Conception II - Children of the Seven Stars (Vita)

9/2/2014 - 7:53 PM - GMT +8
By: Seth Legaspi

For this week, I decided to do a review on "Conception II - Children of the Seven Stars."

Chloe: Follow my lead!

Conception II, is a game by Atlus that may be most well-known by their Persona series. Conception II is set in a typical High School setting, but with a very different environment and circumstance. One such difference is that everyone, and that means the entire world, acknowledges the monster's existence. Adding to that, the said school is one of the world's responses to the monsters.

If my statement of the School in the game as being a response by the world is not enough, maybe the city in which the school is found can clarify it more?

Behold! Fort City!

This makes the game distinct since the Main Character apparently goes to a school that also doubles as a sort of special operations team facility located in a Fort. A Fort City. This Fort City was apparently made to serve as a line of defense against a Monster Labyrinth (sort of like a monster hive/main base). 

The game however, has some very familiar characteristics when compared to Atlus' Persona series. Some of these are...

The dungeon crawling

The battles

Despite these parallels however, the game's own particulars more than makes up for its almost repetitive resemblance.

At the top of the list of course, is the game's namesake, the conception of the star children who accompanies the Main Character and the heroines in their quest to save the world and prevent more deaths.

Hmm... Who to choose...

The process is fairly simple, since the star children are apparently born through the mixture of the 'Star Energies' between two individuals. This is done through simple innocent acts, such as the holding of hands. As seen above, there's a bar that shows the number of bond points that the Main Character has, and these bonds points are required to make more children (Fortunately, these bond points are universal and can be used with any of the heroines).

Let's Bond together!

Of course, as the parent, you get to pick the child's job, in other words, the class. Each class has unique abilities that can be useful in certain situations, such as the skills that can be found in the thief class. The classes though, are permanent so be sure to select the class that you perfectly want for your star child.

So many occupations...

This is the special feature that the game revolves around on, and this is what makes the Main Character in the game, as the main character. 

According to the game's lore, the conception success rates are not 100% for everyone, except for a certain special rare individual that only appears in special times. This, is where our Main Character comes in since he apparently has a 100% conception rate, thus being entitled, "God's Gift."

Still revolving around the feature above, the Visual Novel elements add more color to the game's plot, since each heroine has their own story-line, which in turn adds more to the game's overall setting. Also, going out with the heroines is the main source of bond points that can be used in the conception of the star children. 

Walking home with Fuuko!

A cool aspect of the above element, would be the fact that you can give gifts to the heroines, which may also raise the number of bond points obtained!

Highlighting the correct choice cause am cool that way

Choosing the give gift option will loop you back to the choice set, minus the give a gift option, so you don't have to be stingy on giving gifts! Provided that you can afford these gifts... If it's not quite visible in the above picture, then the effects of giving such gifts may be seen more clearly below:

Glasses and the badge

Yes, one can have the heroines wear the gifts that they've given them! These range from glasses, and later on... To costumes! Yes! freakin' costumes!!!

Also, if the badge that Chloe's wearing above is not clear, then I guess I should highlight one exclusive part that comes as a free dlc. 

I guess this is what Despair was after...

As for the defining aspect in battles, it also revolves around the Conception Feature:

Mecunite Transform!

You can make a group of 3 children combine and transform to a super-cool and strong mecha robot that lasts for one battle (Don't worry, the children aren't sacrificed, they just separate afterwards). 

The battle can also take part in 9 areas around the battlefield, since the field is separated into 9 squares (A 3x3 tile division). So you can have two groups attack one, while your other teams will be facing off against another. You can also have them alternate between opponents, since you can select whom you want to attack. In this game though, the side from which the attack will come from will be important, as it can either deal a critical hit or not. This makes the game quite fun in a way that it makes you think of how to finish off the enemies in the most efficient way possible.

Surround it!

Of course, one of the fun parts is the 'team-building' element since you can strive for the perfect team of star children to support your play. Like every rpg game, making the perfect party to enjoy the game with has its own merits to it, and this game really touched that part of me that insists making awesome parties to stomp the evil monsters!

To top it off, here is my rating for this game:

(8/10)

Pro's- The graphics are great

- The heroine's sub-plots more than makes up for the main story

- The VN elements makes this a very enjoyable game

- That 'Conception' feature was really wonderful

Con's

- The similar dungeon-crawling experience from the previous Persona games, makes this one seem a bit too repetitive for me.

I recommend this game for people who like games that are similar to the Persona series, as well as for people who like Visual Novels due to the VN elements found within the game.

For everyone else, this game is really satisfying and some may find it fun, and some may not. It is still however, a very great game to try out!

Transformation sequence hooray!