I've always liked chocobos - from just the ways they opened up travel in Final Fantasy 4 to how riding them showed off what were impressive effects for the time in Final Fantasy 6 and the racing side quest in 7 and ways they've been used and presented beyond that.

I haven't played Magic: The Gathering in ages, but that sounds like a fun deck regardless of practicality.

And yes, I like seeing the more fun and cartoony style of chocobos in diapers.

I loved the chocobos when I first discovered them in Final Fantasy 4. They added quite a lot of fun to an already great game. Final Fantasy 4 also had a nice variety of chocobo to meet and do various fun things with. The many different variations on the chocobo theme song were also quite fun, too.

I'm glad that you, too, like padded, cartoony chocobos. They are fun for me to imagine and do bring a smile to my face.

Yes, the theme song variations have always been wonderful. Even going from 4 to 6, the way they remixed the theme there was amazing.

In later games, they've now done many different versions that you might enjoy if you get a chance to seek out, even if you didn't experience the games they're in. There's a military march version (Final Fantasy Type 0), a metal version (Final Fantasy 13-2), characters just singing the tune to themselves (7 Rebirth and 15), and lots more.

The fat chocobo tune from Final Fantasy 4 was also always really charming.

<LoL!> The fat chocobo theme from Final Fantasy 4 is one that I do tend to find myself humming every once in a while. It's cute and catchy. :)

I did not know of those particular remixes of the chocobo theme that you mentioned. It would be neat to come across a character in one of the games humming to the chocobo theme.

I definitely count Chocobos amongst my favorite fictional Birds, I'd say. Based on prehistoric Birds and mixing that with part Chicken, part Ostrich and Parrot, and of course the the subversion of the usual Horseride to a different companion, they are not only helpful but very memorable throughout the RPG series. No matter if presented as a smaller and cuddly cchicklet, a heroic cute dungeon explorer, a peaceful and pretty-feathered, curious Beast or as a towering ball of feathers, they have just a great mix between fun and aesthetically pleasing which fits well with the fairy-tale nature of the Final Fantasy series.
Personally first got introduced to them through Final Fantasy IX where their help would get the protagonists through various otherwise impassible environments and they'd have their own minigame where you'd let them run around the screen and search for their favorite Gysahl Greens. Their longer necks and friendly look were pretty much what made them enjoyable for me. Years later they's have a spinoff game on the Nintendo DS named Chocobo's Tales where the titular Chocobo child reminded me almost more of the body type of Yoshi from the Mario franchise. With large eyes, no more long and slender buid and moreso the round mascot shape, the wing-arms definitely selling the children's book aethetic even better, they were very adorable looking.
What in my mind sells the overall look of a Chocobo, is the silhouette. The way the feathers flow with the shape of their head and the bushy bouquet of tail feathers give the Chocobo an expressive and interesting impression that in some ways manages to playfully exaggerate and combine different Bird features.

Whether racing, doing amusing dances on a rach, or going on adventures in fantastic worlds, Chocobos make for very inspiring fellows. I put them on a personal list of characters that I find rather cute in the past and definitely could imagine it as fun for having Shiny in an artwork with them.
Regarding the diapers, I guess that happened likely a lot already. The poofypants in combination with cute characters are practically a given.

Thank you for such a detailed description of what makes chocobos special to you. It was a fun read and helped my imagination fill in some holes that my lack of eyesight over the years had forgotten. (I have some chocobo plushies, but some details don't transfer as well to plush as they do to genuine artwork.).

I also did not know that chocobos had a positive presence in Final Fantasy 9. I got to see a little of that game, but never any chocobos appeared when my friend was playing it.

It's cool that you remember Chocobo Tales as, recently, I discovered it through the sound track for it over on YouTube. The chocobo theme song in that game sounds so sweet and makes me think of a nursery full of little, cuddly chocobos. :)

What are your thoughts on the different sounds a chocbo makes? I'm very familiar with the Wark, which sounds more like A-Wee-Woo, from Final Fantasy 7. However, thanks to  Lucca, I have been able to hear the adorable Kweh, which sounds like Q, in Chocobo's Mystery Dungion: Everybody. There is also the little chirps the chocbo seems to make in Chocobo GP, too. (I've been trying to make time to listen to a game movie with no commentary of Chocobo GP on YouTube.).

Thanks for sharing all that you shared about chocobos. You truly made my day. :)

Glad you enjoyed my reminiscing abot the character. As someone who enjoys friendly Monster Species and thinks Monster Mounts in general have a nice appeal, Chocobo is a nice additions to them. Ah, I think Chocobo's only appear first somewhere close to the end of teh first disc in Final Fantasy IX. In the game you firstly get to control a default yellow kind in a hot-or-cold-like minigame to search for rarer items in exchange for greens. Later you could unlock other breeds of the Chocobo which depending on the color could reach more places on the map, like a light blue one that could swim in the sea, or at the very end of disc 3 you might be able to ride a golden one that even could flutter around strong enough to take to the air. On certain spots on the map said Chocobo would take you to a floating island in the sky named Chocobo's paradise. There one could meet the king of the Chocobos (they also call that version simply fat Chocobo because they are like a round floofy Bird who mostly just sits on their bum). He's usually accompanied by a bunch of other Chocobo that elegantly perform dances, two of them in front of instruments to likely entertain the king. Always looked rather dreamy with the colorful versions of the species.

