boko) went on to become a recurring Chocobo name in later installments.

Chocobos have appeared in all numbered installments except the first, in addition to Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Chocobos appear as a summon in Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. Fat Chocobo appears in Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX. A chocobo by the name of "Boco" appears in Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy Tactics.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest features several chocobo-shaped weather vanes in the town of Windia. In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles one can obtain the Chocobo Shield and the Chocobo Pocket items. In the animated sequel to Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals, one of the main characters can summon pink, feather-less Chocobos.

Chocobos are common in the anime series Final Fantasy: Unlimited, and one named Chobi joins the cast in their adventure. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children both have a couple of visual references to Chocobos.^[2]

Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon
Developer	Square Co.
Publisher	Square Co. Bandai (WonderSwan)
Series	Chocobo series Fushigi no Dungeon series
Released	JP December 23, 1997 (PlayStation) JP March 4, 1999 (WonderSwan)
Genre	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	PlayStation, WonderSwan
Media	1 CD-ROM, 1 Cartridge

Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon (ja:チョコボの不思議なダンジョン, Chokobo no Fushigina Danjon^?, lit. "Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon") is a video game made for the Sony PlayStation and Bandai WonderSwan and released only in Japan. The game is vaguely linked to the Final Fantasy series of adventures with the series' trademark mascot, the chocobo. The game is a roguelike dungeon crawl and part of the Fushigi no Dungeon series. The game consists of a chocobo wandering through randomly generated dungeons, picking up items and battling enemies. The PlayStation version is almost all sprite-based, with some polygon-based objects.

The title character in Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon is a yellow chocobo named Poulet (プーレ, Pūre^?, a pun on "pureiyā" for "player"), but the player can rename him. The layout of the game consists of 3 dungeons: A ten level dungeon, a 30 level dungeon, and an infinite dungeon which recycles enemy types every 100 levels.

The game received a large fanbase due to its tie-in to the Final Fantasy franchise as well as some animation and effects such as summoning the mainstay creatures of the series, including Ifrit and Bahamut in super deformed style. This game marks the solo composing debut of Masashi Hamauzu, who prepared both the soundtrack and an arrangement album named Coi Vanni Gialli.

Main article: Chocobo's Dungeon 2

Chocobo's Dungeon 2 is a sequel to Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon released on the PlayStation.

Main article: Chocobo World

Chocobo World is a PocketStation minigame released as part of Final Fantasy VIII.

Further information: Chocobo Racing

Chocobo Collection
Developer	Square Co. ParityBit (Chocobo Stallion) Denyusha (Dice de Chocobo)[3]
Publisher	Square Co.
Series	Chocobo series
Released	JP December 22, 1999
Genre	Compilation
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Media	3 CD-ROMs

Chocobo Collection (ja:チョコボコレクション, Chokobo Korekushon^?) is a compilation release of three games released for the PlayStation in 1999. It was released as a 10th anniversary to the first appearance of the Final Fantasy series chocobo mascot in 1988's Final Fantasy II. Although one of the games had received a stand-alone release in North America, the collection was only released in Japan. The games in the collection include:

• Chocobo Racing — a racing game similar to the Mario Kart series
• Chocobo Stallion (ja:チョコボスタリオン, Chokobo Sutarion^?) — an expanded version of the chocobo raising and racing element found in Final Fantasy VII. It was developed by ParityBit (Derby Stallion series) with a staff that included the character illustrator for Legend of Mana, Shinichi Kameoka. Chocobo Stallion was also released as a stand-alone in Japan.
• Dice de Chocobo (ダイスDEチョコボ, Daisu de Chokobo^?) — a board game developed by Denyusha Co..

Hataraku Chocobo
Developer	Square Co.
Publisher	Square Co.
Series	Chocobo series
Released	JP September 20, 2000
Genre	Simulation game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	WonderSwan
Media	Cartridge

Hataraku Chocobo (ja:はたらくチョコボ, Hataraku Chokobo^?) is a WonderSwan occupation simulation game developed by Square Co., Ltd. in 2000. はたらく (usually: 働く, romanized: hataraku) means work, labour, or practise. So an accurate translation of the title would be "Chocobo on the Job." Its soundtrack was composed by Yoko Shimomura. It was not released outside of Japan.

Chocobo Land
Developer	Square Co.
Publisher	Square Co.
Series	Chocobo series
Released	JP December 13, 2002
Genre	Strategy
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Media	Cartridge

Chocobo Land: A Game of Dice (ja:チョコボランド, Chokobo Rando^?) is a remake of the original PlayStation game Dice de Chocobo, a board game-based video game and spin-off title in the Final Fantasy series. This remake was released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan in 2002.

