Square Enix has just shared some interesting concept art and side lore surrounding Final Fantasy VII Remake’s version of the Chocobo, inducing a picture of a cart selling “Chocobo Beam Popcorn.” While not every Final Fantasy game has included them, the yellow, birdlike Chocobo are among the Final Fantasy franchise’s most popular and recurring creatures, often serving as mounts for players to ride across the various overworlds of Square Enix’s long-running JRPG mega-franchise. This rang true for the original Final Fantasy VII, which even featured several Chocobo-themed mini-games and side activities like Chocobo racing and Chocobo breeding.
Unfortunately for some avian-obsessed fans, these amusing side-activities were left out of 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, due largely to the fact that the game is based primarily on the original’s early chapters - which took place before the Chocobo minigames were introduced. However, the updated version of the landmark 1997 PlayStation blockbuster featured plenty of Chocobo all the same. One of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s side quests tasks Cloud and company with locating a few runaway Chocobo across the outskirts of Midgar, and Final Fantasy VII Remake includes summons for an adorable baby Chocobo and a Moogle riding a Chocobo into battle.
Earlier this week, the Japanese FFVII Remake Twitter account posted a few concept art images featuring Final Fantasy VII Remake’s version of the famous Chocobo. These include a profile image of the bird’s updated design in Final Fantasy VII Remake, a drawing of a Chocobo-drawn chart (possibly the one that Tifa Lockhart is transported in as a prisoner of the slimy Don Corneo), and finally a concept of a food-vending stall selling “Chocobo Bean Popcorn” in Wall Market. According to a translation by Siliconera and an earlier interview with FFVII Remake co-director Motomu Toriyama, this “Chocobo Bean” is named for the fact that it is shaped like a Final Fantasy Chocobo’s clawed foot. This shape is maintained when the bean is popped, and the resulting treat is said to taste like “average movie-theater popcorn” in the real world. One last little side detail is that eating “Chocobo Bean Popcorn” too quickly results in burps that sound like a Chocobo’s signature “Kweh,” adding to the moniker.
It's possible that the original Final Fantasy VII’s Chocobo breeding and Chocobo Racing side activities could return in the forthcoming second part of Final Fantasy VII Remake, as it will likely follow the later parts of the original game where they were introduced. Meanwhile, the ever-lovable Chocobo recently returned to the spotlight in last month’s Chocobo GP, a mobile-based kart racer made in the style of the old PlayStation Chocobo Racing game. However, reviews for this Final Fantasy spin-off have been less than kind, and some players have even gone as far as to accuse Chocobo GP of employing “predatory” microtransactions.
On a lighter note, the world of Final Fantasy VII remains one of the richest and most beloved settings of not only the Final Fantasy series but video games in general. As such, fans typically welcome new tidbits to the lore and concept art that provide a look behind the development of installments like Final Fantasy VII Remake like the recently released Chocobo-related images. Perhaps Cloud and his friends could stop for some Chocobo Bean Popcorn as they journey across the world beyond Midgar in the next installment of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Source: FFVII Remake/Twitter (via Siliconera)