I think the mascot version of Chocobo firstly got used in some sort of Squaresoft newsletter in Japan, but majorly got created for their Mystery Dungeon game on the PlayStation. There also was a Chocobo Racing for the console, but I never got to play those.
Hmm...Unsure but isn't Chocobo GP a completely arcade-like game where you just unlock characters? I don't think it had any story in that one. Chocobo Mystery Dungeon on the otehr hand is likely more something one could emmerce themselves in for story elements.
Recently learned that Square-Enix is doing a collaboration with one of the air travel companies in Japan. I am mentioning it because just like in various games featuring the mascot version of Chocobo, they gave them a cute costume. Here he's appearing alongslide the blue Slime from the Dragon Quest games, both of them wearing a flight captain's uniform like from a public airline (blue hat with a crest representing elements from each of their respective game series, and for Chocobo also a shirt with a red tie covered by a blue jacket with gold buttons and golden stripe-details on the wide sleeves designed to fit their wing-arms.). Very adorable geddup and apparently they sell that illustration in form of keychains and the sorts at pop up stores located at the airports.

Ooh! Pairing a Chocobo with the Blue Slime is very cool.

Kazootles! I still remember encountering that famous slime back in the days of the NES. I would have never thought it would have been able to become so popular over all these years. However, like Chocobos, the Blue Slime has been a fun part of video game culture for decades.

I also thank you for sharing those story elements from Final Fantasy 9. Imagining that fat chocobo being the king of a special island is quite fun and silly. I'm also reminded about how, in the recent MAGIC: The Gathering & Final Fantasy collaboration there is a card that got released called Paradise Chocobo. It is essentially a renamed variant of MTG's Birds Of Paradise card. However, as you did mention flying Chocobos and a paradise island, I can now see that the card has even more special meaning than just being a clever promo that they packed with the Chocobo Bundle Box. :)

Yush, they even had a spinoff video game on the Nintendo DS at some point called Rocket Slime Adventures, in which the Monsters had dialogue and helped each other out in fighting some villain Monsters. The clou: the different parties somehow had huge monster tanks or rather mecha Robots equipped with cannons from where they shot each other's troops onto each other to see who could first stop the other big robot first. the blue Slime himself could even jump inside the cannon which was an amusing display when they got catapulted over. The game also featured The Legend of Zelda like levels where you used the stylus on the touch screen to hold and pull the lime and then released them for a dash attack if I remember correctly.

AH, yes. I think Final Fantasy by themself also had their own trading card games here and there. I never picked any up but I saw them at stores.

Kudos for saying the right numbers, even if you may or may not have actually played under them.

<LoL!> Thank you. I did play both the SNES Final Fantasy 2 and the GBA Final Fantasy 4, but I only ever played 6 as 3 on the SNES. :)

I think chocobos are super cute and yes, they are great diaper fodder. The only sour point is that horrid Chocobo Catcher game in FF 10, I wanna strangle the dev who made that >:(

You know, I had never heard about any real chocobo presence in FF 10. Did the PS2 graphics at least do them justice?

The last time I got to have fun with chocobos was Final Fantasy 7. I liked the chocobo breeding that allowed you to get the Knights Of The Round summon. Though, breeding a gold chocobo seemed impossible without a strategy guide.

Yeah, they look more like actual birds, their feathers are more detailed, They've got the saddles, they make the "Kweh" sound. You can rent them at the Mi'hen High Road to get around faster (and jump to some ledges for hidden items) and also use them in the wide open Calm Lands map, where you can also play several Chocobo mini-games, including that dreaded Chocobo Catcher game.

In Chocobo Catcher, you have to race a Chocobo trainer down a hill and around and across the plain to a narrow pass. There are numerous balloons scattered around that take away several seconds from the timer. In order to get one of the items needed to Unlock the full power of Tidus' Ultimate Weapon, you need to beat the trainer and finish with a time of 0:00:00, yes seriously. The issue is that when you get to the plains, these DAMN BIRDS start flying at you, are extremely difficult to dodge unless you turn all the way left or right and when they hit you, they ADD time to the timer. It bamboozles me how this horrid mini-game got into the game, if it had any testers, you'd think they'd say it was too hard.

Chocobo Catcher does sound like a pain in the patootie. It's never fun when a mini game that is annoyingly difficult holds you up from getting an important item, too.

I remember when I played through The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and noticed the insane number of little tasks and mini games that were scattered about to get things and stuff. Fortunately, in my opinion, the majority of the really annoying ones were only to get pieces of heart and, for me, there just came a point where I stopped caring about assembling heart containers.