Chocobo
A Chocobo is a fictional large flightless bird (ratite) which appears in the Final Fantasy game series and has also appeared in several related products and spin-offs. Chocobos are capable of carrying a human. Their specific abilities vary somewhat from game to game. They are native to the forests, and while timid in the wild, and vicious if threatened, they tame rather easily and make good transports. In this role they tend to be capable of crossing shallow water and are noted for their high speeds. Chocobos have occasionally been sighted as lightly armoured war mounts in which case they can assist their riders with beak and claw. Most often they can be caught in the wild and ridden without fear of random encounters, escaping after the player dismounts. Chocobos serve as a replacement for horses in Final Fantasy games, horses being mostly non-existent.
While ordinary Chocobos are yellow, certain rare breeds are of different colors and have special abilities, such as crossing mountains or flight. Again, specifics vary. An even more rare, more extreme variant is the Fat Chocobo (or Big Chocobo), which resembles a yellow chocobo with a serious weight problem and can humorously stock the party's items in its stomach (FF III & IV) or appear randomly when summoning a chocobo in battle (FF V & VII)
The onomatopoeia for a chocobo's call is "Kue" (クエ) in the original Japanese versions and it's sometimes transliterated as "Kweh" in the English translation, or alternately replaced by "Wark."
The Chocobo design is said to be based off of Hayao Miyazaki's Horseclaws, which appear in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. [1]
The Chocobo signature theme is an immediately recognizable upbeat ditty that's present in one form or another in almost all Final Fantasy games, frequently as variants or remixes.
Non-Final Fantasy appearances
Chocobos are a common sight in other Squaresoft and Square Enix games, including Seiken Densetsu (Final Fantasy Adventure), Legend of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Kingdom Hearts, Parasite Eve, and Tobal 2.
Chocobos are something of a running gag in the webcomic VG Cats; they also appear in the webcomic and Final Fantasy parody 8-bit Theatre. Small creatures called Dragobos in RPG World are stand-ins for Chocobos, transparent to the point of a "please don't sue us" sign. One is a party member and a companion to a "Mubble."
An episode of the popular web animation Weebl and Bob, parodying Final Fantasy VII, features a badly drawn chocobo uttering "wark".[2]
In the manga Naruto the villain Deidara has a giant clay bird that greatly resembles a Chocobo.
The anime series Last Exile features large unnamed birds that closely resemble Chocobos in several episodes. They come in various colors and are bet upon in races, but bear two rows of sharp teeth.