Final Fantasy: 25 Greatest Summons

Chocobos are perhaps the most well-known of all of the fictional creatures associated with the Final Fantasy franchise. The giant yellow birds, which made their debut in Final Fantasy II, have been included as rideable mounts in every main series title and almost every spin-off since, with little change to their basic design.

From time to time, chocobos have also been included amongst a games roster of summons, either individually, interchangeably with the Fat Chocobo variant or in the case of VII, paired with a Moogle and bizarrely made wind elemental.

Given that they are usually the first summon obtained by the player’s party in the course of these adventures, Chocobos quickly become too weak to even contemplate using. Perhaps as a result of this, they haven’t been included within it (aside from in VII Remake) since VIII, where they were one of four Guardian Forces summonable only through items that were either extremely rare or only obtainable through the PocketStation add-on only available to Japanese players.

Chocobos are nevertheless expected to appear prominently in each game, however, so featuring them in roles outside of transportation is a harmless way of highlighting the series’ chief mascot further.