Lord Regal
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Conception II is a game that was given a rather bipolar welcome. The sequel to the Japan-only release by the same name, it came into the western world fairly unnoticed. When I saw it in GameStop while there for something totally unrelated, I was intrigued by the fact that it boasted a rather unique combat system and a combining of two very unrelated genres, dungeon-crawling and dating-sim. As per usual I didn't impulse buy it, but rather opted to look it up first. The results were clear…the consumers loved it, the official reviewers hated it. I'll elaborate on why further down, but I figured I'd add my own thoughts to this somewhat controversial game and hopefully help convince others to give it a try.
Gameplay:
It's rare for me to discuss the gameplay of a game before the story, but the way Conception II functions requires me to do things out of order. As I said above, the game is split into two parts, one where you interact with the other characters (most of whom are female), and one where you're going through a dungeon in a 3D environment, enemies appearing as generic until you touch them and enter combat.
Dating Sim: This portion of the game fits inside the part of most dungeon-crawlers where you go around doing certain things in town before going into the next dungeon. You stock up on items, check to see if there's new gear that's better than what you have, and you interact with the seven heroines in the story (among others, but they're the most important). Scenes that exclusively feature one girl utilize the 3D feature to render them in full 3D, while scenes where there're more than one (or characters aside from the girls) are rendered in a Fire Emblem support conversation manner, albeit with more expression differences. Important scenes have full voice acting (and the full scenes are honestly really well done), while non-important ones only have general voice lines (the main character has lines like "All right!" for example), which can get repetitive depending on the scene. The main character is always voiced like this, even in fully voiced scenes, so that they can give you some aspect of illusion as far as if you really are this character or not. The important scenes involving the heroines follow a predictable pattern. After each main dungeon you unlock the next bar of how much each of the girls likes you, as well as three unique scenes. Two of these further each heroine's personal story, and one of them is a new Classmating scene.
Classmating is the controversial part of this game…you and one of the heroines perform a sacred ritual that produces what's called a Star Child. These are not human, and it's important to note that the ritual is not sex, but rather the two characters joining hands while thinking of each other. However, it's equally important to note that there's a LOT of innuendo thrown around these scenes. TV Tropes offers the following thought on the process: While the innuendo in the game is turned Up to Eleven the actual Classmating process simply involves the hero and heroine joining hands and focusing their thoughts on each other. It's actually quite sweet. This alone wouldn't be much of an issue, but most of the official reviews focused on scenes like the following, which are part of the process:
Personally I don't see the issue here, as it's Barbie Doll Anatomy (commonly used in anime), and it's an M rated game AND THIS IS AS BAD AS IT GETS. However, official reviews wrote off the game because of this and this alone.
Regardless, the dating-sim portion of the game is to improve your bonds with the girls, as the better your bond, the stronger Star Children you make, and since they make up 9/11 of your dungeon party, it's important to have a good team. Star Children can have one of numerous jobs, which function like classes in most games. This cannot be changed once selected.
Dungeon-Crawling: This portion of the game functions about what you'd expect it to for the dungeon exploration. You're thrown into a randomly generated 3D maze (a la Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, though the layouts are 3D rendered with designated rooms) and you must explore it to find the portal that will take you to the next floor. Your team consists of you, the main character, one of the heroines (you choose) and up to nine Star Children. You're delegated into four groups, the two humans, and three groups of three Star Children. The dungeons themselves are fairly typical for a game of this genre, but where this game really differentiates itself from others is the combat system.
