First Look at Before Crisis FFVII’s Chocobo Racing as Preservation Moves Forward
- ⚡Xe⚡
- 19 hours ago
- 2 min read
Previously unseen footage of the Chocobo Racing mini-game from Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII recently appeared online, marking an important step in the ongoing effort to preserve this lost title. Originally released in Japan between 2004 and 2006 for i-Mode and other compatible feature phones, Before Crisis was a mobile-exclusive prequel to Final Fantasy VII that remained inaccessible following its removal from servers in 2018.
A dedicated group of fans, mainly organized through the Keitai Wiki Discord, has been leading the preservation project. They’ve spent years trying to rebuild the game and make it playable. In 2024, they managed to recover a copy of the game, but it was incomplete and non-functional due to its reliance on Square Enix’s original servers.
To solve this, the team created new servers to replicate the original network features. With help from hacker and translator Yuvi, they’ve restored several key systems, including shops, the materia system, and Reno’s Training Mode. The latest success is the Chocobo Racing mini-game, which is now functional and shown in newly released gameplay footage.
This restoration became possible after preservationist NaoyaShinota obtained a P900iV mobile phone that contained important game files. Further progress now depends on finding more devices that may still hold parts of the game in their memory.
Just like in Final Fantasy VII, this mini-game was part of the Golden Saucer area in Before Crisis. Players could race Chocobos and explore extra features like training, fortune-telling, and breeding. Other mini-games in the same area included Super Dunk, an Arm Wrestling tournament, and the Battle Square.
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-⚡Xe⚡