On a recent Youtube livestream, Square Enix have revealed the changes made for Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy!

Apparently, the team has decided to remaster Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon as it would require the shortest amount of time to develop a game in time for the series’ 20th anniversary. With this, they already had the data and materials needed to recreate it. However, Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy! isn’t just a direct port of an old game as the team have made changes on some major elements from the DS and Wii versions.

Check out the details and livestream below:

Reason for Remaking Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon

(Editor’s Note: Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy! is a remastered version of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon.)

“When discussions began to revive the Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon series for its 20th anniversary, we considered various ideas, and the one we could deliver in the shortest amount of time from planning to release, due to the fact that we had data and materials on hand, was Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon” director Akihiko Maeda said.

Maeda continued, “I understand that Chocobo’s Dungeon 2 is the most popular title among fans, and while we went back and forth until the last second, we decided upon Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon in the end.”

Main Changes from the DS and Wii Versions

• Pop-Up Duel (Removed) – “Pop-Up Duel” is a competitive card game that originally appeared in Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales. Players must progress through the story in order to collect cards, and those cards have no use in the main story outside of the card game. Properly balancing the card game and implementing it would take a considerable amount of work. Therefore, since Pop-Up Duel is not deeply tied to the main story, the decision was made to remove it and use those resources to focus on the game’s main story dungeons.
• Romantic Phrases (Removed) – “Romantic Phrases” is an element that was mainly used to obtain cards for Pop-Up Duel. As for the jobs and dungeons that could be acquired through Romantic Phrases, those can now be acquired elsewhere.
• Cid’s Adventure (Patched Up) – Unlike the main story, Cid’s Adventure (a new story added to the Japan-only DS remake) used a level reset system, which frustrated many players. Also, the complicated item management system between Cid and Chocobo has been patched up. The Cid’s Adventure element itself has been re-interpreted as part of the story, and new dungeons that can be challenged with the chocobos you raise have been implemented.

Other Changes

• Scenario adjustments and newly recorded voice-overs – While the story is based on the DS remake, some areas were difficult to understand and the character data is based on the Wii version, so there were parts that did not mesh. Also, since new lines were recorded for the newly added characters, the opportunity was used to also re-record the old voice-overs.
• New light and darkness attributes have been added, which correlate to each other.
• Seals and synthesis follow the rules defined in the DS version.