I’ve played a lot of RPGs over the years, and many of them have romance elements in them somewhere. Yet Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars takes it a step further, blending elements from Anime dating sims with a standard JRPG into a unique formula with a somewhat hilarious premise. Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars encourages the protagonist to form bonds between himself and the seven female characters who join him in order to create Star Children that make the party more powerful. This bizarre premise, created by Spike Chunsoft turns into a rather interesting game, even if the story of Conception 2 is a little slow and lackluster.
It is important to note that while Conception 2 may seem cute and kid-friendly, unless you want to engage in a sex-ed discussion with your child early on, you probably don’t want them playing this game. There are adult themes (and clearly sexual jokes and content) throughout Conception 2 as well as simulated nudity (though nothing extremely graphic is shown, it is merely breasts without nipples; sort of like a Sailor Moon transformation showing a body silhouette rather than the actual thing).
Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars is set in the world of Aterra. Aterra is a world that has been under siege by monsters for decades. Thus it falls on people called Disciples to purify the monsters and protect Aterra. You are put into the role of a male Disciple, who must team up with seven of the most powerful female Disciples, in order to create Star Children and venture into labyrinths called Dusk Circles to eradicate the monster threat.
The game plays out like the Persona titles, with part of the gameplay being RPG-style dungeon crawling, while the other part consists of visual novel style dialog scenes. Inside Dusk Circles and other exploration areas, you control your main character, walking around and exploring; whereas on the map you simply select where you wish to go and can initiate story content and conversations between characters. You can also access shops from the map, as well as things like Classmating.
Star Children are created through a process called Classmating, where your main character can engage in Star Conception with one of the female characters to create Star Children. Once two bonded characters undergo Classmating, a Matryoshka doll appears, creating the Star Child. Star Children are, in essence, spirits that accompany the player and enhance their capabilities (much like Personas in the Persona series.) The Matryoshka dolls also affect the Classmating process, as some impart certain elements on the Star Children, and can determine what elemental abilities they receive on conception. Star Children can be created from 30 different classes, enabling you to build your party in all sorts of ways. There are other intricacies to the Classmating System, but it would take some of the fun out of it to explain.
As you create a stronger bond with the other characters, more powerful Star Children can be created, enabling you to increase your battle capabilities over time, unlocking new skills and more powerful combat abilities. Higher quality Star Children can be made if the heroine you choose to Classmate with has a high mood and affinity towards the main character. This leads into the dating sim portion of the game, where you will need to maintain relationships with the other heroines in order to raise their affinity. Additionally, keeping their mood up is important, as it can affect Classmating and can even prevent you from Classmating at all if the mood is at its lowest point. Not spending time with the heroines can cause their mood to drop, which can in turn cause problems for you if you need to create more powerful Star Children.
Bonding with heroines can be done by saying things they like during dialog, giving them presents they like, or participating in touch events and touching them in the proper place to make them happy. A variety of events can occur, and over time your relationship with the heroines will grow.
The city that you use as a hub will grow and expand over time as you progress through the game, offering a variety of new facilities and capabilities.
Combat initiates when the player runs into an enemy on the map. The party is then sent into battle, where they take turns attacking, casting spells/skills, using items, and taking other actions. When you attack, make note of which direction the enemy is facing, as sometimes you can do more damage by hitting an enemy from the back. Attacks can be placed from multiple directions, giving you (as well as your enemies) various tactical advantages or disadvantages. There are also elemental weaknesses, chain attacks, and a variety of other combat mechanics to keep in mind as the game progresses.
Outside of combat, you will need to navigate the randomly generated floors of each labyrinth, exploring and engaging in various puzzles or gimmicks unique to each labyrinth. You can only take one heroine with you into battle, but your Star Children add to your party, giving you a variety of unique party elements to customize.
The Storyline for Conception 2 is somewhat slow, and the dialog has moments of being absolutely cringe-worthy. On the other hand, the characters have unique personalities, and there are some I found myself really enjoying. The music is very reminiscent of the Persona series, with upbeat songs that don’t get too repetitive as you play. I did notice a few spelling errors in the dialog though that can lead to some hilarious moments.
Conception 2’s time system adds a sort of “time management” portion to the game where you will need to manage your time interacting with the heroines, as well as your time in the dusk circles. There are eight possible endings that can be reached, depending on your relationships with the various female heroines (including a harem ending where you end up with all of them).
There are also quests to complete, and a load of other content elements to explore and enjoy. From exploring completed dungeons at higher difficulties, to completing quests for people, Conception 2 has a ton of content. Despite this, the game is rather simple, and seems to lack the storyline depth of games like Persona or Etrian Odyssey. Instead of a deep, engaging story it seems like Atlus was more concerned about innuendo and silly one-liners.
Overall, there isn’t much to complain about though; Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars is a fun, weird sort of game that many RPG gamers will enjoy. It isn’t on the same level of depth as the Persona series, but if you like games like that or even the Etrian Odyssey series, then Conception 2 will satisfy the craving.
A PC Review code for Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars was provided by Spike Chunsoft for the purpose of this review.
Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars
Pros
- Complex turn-based gameplay
- Attractive visuals
- Unique characters
- Immersive combat
Cons
- Slow, uninteresting storyline
- Cringe-worthy dialog
