Chocobo: Mysterious Dungeon FAQ
Version 0.5
by Scott Dilley
Updates
v 0.1
first version
v0.5
added some game info
hopefully fixed most spelling errors
format and Japanese ASCII hopefully fixed
Future updates
In the next update I'll be adding new stuff to the items list, and correcting any information
that may be incorrect.
*Note: There is Japanese ASCII in this file, and you will need to use a Japanese ASCII viewer
to see and print this text. I've also noticed that if your viewer has the ability to auto detect
Japanese and Chinese Kanji, you might have a problem with a couple of the Kanji, for example the
Rock Kanji near the end. It should be fixed by setting your viewer to Japanese only.
(This is on Njstar.)
Intro
What can I say, Square just makes some of the best games around. Chocobo is a fantastic
game. You run around an ever changing dungeon, collecting items and new weapons, basically
trying to become more powerful, so you can defeat the increasingly powerful enemies. All the
characters and items are beautifully rendered sprites, and have that otaku look to them. The
gameplay is excellent, the sound effects are wonderful and the music is great. The spells in
the game are wonderfully done, some what reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics, however the
summon stones and spell beads are where the graphics are unbelievable, you just have to see some
of these to believe them. And of course, there's the CG sequences. Square keeps surprising me
with how wonderful there CG is, and Chocobo's CG scenes are the best so far IMHO. However I
should warn everyone now, if you can't stand the super cute, super deformed otaku stuff, then
you'll probably get sick watching this one. On the other hand, if you like practically
everything that comes out of Japan, especially the otaku SD stuff, then this is the game for
you.
Story
In the opening movie, you come walking into town, your side kick moogle Atra riding on
you back. You pass another chocobo at work in his garden on your way into town, and after
conversing with him for a moment you continue on your way. After your past the chocobo
continues his work in the garden, hitting a violet crystal in the ground. He picks it up to
examine it, and what do you know, his eyes start glowing an evil violet color. Later, you stop
by the Gardner chocobo's house, and he has something to show you. When you get to the
door though, he promptly kicks you in and you fall into the dungeon. And the adventure
begins.
Gameplay
The game uses the typical ATB system from previous Final Fantasy games, but with a
bit of a twist. Your character and the enemies have a Active Time Battle system bar that
appears underneath when they are getting ready to attack. The enemy can only attack when
it's bar is full, while you can attack at any time, however it's at the expense of attack power.
Attack when the bar is full, and you get the strongest attack, but if your bar is only half
full, then you only take off about half of what you would at you strongest. Very helpful if
your enemy is just about out of life, and you want to kill it before it can make it's attack.
The twist in the ATB system deals with movement and actions. For each move or action you take,
your enemy gets to make a move or action. So if the enemy your fighting has no ranged attack,
you could sit several spaces away, wait for your bar to charge fully, then kick or cast a magic
spell at it, then run away, keeping you distance from your enemy until it's dead. However it
should be noted that if your enemy can throw a ranged attack, or cast a spell, it can do so
when its ATB bar is full, regardless whether you make a move or not. When not fighting enemies,
you walk around, exploring the dungeon around you. There are lots of traps, so it's wise to
check ahead of you by tapping your foot forward every once in a while.
Well that's the basics, so now we'll move on to the different aspects of the game that
are important to play.
Game Stuff
Status bar: Up at the top of the screen you'll see a line of white numbers. The first set is
the floor your on, then your current level, then your current Hit Points/total Hit Points,
and finally your stamina.
Map Display: In the bottom right hand corner is your small auto map, with the blue areas being
where you have stepped, green where you have not stepped, red dots as enemies,
white dots as items and yellow dots as stairs. Springs, traps, chests, ovens, bins, and
shelves are not displayed on the map.
ATB Bars: These appear below your character and your enemies. The longer the bar, the
longer it takes to charge for an attack. The bar appears red when there is a physical
attack or kick/throw, and blue when a spell is being cast.
Status Bubble: This is the little 'thought bubble' that appears above your head, indicating a
special status, these are listed below. These all have a limited duration.
Green Skull: Poison
Arrows Point down: ATB bar is longer
Arrows Point up: ATB bar is shorter
Dots: Silence (Can't read a book)
Water Drops: ATB bar is longer
The following don't have symbols, but you can tell when they are in effect.
Toad: Chocobo is now a toad. (you can still read books)
Stone: Chocobo turns grey and can't move for a while
Invisible: All you see is Chocobo's shadow. (most monsters can't see you)
Sleep: Your Chocobo sits down and takes a nap (will replenish your stamina)
Traps: There are traps lying on the floor all around the dungeon, and there are two ways to
find them. First, you can tap the floor ahead of you with your foot, or if you decide to
just walk around without looking where your going, you'll run into the trap head on.
