I’ve been buying a lot of casual games to pass the time when I don’t have a lot of time to play. Bunches of puzzle games. Some programming games. Some action games (and more on those later). But the one casual game that had that perfect blend of drop-in playability and finely tuned difficulty was one I didn’t even see coming: Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy.
CMDEB for the PS4 is a remake of an old Wii game called Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon, itself an entry in a long line of entry level dungeon crawlers featuring Final Fantasy and Pokemon characters.
I’d first played one of the Pokemon mystery dungeons back in the day on some Nintendo handheld or other (my memory is vague on this point), but didn’t enjoy how the game had been made easier than the rogue-likes I was used to, most especially Nethack. I’m older now and more appreciative of a game without all that frustration.
I’m not going to go into detail about the plot, save that you go through the game, unlocking dungeons, gathering companions, leveling up jobs and upgrading your gear, just as in any RPG.
The job system has been very much upgraded from earlier entries. The PS4 version makes all jobs available, whereas previous releases usually had one or two exclusive jobs reserved for specific game consoles. You’ll typically find a new job by clearing a memory — CMDEB’s dungeons — belonging to someone of that job. You’ll often gain that character as a companion you can bring along in future dungeon excursions.
If you encounter summons (like Ifrit or Ramuh) in your travels, prove your worth by defeating them several times and they will also join your team, and also provide you with special items you can use to summon them in battle even if they aren’t your companions. These can be game-changing in tough boss battles, or when you’ve been dropped into the middle of a dozen angry enemies with no walls anywhere nearby.
They don’t enjoy Shiva’s freezing touch, much.
I’d dreaded the final fight so much that I’ve been grinding for days trying to get ready. I’d watched a Youtube video that I won’t even link that had the player doing tens of thousands of damage to the boss between their own character and their companion, Bahamut, who I haven’t even unlocked yet. (I brought the black chocobo, Volg).
That player had played as a ninja, and so I did as well. I was grinding in the final story dungeon and was getting low on food. I thought I’d stop by the final boss on my way out to see how things were going and… I beat the boss easily. I took barely any damage and didn’t even need to bother with buffs (except haste). I used shurikens at range, kept him poisoned (always important with any boss), and meleed when he came in close. His ultimate wasn’t even a concern; I’d brought plenty of X-Potions but don’t think I used more than a couple.
Beating the game opens up a prologue chapter, Chapter VI, which includes a lot of tougher, optional dungeons, but also a specific dungeon that boosts your experience and money so that you can quickly level any job and buy any enhancements you like. This comes in handy for delving into your own memories, where you will face tougher versions of every boss you encountered along the way — and for the infinite dungeon, which isn’t all that infinite… it repeats every 500 floors.
It was by playing around in the top fifty floors of that dungeon that I earned the endgame gear which probably was responsible for the ease of the final fight. So, I guess, avoid the dungeon of Infinite Hunger if you want to preserve the challenge…
Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy! is a fun, beginner and casual player friendly, introduction to the world of rogue-like games. You can play with other people locally or (I believe) online, though I didn’t try that. I believe the second player controls your companion, as opposed to being a fully fledged PC. I really had a lot of fun with this game, and will likely keep it installed to play some of the post-game dungeons that opened up when I finished the main storyline.