Combat takes place in a 3D box. Enemies populate it at certain points (I believe the points are determined based on species) and your four squadrons surround the most centrally-located enemy. At this point the game is put into turn-based combat, but with a few twists…first and foremost, every move any ally or enemy can make has a 'speed penalty'. The more powerful the technique, the longer they must wait to move again. This means the turns aren't fixed. If you unleash a dual technique with the hero/heroine, odds are everyone else on the field will move at least twice before they get to go again. In addition, the positioning in this game is CRUCIAL. Once you've selected your attack, you have to choose what enemy to attack and from what angle, in front of it, to either side, or behind it. All enemies have weak points (designated by orange attack arrows instead of the normal blue) and have attacks to focus on different zones around their body. This implements a risk/reward system. Once you pass the first dungeon or two, enemies will likely have stronger attacks in the zones they're weak, or attacks that hit multiple zones. The game is savvy about this though, and gives you rewards for going after defended zones, and this is done through both the ether count and the chain drive gauge. The ether count is simple…the higher it is, the faster you move. The lower it is, the slower you move. Speed is the 'one stat to rule them all' in this game, so keeping the ether count high through killing enemies and attacking their strong spots is a must. Strong enemies (including all bosses) have ways to lower ether count, so it's often an uphill battle. The chain drive is a bit more complex. Every attack will raise it slightly, but attacks on defended areas work much better. When the gauge hits roughly halfway, the enemy being attacked will be 'chained', meaning they get a speed penalty (almost always knocking them back in the turn order for that round) and are more vulnerable to attacks everywhere. This is crucial in boss fights where you need to slow them down enough to heal yourself, or to finish them off quickly. Chaining also gives you bonus experience at the end of the fight. Be warned though, the enemy has a chain drive gauge too, and you can't see it. This comes into play later in the game more than early, but it's something you have to prepare for just in case.
The positioning system becomes extra important later in the game, because if you position your squads so an enemy can't hit anyone, you'll force them to waste their turn running after you. This has a low speed penalty so it won't stop them for long, but clever positioning can force them to do this again and again, effectively taking them out of the fight until you can deal with them. The final few bosses the positioning is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL for this reason.
Rather than discuss the rest of the dungeon-crawling experience at length, I'll simply list pros/cons.
Pros:
Grinding made easy: if the main character is sufficiently leveled, simply TOUCHING the overworld enemy indicator will kill them instantly, giving you full gold/experience for that fight. In addition, later dungeons have an enemy designed to give more experience than a boss, particularly if you get a chain drive or two in.
Crafty Overworld Enemies: As you progress through the game some enemies will function as "door guards" where they move in front of a door and just sit there. These are often fast enemies you won't be able to run from. The catch? The door they're guarding may not be the door you want to use and not help you progress further in the dungeon. This keeps things dynamic and keeps you guessing.
Engaging combat: Until you get to a level where a dungeon's enemies don't pose a big problem to you, every battle is truly engaging. You can set combat to auto, and it does a decent job, but it's honestly more rewarding to enjoy the fights.
Color coded overworld monsters: You can't see what enemies are in each group until you start fighting them, but the game does at least give you some indication.
Small purple head, blue eyes: You'll kill this enemy immediately via the Grinding made easy technique.
Purple head, yellow eyes: The next step up, not too hard.
Purple head, red eyes: Challenging, but not undoable.
Red head, tentacles: Dangerous…you'll struggle against this thing.
Gold, no tentacles: A sidequest you picked up needs you to kill some of what's in here, will be equivalent to a purple head.
Gold, tentacles: Sidequest enemy, but a dangerous one. Equivalent danger to a red headed tentacled group.
Cons:
Repetitive enemies: This game definitely uses an RPG standard of 'color-swapped enemies are different from each other' concept. I'm colorblind, so sometimes I'd go into a fight severely underestimating my foe because I assumed it was an easier version. Bosses are always unique fights though.
Difficulty spike: The game wasn't all that challenging until just over halfway in…then suddenly I found myself barely able to do ANYTHING. Fortunately due to Grinding made easy, it wasn't awful to get around this, but the giant jump up was unexpected, and each subsequent dungeon did it again (the final two are just terrible difficulty-wise).
LOTS of grinding: Star Children have level caps. The better your relationship with the girl you Classmate with to get said child, the higher that level will be. Thus you'll go through different sets of Star Children as the game goes on. Fortunately there's a benefit for 'releasing' Star Children you can't use anymore, as they benefit the town buildings. Unfortunately, with seven heroines, you'll find yourself sticking to one the whole game, rather than using them all (this is problematic, I'll explain later.) I personally recommend someone who has balanced stats, as for some reason everyone who DOESN'T has abysmal speed, which as I said is the one stat to rule them all (you can't win fights if you're waiting for three rounds to go between your attacks)
Story:
This game has a fairly engaging story. Dusk Circles spawn monsters, and the Star God (deity figure) has humanity fight them by giving people aged 16-18 a Star Brand, which gives them the ability to use their innate strength. This Brand (and most of their fighting power) vanishes around their 19th birthday. You, a 17 year old male (you can customize your name) come into the academy for these chosen few, called Disciples, and find out your natural ether levels are insanely high…so high you can fight inside the Dusk Circles themselves, which was normally impossible. You also have a 100% success chance when Classmating with S rank Elite Disciples (Ranks are given based on power, with S being the highest, split between Elite and Standard class, so a B rank elite is better than an S rank Standard, etc). Thus, it becomes your task to go into the Dusk Circles and sterilize them so monsters stop spawning. This plot doesn't get all that engaging until about halfway through when things start to go wrong for very suspicious reasons. I expected most of the plot twists, but I can think of two or three that caught me off guard, and I appreciated that. The main plot isn't anything particularly amazing, but the heroine stories that you get to experience through the dating-sim portion are another story entirely.