The player acts the role of Chocobo, who is trying to beat this board game world in order to return his friends and himself to the real world. From the overworld map, the player can select the region to play in. Each region has its own board design and opponent; as the player progresses through the game, they will face more (up to three) computer controlled opponents at a time. Replaying a region after completing it for the story earns the player more playing pieces.

The style of play for Chocobo Land is very reminscient of Monopoly. The player begins each match on Start, which is a round space with a rainbow-colored border. They are given a certain amount of Crystals and the option of buying the pieces they would like to start with (in the first match, the player will only be able to buy Carbuncles).

Chocobo Land is notable for being the first Square game developed for a Nintendo system since Treasure Hunter G in 1996.

A mobile game titled Choco-Mate was released sometime before 2003.^[4]

Chocobo de Mobile (ja:チョコボdeモバイル, Chokobo de Mobairu^?) is a mobile game released on December 14, 2006. This title is only released in Japan, and features mini-games such as baseball and racing.^[5][6]

Main article: Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales was released on the Nintendo DS.

Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu
Developer	Square Enix
Publisher	Square Enix
Series	Chocobo series
Released	JP December 13, 2007[7]
Genre	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	Wii

Main article: Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu

In May 2007, Square Enix announced the development of a new Chocobo game, tentatively named Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu, to be released on the Wii.^[8] The music score will include remixes of previous Final Fantasy titles arranged by the Hokkaido-based company Joedown Studio.^[9]

Chocobos are also a common sight in other Squaresoft and Square Enix games, notably in the Mana series. A Chocobo serves as a mount in Seiken Densetsu, and is later changed into a 'Chocobot'. It was removed from the 2003 remake Sword of Mana in favor of the 'Cannon Ball Travel' which originated in Secret of Mana; however, a Chocobo can be seen in Sword of Mana by waiting for a certain period of time after the completion of the game. Wild black Chocobos appear as monsters in Legend of Mana, while tame yellow Chocobos can be hatched by the player from eggs to assist them in battle. Chocobos also appear in Seiken Densetsu: Friends of Mana.

In Secret of Evermore a Chocobo Egg is a rare item. In Kingdom Hearts there is a keyblade and a Gummi Ship that are both named and modeled after a Chocobo; there is also a drawing of a Chocobo in the cave on Destiny Island. In Parasite Eve, a banner picturing a Chocobo hangs over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History, while a Chocobo skeleton can be found nearby. In Tobal 2, a Chocobo is obtainable as a combatant.

References to the Chocobo have also been made in non Square Enix video games and fictions. In Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, a blue Chocobo-like creature drives the wagons of the traveling circus Carivan. The red dragon Ruby mentions it was a Chocobo, but quickly changes it into "Chuckoboo". Battle for Wesnoth features a skeletal "Chocobone" unit. The November 2007 Monthy Collectable for GaiaOnline Features a pose that allows users' avatars to "ride" a very Chocobo like bird. In World of Warcraft, two racial mounts, the Blood Elf Hawkstrider and the Gnome Mechanostrider, both bear close resemblance to chocobos. The Korean MMORPG, Ragnarok Online, features a mount for the Knight and Crusader classes that strongly resembles the Chocobo called a Peco-Peco. The browser-based game Kingdom of Loathing features the Cocoabo familiar, a Chocobo-shaped creature apparently made of cocoa. Chocobos have been parodied in several webcomics including VG Cats,^[10][11][12] RPG World as Dragobos, 8-bit Theatre and Weebl and Bob.^[13]

Rules for using Yellow and Black Chocobos in Dungeons & Dragons were published in the September 2004 issue of Dragon magazine.

• Official Chocobo game series website for Japan (Japanese)
• Chocobo Collection at MobyGames

v • d • e Chocobo video games
Main series	Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon · Chocobo's Dungeon 2
Chocobo Collection	Chocobo Racing · Chocobo Stallion · Dice de Chocobo
Spin-offs	Chocobo World · Hataraku Chocobo · Chocobo Land · Chocobo Tales · Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu

v • d • e Mysterious Dungeon series
Torneko no Daibouken	Fushigi no Dungeon • The Last Hope • Great Adventure 3
Fushigi no Dungeon	Fūrai no Shiren • Fūrai no Siren 2 • Fūrai no Shiren 3 • Fūrai no Shiren Gaiden
Chocobo's Dungeon	Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon • Chocobo's Dungeon 2
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon	Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team • 2: Time & Darkness
Other	The Nightmare of Druaga Dragon Quest: Shōnen Yangus to Fushigi no Dungeon