Conception II - Notice me, Persona-Senpai
This game wants to be Persona. It wants to be Persona sooooo bad. It was even published by Atlus USA. Now that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Persona formula of merging JRPG gameplay with visual novel elements can be very addictive and engaging when done right. When done wrong it ends up like....well, not quite Conception II.
The thing is that, while nothing is done especially bad, Conception II doesn't exactly do anything extraordinary either. Ultimately the game simply falls into a cycle of socializing, dungeon crawling, socializing, dungeon crawling.
Oh, and Occasionally you make babies.
PRESENTATION
The biggest misstep with the story is it's characters. For the most part, none of the characters are unique or interesting in any way. The supporting cast lacks any meaningful development, while the entire main party is composed of your typical anime waifu cliches. You have the shy one, the idol, the tsundere, the emotionless one, the childhood friend, and the fighter. None of them ever really break out of these basic cliches. Well...except for one.
The only two characters that I genuinely cared about were Alec – a fellow male classmate and the son of the guy who's basically the president/king/emperor/whatever/ – and Fuuko – one of the girls in your party. Alec, while first seeming to be a rather cliché stoic anti-hero, is ultimately a student struggling with trying to live up to his father's expectations of him and still do the right thing. Fuuko, instead of being given a one note character trait and sticking to that, ends up feeling, for lack of a better word, normal. Even her back story is simple yet personal instead of some grand unrelatable tragedy so common to anime heroines. These two were my only interest in seeing the story through to the end. Aside from them, there isn't really much to see here.
GAMEPLAY
In the vane of any faithful Persona-clone, Conception II plays like any standard turn based JRPG fused with dating sim/visual novel. During the day time, you will spend time in the overworld menu, buying items and weapons, creating star children, and talking to your classmates, before gathering together to explore the many labyrinths to battle the monsters that spawn from them. When you get low on energy/health, return home, sleep, and repeat this cycle till the story progresses more.
This formula is ripped right from Persona 3 and 4, and, to be honest, is the thing that continually kept me coming back. It keeps things from ever getting too dull and often throws in brief short story segments to keep you interested. The only downside to this formula is the choice to use an overworld menu in place or a free roaming overworld.
When it comes to the actual combat, Conception II plays more or less like any other standard, turn-based RPG. So expect a lot of grinding and repeating battle themes. Thankfully this game takes a page from Earthbound in that, if you are a high enough level above on enemy, coming into contact with them will result in an instant victory. Aside from that, the only notable addition being the ability to chose what direction to attack your enemy from, in order to exploit their weakness. Excluding your protagonist, you are only able to take a single heroine with you into battle, with the remaining three party slots being occupied by class-based fighters you create called star children.
This is where the “Conception” part of the game comes in. So yes, this game features a Pokemon-esque system by with you create childlike beings to fight with you in combat through a ritual called “calssmating” with you teenage classmates. And this has been the biggest point of controversy regarding the game, (not helped by the game's lousy translation, I might add). Now, the characters themselves make it clear in game that all they are doing is holding hands which causes some magical do-da that makes star children. Yeah, it makes no sense, but it's far more preferable to making me play a character who's basically required to sleep around with his classmates. That being said, I cannot find fault with anyone who is unsettled by this aspect of the lore. While the star children themselves are rather adorable, the lack of any meaningful customization in their appearance or abilities prevents this mechanic from being as deep or interesting as it probably should have been.
Like in most JRPGS, the most exciting moments in gameplay are during boss fights. And while the bosses themselves aren't particularly memorable in either design, or story, they can definitely be a real threat if you aren't prepared and paying attention to your actions.
VISUALS & AUDIO
There isn't much to say here. While I've seen more generic looking anime RPGs in my time, nothing really stands out as far as the design of the world. It all comes off as an attempt to fuse various modern, sci-fi, and traditional fantasy settings and designs together. While prettier to look at than many other modern games, the actual design and art direction are ultimately unmemorable.
The soundtrack fairs a little bit better. Combining bits of classical music with an electronica-pop-rock to create a score that, while not to the level of the better JRPGs of it's type, still manages to be enjoyable enough with a handful of extra decent tracks.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Writing this review, I realize I've been quite negative overall. So, here comes the clincher: I kinda liked Conception II. Why? I think the reason is that solid formula. The cycle of going from a casual daily life, to slaying monsters, and back again works so well in keeping things from getting too old too quickly. And while not a lot stands out as extraordinary, nothing really falls into the especially bad category. Overall I feel that this solid Persona-y formula, and the occasional likable character are able to allow this game to rise just above average.
