As gamers, we tend to stay on a somewhat rigid path as to what we play. If you enjoy anime art styles, you are most likely to play, or at least try games featuring that art style. As an art style is one of the game elements that most often weighs heavily in a decision to purchase or pass on a game, there is no doubt that we miss many great games because we judge them too quickly. Alas, there I was playing through Spike Chunsoft’s new game ( In the US anyway), Conception II: Children of The Seven Stars, until the wee hours of the morning.
Conception II isn’t a game I would normally play but i’ve gotten into the knack of downloading every demo, even though I rarely play half of them. Upon firing up the demo I had a single question in my mind, one i’d imagine many of you had as well, is this a weird baby-making simulator? I was both right and wrong in my assumption, but the game seems to add quite a bit more than just, as they call it in the game, “class-mating.â€
The world of Aterra is under attack and has been for the past 20 years. It’s up to disciples, chosen by the star god, to cleanse the monsters and the eight dusk circles from which they spawn. Fort City is the school where the disciples live and participate in class-mating. Class-mating is all about creating star children to help you battle through the labyrinths and free Aterra once and for all. The quality of your star children are a product of the strength of your relationship with the other disciple. Bonds are created with the other disciples by battling with them and playing a mini-game of sorts with them when outside of battle.
The Battle system is turn-based, choosing the usual actions such as attack, skill, defend and so on. You control both yourself and your disciple (one of the seven disciples you can class-mate with) and a set of three star children. Set in a 3-d plane, you can choose which direction to attack the enemy from. Typically, from behind gives you increased damage, but if you choose to attack an enemy from the direction it’s next attack will go ( as dictated by a warning label) you can chain-link the enemy. Chain-linking an enemy lowers its speed stat allowing you to take more turns. A complete chain-link immobilizes the enemy, often allowing you to deal the final blow.
Seem like a lot to catch up on? It’s also interesting jumping into the second act since the first game was on PSP was never release outside of Japan. Luckily, a demo has been released on 3ds and Vita to catch you up on things. Featuring the entire prologue, which is roughly an hour to an hour and a half long, you will get to experience some witty dialogue, a bunch of battles, some class-mating and everything else the game has to offer. Enjoy the trailer below and let us know what you think of the game.
Conception II: Children of The Seven Stars is being developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Atlus outside of Japan. The game will be released on April 15, 2014 on the 3DS and Vita.