Justice Chronicles Review

Justice Chronicles

Release: March 31, 2016
Publisher: Kemco
Developer: Kemco
Genre: Nintendo 3DS Reviews, Role-playing
PEGI: T
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The Nintendo 3DS has a lot of role playing games coming out this year. Among the big rpg titles coming out, there are also some rpgs coming from Indie developers. One of the Indie rpgs recently released is called Justice Chronicles. How is this 3DS eshop rpg?

Justice Chronicles has an interesting story and its world feels complex and full of history. That said, the game has way too much dialogue and none of it is written well. Whenever the characters started talking again, I’d be excited to find out more of the story at first and then I just got tired of hearing the characters talk. The main character of the game, Kline, is especially naïve and clueless. The dialogue on a whole feels very child-like and cringe worthy. There is a good story hiding among the mess; it’ll take a lot of patience to put up with the dialogue. What about Justice Chronicles gameplay though?

Justice Chronicles is a traditional turn-based role playing game. If you like traditional turn-based rpgs, you may find some things to like in this game. If you don’t like them, they should avoid this title completely.

This game has a lot of random battles and while it may be tempting to avoid them as much as possible, I do not recommend that at all. Justice Chronicles may start out easy, but it becomes much harder later on and if your characters are not leveled up right, you will die a lot. If you die, there is a handy way to revive: spend half of your money to come back to life and fight on from where you left off. I like this, but you still get caught in a trap if you didn’t level right. I like random battles and I like turn-based battle systems. I think Justice Chronicles handled both well, especially the battle system.

If you like the old Dragon Quest first person battle system, they’ll like Justice Chronicles battle system. It definitely plays a lot like a Dragon Quest battle system. Though, unlike Dragon Quest, you can switch in or out any of your party members when you need to. This is very handy and sometimes necessary if you have a party member you can’t revive. I wish I could say that the game’s towns and dungeons were as good as the game’s battle system though.

Justice Chronicles dungeons are really boring. A lot of the dungeons are very similar to each other and the only thing that makes them different from each other is their layout. They all very maze-like and it’ll take you awhile to get through them. Thankfully there is an option in the menu system where you can just leave the dungeon whenever you are done with it. Well, most of the time anyway. Occasionally, the game will say that you can’t leave a dungeon and that’s because either there’s a story event coming next or the story has trapped you in the dungeon. One of the best things about the dungeons is that you can find items in chests that help you and items on the ground that you can use for crafting. I really like the game’s crafting system and finding items in the dungeons always feels rewarding. I do think you find them a little too easy though because they are clearly marked on the game’s map! Still, the crafting makes the dungeons a little worth exploring, but I do wish there were puzzles in the dungeons or something to make them more exciting. Of course, they are not as bad as the towns.

There are only two types of towns, the underworld ones and the above ground ones. The layout of the towns change, but that’s about it. All of the towns people look the same and the buildings do too. Its very dull and uninteresting. You can get some side quests in the town or you can just go to your menu and look up the side quests and accept them. These quests will take you back to the dungeons, mostly for uninteresting fetch quests. Exploring the towns and dungeons feel very much like a chore, especially in you plan to marathon Justice Chronicles. I would recommend playing this game in small doses though. Justice Chronicles, can feel very repetitive when played too long. Thankfully, the game’s controls do not make this chore harder.

Justice Chronicles has pretty good controls, especially if you control it with the analog stick or d-pad and buttons. The game does have touch screen control and while the walking around isn’t always precise with the touch screen, the touch screen menus work great! Also the bottom screen provides a map that is sometimes handy and sometimes not. Though, I’m glad the bottom screen was used. Technically, Justice Chronicles is a good game, but gameplay wise it is very hit or miss.

Justice Chronicles wants to be a better game than it is. It has a good setup and a good battle system, but its hindered by its bad dialogue and boring dungeons/towns. That’s not say that there are not a couple of other things to like about the game.

Graphics wise, Justice Chronicles is on par with an SNES role playing game. Though there isn’t as much variety in the enemies and backgrounds as a Final Fantasy game of the era (things are repeated a lot in Justice Chronicles). I also think that the main characters look like stereotypical rpg protagonists, especially Kline (who reminds me of Crono). That said, the game looks good if you like retro rpgs. There is no 3D with this title, though I doubt it would add much.

As for the game’s soundtrack, I thought the music is pretty good! I especially like the rock music that plays every so often. I wouldn’t say the soundtrack is on par with SNES Final Fantasy, but its much better than I expected. The sound effects are largely forgettable, but at least they are not annoying.

Justice Chronicles is an ok game. There are things to love about it if you are an rpg fan, though there are things to not like about it too. I think the bad dialogue and the boring dungeons/towns really pull the game down a lot. If those elements had been better, Justice Chronicles may have been a really good game. However, if you like traditional role playing games, you might want to check this one out if it ever goes on sale for cheap.

Thank you to Kemco for providing a review copy of this game. Justice Chronicles is out now on the 3DS eshop.

Positives

• Interesting Story
• Very Good battle system
• Rewarding crafting
• Excellent controls

Negatives

• Too much/bad dialogues
• Boring dungeons and towns
• Repetitive gameplay
• Sound effects
• Lack of Visual Variety

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