With no world map to explore in Conception II, the world is instead centered around the academy that serves as the primary hub of the game and a menu of available dungeons to explore. As seasons pass, more dungeons appear each with their own set of side quests and monsters to face. The bulk of the game takes place inside these dungeons that once again represent Tartarus from Persona 3. Exploring the dungeon feels like an extended outing: mother, father, and up to nine star children. When the time for battle comes, these children separate into three-child squads and act as a single unit, pooling together stats and skills.
Combat plays in the traditional turn-based style that one would come to expect from a JRPG, only with a higher emphasis on ridiculous stats that scale up to the thousands of digits. One novel addition is a gauge that shows upcoming turn order, although I wished it would accurately show how far down the chain a character would be moved after using a certain skill or attack. Surrounding each enemy are four zones like points on a compass. Up to the parental unit and one child squad can stand on a certain point. These zones are useful in two ways. For one, enemies typically have weak points on one side of their body, so attacking from a weak point will deal more damage. And two, enemies will frequently threaten these positions with broad sweeping attacks and it’s wise to know when to get out of the way. However, attacking from a spot that an enemy threatens will fill up a mechanic known as the Chain Gauge. Once this is full, each party member gains a boost to turn order to help dish out quicker attacks that lasts up until that particular enemy gets a turn of their own. Carefully managing that mechanic can easily turn the tides in the player’s favor, although combat is rarely much of a challenge and is quickly alleviated with even a small amount of grinding.
Despite a game with Conception in the title and skirting around the topics of conceiving a child, it only barely skirts around the subject. Much of the dialogue is sprinkled about with the typical tropes of high school life: rumors, flirting, secret crushes, et cetera. Conception II is a title that frequently teases the line and some scenes, if taken completely out of context, could easily flirt with an adults only rating. There’s a particular demographic for a harem game like Conception II and it’s easy to look past the faults to find a sexual-oriented clone of Persona 3 hidden beneath the layers.
[Editor’s Note: Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS platform. Review code was provided to us by the publisher.]