Trap Door: Steel trap door, there's a chance you'll fall to the next level.
Poison Pit: Run over this and you'll become poisoned.
Mud Pit: Run into this and you'll be stuck as you use up stanima to get out.
Spikes: They pop up at you and cause damage.
Fire mine: Will explode if you walk over it.
Forget mine: You'll forget every where you've been in the current level.
Unequip mine: Unequips everything you have equiped (useful if your cursed)
Slug slime: ATB bar get's longer
Invisible mine: Turn invisible
Magic circles: There are magical circles scattered around the dungeon, and they have many
different effects, but the problem is, you never know which effect it will have on you.
So take your chances and step into a circle for these different effects.
Sleep: Your Chocobo sits down and takes a nap (will replenish stamina)
Level Up: Gain a Level
Toad: Turn into a toad (can be useful if you need to cross water)
Item Level up: All equiped items gain a level.
Item Level down: All equiped item lose a level.
Teleport: You get teleported some where else.
Explosion: You get caught in a fire based explosion.
Invisible: Turn invisible
Treasure: Treasure can be found in many places around the dungeon. It can be lying on the
gound, in a chest, bookcase, picture, table, and cabinets. There are three different
types of chests. First is the unlocked kind, easy treasure here. Next we have the
Magically locked kind, and to open it you have to cast the correct spell. The spell you
use depends on the spell you used the last time. Just use the next spell down the list,
and it should open. Lastly there is the kind that uses a key, which are very difficult to
find. To open something, just run into it, if you need to cast a spell or use a key,
you'll automaticly end up in the item menu. Remember, you can only investigate one of
these places if you have a free slot in your inventory.
Buttons: Buttons can be found on the wall, they are big, red, and can't be missed. If you
press it, one of several things can happen. You'll get your hit points and/or stamina
replenished, you'll open a trap door, you'll set off the dissapering floor trap, or you'll
turn on lights in the dungeon, which will also reveal traps.
Machines: These are big boxes with little lights and gears, if you touch it, you'll be given an
option to use a spell. If you use a thunder spell on it, then it will activate, and the
lights will come on, and all traps will be revealed in the dungeon.
Stairs: Use these to go down to the next level. This is one of the two places you can save
your progress.
Springs: There are little wells scattered around the dungeon, this is where you can refill your
empty bottles and end up with a potion. What you get is random, although most times
it's a Healing Potion.
Bins: These are large boxes you'll find scattered around the dungeon. When you run into it,
your inventory screen will pop up, and you can put any two items into the bin, where it
will mix together and become something else. What you get is random, so don't use
any thing that's important to you.
Ovens: These nifty things let you combine equipment, but you get to decide what you get.
You can only use this on Claws or Saddles. So say you find a claw you want, but its
cursed at -1. What you do is take a claw you don't want that's +1 and combine it with
the cursed one, and voila, you now have a normal claw of the type you want. Or
combine to regular claws of the same type, and you get one with a +1 rating. The only
things to remember here are, whatever type you put in first, is the type you will end up
with, and you must have a fire book to heat the oven up. As a note, if you combine an
item it's name will appear green and a new menu choice will appear if you choose this
item from the inventory. By choosing this, you can rename an item you've made, and
call it whatever you want. Way cool.
Torches and candles: You'll find these on the walls of the dungeon, just run into them and
read a fire book, and the room will light up so you can see your way.
Books: Ok, spells work differently than previous FF games. First, you have books. Each of
the seven different books cast a spell. You have a proficency level with each of the
different spells, which levels up by casting the spells or by using a special item. When
you reach level 10, the spell you cast with a book becomes more powerful and looks
different. Each type of book is counted as one inventory slot, regardless of how many
you currently have. As a note, when you look at your comprehension level (press start)
you'll see your current level and ATB for your spells, if you look all the way to the
right you'll see numbers for each spell, this is how many points you have to go before you
level up in a spell area. There are 10 points to a level, and each time you use a book, it
goes down by 1.
Gems: Next you have Gems. When you choose to use these they are kicked like rocks or
items, so make sure your pointed in the direction you want them to go. These are
more powerful spells, like Earthquake, Holy, Meteor, Tidal wave, and Ultima. They are
the hardest to find, so use them wisely (like on the bosses, which are very powerful.)
Spirit Stones: These faceted rocks are the coolest looking spells. These work like the
summon spells from FF. Although difficult to find, there easier to get than the beads.
These are the spells which will cause damage all creatures on the screen, as well as
causing some serious damage. Spells in this catagory include Iffrit, Ramuh, Unicorn,
Shiva, and of course Bahmut.
