So the teaser website Atlus USA made last week turned out to be for the localization of Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars for 3DS and Vita set for release in 2014.

From IGN:

The turn-based RPG was developed by Japanese studio Spike Chunsoft, and is the second game in the core Conception series. “In Conception II, players take on the role of a young man beginning his training as a Disciple – a human gifted with the divine powers of one of the Star Gods, and one of the few who can fight the monsters that plague the world,” Atlus explains. “These monsters emanate from the Pandora Labyrinth, which births these abominations at a prodigious rate.”

This is pretty hilarious and awesome for me, since the whole reason I was interested in playing the first Conception was because of how much it reminded me of Persona 4.

@fluxwavez: Quick question. Would I need to play the first or is it a self-contained story?

I ask because I find the idea of this game crazy enough that I might try it out if I get a Vita.

You gave me scary-time chills thinking that this was the culmination of their other teaser website. I would have been livid.

@gtcknight: Well, I never played the first game (and it was never released outside of Japan), but I'm guessing that playing the first game will be in no way necessary to play number two. If the original Japanese writing heavily relied on playing the first game, I'm sure the Atlus USA localization team will account for that.

Oh shit that's what I thought was going on hahah

So it's like infinity blade but you see the boneing.

Same here. Once I saw "Atlus" and "announces" in the same sentence and "Persona" wasn't part of it, I got freaked the hell out. But then I remembered that I'm waking up at 6 AM on Sunday to check out that announcement, at which point I will likely throw something through my computer screen.

@fluxwavez: Thanks, I've been thinking about getting a Vita lately (I haven't owned a handheld since Gameboy color) and thus I need to find some games to play on it.

I'll keep my eyes out for this game then.

Wait, this is the sequel to that PSP game where you have to bone ladies and use your magical children to clear dungeons, right?

Not going to lie, this sounds more like a XSEED joint than an Atlus one.

Bizarre, but hey, I won't complain about us getting more weird Japanese stuff.

@arbitrarywater: I think the game your thinking of is Record of Agragest war and thats a Askys joint actually. The first one on the 360 got a lot of attention for a bit because it came with the Boob Mouse pad.

I was aware of Record of Agarest War, but with a bit more digging, it seems I was sort of right about this game's predecessor.

I played 8 minutes of Record of Agarest War.

But I do have the squishy boob mousepad.

Which has actually been my active mousepad for like 3 years.

@brodehouse: That wrist support is key man.

A sequel to the PSP RPG Conception, it continues the theme of the hero having to find a mate and raise a family to help him conquer the game's dungeons.

Way to keep up bad stereotypes game.

NISA will be bringing over to Europe. Here's their colorful PR:

IRVINE, Calif. - Nov. 19, 2013 - When two game companies love each other very much, a magical thing happens. ATLUS and Spike Chunsoft didn't use protection when localizing and publishing together and are now the proud parents of the turn-based RPG Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars. Although this is the first game in the series localized into English, Conception II has a standalone story. Conception II will be delivered in the spring of 2014, for the Nintendo 3DS™ and PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system.

In Conception II, players take on the role of a young man beginning his training as a Disciple - a human gifted with the divine powers of one of the Star Gods, and one of the few who can fight the monsters that plague the world. These monsters emanate from the Pandora Labyrinth, which births these abominations at a prodigious rate. Worse yet, the Pandora Labyrinth is beginning to spawn labyrinths of its own, so it's up to the Disciples to put an end to it. And even worse than that, a Star God's power only resides within a human until the age of 18 and the need for new Disciples is at an all-time high. Meaning Disciples will have to combine their powers to "create" Star Children who can fight for them in battle. Let's put it this way... it brings a new meaning to the phrase "after-school activities."

For those eager to figure out the birds and the bees of Conception II, here are some of the game's features:

No Child Labor Laws: In addition to the protagonist and his fellow students bravely entering the Labyrinths, you must combine your powers with other Disciples to give life to Star Children, ethereal beings that can fight in battle. But, like regular children, it's important to make sure they're strong enough to face monsters from beyond the veil of sanity in battle.

No Monogamy For You, Player: The protagonist has opportunities to strengthen his bonds with seven key heroines throughout the game. Not only does this help you create stronger Star Children, but the girls become more formidable as well, making them reliable partners in battle... and other places.

Assume the Position: Monsters in Conception II all have weak spots, and their vulnerabilities are revealed based on the direction characters attack from. Colored arrows help the Disciples see which direction will cause the most damage when attacked. The order your party takes action will depend on your choices and each character's agility. Understanding the turn system and finding the best location to attack from will bring about swift and decisive victory.

Getting Chained Down: Another key system in Conception II is the Chain Drive, a meter that slowly builds during combat. When it reaches climax, a monster will be chained down, slowing it dramatically. This opens the enemy up for major damage.

Conception II will be published in North America by ATLUS beginning in spring 2014 for the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS. The game will be $39.99 for either version. More details will be on the game's official website at atlus.com/conception2.

I'm gonna go to bat for this series and say that if this second game is at all like the first, it's actually a very tongue-in-cheek experience that actively goes out of its way to lambast people who take the premise seriously. Here's what I wrote on GAF because I ain't typing up another long post again like it today:

I've only played the first game in Japanese, but my experiences with that were positive enough that I'm definitely very willing to give the second game a shot, especially now that I'll actually be able to play it on the hardware that I have. If the second game is at all like the first, you've got a game whose marketing is going to end up playing the premise with an extremely straight face as a ruse to attract its targeted otaku audience when in fact its writing is going to be comedically aggressive to those very people soon after the game begins. What I mean by that is that in the first game, the first 20 minutes more or less open "as you'd expect;" you're introduced to the game's world and the whole pregnancy thing and the game acts as though you're supposed to take what it's giving you at face value.

