Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars Review

(Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars, Spike Chunsoft)

<p>I’ve played a lot of RPGs over the years&comma; and many of them have romance elements in them somewhere&period; Yet <em>Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars<&sol;em> takes it a step further&comma; blending elements from Anime dating sims with a standard JRPG into a unique formula with a somewhat hilarious premise&period; <em>Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars<&sol;em> 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&period; This bizarre premise&comma; created by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;SpikeChunsoft&lowbar;e" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Spike Chunsoft <&sol;a>turns into a rather interesting game&comma; even if the story of <em>Conception 2<&sol;em> is a little slow and lackluster&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is important to note that while <em>Conception 2<&sol;em> may seem cute and kid-friendly&comma; unless you want to engage in a sex-ed discussion with your child early on&comma; you probably don’t want them playing this game&period; There are adult themes &lpar;and clearly sexual jokes and content&rpar; throughout <em>Conception 2<&sol;em> as well as simulated nudity &lpar;though nothing extremely graphic is shown&comma; it is merely breasts without nipples&semi; sort of like a Sailor Moon transformation showing a body silhouette rather than the actual thing&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars<&sol;em> is set in the world of Aterra&period; Aterra is a world that has been under siege by monsters for decades&period; Thus it falls on people called Disciples to purify the monsters and protect Aterra&period; You are put into the role of a male Disciple&comma; who must team up with seven of the most powerful female Disciples&comma; in order to create Star Children and venture into labyrinths called Dusk Circles to eradicate the monster threat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111359" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111359" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111359 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;11060203&sol;ss05&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars&comma; Spike Chunsoft&rpar; " width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111359" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars<&sol;em>&comma; Spike Chunsoft&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The game plays out like the <em>Persona<&sol;em> titles&comma; with part of the gameplay being RPG-style dungeon crawling&comma; while the other part consists of visual novel style dialog scenes&period; Inside Dusk Circles and other exploration areas&comma; you control your main character&comma; walking around and exploring&semi; whereas on the map you simply select where you wish to go and can initiate story content and conversations between characters&period; You can also access shops from the map&comma; as well as things like Classmating&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Star Children are created through a process called Classmating&comma; where your main character can engage in Star Conception with one of the female characters to create Star Children&period; Once two bonded characters undergo Classmating&comma; a Matryoshka doll appears&comma; creating the Star Child&period; Star Children are&comma; in essence&comma; spirits that accompany the player and enhance their capabilities &lpar;much like Personas in the <em>Persona<&sol;em> series&period;&rpar; The Matryoshka dolls also affect the Classmating process&comma; as some impart certain elements on the Star Children&comma; and can determine what elemental abilities they receive on conception&period; Star Children can be created from 30 different classes&comma; enabling you to build your party in all sorts of ways&period;  There are other intricacies to the Classmating System&comma; but it would take some of the fun out of it to explain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you create a stronger bond with the other characters&comma; more powerful Star Children can be created&comma; enabling you to increase your battle capabilities over time&comma; unlocking new skills and more powerful combat abilities&period; 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&period; This leads into the dating sim portion of the game&comma; where you will need to maintain relationships with the other heroines in order to raise their affinity&period; Additionally&comma; keeping their mood up is important&comma; as it can affect Classmating and can even prevent you from Classmating at all if the mood is at its lowest point&period; Not spending time with the heroines can cause their mood to drop&comma; which can in turn cause problems for you if you need to create more powerful Star Children&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111360" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111360" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111360 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;11060317&sol;ss06&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars&comma; Spike Chunsoft&rpar; " width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111360" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars<&sol;em>&comma; Spike Chunsoft&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Bonding with heroines can be done by saying things they like during dialog&comma; giving them presents they like&comma; or participating in touch events and touching them in the proper place to make them happy&period; A variety of events can occur&comma; and over time your relationship with the heroines will grow&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The city that you use as a hub will grow and expand over time as you progress through the game&comma; offering a variety of new facilities and capabilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Combat initiates when the player runs into an enemy on the map&period; The party is then sent into battle&comma; where they take turns attacking&comma; casting spells&sol;skills&comma; using items&comma; and taking other actions&period; When you attack&comma; make note of which direction the enemy is facing&comma; as sometimes you can do more damage by hitting an enemy from the back&period; Attacks can be placed from multiple directions&comma; giving you &lpar;as well as your enemies&rpar; various tactical advantages or disadvantages&period; There are also elemental weaknesses&comma; chain attacks&comma; and a variety of other combat mechanics to keep in mind as the game progresses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Outside of combat&comma; you will need to navigate the randomly generated floors of each labyrinth&comma; exploring and engaging in various puzzles or gimmicks unique to each labyrinth&period; You can only take one heroine with you into battle&comma; but your Star Children add to your party&comma; giving you a variety of unique party elements to customize&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111361" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111361" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111361 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;11060457&sol;ss01&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars&comma; Spike Chunsoft&rpar; " width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111361" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars<&sol;em>&comma; Spike Chunsoft&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The Storyline for <em>Conception 2<&sol;em> is somewhat slow&comma; and the dialog has moments of being absolutely cringe-worthy&period; On the other hand&comma; the characters have unique personalities&comma; and there are some I found myself really enjoying&period; The music is very reminiscent of the <em>Persona<&sol;em> series&comma; with upbeat songs that don’t get too repetitive as you play&period; I did notice a few spelling errors in the dialog though that can lead to some hilarious moments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Conception 2’<&sol;em>s time system adds a sort of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;time management” portion to the game where you will need to manage your time interacting with the heroines&comma; as well as your time in the dusk circles&period; There are eight possible endings that can be reached&comma; depending on your relationships with the various female heroines &lpar;including a harem ending where you end up with all of them&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are also quests to complete&comma; and a load of other content elements to explore and enjoy&period; From exploring completed dungeons at higher difficulties&comma; to completing quests for people&comma; <em>Conception 2<&sol;em> has a ton of content&period; Despite this&comma; the game is rather simple&comma; and seems to lack the storyline depth of games like <em>Persona<&sol;em> or <em>Etrian Odyssey<&sol;em>&period; Instead of a deep&comma; engaging story it seems like Atlus was more concerned about innuendo and silly one-liners&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; there isn’t much to complain about though&semi; <em>Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars<&sol;em> is a fun&comma; weird sort of game that many RPG gamers will enjoy&period; It isn’t on the same level of depth as the <em>Persona<&sol;em> series&comma; but if you like games like that or even the <em>Etrian Odyssey<&sol;em> series&comma; then <em>Conception 2<&sol;em> will satisfy the craving&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC Review code for <em>Conception 2&colon; Children of the Seven Stars<&sol;em> was provided by Spike Chunsoft for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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