Part 41: Final Thoughts

~Final Thoughts~



So that's Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars.

As I mentioned before, I really don't think this is a bad game. It has a certain charm that really endeared it to me, despite the dull game play that makes up the lion's share of the time you'll spend on it.

I'll start with what I think is the most charming part of this game: The Star Children.



I love the designs of these things. They all have a very distinct look and are very colorful. I really grew attached to the little buggers, and the game does do a few things right with giving them a bit of personality. The random comments they make throughout the dungeons are a mix of funny and heartwarming (especially when they comment on their mothers or dad). You'll also head back to the Dorm Room and occasionally see a pop up telling you an independent Child has sent you a gift and a message, which is sweet as hell. Finally, the Child's hair color matching the mother that created them is a nice touch.

Unfortunately, the game also drops the ball on them a little bit. Despite these little touches that make each child feel unique, they are incredibly samey in a game play sense. It's difficult to see any difference between some of the classes. For example, Paladins and Dark Knights are higher tiered Lancers, but during the final Labyrinth I used a team that contained two Lancers and one Paladin that carried their weight just as well as the team composed of end game classes (Dark Knight, Ninja, Bulleteer). There are some minor changes to skills from class to class, but it doesn't do a good job of really separating them from each other.

Now, you are meant to use higher tiered classes as they become available, and abandon the 'starter' ones, the same thing you'd do in a game like Fire Emblem. It's just a shame that with so many uniquely designed classes, it somehow feels like they all blend together. Maybe it has to do with the fact that there are 30 of them.



The other thing I think the game does well are the characters. Not all of them, mind you. However, a lot of the main cast is very fun and enjoyable. Serina is the only one of the heroines that I found outright irritating, and that's probably because I hate that character type. Ellie is the only one with a weird character tic, namely her "Ahehehe" laugh. All of the heroines are enjoyable to be around.

Wake has just enough character to not be a blank slate, but I do kind of wish they had avoided the stupid "oblivious to love" thing that a lot of these Main Characters suffer from. It's an especially bad choice in this game considering that it gives you dialog options for Wake to be a total perv (such as directly telling Serina's sister that she has a great rack). You can make him incredibly inconsistent if you want. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the final confrontation where the player can make Wake, who legitimately wants to bring peace to the world and make everyone happy, shout "I will be this world's ruler!"



The extended cast are a bit of a mixed bag, though. Alec is a very well done rival character in my opinion. He is driven to improve himself in order to make his father proud and also bring peace to the world for the sake of the Disciples (like his friend Luce). Wake's appearance initially bugs him because God's Gift will be accomplishing everything that Alec has been working for. He doesn't exactly hate Wake, but he clearly harbors some envy. The incident with the Disciple-monster pushes him to be more antagonistic towards Wake, but even this is just Alec taking out his personal frustrations and powerlessness. In the end, he grows to become great friends with Wake. Throughout the entire game, both of them push each other to get better in the name of achieving their common dream of bringing peace to the world. I think their relationship works really well, and it really does feel bad to face him down after he has been overcome by Dusk energy. Knowing that you've got to put him down, plus the way Luce reacts to the news, is pretty heartbreaking.

Triche was also a great character. He didn't get a ton of focus, but he was a really likable guy and seemed like a good friend/partner for Alec. I'm glad that he manages to survive the game, but it's kind of sad that the game completely forgets about him after the Chapter 7 to Chapter 8 transition. We don't get to see his reaction to Alec's death or even find out what he does after the Academy closes.

Chlotz started out fairly annoying, but he really comes into his own by the end of the game. I appreciate the fact that, even though he still acts like a creeper sometimes, he starts growing up and taking more responsibilities in order to help. He gets part-time work at AngelMarker, he steps in to support Luce in her pursuit of Alec even though he has a crush on her, and then he steps back in again to support her after Alec's death. He becomes a really good guy, and I'm really glad the game doesn't pull the 'frustrated jealousy of the hero' card with him. It really seemed like he was being set up for that early on.

