The limitations of the small development teams of indie games like Choo-Choo Charles can often lead to impressive innovation thanks to these constraints. In fact, with this recent indie darling being the passion project of a solo developer, the constraints in place make the way that Choo-Choo Charles compares to Final Fantasy 15 even more incredible.
To specify the comparisons between Choo-Choo Charles and Final Fantasy 15, the main similarity to point out is between the ways both games allow players to travel around their large, open maps. In the case of the AAA title developed over the course of more than a decade, this comes in the form of the Regalia car, while Two Star Games' version relies on a previously abandoned train.
Quick and Limited Traversal on Vehicles
The key similarity between the upgradeable train in Choo-Choo Charles and the Regalia in Final Fantasy 15, is more heavily related to the tracks they are set on than the vehicles themselves. In both cases, these vehicles travel along giant tracks that strictly direct where the player can drive, and more importantly where they can't travel in speed and safety. This then allows players to make the long trek from one end of the open-world map to the other in a matter of minutes, rather than the hours it might take when traveling on foot.
However, while this traversal is much faster than walking, it is also much more limited in direction than what the player character is capable when walking. It's these limits that open both games up for more interesting exploration as well, tasking the player to get out of the safety of their vehicles in order to find the materials and key items necessary to progress. That being said, the freedom players are given to hunt down the secrets in Choo-Choo Charles is where the comparisons to Final Fantasy 15 end and their contrasting designs begin.
Stop Anywhere and Walk Everywhere
The best feature built into the train in Choo-Choo Charles isn't a gun or a flamethrower, but the ability to jump out of the vehicle at any time and start exploring by foot. This is drastically different to how Final Fantasy 15 treats the Regalia, with the royal car only being able to stop at designated parking spaces. It might appear at first like a small difference, considering how many parking locations are available, but the freedom to exit the train while it is still moving without having to worry that it'll break makes exploring much more fluid.
While the Regalia itself is an impressive part of the world of Eos and almost a character in Final Fantasy 15 in its own right, the limits on where to park can stunt exploration in significant ways. Sometimes getting to the location of a side quest or secret treasure requires driving the Regalia out to a nearby parking spot, only to then mount Final Fantasy's chocobo mascot to actually reach the destination. The result for this type of stilted exploration often leads players to not bother checking out all the side content that fills out the rest of the open world beyond the main story.
Interestingly, this improvement from the more rigid use of the Regalia to the free use of the train actually makes the system more simple. With no parking spots to need to program, or towing mechanics to implement, or a secondary mount to supplement traversal, development for Choo-Choo Charles was made significantly easier. While that isn't to say that developing an entire game as a solo project is easy, but by being forced to trim so much of the traversal mechanics and simplify the final product, the low-budget indie hit manages to outshine its AAA counterpart in impressive ways.
Choo-Choo Charles is available now for PC.