Claws and Saddles: Claws are your weapons, Saddles are your armour, and they come in a
variety of flavors, including leather, wood, iron, steel, ice, fire, and thunder as well
as others.
Rocks: These are like arrows in other games. You must equip the rocks first, than you'll be
able to throw them. They have a short Charge time on the ATB and do a decent
amount of damage.
Cards: These are one time use items that have a variety of effects. There's a handy Identify
item card, for those magical items your just not sure about (items that are magical that
are unkown are displayed in yellow print, be careful equipping or using these, as you
never know what could happen). There's a teleport card that you can use to get back
to town, and a card you can use to turn into and back from a frog.
Potions: These are your typical potions, use them to gain life, remove curses and gain
stanima, but watch out for poison. The empty bottles can be refilled at a spring. When
you first find a potion in the dungeon, you won't know what it is, after you use it or use
a card on it, you'll know what it is up untill you leave the dungeon, this is the same
with cards and nuts.
Nuts: Eat them, and stuff will happen, but you won't know what unless you eat them or use a
card on them. There is a nut that lowers your ATB time on books by one, and so far
this is the only way I've found that will lower your book ATB.
Necklaces: They have different abilities which take effect after they are equiped.
Telportation: When you use a teleport card, after your done at town when you go back to the
dungeon, you'll see a glowing post. Walk over this and you'll be given a choice to go
to the level you were last at or any one you've been to so far.
Death: There is no Death. When you HP reach zero you'll be returned to town and lose one
level, after which you must start the dungeon from floor one again.
The Town: This is where you can rest, buy stuff and find out things. The town grows as you
progress in the game. So far I've found:
Your house: Jump into your nest to save a game, or file stuff for later use. (talk
to Atra to begin with, later you'll just touch the file cabinets).
Chipmunk's house: He sleeps all the time.
Raccon's house: A little later in the game you'll be able to combine things here
Just talk to the raccon, and he'll ask you if you want to combine two or
three items. Right now, you can only combine two items, I haven't found what
special items you can combine with the claws or saddles yet.
Fox's house: Village elder, great for information.
Here you can get a list of all items you have found in the game from the
elders apprentice. After talking to him, he'll tell you about the list, then
just go to the bookshelf behind him to access it later. There is also what
looks to be a training/game info shelf by the elder, but I haven't really
gotten around to that part yet.
White chocobo's house: This is another storage facility, for each 2000 gill you
pay, you'll get another space of ten to store stuff you find, up to ten
spaces.
Camilla's house: The Girl chocobo behind the counter will sell you stuff,
Camilla will give you info. Later you will get the plant pots, and after
giving these to camilla, you can combine nuts with potions to make new nuts.
I've found the combonation to make the Book ATB level up nut, and will give
it here with the next update.
Dungeon entrance: This house you use to get into the dungeon. So far there is
three dungeons I know about;
Dungeon 1: 30 levels
Dungeon 2: 60 levels
Dungeon 3: ??? levels
Commands
While playing, if you press triangle, then you bring up a status screen and a command
menu. These are explained as follows.
¥¢¥¤¥Æ¥à Item After chosing this option you go into the inventory screen,
from here if you choose an item, you'll be given a choice
of the following.
¤Ä¤«¤¦ Use Use the selected item.
¤±¤ë Kick Kick the selected item.
¤ª¤¯ Drop Drop the selected item.
¤Ï¤º¤¹ Unequip Unequip items.
̾Á° Rename Rename an item you've combined.
¤¢¤·¤â¤È ?Abilities?
Ä´¤Ù¤ë Investigate Look around the area your currently in. (find gill)
¤ä¤á¤Æ¤ª¤¯ Cancel Cancel your selection, back to main menu.
ÀßÄê Options Choose from a variety of options. (explanations later.)
ÆɲòLV Book Level This shows you the level of understanding for spell books.
The screen at the bottom shows your current status, which are, starting at the top left
to right.
Name and points to next level up
How deep you are in the dungeon, and how much gill you have (money).
The next three lines are for your:
Claw equiped and your attack power
Saddle equiped and your defensive power
Neckalace and ? defense
And at the bottom is your ATB rating.
Items
Weapons
Èé¤Î¥Ä¥á Leather claw
ÌڤΥĥá Wood claw
¥¢¥¤¥¹¥¯¥í¡¼ Ice Claw Claw imbued with the element of ice.
Å´¤Î¥Ä¥á Iron Claw
¥Õ¥ì¥¤¥à¥¯¥í¡¼ Flame Claw Claw imbued with the element of fire.
íɤ¤¥Ä¥á Speed Claw Lower ATB bar.
¥Õ¥í¡¼¥¿¡¼¥¥é Thunder Claw Claw imbued with the element of thunder.
