The chocobo was created by
Koichi Ishii, an artist and game designer who worked on the original
Final Fantasy (1987) and
Final Fantasy II (1988). The origins of chocobos came from Ishii's childhood. When he was at elementary school, he bought a chick at a festival market and formed a strong bond with it. One day while he was away at school, his parents decided they could no longer care for it and gave it to a neighbour who kept chickens. Ishii was very upset when he found out, and kept the memory of the chick into his adult life. All through development of
Final Fantasy, Ishii wanted to create an animal companion character. A challenge to himself was creating a character that could not speak but would still be capable of creating an empathic connection with the player. The chocobo's design was inspired by the middle stage of his chick before it matured into a chicken. The name "Chocobo" was inspired by the Chocolate Ball, a popular confection in Japan created by
Morinaga & Company. He created the first Chocobo designs in ten minutes during a lunch break, imagining chocobos as a near-constant companion players would connect with, similar to the horse Thunderbolt from
Kōya no Shōnen Isamu. When Ishii presented the chocobo concept to series creator
Hironobu Sakaguchi, they were initially rejected, but Sakaguchi eventually included them in
Final Fantasy II in the much-reduced role of temporary mounts. Ishii was annoyed by their reduced role both in
Final Fantasy II and
Final Fantasy III (1990). This anger prompted him to include the chocobo in its intended companion role in the debut
Mana title
Final Fantasy Adventure (1991), which was the first project where he had creative control. He considered that version to be the original Chocobo, which appeared in other properties around that game. Ishii originally envisioned the chocobo as a non-vocal character, communicating through its movements and thus being true to its feelings. Going forward, the chocobo sported a distinctive "Kweh" call. The chocobo was going to be one of a trio of mascot characters alongside the
Moogle and a third animal creation that ended up being scrapped. Though Ishii never intended the chocobo to recur within the series, positive fan reception caused it to become a fixture going forward. It underwent multiple redesigns based on the setting of each game, such as
Final Fantasy XV (2016) where it was designed to appear realistic while still having exotic flourishes. They were initially left out of the world design of
Final Fantasy XVI (2023), but staff protests prompted scenario writer Kazutoyo Maehiro to incorporate them. A notable narrative use of chocobos was in the opening section of
Final Fantasy Type-0, where a chocobo was gunned down and their owner was unable to save it, setting the game's darker tone. A recurring element in games featuring the chocobo is a titular musical theme, created for
Final Fantasy II by Nobuo Uematsu and remixed or redone in subsequent entries. For the remixes he chose, Uematsu always selected a genre which had the same number of syllables as "chocobo". The most notable version features in the long-running
Chocobo spin-off series, which share a protagonist in the form of a male Chocobo. This incarnation of Chocobo was designed by Toshiyuki Itahana, who created a more cute design that would fit into a roguelike game design while also appealing to a wider market than the "sleek" designs of Chocobos from the main series. His early attempts to make a more monster-like version did not work due to the planned tone, which focused on a light-hearted story. He also created versions of Chocobo that had him wearing
Final Fantasy job outfits. Recurring artist
Yoshitaka Amano created a concept for the Chocobo summon from
Final Fantasy III, though this design differed markedly from its usual appearance. The in-game sprite, while a typical chocobo design, reused colors from the Amano artwork. Due to his workload at the time, he had no memory of his chocobo design. ==Appearances==