I already talked at length about Ruby. I may constantly rip her apart and have a deep loathing for her, but I have to admit that she is a well written character (the first Asmodeus encounter notwithstanding). It's also great to see how her character traits are turned back on her by Enzea and exploited perfectly. Enzea was able to use Ruby to secretly provide him with everything he needed while keeping his distance from people that might suspect him (like Wake). After all, if he had been interacting with the heroes regularly, then they might have started to grow wary of him if he made any slips. Ruby was trustworthy to them, though. She didn't have evil intentions, so Enzea didn't have to worry about his Golden Goose getting scared off.

And speaking of Enzea, he may have been generic as far as villains go, but damn if he didn't construct a near-perfect plan. The only real ways his plan could have failed were God's Gift dying or Ruby losing her crush on him and getting suspicious. The only stupid move he makes in the game is that time he pulled Wake aside for an ominous chat. He was obviously trying to see if Wake could be persuaded to agree with his view, but that was a really stupid chance to take considering that there was still a Dusk Spawner left out there. He may have gotten too eager about nearing his goal.

The other member of the main Lab Trio is Mark, who was a solid character in his own right. A little bit eccentric and an infatuation with Ruby, but he also had his head on straight enough to foresee that him trying to go public might be stopped. Despite how much he admired Ruby, the man had a clear enough head to take precautions in the event that she couldn't be persuaded. Not only one precaution either, he had a backup on top of that (he left a message with Wake concealed on the Vis-o-Matic, while also hiding data on his own Vis-o-Matic). It's a shame that he dies, even more so since he was either tortured or left to starve in a cell, but he definitely made the save for the heroes in the end.



On the other hand of the character argument is the collection of jackasses this game trots out. Characters like Sasami and Aya start out being unbearably douchey, but they at least come around to being decent people. Watts is a little bit of a mixed bag, since he is a real hard-ass that I believe is severely overstepping his authority, but he does have some points about the way that Chloe causes stampedes and gets a little too relaxed with Disciples that are supposed to see her as their teacher. Lucian comes close to absolutely ruining Ellie's route because of how much of a mouthy prick he is. The Hospital Director is by far the worst of the entire NPC cast, though. This is a man that has been entrusted to direct the care of a the patients in a Field Hospital, but does everything he can to stop a simple concert. Even medical professionals in the real world understand the importance of keeping up a patient's spirit and trying to improve their mood. Not only that, but Aterra has fucking magic. That's not some kind of rumor or legend or witchcraft or some shit, it's very common knowledge. How could you possibly guffaw at the idea that an Elite Disciple's Star Energy might be dispersed through song and have a positive effect on people's health? Curaoke is described as doing just that, and that's just a damn Friday night hobby for students! Both Mark and Chlotz talk about rumors that the Church knows a spell that can raise people from the dead. Magic is a very active force in this world, but this moron somehow got appointed to the position of Hospital Director while thinking that shit is hogwash.

Then there are characters like Mattero, who had the potential to be good but was ruined by being a creeper in an attempt to be funny, I guess? Rus and Clau were a total non-factor, but I can't help but like them given that they just drip smugness and try-hard threatening attitude, only to get steamrolled by Wake's team the second they raise a sword to him. They were bodied so hard that they actually get erased from the rest of the plot, never being mentioned or referenced again except for a DLC rematch quest. That's just funny. Rus' only accomplishment in the entire game was to assist Clau in killing a single monster that was already restrained. Clau only did slightly more by killing a few NPC non-Disciple bodyguards, then killing a defenseless old man after surprising him with a kiss. Solid work guys. I like to imagine that Rus and Clau were the first members of Enzea's Red-Shirt army, but the face-concealing helmets got delayed by Amazon at the last moment.



Another high point for the game is the overall design direction. The colors in this game's artwork are beautiful. AngelMarker is very heavy on black and purple, which even extends to the design of Wake's default costume. The Academy has a stark divide between Elites and Standards with the Elites wearing a combination of pure white uniforms lined with gold/blue/red trim, while the Standards wear very drab tan and dark green. The heroines all have bright color schemes and elaborate designs. The whole visual novel portion of the game just looks really really nice. Some people might find it overbearing, but I absolutely love the mix of colors in this game.



They also showed a lot more restraint on the costumes than I would have expected from a game like this. The heroine costumes are all pretty modest. Narika's is a little exposing, but she's still largely covered. Chloe is the nail that sticks out here, as her costume looks like it got run through a shredder. Not only does it not really match her character (she's a teacher, and her pop-idol outfit isn't particularly bold), but it also looks really out of place next to the other heroines.