The heroine stories are rather varied, simply because they're very different people. From the self-described 'normal' girl, Fuuko to the honest, oblivious Feene to the energetic Ellie, the seven heroines are all engaging to different extents, and are designed so everyone will connect with at least one. The stories that progress as you go through the game (two unique scenes per main dungeon) are all at least engaging. Personally I found Fuuko and Ellie to have the most interesting stories, while Torri and Narika were my personal least favorites, but all of them had their good points. The stories are all incorporated with twists, a lot of which I honestly didn't see coming, and I can say without a doubt that they're the highlight of the game. Take my advice though…the game has seven save files, and if you want to see all the scenes in a single playthrough you need to save to a different save file at the end of any chapter that has you pick a girl to talk with/see a scene for (This only applies to 3D scenes, some earlier chapters have arbitrary choices in chapter-end scenes). These scenes aren't required to get any of the endings (one for each girl and a secret one that is only unlockable once you see each girl's ending) but they are included in the theatre mode, and most of them are entertaining. The endings themselves were a mixed bag. I felt Fuuko, Ellie, and Feene had the strongest endings, with Chloe having the weakest one. They were all enjoyable though, and stayed true to the characters, so I'm not complaining. What is certain is the heroine stories are the main highlight of this game…in some of the later dungeons I found myself being impatient about finishing them so I could see how each girl's story progressed…I enjoyed them that much.
My only complaint for all things story related is how the game handles the fact that all the heroines want to go into the dungeons. If you don't take them often enough for their liking they'll accost you as you run around town. This wouldn't be a problem except for at the end of the game when I was micromanaging a lot of stuff, meaning I wasn't going into dungeons super often, the heroine I used almost exclusively started doing this! I'm not sure what the algorithm that dictates whether or not they're satisfied with labyrinth exploration, but it was a bit irritating to be told that by the one I brought in 95% of the time. Fortunately these scenes don't impact your relationship with the heroines, so no real harm done.
Graphics:
I never consider graphics to be a make or break point for me when buying a game, but I know many do. The game has solid graphics all around…as I said above most of the game splits between 3D scenes with the girls and a Fire Emblem Support Conversation setup otherwise, but there are some shorts that play out like anime scenes, reserved for special moments (some plot twists, etc.) The dungeon graphics are solid, and I don't have any real complaints with this area of the game in general.
In order, main hero, Fuuko, Ellie, Narika, Chloe, Serina, Torri, Feene
Music:The music was very hit or miss. Some themes were great (the girls' themes all fit them well, most battle themes are enjoyable) but some were just off (some of the battle themes are unusual, though not unbearable). I will say I got sick to death of the post-Classmating song though, when you're picking the Star Child's job…that's probably the only song I really, really disliked. Otherwise it was at least decent, if not good, all the way through.
Sidequests:
These follow the standard 'hunt and fetch' sidequest formula that's used in many RPGs, where everything is "kill something" or "get an item from something". This would get tedious except for the fact most quests are given to you in advance, designed to help for the next set of dungeons (many dungeons come with optional ones that are good for experience and filling out your bestiary). Because of this you'll often get to complete the sidequests as you progress through the game naturally, which is in my mind an excellent design choice. They may not be the most unique concepts, but they're very well executed.
Overall:
This game was something I really, really enjoyed. If I'm being honest, it's the first game I found myself not able to put down since Pokemon X. I admit it has some flaws, but compared to the full experience it's a truly enjoyable game. I came for the dungeon-crawling and combat, and I stayed for the heroines' stories. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys dungeon-crawling with really, really well-developed characters. I'm giving it an 8/10, with points subtracted for the gameplay drawbacks I mentioned and the inconsistent music choices.
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