I finally decided that it was time to stop avoiding Chocobo Tales because of one silly race. After all, I was close to the end and I couldn’t let it hold me back. I had really enjoyed the rest of the game and wasn’t ready to give up yet.

I began the race and found myself much calmer. While I didn’t win the first time, I was consistently improving and beat it shortly. Without my emotions running high, my hand was much steadier and it made all the difference.

While the game had a little twist at the end that kept it going a little longer than I expected, it only took me a couple of hours to beat the entire game. The final battle was a mini-game much like hockey. True to the rest of the game, nothing was too difficult after that one race that held me back.

As the credits rolled, I was surprised by their length. Instead of normal scrolling credits, each name or names appeared separately with a screen for each person’s title. I didn’t want to touch the screen for fear of missing some “reward” movie for sitting through the credits. However, I touched the screen by accident once and was surprised to see a letter turn a color and make a noise. After a few screens, I figured out that, if I touched all the letter O’s, the whole credit would turn rainbow colors and I would hear a happy chocobo “KWEH!”

When the credits finally ended, I saw a score. The credits themselves were one last mini-game. I was impressed by the creativity in using the credits as something more than another movie to sit through. My final play time was eight hours and 25 minutes.

Looking back, I really did enjoy Chocobo Tales. Aside from the two mini-games where I was temporarily stuck, I had relatively few problems. The card battles, which had a large chance element, were often very close. I almost always won, but the opponents seemed well-matched to my level and created a challenge. I hope that I will soon be able to try out the multiplayer mode and play it in a new way.