A good mix of a concept towards gaming has entered the scene. Here comes Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars for both the PlayStation Vita and 3DS, a dungeon crawler title that also acts as a dating simulation.
The main character you play as has the most magical power than anyone else, thus making you God’s gift as per prophecy. Within your school, your classmates, who happen to be predominately female, join your efforts to spawn Star Children. Afterwards, your resulting party goes out in battle, thereby consisting of yourself, seven women, and up to nine children.
So before you embark on your quest for battle, you’ll have to interact with the various girls in order to successfully “create†these Star Children. This is where the dating simulation gameplay kicks in. You’ll have a diversity of personalities you’ll come across, but it’s all in good fun, that is if chatting up with girls via video game is your type of thing. Conception II is “most suitable†for a mature audience with the certain types of content offered.
In terms of the gameplay, you enter into the dungeons populated with monsters that are coming out of the darkness to take over the world. Since Conception II has dungeons that are randomly generated, the experience is not quite the same each time you have a go at it, which is a good thing. There would be an arrangement of hallways and rooms with loot and monsters occupying the scenes. So expect a lot of attack and defend gameplay patterns as you encounter your enemies while making your way to the portal that will lead you to the lower floor.
The overall mechanics of the game can get repetitive. This doesn’t help the situation when the dungeons have a somewhat similar appearance, thus lacking the diversity in terms of the monsters you encounter. Luckily, when you reach the most bottom level, you’ll come across the boss which by defeating it will eliminate the dungeon housing these monsters. So there is satisfaction at the end of this road.
Speaking to the battle system behind Conception II, you exchange turns with your computer opponent. There are four groups you have to keep track of. There is yourself and the female making up the first group. Then there are three others that are made up of three star children. These groups are placed in any of the four spots around the enemy. Depending on the position you are, you’ll be able to attack the weak spot of the enemy. It’s a very interesting take on this type of gameplay that leaves intrigue and forces players to take on some strategic thinking.
Where Conception II does well in is its clean and crisp-colored presentation. The artwork is stupendous while the animations from the special attacks are excellent to bear witness to. Looking at the audio department, the music consists of Japanese pop which has this upbeat dance theme to it. However, where Conception II falls a little short is the voice acting. There are a couple of voices that do the job well, but for the most part, it can get very annoying and ridiculous.
For $39.99, you can get Conception II for either the PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS. There are aspects of this title that can be off-putting, such as the somewhat repetitive gameplay and sometimes cheesy voice acting. Still the notion of having a dating simulation mix in with dungeon crawling could make Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars a good “concept†of a game to consider.