Finally, the game does have some pretty catchy music tracks. The dungeon music is mostly forgettable with the exception of that awesome main Engrishy battle theme. The overworld, shop, Star Child Class selection, and opening tunes can get stuck in your head for ages. The stumbling block are the heroine's themes. Some of them are distinct and appropriate such as Fuuko's and Narika's. Fuuko's is light and bouncy, and it has this effect that I think sort of sounds like the crunching of a sneaker or cleat hitting dirt. This is in line with her character type of being the sort of tomboy/sporty one of the group. Narika's is very gentle and calming, which matches her character of being shy and kind.

But then you have themes like Serina and Torri's, which have a very similar beat. They do match the characters (Serina's sounds very 'tiny' or 'childish' in a way, while Torri's is kind of weird and slightly off), but they don't sound especially unique. Chloe's theme sounds more like lobby or elevator music, when you would expect something more catchy and pop oriented since she becomes a pop idol. Ellie and Feene's themes are okay, but I can't really pin down how they match to character traits. Those two themes are just kind of... there. The ending theme is fine, but it doesn't sound very uplifting compared to the game's ending. It's a vocal track with a piano accompaniment, which I think is a bit too low energy in my personal opinion. It sounds like the kind of song you would play during the second half of the credits sequence, once the main ending theme had run its course.



As far as Conception 2's major faults, it should be obvious what this game does wrong. Dungeons get longer and longer as the game progresses and none of them are particularly interesting to explore or look at. Enemies don't have good enough AI or skill variety to provide much of a challenge, so you can breeze through the game without having to use half of the systems that the game introduces you to. MECUNITE is rarely necessary, even for bosses, and Chaining is very difficult to make use of since 90% of enemies will drop in 2 or 3 hits.

Not having any difficulty modes is a big strike as well. The regular difficulty of the game is just too easy. Enemies don't work very well together or coordinate, so it's very easy for the player to just pick them off one by one while the other enemies run around in circles trying to attack.

The Visual Novel portions are also surprisingly short. The beginning and middle portions are full of story beats, but the closer you get to the end the quicker the game blows through them. It gets to the point where the ending is over with before you've had time to blink. Wake provides some very light narration that last a few sentences each, and that's about all you get. The heroine endings are either very involved (such as Feene's and Fuuko's) or are skipped over in a few seconds (Narika's and Chloe's). Routes like Feene's will talk about what her and Wake do after graduation and how their life together begins, but Narika's only does a brief mention of her and Wake being on the World Peace Council. It's kind of disappointing. There's also the problem I mentioned in the character analysis where Ellie's route gets significant attention while the other heroines are less developed.

The world is not well built either. As mentioned in Ellie's analysis, we learn extremely little about the world outside of the main Fort City island. The story gives no information on the government, we never get to see the holy city or interact with other members of the Church aside from Mattero and some Priests (which is very strange considering Wake is God's Gift), and we only get to see brief glimpses of cities throughout the world when Enzea does his broadcast. The database provides some background, but it still doesn't provide a clear picture of what kind of world Aterra actually is.


This is why Conception II is a very mixed bag for me. It does a lot of things right, or at the very least competently, but it has roughly an equal amount of poorly done things. I can only imagine that a lot of it is due to some kind of budget or time constraint. Spike Chunsoft isn't an overly large studio, and this series isn't one of their cash-cows like Danganronpa. I don't have the first game to compare quality with since it has not been localized, but I would be interested to see if a lot of the issues this game has were present in the first title. A PS4 release is happening in Japan, but I don't see much chance of that making its way to English. Even still, this game was enjoyable enough on its own. It's just a very safe, middle of the road, JRPG.



With that said, this brings an end to my first LP. I want to thank Commander Keene for finding a site that hosted the complete art assets for the game, since that made my work significantly easier. I also want to thank everyone that followed along in the thread and took part in the heroine and Star Child voting. It was nice to have some thread participation going on for such a low-key title.

I really enjoyed doing this LP, and I'm glad that my first attempt at one didn't end in complete disaster. I still have some stylistic issues to work out, but at least I have a little experience with the process and have found a work flow that fits me.

So thank you everyone in the thread, any lurkers that followed along from the shadows, and anyone that might be reading this on the archive in the future (hopefully).