Wrangle Chocobo In New Board Game

A new board game will challenge players to guide their Chocobo safely home. Later this year, Square Enix will release Chocobo Party Up!, a new board game all about the beloved oversized birds from the Fantasy Flight franchise of games. Players will be tasked with using their colored chocobo pals to call for and guide chocobo through a forest, protecting them from other players' attempt to steal them and lead the chocobo back to their nest instead. Players can use cards to trigger certain special abilities, or use a special fat chocobo to kick another player's chocobo pals out of a space, leaving their chocobo vulnerable to get guided away.

Chocobo were originally introduced in Final Fantasy II and quickly became a fan-favorite part of the franchise. While chocobo have different roles in different Final Fantasy games, they're often used as a form of transportation or a summon to attack foes. Even in games like Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XV, which are set in worlds with futuristic technology, have featured chocobo in some form.

While a board game about competitive chocobo wrangling might not sound like a natural expansion of the Final Fantasy franchise, this isn't the first time that Square Enix has released a chocobo tabletop game. In 2016, Square Enix released Chocobo Crystal Hunt, a card game in which players used chocobo to steal other players' crystals. Chocobo Crystal Hunt was popular enough to get a "Dungeons & Monsters" expansion, so it seems that some people really love their family friendly chocobo games.

Chocobo Party Up! is scheduled for an August 2019 release and will cost $49.99. You can pre-order the game from Square Enix here.