I was planning on posting about Conception II yesterday, on its release date in North America, but I was a little busy last night, so I’ll post about it this morning instead (Editor’s note: Tross is accurate with timing, but the article was held until the date below) .

What can I say about Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars? It sure was bold of Atlus to localize such a game. The concept is simple: build relationships with girls, so you can team up with them in dungeons, and…conceive star children to fill out your party.

Ok, it’s not what you’d think, but the game makes it very difficult not to think what you’re thinking right now. Ok, sure, the ritual of “classmating” involves a symbolic womb, and the summoning of fully-clothed star children, who are not human, but are elite warriors, who exist for the sole purpose of fighting by your side.

However, as much as the game somehow manages to make the conception process far less R-rated than it would seem possible, it still manages to fall back into the gutter, through its vernacular. The way the characters speak, before and after classmating, and anytime it’s brought up, it sounds just as intimate as the act you’re all thinking of right now. Yes, I have witnessed a double meaning of the term, to touch, and mention of it being a girl’s first time, among other things.

The premise of the game doesn’t really help matters. The social sim part plays like a standard bishoujo game, except localized, and with a full English dub. However, the player is encouraged to get to know all the girls better, and it’s treated as a business move, rather than a pursuit of love or friendship. Moreover, the player must conceive nine star children before being allowed to go dungeon crawling.

All things considered though, Conception II has a good mix of gameplay elements. Fans of series like Persona, might feel right at home with this game, despite the little bit of controversy surrounding it. It does have time management, but time progresses at the player’s pace, so it actually feels more relaxed than Persona, at least during the sim part.

The dungeon crawling part is a standard rogue like affair, but with a bigger party, which means more to micromanage. I would describe it in more detail, but this post is long enough as it is. Suffice to say, Conception II is a game I would recommend to any fan of jrpg/social sim hybrids.

The only problem is, it doesn’t have dual-audio. I’ve witnessed some people being downright jerks about this fact, wanting Atlus to fail as a company. As someone who enjoys games whether they have English only audio, Japanese only audio, or dual audio, I can understand losing some interest in a game due to a lack of Japanese audio, but anyone who wants a great company like Atlus to fail for it, is just a jerk. Sorry, but it’s true.

That said, I will agree that dual-audio is a missed opportunity. I imagine it was due to having to fit the game’s audio on a 3ds cart. A vita-only release might have helped, but it would have been foolish for Atlus to ignore the 3ds. Hopefully Japanese audio will be released as dlc. I’m sure some fans will even be willing to pay a small price for it.

Alright, that’s it for today. Whether you are enjoying Conception II, find it way too controversial, or are having a fit about the lack of dual-audio, feel free to leave your comments below.

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