I remember back in the day, I was looking for a game to play and stumbled across a little game called “Golden Sun”. Since I liked Final Fantasy, I thought to myself “Why not?” and picked it up. Little did I know that I had struck gold (pun intended).
So I kind of like turn based RPGs like Pokémon, Final Fantasy (at least, I liked the older ones, like I, II, III and of course VII) and Golden Sun, so that’s why I decided to tackle the game called Justice Chronicles, even though I didn’t know anything about the series (if it was a series at all).
Well… It’s something alright…
Story:
You play as Kline, a Guardian Beast Knight in training (he hasn’t unlocked his Guardian Beast yet) who gets sent on a mission with Vil and Anne, two Guardian Beast Knights, to the depths of… Well Earth-Depths, Laft, to spy on the enemy forces so you can prepare for the oncoming war between Earth-Surface and Earth-Depths. There he witnesses a scene that apparently is so horrific, that he has to jump in and save the day, or in this case, a Battle Maiden of the Lipsia Tribe named Alia.
The rescue goes horribly wrong, though, and he has to make a pact with the God of Death called Roosevely to save Alia’s life.
If the story sounds standard to you, boy (or girl) are you in for some standard tropes… Let me go over them real quick:
– Kline: an inexperienced main character whose goal is to become the strongest there is and kill the High Beast Lord for an unspecified reason (until 2 minutes later, where we get a flashback where we’re immediately explained why he hates this apparent God).
– Vil: the strong and sturdy leader who treats his newest team member with kindness and wants to make sure he survives the mission. He’s so friendly and understanding, you just know he’s going to be the “plot twist evil guy”. He’s optimistic about Kline’s future and strength which is the complete opposite of…
– Anne: the battle-hardened soldier who has seen some sh** in her lifetime. She’s cold, crude and rude, openly stating that she thinks Kline is a useless liability that shouldn’t have been on this mission in the first place and will likely endanger it. When Kline asks a too personal question, she storms off because it’s probably too dark and hard for her to explain…
– Alia: Your basic “Sakura Haruno” or “Rukia Kuchiki” character. Obviously going to be the love interest later on in the story, doesn’t want to show her weakness and though you saved her green haired behind, she still says she didn’t really need your help and would’ve been okay without it (even though, seconds before you jump in, she states that her attacks don’t do anything against the enemy). She DOES thank you though, so… That’s something.
– Josh: the cute and fluffy mascot character. Looks like a cat, is obsessed with money and has a bad memory.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is incredibly simplistic. Think of one JRPG you’ve ever played. There you go, that’s Justice Chronicles. It’s not even a “Side-View Battle System”, it’s a “first person” battle system, akin to the one used in Mother or Earthbound. The difference between those, however, is that those games had something new and intuitive. This is just your standard fare of attack, use magic, use and item, block, you know the drill.
All of those tropes and standard-as-all-hell battle system made me raise my eyebrows. That, coupled with the incredibly bad graphics (like, seriously, Golden Sun on the GBA had MUCH better graphics than this!) made me question a lot of things. The biggest one being: Is this game a port? Maybe from an SNES game?
I was partly correct. This game IS a port alright… A port of a 2013 Android game.
After digging around some more, I found out that the company who made this, Kemco, has been pushing out JRPGs like these on mobile platforms like clockwork. In 2013 alone (the year Justice Chronicles was released) they released 20 games, 19 for mobile devices and 1 for WiiU.
After watching some gameplay of the other games, it was clear to me… This company is basically the “Tiger Games” equivalent in the JRPG scene. All of their games are basic as all Hell, and all of the stories usually revolve around tropes that have been done to death, a clear sign of “Quantity over Quality” and it definitely shows with Justice Chronicles.
Music:
The music is generic as well, and makes me wonder if they didn’t take it from some other game!
At times, I even thought that I recognized a tune, but for the life of me, I couldn’t place it. Sounded eerily familiar though. Other than that, the music or sounds are nothing to write home about.
| The Good: | The Bad: |
| + Main character design | – Price |
| + Enemy design | – Environments |
| + Battle mechanics | – Story |
This game is the lowest of the low when it comes to RPGs. It’s generic, the writing is horrible, the translation is even more horrid and the graphics look as if they’re from an SNES. Heck, Final Fantasy III (or VI, depending on what version you played) had better graphics than this! It’s incredibly muddy and pixel-y. That, coupled with the basic gameplay, controls, the soundtrack that sounds too familiar to ignore and the whopping price of €9.99 (it’s only €3.99 on the Android Store) I really can’t recommend this game to anyone. It’s an obvious rush-job, made to make cash only.
1 out of 5
