# Chocobo - Creature: Beast - Date: 1988 - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/chocobo/ > A big, flightless yellow bird that goes 'kweh': Koichi Ishii's lunch-break sketch for Final Fantasy II became the series' steed, racer, summon, roguelike hero and best-loved mascot. **Why it matters:** The chocobo is one of the few fantasy creatures invented by a video game that became as recognizable as anything from myth — proof that the Japanese RPG could add to the bestiary as well as borrow from it. ## Quick answers **Where does the Chocobo come from?** Final Fantasy II (1988), designed by Koichi Ishii from a childhood memory of a pet chick. **When did the Chocobo first appear?** 1988, in Final Fantasy II (Famicom). **How did the Chocobo get into games?** Key appearances: Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation) (1997), Final Fantasy XI (2002) and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (2013). **Why is the Chocobo significant?** The chocobo is one of the few fantasy creatures invented by a video game that became as recognizable as anything from myth — proof that the Japanese RPG could add to the bestiary as well as borrow from it. ## Origins Most of the creatures in this bestiary come out of myth. The chocobo came out of a lunch break. Koichi Ishii, an artist and designer on [Square](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/square/)'s original [Final Fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/final-fantasy/) (1987), had wanted an animal companion in the game from the start: a creature that could not speak but that players would love anyway. The idea went back to his childhood, when he bought a chick at a festival market, bonded with it, and came home from school to find that his parents had given it to a neighbor who kept chickens. He modeled the chocobo on that chick at its gangly middle stage, before it became a chicken, and named it after the Chocoball, a Morinaga chocolate snack. He later said he drew the first designs in about ten minutes. [Hironobu Sakaguchi](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/hironobu-sakaguchi/) initially rejected the idea. The chocobo made it into *Final Fantasy II* (December 1988) only in a reduced role: a big yellow bird found in a forest that carried the party across the world map, faster than walking and safe from random encounters, until they dismounted and it ran off. [Nobuo Uematsu](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/nobuo-uematsu/) gave it a bouncy theme tune that has been rearranged in almost every game since. ## Into the dungeon Ishii was annoyed that his creature remained a vehicle in *Final Fantasy III* (1990), where it appeared alongside another new mascot, the moogle, and as a summoned monster. When he got creative control of *Final Fantasy Adventure* (1991) for the Game Boy, the first game of what became the Mana series, he made the chocobo the loyal companion he had always intended. *Final Fantasy V* (1992) gave the hero Bartz his own chocobo, Boco, the first chocobo with a personality of its own. From then on the chocobo became a system. Players rode chocobos across the world map of [Final Fantasy VI](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/final-fantasy-vi/) (1994). [Final Fantasy VII](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/final-fantasy-vii/) (1997) added breeding: players fed, mated and raced birds at the Gold Saucer amusement park, and rare colored strains could cross rivers, mountains and oceans to reach hidden places. In the same year a chocobo became the hero of its own game, *Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon*, a PlayStation [Roguelikes](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/roguelike/) in Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon style and the first of a spin-off series that runs to nearly twenty titles, including *Chocobo Racing* and *Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales*. The [MMORPGs](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/mmorpg/) [Final Fantasy XI](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/final-fantasy-xi/) and [Final Fantasy XIV](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/final-fantasy-xiv/) made it a mount and a pet, and in *A Realm Reborn* (2013) a player's own chocobo can fight beside them as a companion. ## Variations Chocobos come in many colors, and each game invents its own: black chocobos that fly, gold chocobos that cross oceans, the enormous Fat Chocobo, and the chick-turned-merchant Chocolina of the *Final Fantasy XIII* series. Artists have redesigned the bird for every setting, from Toshiyuki Itahana's rounded spin-off hero to the more realistic birds of *Final Fantasy XV* (2016). Staff protests are said to have put chocobos back into *Final Fantasy XVI* (2023) after they were first left out of its world. The chocobo belongs to a family of fantasy steeds that runs from Ariosto's hippogriff and D&D's trained [griffons](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/griffin/) to the mounts of World of Warcraft. But unlike those borrowed beasts it is wholly a creation of the [Japanese RPG](https://www.lanternhall.org/chronicle/japanese-line/), and its closest relative is not a creature of myth but another game mascot, Dragon Quest's [Slime](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/slime/). Critics routinely call it the symbol of Final Fantasy, and it has turned up in games from other companies entirely, a sign of how far a lunch-break sketch has traveled. ## Migration - 1988: Final Fantasy II (Famicom) — The big yellow bird debuts as a temporary mount, caught in a forest and ridden across the world map until you dismount. - 1990: Final Fantasy III (Famicom) — Chocobos return alongside a new mascot, the moogle, and a chocobo becomes a summoned creature. - 1991: Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy) — Given creative control, Ishii finally makes the chocobo the loyal companion he had imagined. - 1992: Final Fantasy V (Super Famicom) — Boco, the hero Bartz's own chocobo, becomes the first chocobo character with a personality. - 1997: Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation) — Breeding colored chocobos and racing them at the Gold Saucer becomes one of the era's great side quests. - 1997: Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon (PlayStation) — A Mystery Dungeon roguelike launches the Chocobo spin-off series, now nearly twenty games long. - 2002: Final Fantasy XI — In Square's first MMORPG the chocobo is a rentable mount, later raised, bred and raced by players. - 2013: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn — Players earn their own chocobo as a mount and a companion that fights at their side. ## Facts - The name comes from the Chocoball, a popular chocolate snack made by the Japanese confectioner Morinaga. - Koichi Ishii said he drew the first chocobo designs in about ten minutes during a lunch break. - Ishii based the chocobo on a chick he bought at a festival as a child; his parents gave it away while he was at school. - Nobuo Uematsu wrote the 'Chocobo' theme for Final Fantasy II; for remixes, he chose genres with the same number of syllables as 'cho-co-bo'. - Hironobu Sakaguchi initially rejected the chocobo; it survived in Final Fantasy II only as a short-term mount. - Chocobos have made cameos far from Final Fantasy, including Dragon Quest X and Assassin's Creed Origins. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocobo) - [Wikipedia — Chocobo (series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocobo_(series)) - [Wikipedia — Koichi Ishii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koichi_Ishii) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.