The Final Fantasy 10 Chocobo Racing and Catching Mini-Game is one of the most annoying mini-games in all of the Final Fantasy games. It is very time consuming, very random, and very aggravating. Compound that with the fact that you have to actually get a time of 00:00 in order to get Tidus’s ultimate weapon. On top of that, they added a trophy to it as well in the HD-Remaster edition.
With that being said, I have still always managed to succeed, given time and patience. Throughout the time I have been playing the game, I have gotten 00:00 probably around 4 times. Each time I have tried over the course of my years playing the game it has taking gaming sessions close to 6 hours each. Each time I try, I typically have to try continuously for close to 6 hours before finally getting it. A few of the times I had extremely bad luck, and had to do 2-3 series of 6 hour sessions in order to achieve success.
One thing I can say, there are no exploits, or glitches, or cheats or anything else that can be used to your advantage. There are however a small hand full of tips and tricks that you will have to learn after a lot of trial and error. I intend to describe those tips/tricks in an attempt to at least save new players the time of having to learn them the hard way. Some of the techniques might help make achieving it a lot easier and faster for some people. The Chocobo Racing isn’t meant to be easy, but hopefully some of these tips help.
A few tips and tricks
1. Use the D-Pad instead of the thumb stick. It’s a lot smoother and less jumpy when trying to do the Chocobo Racing.
2. Try to get as many balloons at the beginning section (before the first turn) as possible. The more you get there, the better the chances of success. Note if the initial balloon is closer to her, ignore it and focus on leaning yourself towards the right. Some of the balloon patterns are setup to make it easier for her to get them all, others start by grouping them on the right. If you can get to the right and get the first 1/2 balloons, then getting the rest are pretty easy at that point (at least up until the first turn.
3. Time your first time movement carefully. Once you learn the timing you will be able to clear that first major turn almost perfectly and line yourself up with a series of balloons that immediately appear near the end of the turn (at least on some balloon patterns).
4. After the first turn, dodge birds first and foremost, seconded by getting balloons.
5. Use the directional pad instead of the thumbstick.
6. Try to get as many baloons at the beginning as possible.
Winning the Chocobo Race in Final Fantasy 10 can be a very tricky, and extremely frustrating. Luckily I was able to get it accomplished, and since it took me a lot of trial and error I decided to write this blog post about Chocobo Racing to outline some of the things that got me through it successfully.
Overall more information about the Chocobo Racing Mini-game can be found here.