At the September 2021 Nintendo Direct, a Final Fantasy kart racing game called Chocobo GP was unveiled. The announcement trailer for Chocobo GP revealed some of the playable characters it will feature at launch, as well as some of the stages players will be able to race on.
Chocobo GP is the spiritual successor to Chocobo Racing on the original PlayStation. The game is similar to those in the Mario Kart franchise, with a roster made up of Final Fantasy characters, a selection of customizable karts to race around in, and special items which can be used to attack enemies. The developers are going all-in with the Final Fantasy references, as the stages include Zozo from FF6, the Gold Saucer from FF7, and Alexandria from FF9. There is actually a lot of FF9 content in the game, which might have something to do with its upcoming animated series.
Square Enix has yet to announce the full roster for Chocobo GP and it's possible that some characters are still being added to the game, especially considering it won't be released until 2022. The trailer did reveal a couple of the racers and karts that will be appearing in Chocobo GP, and it's likely that more characters will be unveiled in the future leading up to its release. Chocobo GP is going up against Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the best-selling Switch game of all time, which includes an impressive amount of Nintendo characters. Luckily for Chocobo GP, Square Enix also has a plethora of iconic first-party characters and mascots to drop into its new Final Fantasy racing game.
Final Fantasy Characters Confirmed For Chocobo GP
The characters which appear in the trailer for Chocobo GP are:
- Behemoth (the Chocobo series)
- Camilla (the Chocobo series)
- Chocobo
- Dungeon Hero X (Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon)
- Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V)
- Mecha Chocobo (World of Final Fantasy)
- Ramuh
- Shiroma (the Chocobo series)
- Steiner (Final Fantasy IX)
- Vivi (Final Fantasy IX)
There are other possible Final Fantasy characters in the trailer, but they only appear for a few seconds and are difficult to make out. One character is an old man with a green hat, who could be Ramuh, the version of Cid from FF3, or perhaps even Bugenhagen from FF7. A Moogle that resembles Stiltzkin from FF9 also briefly appears in one shot. It's also important to remember that the original Chocobo Racing game on the PS1 branched out from the Final Fantasy series, as it included Aya from Parasite Eve in her police car, so theoretically the sky could be the limit for potential future additions to Chocobo GP's roster.
Chocobo GP will be released for Nintendo Switch in 2022.