Justice Chronicles is Kemco’s latest release on the Nintendo 3DS eshop, and it puts us in the role of Kline, a novice High Beast Knight who is sent on reconnaissance into Laft,the Earth-Depths. There he comes across Alia, a Battle Maiden who has suffered terrible injuries and is close to death. In order to help her, he forms a partnership with the God of Death, Rooselevy. Alia lives, but in return, the young knight must give up his life. In a world on the brink of war, the newly acquainted duo must fight destiny itself in order to save the world from the ever creeping darkness that is threatening to consume everything. I absolutely love JRPGs. If they give me a world in the brink of destruction and a team of unlikely heroes, I am a happy man. Justice Chronicles is a good example of a good JRPG that can keep you playing for a long time (well all JRPGs are HUGE ordeals but you get the idea).
You first start the game you play as Kline, and you are a novice High Beast Knight. However, since you are not a rival yet, the reconnaissance mission into Laft serves as a test of your abilities. When you get to Laft, you encounter Josh, a strange creature who is your guide to the mine where you must gather information about your enemies. Needless to say, something goes wrong, and your team prioritizes the mission and left Kline alone while he is fighting a monster called “Vasist” trying to save the life of a girl. After that he forms a partnership with the God of Death, Rooselevy, and becomes a “Rivel”(Rivels are warriors that fight with the help of a high Beast). Since Rooselevy is sneaky, Kline must give his life for his aid. As you progress through the story, (which is really good by the way) you find the reasons why you can wield Guardian Beasts and Kline’s true power.
Justice Chronicles uses your standard turn based battle system. You have your Attack, Guard, Items and Skills menus. However, what sets Justice Chronicles apart is the Beast Partner system. Each time you attack, your Beast partner does an action based in the parameters set by the player. Pursuit type the Beast partner acts based on the characters AGL value. Guidance type is based on the shell’s AGL value, so that gives you a room for strategy and find which is the best for you.
Another cool feature is the dual skills. Each time you attack or are attacked, a “Heat” gauge starts to fill. When you get it to one hundred percent, you can do a double or triple attack. Depending on your party, you can use a powerful physical attack, or a ultimate magic attack that are really useful in boss battles. The Crafting system is great also. In each dungeon, there are gathering points (you get the items just passing over the blinking light), and you can use the materials obtained to strengthen your weapons and armor. However, that is not the only way to do it. You can also find recipes to get better equipment.
The game’s art is really good, reminiscent of the SNES era. I totally loved the first person view when battling enemies. Speaking of enemies, I really like the animations on each one, how they move, and the attack effects. Also, I really like the animations when you use a dual attack and special skills. The music is really good, and I like how it gets me pumped up when there is a boss battle. The over world music is enjoyable and the intro movie is really cool.
Bottom Line: Justice Chronicles is a great addition to the ever growing eshop library. It has a good story, tons of side quests, and a great crafting and battle system. For me, it is a great retro-styled JRPG. I can’t recommend it enough. It is one of my favorite games released by Kemco. I can see that the quality is getting better, and that is a good sign.