¥Ý¥¤¥º¥ó¥¥é Poison Claw Claw imbued with poison.
¥¦¥¤¥ó¥É¥¯¥í Wind Claw Claw imbued with the element of wind.
ÈèÏ«¤Î¥Ä¥á Fatigue Claw
Armor
Íë¤Î¥¯¥é Thunder Saddle Saddle Imbued with the element of thunder.
¥é¥Õ¥á¥¤¥ë ? Saddle
ÄÀÌۤ褱¤Î¥¯¥é Silence Saddle Protection from silence?
¿ê¼å¤Î¥¯¥é Weakness Saddle ?
Cards
¼±Ê̤Υ«¡¼¥É Identification Card Identify a Magic Item
¥Æ¥ì¥Ý¥«¡¼¥É Teleport Card Teleport out of dungeon
¥¹¥ê¥×¥ë¥«¡¼¥É Sleep Card Put monster to sleep (kick it at them)
¥È¡¼¥É¥«¡¼¥É Toad Card Use to turn into a toad or back.
³Î¿®¤Î¥«¡¼¥É Confidence Card Identify all items in your posession
Books
¥Õ¥¡¥¤¥¢¤ÎËÜ Fire Book Fire Damage
¥Ö¥ê¥¶¥É¤ÎËÜ Blizzard Book Ice Damage
¥µ¥ó¡¼¥À¤ÎËÜ Thunder Book Thunder Damage
¥¨¥¢¥í¤ÎËÜ Air Book Air Damage
¥Ç¥£¥à¤ÎËÜ Demi Book Non-Elemental Damage
¥·¥ã¥¤¥ó¤ÎËÜ Shine Book Holy Damage
¥É¥ì¥¤¥ó¤ÎËÜ Drain Book Non-Elemental Damage plus Steal Life
Summon Stones
¥·¥ô¥¡¤ÎËâÀÐ Shiva Spirit Stone Summon Shiva; Ice Element
¥¤¥Õ¥ê¡¼¥È¤ÎËâÀÐ Ifrit Spirit Stone Summon Ifrit; Fire Element
¥æ¥Ë¥³¡¼¥ó¤ÎËâÀÐ Unicorn Spirit Stone Summon Unicorn; Heal all damage
¥é¥à¥¦¤ÎËâÀÐ Ramu Spirit Stone Summon Ramu; Thunder Element
¥¿¥¤¥¿¥ó¤ÎËâÀÐ Titan Spirit Stone Summon Titan; Earth Element
¥Õ¥¨¥Ë¥Ã¥Õ¥¹¤ÎËâÀÐPheonix Spirit Stone Summon Pheonix; Fire Element
Gems
¥¯¥¨¥¤¥¯¤Î¼î Quake Gem Causes an earthquake, flying creatures are imune.
Potions
¥Ý¡¼¥·¥ç¥ó Potion Gain 50 HP
¥Ï¥¤¥Ý¡¼¥·¥ç¥ó High Potion Gain 100 HP
¥¨¥ê¥¯¥µ X potion Restore all HP
¥À¥¹¥Ú¥ê¤ÎÌô Remove Curse Remove a cursed item.
¤«¤»¤ÎÌô Leg poition?
Neckalaces
²óÉü¤Î¼óÎØ Recovery Necklace Recover HP faster.
¤¹¤Ð¤ä¤µ¤Î¼óÎØ Agility Necklace Move faster
ÆɤߤȤê¤Î¼óÎØ Reading Necklace Read faster?
¤«¡¼¤É¤Î¼óÎØ Guard Necklace Raise defense
¥¹¥¿¡¼¥ß¥é¤Î¼óÎØ Stanima Necklace Use stanima slower
Other Items
ÀÐ Rock Kick these at your enemies.
¥Ï¥à¥Û¥¤¥Ã¥¹¥ë Whistle Use to call the Chipmunk to your aid.
È¿¢¤¨ Potted plant Give to Camilla.
¥Æ¥ì¥Ý¥Ü¥Ã¥¯¥¹ Teleport Box Teleport stuff from dungeon to filing cabinet.
¥Ä¥ä½Ð¤·¥¯¥ê¡¼¥à Cream Rub it on equipment (usually bad effect.)
Credit
This faq or any of it's parts are not to be used for monetary gain, or submittal to any
form of magazine or publication, without proper credit given to it's author, and any
contributors. You may print or electronicaly duplicate this faq only in its entirety.
If you would like to make any contributions, please E-mail me at sdilley@uswest.com.
Any contributions to this faq would be appreciated, and of course will recieve full credit for
any such contributions.
BTW, I know there are misspellings, you'll have to forgive me, I was trying to get this
out ASAP. I'll try to get all mistypes and misspellings fixed in the next update.
Enjoy.