Then after that initial veneer is lifted and the game suspects it's got its audience hook, line, and sinker, everybody starts to imply that you the player are a lecherous wolf for playing this game where you thought you'd get to inherently take advantage of all these submissive anime girls willy nilly. It's an amazing bait-and-switch and the game doesn't let up from there.

The children you make with the girls aren't actual children per se, but kind of spirits that the two of you help summon into the world, and the process is left intentionally vague, but is made very clear that there's no actual sex involved to comedic effect. Basically the plot becomes a satire that deconstructs sexualization trends in Japanese media and it's all very hilariously well-written and self-aware. If I'm not mistaken, the same staff that wrote the Dangan Ronpa games had a hand in at least the original Conception and it really shows; I was laughing as I was playing it quite often and I'm normally not the type of person to really enjoy much Japanese comedy.

The actual gameplay was a bit hit or miss. The party building mechanic where you're making these child-looking spirits who join your party is pretty interesting because variables like the "mother" and the status of your ongoing relationship with them influence their stats, which in turn influences what sorts of classes they can take on and what sort of combat roles they're best at. The battle system is similarly interesting on paper since it's turn based, but still involves some positional stuff like you might expect with an SRPG. But I recall the grinding process being pretty slow; even if you turn on autobattle, it's amazing how slow fights with even low level grunts can get. When you level up, sometimes if your level is high enough, you'll just automatically KO the enemy on the dungeon map and gain the XP without having to fight, but even that's a dice roll that isn't always guaranteed to happen. But for a company that usually doesn't do much in the way of RPGs, I thought it was a pretty solid beginning and the writing was certainly much better than what I'm accustomed to seeing in Japanese games, although that's par for the course with Spike Chunsoft in general.

So I'll probably pick up the second game since I had a pretty good time with the first overall. The combat and RPG stuff looks like it's a lot of the same stuff with some improvements; if the grinding aspect isn't as prominent as the first game, I'll basically be as content as I can be. I'm just curious to see if the self-aware writing remains intact with this second game, as I thought the satire was ultimately what made the game so fun to go through. That and I feel like Spike Chunsoft's writing deserves to get good exposure outside its home country, so I'd like to do my part to ensure more and more of their games get localized from here on out, even if I don't actually need the English myself.

If Atlus is at all going to market this game like it's typically been handled in Japan, then, I expect they'll market it with a very straight face and play up the otaku bits despite the core game being actively against what they as an audience have done to Japanese creativity in the last few decades. It's genuinely delightful stuff to see that satire unfold and get more and more elaborate in the first game and I can only hope the second game continues that tradition.

Also, since I doubt anybody else will be able to answer that earlier question about continuity, yes, this game is supposed to be a standalone product. It's kind of a shame since I think the writing is so good in the first game in Japanese that it would justify a translation of some sort, but I definitely get that translating a lengthy PSP RPG in 2012 might not have been the best thing for corporate bottom lines. I'm actually contemplating starting up a team to hack one in myself, but we'll see if I ever get around to it.

I'm personally just happy to see that Atlus USA is still publishing strange Japanese RPG despite being owned by Sega (who seems to have given up on localizing anything besides Sonic titles these days).

Wouldn't it be nice if they didn't completely fuck this up though? What if the game they announce Sunday is a grand JRPG called Persona 5 with updated but not dumb downed mechanics from persona 4, an all new cast of great characters with cameos from the cast of persona 3 and 4, a third act twist tied to the greater persona fiction and coming out on PS3, PS4, xbox 360 and xbox one holiday 2014? THAN WHAT?

Ah, forget it. It's probably going to be a music concert/a fighting game/ a dumb downed JRPG exclusive to handhelds. Fuck everything.

That's the dream announcement. If that happens, I will flip out and most likely wake my roommate up as I shout praises for Atlus for doing right by their fans (but mostly me). But I have my expectations set pretty low right now so I'm not disappointed when they in fact announce some BS like the stuff you mentioned.

Not boneing, conception, where the tadpole swims into the sun and a star baby appears on the earth.

A friend drunkenly bought me a boob mousepad about three years ago and it's been my mousepad since as well! She's finally breaking, though. She keeps leaking boob goop all over my desk.

3DS aswell? Cool :)

I'm hoping for a good English dub as the Japanese voices are horrible (I'm looking at you main heroine).

@artelinarose: WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE BOOB GOOP?! Mine is also exploding. Three eyed girl's right titty sprung a leak.

After reading the Pepsiman breakdown I'm about as hopeful for this as Agarest War. Ever since Phantasy Star III, I've found the idea of having children in an RPG, whose stats are determined by a bit of yours, a bit of the other person, and some random elements to be a completely cool idea. Maybe because I understood evolution and genetics from a young age, so the chance to actually see it at work plays to me. Unfortunately I just can't do JRPG style grinding anymore.

They should make a Civ type game about eugenics. Where you can segregate your population and selectively breed them however you'd like. Or let them be free and see what happens. Free love or a brutal caste system? Free love would make them happier... Brutal caste system gives you taller, stronger soldiers! Close down the borders, you don't want shitty foreigners getting in and spreading their inferior alleles in your population!

This is the best game idea! It could be like a Nazi simulator.