Xross Chronicle is a Cute new Mobile JRPG

I’ve always been a fan of RPGs with a focus on story. JRPGs are especially enjoyable to me due to the fact that I spent a lot of my childhood with them. You could say they molded me.. into the man I am today. Or, man-child. Physically a man.. mentally a child. Sums me up pretty accurately.
To date they’re still my favorite genre of video game. So when I was reached out to to take a sponsored look at a brand new Mobile JRPG from LINE Games, I thought to myself “You know what? I’ve played some solid Japanese RPGs on my phone over the last year” and opted to give this one a chance.

Now, as is evident in all JRPGs, the game starts off with a lengthy cutscene.

The game has a focus on recruitable Yokai. Those Yokai in specific are different to normal party members you find in games like this.
Where you’d normally recruit hundreds of characters, fielding 4 to 6 of them at any given time, in Xross Chronicle, you recruit Yokai and.. well, the best way I can put this is that you essentially equip them on your character.
After selecting where you want them to go you can fuse with them in-battle, allowing for both the Yokai and Human to combine their strengths together, becoming one.
The Yokai have their own special abilities, and thus devising strategies to overcome certain enemy types and situations is all but a requirement the further you get.

Speaking of using Yokai in battle, the combat itself takes the form of a semi-auto-play system, allowing for you to move your character by clicking where on the screen you want to go, and individually selecting the skills you want to use, but the normal auto-attacks that happen in-between skill usage is automatic.
This is similar to most tab-target MMOs, in so that you cycle through various skills while auto-meleeing enemies.
I can’t say for certain how many skills you get, but I had access to 2 per character while recording on the way to level 10.
Skills are incredibly flashy and the fusion system looks great, fusing together with your Yokai kinda reminded me of the new Super Saiyan Blue forms in Dragon Ball Super.

Unfortunately you don’t have the ability to create your character, and I’m a huge fan of character creation in my games but at the same time I understand why this is the case.
This is heavily story-centric, and your characters are already pre-determined, with their own pre-set personalities. It’s also worth noting that the game is voice-acted, with some of your favorite Anime voice actors in-game. If that doesn’t qualify for an impressive dub, I don’t know what would.

While there’s plenty to do in terms of story – the entire game is focused around the story and progression takes place in the form of chapter-based missions, you also have access to various other types of game modes.
These include things like large monster raids, PvP arenas to test your strength against other players, the Scalar Tower, a plethora of different dungeons to participate in – which is actually of interest to me.
Partly because I love running dungeons in games, and partly because I’m not entirely certain how that will really function.
The game provides a surplus of activities to participate in, and that’s not including the extensive recruitment system in place that will keep you grinding endlessly, so long as content is continuously released and new characters are made available.

Xross Chronicles is an interesting game. It looks great, it offers a brand new unique story, fun characters and overall provides you a great way of spending all of that free time you probably have right now.
Worst case scenario? You don’t like it, and move on. But on the other hand, you might enjoy yourself.